We are family-owned. Peter Gasper is the owner. His son, Jeff, is the Operations Manager of BladeWorks Landscaping.
Often you will see some of Jeff's children working during the summer.
The BLOOMS & BladeWorks staff are all part of the family from Peter's perspective.
Thanks for your INCREDIBLE support!
Our Story
BLADEWORKS LANDSCAPING BEGINS...
In September of 1992, BladeWorks was born out of a division of an existing Recruiting Firm, Employment, Head Hunting and Out Sourcing Company in Business since May of 1982.
Over the years, we have provided the following services for commercial and residential property care: landscaping, lawn service, tree care, snow removal, and holiday lighting.
As our business grew, we had many people stopping by asking if they could purchase more plants from BladeWorks.
Myself, Peter Gasper, along with my son, Jeff, talked about the idea of beginning a retail business to provide the opportunity for their customers to purchase plant material.
MOVE TO MARION/CEDAR RAPIDS CROSSROADS...
In 2016, BladeWorks purchased a four-acre site on Blairs Ferry Road in Marion. It had a large industrial building that would work for the landscaping company and had an area that would also serve for expansion.
Being on the crossroads of Marion and Cedar Rapids is a perfect location, especially as Peck’s Green Thumb closed their doors in 2017 after 60 years of business.
BLOOMS BEGINS...
BLOOMS by BladeWorks Garden Center, Nursery & Gift Shop began in 2017 as a basic retail area for annuals, perennials, roses, shrubs, trees and evergreens.
With the success of that venture, we began to discuss the necessity of building a Gift Shop for pottery, plant care materials and home/garden décor. Construction for the new gift shop began in the fall of 2017.
We also installed a greenhouse and have plans to erect a water-retention system to capture rain water from the gutters which collects in big barrels for watering plant materials. We are so excited for the future!
BISTRO BY BLOOMS BEGINS (AND BLOOMS MOVES BUILDINGS)...
Peter, a huge coffee lover, started dreaming of having a coffee kiosk in the Gift Shop. This quickly developed into a full blown cafe and bakery, Bistro at Blooms, which opened on their Blairs Ferry campus in 2023 in the old Gift Shop building. Blooms then moved into the previous BladeWorks landscaping building which boasted greater square footage (and bigger windows for the houseplants!).
Bistro at Blooms has been serving locals delicious breakfast and lunch ever since and has quite the crowd of regulars!