DeKalb Florist and Greenhouse closing after 112 years in DeKalb

DeKALB – Jim Kaelin said what he will miss most after 51 years of owning and operating the DeKalb Florist and Greenhouse is not the plants, but the people.

“I enjoyed the people,” he said. “I won’t see all my friends and neighbors for the bedding plant season coming up shortly. That’s the biggest thing with me is the people, the camaraderie.”

Jim Kaelin, 81, and his wife, Doris Kaelin, 80, are preparing to retire and officially close shop on Friday. The greenhouse will be open Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays in January for liquidation sales, as a new developer plans to open a Casey’s General Store and gas station on the property.

The business at 2131 E. Lincoln Highway, which has been a greenhouse for 112 years, has been in the Kaelins’ family since 1965, when Jim Kaelin bought it with his brother-in-law.

The business reopened after a fire in 1970 to include the flower shop in addition to the greenhouse, and Kaelin bought his partner’s share in 1974.

Sally Kaelin-Mullins, the couple’s daughter and store manager, said maintaining the property’s greenhouses has become challenging for her father as he has gotten older, and they removed two of the five last year.

“It’s not that he doesn’t have the desire to do it, but he just physically isn’t able to,” she said.

Kaelin-Mullins said her family’s store has also struggled with competition from online flower retailers and big-box stores that offer bedding plants during the spring.

“Small businesses are the backbone of this community, and the country, and it’s getting harder and harder to do what we do,” she said.

Patty Mueller, floral and landscape designer, said she has worked at DeKalb Florist and Greenhouse for 10 years and is now seeing longtime customers share their sentiments.

“A lot of people have come through here that are older now and they kind of look at this place as a landmark, and I think there is going to be a loss,” Mueller said. “The city is losing a lot of their businesses; this being one of the oldest, it’s really provoked people thinking of the history here in DeKalb.”

Jim Kaelin said despite the challenges of running his business through the years, he has “enjoyed every minute of it.”

“That old saying, find something you like to do and you won’t work a day in your life, well, I haven’t worked for the last 50 years because I’ve been enjoying it that much,” he said. “And not very many people can say that.”