by Dennis Dalman
From African daisies to zinnias, love was in the air all summer and right up into October as Ashley Stumvoll’s street-side flower-vendor’s cart bouquets brought happiness into many people’s lives.
One of them was Jerome Valentine, a flower-purchasing customer. Several times he bought bouquets for his wife, who was recovering from a medical procedure.
“He was so lovely and would put a smile on my face when he would stop by,” Stumvoll said.
Another favorite customer was an elderly gentleman who would stop to purchase flowers for his wife, who is a resident at Country Manor nursing home in Sartell.
“So many men would pick up flowers for their wives,” Stumvoll said. “And lots of wives bought bouquets to bring home to their husbands. It was so much fun to hear who the customers were buying flowers for.”
Stumvoll, 26, is a 2016 Sartell High School graduate, the daughter of Mark and Michelle Stumvoll, now divorced. Michelle re-married, and Mark is about to re-marry as well.
Stumvoll has always loved gardening, especially raising flowers of just about every conceivable kind: asters, calendula, dahlias, marigolds, larkspur, sweet peas, poppies, Chinese forget-me-nots, coxcombs, bachelor buttons, cosmos, California poppies and (not to forget) sunflowers – an entire field of sunflowers.
Her love of gardening rather suddenly morphed into a summer-to-early-autumn job all because of a cyberattack. Last March, when Stumvoll was working for an eye doctor in a small clinic, a cyberattack wreaked havoc with the medical insurance company’s records. Claims could not be processed. The wreckage was so bad the provider had to cease business until the mess was solved.
That shut-down is when Stumvoll had a chance to let a dream bloom, in the form of raising flowers to sell as bouquets. Her “green thumb,” she said came from her grandmother Judy Honor Stumvoll whose farm by Gilman Ashley loved to visit during her young summers. Last spring, she built a flower-vendor’s cart out of reclaimed wood from the barn at the Gilman farm. Then she named the cart “Honor’s Haven” in tribute to her grandmother and her middle name.
Then Stumvoll rolled up her sleeves and began planting flower seeds, lots and lots of seeds. She did the flower-gardening work at her boyfriend’s family farm in Milaca. Meantime, she also made many homemade candles to sell along with her bouquets.
When all was ready to go, she set up her flower-vendor cart in the driveway of her grandmother’s home just off Sartell’s Riverside Avenue. There, one day a week, Stumvoll sold flowers (and in late September/early October bouquets in smallish pumpkins), all the while meeting so many kind, caring customers.
Now that growing season is over, Stumvoll is putting her energy into college plans. She has applied at many out-of-state schools and plans to become a physician’s assistant.
But her flowering bouquet days are definitely not a thing of the past. She already has orders for bouquets that will grace the upcoming wedding of her father and stepmother-to-be.
Ashley Stumvoll stands by her flower-vending cart. Once each week all summer and into October, she sold flower bouquets, homemade candles and little pumpkins containing bouquets. She set up her cart at her grandmother’s driveway just off of Riverside Drive.
Here are some of Ashley Stumvoll’s “pumpkin bouquets.”
