News

Aug 28, 2023

Evergreen & Lily's in Winterset opens to realize mom's dream

Jenn Drake stood at her floral workspace and used scissors to snip the ends of

Jenn Drake stood at her floral workspace and used scissors to snip the ends of pink and white flowers onto a tiled countertop.

Hydrangeas, carnations, lilies, daisies and snapdragons fell with each cut as she prepped bouquets and blooms for clients at Evergreen & Lily Floral Studio, a new floral shop in Winterset that sits on the edge of town.

Half a dozen glass vases were packed into the studio's three-rack "grab to give" cooler, a fresh flower fridge with prices that range from around $20 to $50, before a dance recital took over town that first weekend in May.

The flower shop and studio were a shared dream with her mom, Jill Mescher. But last year, less than a week before Mother's Day, Mescher lost a battle with breast cancer.

"In that time, we would spend our time talking about what we would do with the shop and how she would help and it kind of got us through her chemo treatments," Drake said.

For Drake, the pain still cuts deep. In late June, the self-taught solo florist will leave her day job as an administrator at Clarke Community School District and work full time at the brick-and-mortar flower shop.

"Coming here makes me happy, it makes me think of her and carry on her memory," she added.

More:How Winterset artist Christine Hilbert found strength in painting, prayer amid cancer battle

The Mescher family lived on a 40-acre plot of land outside Winterset with five flower-filled acres that were mowed while "the rest was timber." Throughout Drake's childhood, the mother-daughter duo would plant around 50 pots every season.

The Winterset High School class of 1997 alum and her husband, Jason, who is also from Winterset, moved to Oklahoma for a short period but they came back, and she graduated from Simpson College in 2000. The pair have been in central Iowa ever since.

"You always say you want to move away and not stay in your hometown but it's a pretty great town. It really is," Drake said.

Drake had three children with Jason as she grew a career in education that blossomed in Des Moines Public Schools and will wind down later this year in Osceola. But Drake's bond with her mom only grew stronger as her daughters Natalie and Callie joined the jaunts to central Iowa greenhouses.

"My mom loved flowers. Every spring it was a thing. We’d go to all the greenhouses, and we’d get all the flowers," Drake said.

Each spring came and years passed as their tradition stayed the same. The group would visit their hometown's own Groth's Gardens and Greenhouses and Harvey's Greenhouse in Adel before coming to Ted Lare Design Build & Garden Center and Howells Greenhouse and Pumpkin Patch in Cumming.

"We’d go to Groth's. We’d go there a lot. That was a favorite of hers," Drake added. "She loved Ted Lare's. Like that woman probably spent — I don't even know how much money she spent at Ted Lare — my dad just quit asking."

In the fall of 2021, the mother-daughter duo started looking for buildings where they could open their own flower shop.

But the week of Christmas 2021, Mescher was diagnosed with stage 3 breast cancer after a mammogram. After her treatments, the pair would talk daily about opening a flower shop.

By February of last year, she was hospitalized after her chemotherapy port was infected and an infection spread through her body, according to Drake. She never came home from the hospital.

On May 2, 2022, Mescher died of breast cancer. Grief swallowed Drake whole.

Eight months after her death, the Drakes found a brick-and-mortar storefront, which formerly housed Rudy's Restaurant at 419 S. John Wayne Drive, and they signed a lease in January of this year.

"She loved evergreens, and she loved Colorado and the mountains, so that's where the evergreen came from and the lily is my favorite flower," Drake said.

Half of the structure serves as a workspace for Drake with an open, airy space for creating custom floral arrangements. The rest of the storefront is a gift shop featuring wares from women-owned businesses that sit on a bench, table, cabinet and entertainment center from Mescher's home.

A plantable label is wrapped on each vase in memory of her mom to plant seeds.

"Every time we send flowers out the door, it has one of those on it so they can plant it (in soil) and wildflowers will grow. (It's) just one more way to carry her spirit on," Drake added.

In a place like Winterset, word-of-mouth spreads fast after someone passes.

Neighbors around the town dial-up Evergreen & Lily's these days for an arrangement when their loved one dies instead of ordering online. Calls like those are ones Drake once shared with her mom.

"I think I just miss being able to call her or celebrate with her," she said.

Her dad, Bryan, sold the 40 acres. He couldn't stand to see the reminders of the shade tree where Mescher would sit, the gardens she grew and the flowerpots she planted on that plot of land. He moved into town, and Drake is doing her best to move on.

"I was doing memorial flowers yesterday. Every time I do them, it just helps me heal my grief or work through it and celebrate her every time I help somebody else celebrate their loved one," Drake said.

A framed portrait of Jill Mescher, drawn with colored pencil by local artist Taylor Lydic, rests on a tabletop near Drake's workspace each day. The art piece is a reminder of what a mother gives — and gives up — and what Jenn Drake gave back with the pieces her mom left behind.

"There's just a little of her everywhere."

Location: 419 S. John Wayne Drive, Winterset

Contact: evergreenlilystudio.com, 515-705-9057; [email protected]

Hours: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday, closed Saturday and Sunday

Jay Stahl is an entertainment reporter at The Des Moines Register. Follow him on Instagram or reach out at [email protected].