In full bloom: Honeymoon Acres celebrates 40 seasons of growth

Matthew Day

Contributor

April 18, 2024

NEW HOLSTEIN – Honeymoon Acres Greenhouse – which its owners, Joe and Marci McShaw, describe as “a gardener’s paradise,” has opened for its 40th season.

Though greenhouse is part of the name, the McShaws said the term “greenhouse” doesn’t quite capture the scope of the operation located at 2600 Calumet Drive in New Holstein.

“Most people misunderstand what a greenhouse is, in a sense of what ours is compared to a (personal) greenhouse,” Joe said. “Because some people think of it as small, which most of them are.”

Honeymoon Acres Greenhouse, however, the McShaws said, features 129,000 square feet of greenhouse space spanning across three acres.

Each year, the gardeners said the space houses 3,000 varieties of plants – totaling nearly three million individual plants.

The couple’s son Clint McShaw – one of several family members who work at Honeymoon Acres – said 90% of the plants are produced in (green)houses.

“The only things we buy in are shrubs and trees, so it’s a small percentage,” he said. “All the perennials we start from seed, cuttings or roots, and we have to pot them all. That is something we pride ourselves in. Most greenhouses buy their stuff, and that’s what makes us unique.”

Joe said pride is a partial component of his tireless, dedicated work at Honeymoon Acres, though he and Marci said they weren’t quite sure how to describe Joe’s exceptionally driven disposition.

Even now, they said, as the greenhouse enters its 40th gardening season, Joe said his focus is simply on a given day’s pressing responsibilities rather than any long-term goals.

Each year, Joe and Marci McShaw said the greenhouse offers 3,000 varieties of plants – totaling nearly three million individual plants. Submitted Photo

“I never look at it that way – time flies,” he said. “You say 40 years, and it doesn’t seem that way.”

Putting down roots
Marci and Clint both said the prolonged success of Honeymoon Acres stems from Joe’s highly disciplined work ethic.

Marci said Joe has possessed this implacable “drive” since his childhood on a farm in Pennsylvania as the youngest of 10.

“(He’s had it) all his life,” she said. “His dad used to hide the keys to the tractor so he wouldn’t go out in the fields on Sundays.”

Joe said as his siblings moved out to start their own businesses, he would travel to help them, including a solo drive to Saskatchewan when he was in high school to help his brother with beekeeping.

As he entered adulthood, Joe said, similar work-related travels would eventually lead him to Wisconsin, where he’d eventually meet and marry Marci.

Together, the McShaws said, after Joe had gained experience helping his family’s agricultural pursuits, they sought to start their own farm and greenhouse.

While driving through New Holstein with his brother, Joe said, they stumbled across an available property on Honeymoon Hill Road.

“When we started thinking about it, it was in the middle of everywhere,” Joe said. “You’re not far from Appleton, Manitowoc, Fond du Lac, Sheboygan or Darboy.”

Buying the property, the McShaws said, was one thing, financing their start-up greenhouse was another.

“It was a problem and a half when we first started the business, borrowing money,” Joe said. “Back then, in the ’80s, you were built on your name in small communities like this – and we were unknown.”

Joe also said because there weren’t many other greenhouses in the area, that meant there were no local examples of potential viability.

“Nobody wanted to believe in what we were doing,” Marci said.

But the McShaws said they kept pushing forward.

“Now it’s gotten easier because we’ve been in business for so long, but at the beginning, that was a struggle,” Joe said. “You had to build everything from scratch – who you are, what you are ¬≠- the whole thing.”

Faced with the prospect of building their first greenhouse with limited funds, the McShaws said they sought alternate means of accruing building materials.

“We’d see dilapidated barns, and we’d go to the farmers and say, ‘do you want your barn torn down?'” Marci said. “We couldn’t afford new wood, so we’d use the old wood to build our greenhouses.”

The McShaws said for about 13 years, they each worked full-time jobs while building their agricultural business – though they’d need to quit each spring to focus on the greenhouse and farm.

Eventually, the couple said they recognized the plants from their greenhouse proved more profitable and reliable than their fresh produce, so they decided to focus entirely on the greenhouse.

As Honeymoon Acres “slowly and surely” began to flourish, Joe and Marci said they were able to work on the business full-time, which afforded them more time with one another and their kids.

Honeymoon Acres Greenhouse features 129,000 square feet of greenhouse space spanning across three acres. Submitted Photo

“We knew it would work,” Joe said. “We had to figure out how to make it work.”

The McShaws said the time, effort and money they invested into the greenhouse consistently correlated with increased demand for their plants, and they eventually – literally – outgrew their location on Honeymoon Hill Road.

“The opportunity came to us 20 years ago to move (to Calumet Drive), and we thought it would be a good opportunity to be more visible,” Marci said.

Though the move equaled continued growth and success for Honeymoon Acres, Joe said it wasn’t necessarily always part of the plan.

“It wasn’t intentional – everybody asks, ‘is this what you dreamed of? Is this what you planned?'” he said. “And it’s not – it wasn’t like the ‘master plan’ for 40 years. (Customers) kept pushing us to grow more because we kept selling out of plants, and because people love what we do and how we do it – and that’s all that matters.”

Tending the business
Joe said he’s never been one to rest on the “I’ve done this for 30 years – I’m doing it this way next year” motto.

“I hate that clich√© – ‘if it’s not broke, why fix it?'” he said. “We’re always saying, ‘it’s working well, but is there a better way?'”

Marci said Joe’s commitment to doing the best work possible impacts his entire way of life – 365 days a year.

“His lifestyle isn’t what most people would say, ‘oh, this is what I’d want to do,'” she said. “He gets up at midnight or 1 a.m. and gets all the watering and a lot of other things done ¬≠¬≠- seeding and stuff like that – before anybody even comes to work at 8. Then he works until six or seven (p.m.) and goes to bed, and gets back up again.”

Joe said he doesn’t consider himself as passionate or a workaholic, and yet he cannot imagine any other approach to life and work.

“What else would I do?” he said.

Recognition, the McShaws said, isn’t a source of motivation for them either – even choosing not to have photos of themselves included in this article – preferring anonymity around the greenhouse.

“I’m one of the workers out there,” he said. “(Customers) don’t know who I am. So many people ask us, ‘do you work here?'”

The McShaws said their entire outlook toward Honeymoon Acres is based on putting themselves in the place of customers – or as they call them, gardening friends.

“What would I want if I went to a greenhouse?” Joe said. “We would want to have wide walkways, get at plants easily and have it flat. We do all our watering early in the mornings so there aren’t hoses laying out, with us being in the way.”

Joe and Marci McShaw said at Honeymoon Acres Greenhouse, they specialize in growing the best plants for the best price. Submitted Photo

Joe said he takes any room for improvement personally – whether or not he’s received a complaint.

“Part of our parking lot was getting old, and nobody ever said anything to us about that, but it was rough, and I could see people struggling a little bit with it,” he said. “So I said, ‘we’ve got to fix it.’ Even though it’s expensive, and you have to build that into the cost of everything, I look at it as if I were that person, I’d be a little bit frustrated right there – and I don’t want frustration in a customer.”

The McShaws said Honeymoon Acres’ product pricing is entirely based on covering costs for the high-quality operation.

“We’ve got to make a living, of course, but it’s more so we provide a great product for people,” Joe said. “We spend a lot of money making sure our plants are healthy and good for people.”

Marci said they love the plants they grow and nurture each season.

“When we start our plants, it’s all on the basis of giving them a good home eventually,” she said.

Recently, the McShaws said they’ve tried to educate gardeners about the behind-the-scenes work at the greenhouse, with a recent video on its Facebook page, which has surpassed one million views.

“We’ve been trying to do videos so people realize what work goes into it,” Clint said, “Because the running joke around here is that the moment we close the doors at the end of December, we all go on a fourth-month vacation before we open the place up again – and that’s not the case for our greenhouse.”

Though Joe said the slower time of the winter does allow them to step back a bit.

“I still get up that early, and I still do everything I do, but there are no pressures,” he said.

Marci said her winter responsibilities include preparing Honeymoon Acres’ annual planting guide.

Though there are no real breaks from their work – especially during the growing season – the McShaws said they’re ready for another season and intend to use their gift for gardening for as long as they can.

“I can still do it, so why wouldn’t I?” Joe said. “So, when do you quit? Physically when I can’t – that’s basically what it’s going to come down to, whenever it is. I can’t change nature. It is undefeated.”

Honeymoon Acres Greenhouse is open 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturdays and 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sundays.

Visit honeymoonacres.com for more information.