With dirt in their veins, Natural Balance does more than just flowers

By Kristen Miller, Staff Writer

Natural Balance Floral and Garden of Waverly is quite the “whimsical” place, as owner Marty Stommes likes to call her floral and landscape shop along Highway 12.

Stommes, along with her husband Richard, and son Justin, have owned a landscaping company for 18 years.

In the beginning, Marty had been working out of her kitchen, preparing flowers for weddings, funerals and special occasions.

After 15 years of working out of her home, she bought a shop in Buffalo.

This was exciting for Stommes since she would no longer have to make a mess of her kitchen but instead in a shop all her own, she said.

Recently Natural Balance moved to Waverly where she is conveniently located just a mile from her home and cutting garden.

Many people haven’t discovered the quaint shop yet where one can buy house and garden plants including scented geraniums, gifts, fresh cut flowers, and even rent tuxedos.

The Stommes’ Waverly homestead is where they keep supplies for the landscaping company, have their own greenhouse, and grow their own gardens.

Natural Balance has three crews that specialize in landscape, lawn maintenance, and garden, but it also goes above-and-beyond those jobs.

“We do just about anything our clients ask us to do,” Stommes said.

In the past, they have walked dogs, shoveled snow from sidewalks and cleaned clients’ homes.

“We pamper them,” she said.

Marty grows her own flowers and plants in her own backyard with a green house and cutting garden. It is the home of the many perennials she uses for her cut bouquets at the shop.

Stommes likes to plant “unusual” plants that she can’t get from her suppliers.

Some of their suppliers includes Bachmans, Midwest Nursery and Grove, depending on who has what the company needs.

Her homestead is beautifully landscaped with rock gardens, a pond with a water fall and flower pots with exotic flowers like ferns from Australia.

The Stommes’ garden has even been featured in Better Homes and Gardens and Midwest Living magazines.

For her garden and others, Stommes recommends having a base of perennials and little pockets of annuals for color. This saves on planting time every year but still adds luscious color to the garden.

This is a family business with her husband, son and even daughter-in-law, Bekki, each playing a role.

“[We] have dirt in our veins,” Stommes said. “[We] live and breathe landscape and gardening,” she added.

Contact Natural Balance Floral & Garden, Inc. for all your flower and landscape needs, (763) 658-1415. Shop hours are Monday-Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Saturdays, 9 a.m. to noon.