Blumen Gardens celebrates 35 years in Sycamore with next generation

SYCAMORE – Joel and Joan Barczak set up an unassuming gardening shop in Sycamore more than a generation ago, and after multiple family and business expansions they’re poised to celebrate 35 years at Blumen Gardens.

The Barczaks will host a 35th anniversary party from 5 to 9 p.m. Saturday at Blumen Gardens, 403 Edward St., in Sycamore. The celebration is expected to signify a transition of sorts: Their daughter and son-in-law are beginning to take over managerial roles at the popular garden center and banquet venue. And soon the business will be handed off.

Jill Mandeville now is a co-owner and partner of Blumen Gardens with her parents. She said she didn’t grow up dreaming of taking over her family business, however. After becoming a registered dietician and seeing the world, romance – like her parents, who met on the first day of classes at Kishwaukee College in 1981 – changed her life when she met Keith Mandeville, who’s now her husband, in New Zealand.

“[I] never thought in a million years I would work here, and then I went and traveled and I met my husband who’s Canadian, and so I started traveling back and forth from Canada and I started working here part-time,” Jill Mandeville said. “I needed somewhere to work part-time so I could go and visit him, and then I ended up started working here and I loved it.”

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Joel Barczak (clockwise from top) co-owner of Blumen Gardens, with his daughter Jill Mandeville, co-owner, wife Joan Barczak, co-owner, grandson Clay Mandeville and son-in-law Keith Mandeville, manager, Wednesday, June 19, 2024, in the shade garden area at the store in Sycamore. (Mark Busch)

Jill Mandeville has officially been working at the family-owned shop for the past seven years, and she’s been a quintessential part of the business.

Joan and Joel Barczak met in a horticulture class, and that’s part of the reason they started Blumen Gardens. But as their daughter’s involvement in the business grew, they branched out.

“Every day people ask ‘When are you going to retire?’ Well I don’t know if this kind of business, and our love of plants, that’s what this is.”

—  Joel Barczak

Outside of anniversary celebrations, Blumen Gardens will host a variety events with food trucks and musical performers throughout the summer, including an Artist and Makers Market with more than 25 vendors from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. on June 30, a yoga class July 3, a goat milk soap workshop July 7 and more.

Joan Barczak said they were not doing as many of those events before their daughter returned to Sycamore.

“We were spread kind of thin. I was doing design and maintenance, construction, I then went into the office and started working in the office a lot, so we were always kind of spread a little thin,” Joan Barczak said.

Weddings and banquets also are regularly hosted at Blumen Gardens. Jill Mandeville said she’s careful to remember that’s not the reason her parents started the business.

“Joan and Joel always kind of say, and when I talk to new employees, ‘It’s horticulture, it’s the basis of this company,’” Jill Mandeville said. “They never got in this business thinking they were going to do weddings, or sell clothing or different things like that, but it has kind of morphed into a large expansive gift shop, and then our weddings and events, and we really do like doing a lot of community events.”

Joel Barczak said he never expected to sell children’s books and clothing, but acknowledged that diversification of business aligns with the three areas of focus he places on his work: “Plants, design and community,” he said.

Preparing for their future, Jill and Keith Mandeville recently bought a house near the family business in Sycamore. They also welcomed their first child, 10-month-old Clay Mandeville, to the world in 2023. Jill Mandeville said her son, and the rest of her family’s youngest generation, will always be a part of and have a place at Blumen Gardens.

Keith Mandeville has already begun to taking over business’ administrative work, allowing Joan Barczak to spend more time gardening.

Joel Barczak said while he and his wife now have a succession plan in place for the multi-generation family business, they don’t plan on retiring and walking away from what has become their life’s work, however.

“It’s the first time we ever did it, so we don’t know what we’re doing. And we’re looking to learn and go slow, but make a seamless transition somehow but I don’t know what that means,” Joel Barczak said. “Every day people ask ‘When are you going to retire?’ Well I don’t know if this kind of business, and our love of plants, that’s what this is. It would be like a musician, to say you’re never going to play guitar again or you’re never going to sing again, that would take something away from them, right? So I don’t really see this true retirement approach, but I’ll let someone else do the heavy lifting.”