Star Journal Still time to take in the orchid show at Forth Floral
Editor
The days are lengthening, the sun feels warmer than it did even a month ago, and winter turns to spring this month – all good things. Digging in the dirt, planting flowers and vegetables and enjoying the fruits of those labors, however, are still months away.
Fortunately, Forth Floral’s annual orchid show is perfectly timed to give flower enthusiasts a reason to brave the cold and enjoy the warmth and humidity of summer, albeit temporarily.
Forth Floral owners Ruth and Henning Hempel began the orchid show about 20 years ago. Though it’s not a large show, Ruth said they enjoy hosting it.
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It was 1957, and Rhinelander’s Leona Forth laid eyes on Marv Schumacher for the first time.
“That’s how we met, on a blind date,” she said. “That was it.”
She knew right away. The outgoing, smiling, happy man would become her life partner.
“He was the most generous,” Leona said. “He was the best guy in the world.”
The couple took over Leona’s family business, running Forth Floral for decades.
Marv and Leona Schumacher.
On their 25th wedding anniversary, they bought themselves a treat.
“This guy was selling clocks. We looked at this one. I said, ‘I think that’s such a neat clock. Why don’t we consider, this will be our anniversary gift to each other?’ So that’s what we did,” she remembered.
“It has been an absolutely brutal year,” he said.
The period between Thanksgiving and New Year is one of his busiest times for both businesses, but especially his movie theater.
“[This time] is something that theaters look forward to every year,” he said.
This year, two movies opened on Christmas day – Wonder Woman 1984 and News of the World.
Because of those movies, Rouman’s theaters saw their biggest audiences since March, before the pandemic began.
“It still pales in comparison to even those March numbers,” he said. “But it was by far and away the most bodies that have come through our door in months.”