Bob and Kim Wistinghausen are fourth generation florists.
Bob’s great grandparents, John and Mary Wistinghausen, started Wistinghausen Florist & Greenhouse in Oak Harbor, and it has been passed on through the family over the last 105 years. Grandparents Lewis and Dorothy succeeded John and Mary, and parents Dave and Bette took over from them.
It’s still a labor of love, not a job, for the Wistinghausens.
The business was started in 1915 on Townline Road, a rural byway that back then was on the very edge of Oak Harbor. At the very beginning, the business mainly provided tomatoes to Jack Weller’s tomato factory, before diversifying into the floral business seen today.
One of the more interesting early opportunities involved cutting blocks of ice from the Portage River to fill the Oak Harbor ice boxes that had become popular. The ice was stored in the Wistinghausen cellar, where the present cooler still stands today.