5 Minutes With … Danielle Winer
Danielle Winer is owner of Mill Creek Gardens, a year-round plant shop and greenhouse located in Central Wisconsin, just south of Marshfield. The Winer family has owned Mill Creek Gardens since 2011 and strives to be good stewards of the Earth’s resources by heating its greenhouses with renewable resources and planting in compostable pots.
What brought you to the green industry?
My husband Erik and I came to owning Mill Creek in a not-so-traditional way. We both grew up in Marshfield, Wisconsin, but had started our careers elsewhere (Erik in engineering, myself in college athletics). Mill Creek went up for sale and we took a chance! We went all in, in hopes that our business could grow, sustain our family and add value to our hometown. Since 2011, Mill Creek has gone from a retail, seasonal greenhouse (only open four months out of the year) to a year-round growing operation offering plants for retail and wholesale customers.
What’s the best part about your job?
What I love about my job at Mill Creek is that every day is different, where I’m on my feet, solving problems and making progress. I love that we can offer a space for folks to take in the beauty of plants to improve their physical and mental health. Hosting events like greenhouse yoga, dinner parties and mental health seminars are certainly my favorite days at the greenhouse.
What is your biggest goal for the coming year?
Our goal is to streamline operations. At Mill Creek, we grow about 98% of what we sell (this includes indoor plants, flowering annuals, herbs, veggies and fall mums) so we’re always looking for ways to be more efficient in the transplanting and growing process.
What’s the best advice you ever received?
“If it was easy, everyone would be doing it.” Simple advice like this always hits home for me and gives me the encouragement to work hard, even when things get difficult. Business ownership comes with myriad challenges and you’ve got to get up to speed quickly. I love the challenge and going the extra mile to set Mill Creek apart from the rest.
What’s something few people know about you?
I don’t have a horticultural degree; rather, degrees in psychology and theology. My husband and I were both college athletes, and the grit and work ethic we learned through athletics is what we’ve applied to our business. We may not be formally trained, but we work hard to do our research, ask our mentors for advice and make the best possible decisions with the information we have. It has served us well so far!
Favorite plant to grow? Why?
This is a hard one! I feel like choosing a favorite plant is like choosing a favorite child — it can’t be done! Most recently, I’ve really enjoyed growing philodendron, monstera and echinacea from tissue culture. I love thinking about how far they come from the tissue culture lab (say India or China), our growing environment (laden with heated tables and grow lights) and how we get to tell this story to our customers. When folks take our plants home, they know where their plants came from and how they were grown — with lots of love and tender care.
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