Oh, but enough about taxes and politics. Let’s have a happy Christmas story, about Freeman natives and high school sweethearts John and Donna Beier growing 2,000 low-pesticide poinsettias:
Less than two weeks until Christmas! Order your poinsettias from Iowa before it’s too late! [screen cap from BloomingHouse.net, 2017.12.11.]Josh Anderson, a son-in-law to John and Donna, spends time each summer and fall walking among the 2,000 plants, inspecting areas for pests, most notably the white fly which likes to invade once corn dries across Northwest Iowa farm fields.”We put this card (a yellow, sticky card) on a plant and a white fly will stick to it,” Anderson said. “When we see one on a card, we check the whole plant over.”
Going to each plant may be time- and labor-intensive, John Beier said, but it beats blanketing hundreds of plants with a pesticide application. This eye-test scrutiny and a bug screen outside the green house have allowed staff members at Blooming House to reduce pesticide application by up to 90 percent [Tim Gallagher, “Cherokee Growers on-Point for Poinsettias,” Sioux City Journal, 2017.12.11].
The Beiers both studied at SDSU, but they make their flowery fortune at Blooming House in Cherokee, Iowa, where they pay state income tax. Flowers growing profitably in a state with income tax—it’s a Christmas miracle!
iowa is gaining business people from South Dakota and it is wonderful- for iowa. Jow if Grudz would recall the mountain lions from iowa and states much farther East….
![Less than two weeks until Christmas! Order your poinsettias from Iowa before it's too late! [screen cap from BloomingHouse.net, 2017.12.11.]](https://dakotafreepress.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Screen-Shot-2017-12-11-at-21.23.27-300x236.jpg)
iowa is gaining business people from South Dakota and it is wonderful- for iowa. Jow if Grudz would recall the mountain lions from iowa and states much farther East….