By Stephen Smoot
First order of business is a correction. Previous articles referred to W. O. Bice’s name as Donna. Her name was, in fact, Dona. Fittingly, this name comes from the feminine version of the Spanish and Italian honorific “Don.” It refers to a noble “lady of the house,” which she in many ways proudly was.
After World War II, the greenhouse business changed. With little available to purchase during the war, savings accounts grew accordingly. As soldiers came home from the war and started – or continued – growing their families, many had more money for what seemed to be luxuries in earlier times.
“It wasn’t until Bob Sr. ‘planted’ his feet in the business that a florist building was built on site,” said Bice III. He came along fifth in a family of six children and “was the one who took the interest in operating (and expanding) the business. He opened a florist shop that served customers from Harry Truman’s second year as president until the third year of Barack Obama’s second term.
Keeping true to the home grown mission of Bice’s Greenhouse, “a lot of the cut flowers used to design arrangements were grown inside the greenhouses.”
Another special service provided by Bice’s lies in maintaining strains of “heirloom seed” for families. These seeds, often hybrids, “often has an abundant harvest and better flavor than typical hybrids.” One, created by W. O. himself, is “Bice’s Beefsteak,” a less acidic tomato with a pinker hue and far superior to the beefsteak tomatoes usually sold in grocery stores.
The work of planting starts in December, depending on the individual plant with others in January. By February, as Bice II states “it’s the constant sowing of seed, planting seedlings, and the continuous care of every basket, pot, and pack for the rest of the season.”
At the peak of production, Bice’s Greenhouse operated eight greenhouses with 30,000 square feet under cultivation, but has since cut back to three. While “big business corporations have tried repeatedly to entice people to do one-stop shopping for everything they need and/or want . . . we have a lot of loyal customers that have helped us stay in business for a century now.”
Those include “countless people who come in and tell us that they’ve been coming to our greenhouse since W. O. ran it.”
One of the great travesties of most family-run enterprises comes when the family itself, as the generations pass, lose interest in keeping the legacy alive.
Bice’s Greenhouse remains a local favorite because the family continues to lovingly embrace its legacy along with generations of loyal customers. Those loyal customers at times enjoy giving back, such as when on May 2nd one brought in a large bowl of homemade chocolate fudge with walnuts for the Bice family to share with customers.
Would anyone ever see that at a big box company?
Family members, such as Bice II and Bice III grew up helping their elders, learning the methods of producing top quality plants, running a business efficiently, and providing customer service that big box companies will never match.
In 1977, Bice II married the former Beth Andrick. She added to the family and the business “her skills of floral design.” They assumed leadership of the business in 1985, adding “a modern sales house in 2002, which continues to be the main selling house, along with two additional growing houses on the site.”
The florist shop continued serving customers through 2015 and, as Bice III shared “for many of those years, a lot of the cut flowers used to design arrangements were grown inside the greenhouses.”
That said, one of the most essential ways to keep plants healthy and thriving is to, from time to time, prune away growths so that the core of the plant can thrive even more. When the cut-flower service was discontinued, it allowed “full focus to be on the ‘roots’ of the operation.”
Opening Day for 2025 served as a culmination of sorts. It celebrated a century of service and excellence for the business, as well as those of the family that will own and operate it for the foreseeable future. Most of the entire family, young and old, turned out to work in the shop, greet customers, and share stories of days gone by.
It also highlighted how a business can survive in the worst of economic depressions, adapt to five generations of changing American tastes, and adapt, adjust, and continue giving the customers what they want and need.
But also serving as this special place of continuity. The world communicated through radio and land line telephones in 1925. Space flight, the internet, and the explosion of online commerce were barely imagined, if at all.
What will Enterprise, West Virginia and the world look like in 2125? It’s nearly impossible to speculate – except that those living in northeastern Harrison and southern Marion County will still come to Bice’s Greenhouse, to be served by caring members of the Bice family available to help them start their annual fruit, vegetable, and flower gardens.
