When the Momence Gladiolus Festival started 85 years ago, there were about 80 flower farmers in Momence growing the festival’s namesake flower.

Today, there is one.

Oosterhoff Flowers (also known as Richard Oosterhoff & Son) began in the 1930s under the farming of Harry Oosterhoff. Eventually, Harry retired, and the business was passed on to his son, Rich, in 1958. When Rich retired in 1996, the torch was passed to current owner Glen.

Glen had been a Certified Public Accountant for years and was tired of the commute and travel. Dad Rich was ready to slow down, and it seemed like the perfect time to pass the family business onto son Glen.

It doesn’t seem other flower farms had the interest or the people to continue once retirement hit for the original growers.

“I feel like all the smart people quit,” Glen said with a laugh.

He explained it is very labor intensive to grow the flowers — he gets up between 2:30-3:30 a.m. every day and is out cutting the flowers at 6 a.m. — and it’s also labor intensive to grow the bulbs. It used to be common practice that farmers in the area would grow their own gladiolus bulbs, but the amount of labor it takes to grow them changed that mainstay.

Now, it’s hard to find bulbs even domestically and most come internationally, which is an added expense.

Straddling the line between St. Anne and Wichert, Oosterhoff Flowers has a Momence address and has long taken part in the annual Glad Fest, which kicks off each August with the Princess and Queen Coronation. Years ago, Rich’s wife, Judy Schaafsma, had been crowned during the coronation, in which the stage and the participants carry gladiolus.

“It used to be huge, people would come from all over the United States,” Rich said, noting that parade floats would be adorned with the live flowers. He recalled all the flowers on floats and in the coronation would be donated by farmers, who would often be on site at the festival selling bulbs and grown glads.

While there are still glads involved in the fest, Rich said, “It’s nothing like it used to be.”

<strong>GROWING GLADS</strong>

Of the farm’s 800 acres, 30 are dedicated to growing flowers. Most of the acres are rented out to other farmers.

Flower growing lasts most of the year, with the greenhouse starting the first week of February and then they are out of the field by mid-November.

“Flowers quit when the frost comes,” Rich said.

The expansive fields grow hundreds of thousands of flowers per year. While other flowers — such as tulips, sunflowers and dozens more — are grown on the land, the heart and soul is that original flower.

“Glads are our specialty still,” Glen said, adding there is farmer in St. Anne who sometimes grows gladiolus with other flowers, but it is not their primary grow.

That designation is left to Oosterhoff.

At least six days out of the week, Oosterhoff and his team cut flowers, make bouquets and travel to different farmers’ markets. If it’s hot, they’ll cut flowers seven days a week.

Oosterhoff typically sells at markets in downtown Chicago, Highland Park, Schaumburg, Deerfield, Urbana and Frankfort.

The business used to have a setup at the Kankakee Farmers’ Market but found there was more demand for the flowers up north.

Several hundred flowers are brought to each market; sometimes they bring 50-60 buckets to a market event.

This is done with the help of six full-time employees, as well as a few interns that help out. In total, there are about eight to 10 people on hand for floral assistance.

“[You’ve] gotta find someone who likes to get up at 2 a.m., is honest, will travel and can drive a box truck,” Glen said of his hiring method.

Ninety percent of the business is through farmers’ market sales while the other 10% is wholesale.

<strong>THE PROCESS</strong>

Rich would cut flowers six days a week, but never on Sunday. He and his team would cut nearly 1,000 flowers per day, with Rich cutting 300 per day himself.

“That would mean bending down 3,000 times a day,” he said.

Cutting 300 flowers is about the daily average now, and the farm grows between 30-40 different varieties of gladiolus.

Glen said that cutting flowers in the morning is usually a two- to four-hour process. Back in the day — when he’d help his dad out in the field because “I didn’t know any different” — they’d sometimes be at it all day without finishing.

Glen explained the farm has seven different patches of glads with staggered planting. One patch is equivalent to one acre, and there are 20 rows in an acre.

“Which is pitiful in the big scheme of things,” he said when comparing now to the glads’ heyday.

He said that Wichert was a Dutch settlement and that all of the glad growers back in the day were Dutch. His great-grandfather (Harry’s father) came from Holland.

History is still alive at the farm, as there are photos in Glen’s office displaying what the farm looked like years ago. He even uses 70-year-old tractors that were originally owned by his grandfather.

“They’re perfect gladiolus tractors,” Glen said.

The land he operates on was at one point all swamp land. The original settlers dug ditches and drained all of the swamp land, making it what it is today.

“As long as you’ve got water, it grows beautiful flowers,” he said of his field, noting that the sprinklers throughout can help protect glads from a weather freeze.

While florists purchasing glads for wholesale prefer the reds, yellows, pinks and lavenders, Glen said people at the farmers’ markets gravitate toward the bright colors of blues and pinks.

He explained the average height that is “commercially acceptable” for a cut is four feet. Some flowers on the farm can grow past the head of a six-foot-tall human.

<strong>THE FUTURE</strong>

Glen, who lives on the farm’s property with wife, Heather, said he isn’t sure what the future holds for the business upon his retirement.

“Funeral at 11, auction at noon,” he quipped.

His son is a lawyer, and he has a daughter studying dentistry and another daughter who is an IT specialist. Their chosen career paths may not align with the future of the farm.

But for now, Glen is doing his part to keep the tradition of gladioluses alive and well in Momence.

“There’s something to it, though,” he said of the process.

To read more about the history of Wichert and growing gladiolus in Kankakee County, see Jack Klasey’s column “Wichert: Kankakee County’s Dutch Settlement” at <a href="https://bit.ly/3DQuX37" target="_blank">bit.ly/3DQuX37</a>.