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The First Floral Business
The first Bachman's retail store was opened in 1927. Later, an unusual attraction, an alligator donated by a customer, lived in a safely fenced pool in the attached conservatory for 20 years. In the 1930s, Albert selected a purple paper color for wrapping plants and flowers which became the symbolic color, a 'Bachman purple,' for the firm's operation. It extended even to the color of their delivery trucks. Also in that decade, a nursery branch was started. Bachman's first Edina branch store opened in 1941, and a new store replaced it in 1947. The company introduced large coolers for retail store displays of pre-made floral arrangements. They also introduced the delivery of arranged bouquets to hospitals in vases. In 1948, the firm acquired Woodend Farms on the shore of Lake Minnetonka and operated the range of nine greenhouses. By 1949, the third generation of the family took over managing the firm. |
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It was Albert Bachman who, because of his interest in flowers, planted carnations and sold them at Oak Hill Cemetery . A carnation house was finally built in 1924 for $10,000. As the vegetable market was declining with southern farmers shipping their produce north, Albert demonstrated that an armload of carnations actually could earn more than a truckload of vegetables. Flowers gradually replaced vegetables in the greenhouses.