2025 Recap at Selmi’s: A Year of Highlights on Our Illinois Farm

As 2025 came to a close, we’re taking a moment to reflect on another memorable year at Selmi’s Greenhouse & Family Farm. While we’re closed to the public through the winter months, our spring, summer, and fall seasons keep us busy enough. Every year, our goal stays the same: keep growing, keep providing for our community, and keep giving families a place to gather and make memories on our Illinois family farm.

Here are a few highlights from each season that made 2025 one for the books.

Spring Highlights: Growing More Than Just Plants

Springtime at Selmi’s is always about fresh blooms within our serene greenhouse, and this year brought some wonderful new ways to support our avid gardening community at our greenhouse and garden center.

Launch of Selmi’s Loyalty Program

One of the biggest steps forward in 2025 came from our research study. It helped shape the launch of our Loyalty Program and VIP perks that mattered to our customers. It’s our way of saying thank you to the people who choose to shop with us, season after season, and it helps us keep building a better experience around what you actually want.

Proven Winners Combos and Flower of the Year

If you stopped by in spring, you probably saw the Vista View, Champagne Toast, and Ireland flower combos that sold out. As a Certified Proven Winner grower, we understand what you look for and give our gardeners an easy way to bring home color that performs well and looks good from day one. We also saw a lot of excitement around Proven Winners perennials, especially for anyone planning long-lasting color year after year.

Selmi’s Garden Giveaway

Spring wouldn’t feel complete without a little excitement, and our Selmi’s Garden Giveaway is always one we enjoy doing year-after-year. It’s one of our favorite ways to celebrate the season and encourage more people to jump into gardening, whether you’re brand new or you’ve been planting for decades.

A New Gardening Course: Building a Flower Combo 101

This year we introduced a new course at the greenhouse: Building a Flower Combo 101. It was created for gardeners to come together and enjoy something within our little workshop that you don’t always get to see or experience.

But don’t worry, there’s sure to be more this year, so stay tuned!

A New Perennial Supplier, With Quality You Can See

We also partnered with a new perennial supplier this year, and the difference showed. Great quality and locally grown perennials made their way into Selmi’s, giving customers a stronger selection and plants that are built for our 5A growing zone area.

Fresh Summer Highlights: Field Checks, Sweet Corn, and Full Selection of Produce

Summer is when the farm feels like it’s in motion every day, and 2025 delivered.

Field Check Videos Hit the Fields

This summer Anthony stole the cream of the crop with our Field Check videos, giving you a closer look at what’s growing in our fields and what’s coming next. It’s one thing to buy produce, but it’s another to see where it comes from.

Sweet Corn Season Opened July 7th

The countdown for “When will your sweet corn will be ready?” is always the same. Selmi’s Sweet Corn opened July 7th, and our mobile farm stands stayed strong all season long for our locals and roadtrippers.

This marks our 48th year at Northland Mall in Sterling and 17th year at Dixon Plaza.

Those years mean a lot to us. They represent generations of families who’ve made Selmi’s part of their summer tradition.

A First-Ever Farm to Table Dinner at Our Illinois Farm

Another summer milestone: Whiteside County Farm Bureau hosted its first Annual Farm to Table Dinner at Selmi’s, benefiting its foundation. It was the kind of event that reminds you why local agriculture matters, and we were proud to host something that brought people together around a shared table for a good cause.

Illinois Peaches and Plenty of Produce

Between the peaches and peppers, to apples and more, 2025 was a strong year for produce. Our shoppers looked forward to our juicy Illinois Peaches, and the rest of Selmi’s summer lineup. 

Fall Highlights: Early Apple Harvest, Annual Events, and Baby Bunnies

Fall is our season of traditions, and 2025 had plenty, with a few surprises mixed in.

Apple Harvest Started Early: August 15th

We started harvesting early-season apples, Honeycrisp, Gala, Zestar, Sweet Maia, and more on August 15th, running two weeks ahead thanks to hot Midwest summer weather and timely rains. It was a fast shift into harvesting for fall, but it made for an exciting start to the season and a reminder that mother nature runs the show. If you walked the rows of our apple field, you could feel how early the season was moving.

And when you stopped into the retail farm market & orchard store, you were able to stock up on fall favorites early in the season. This year our Honeycrisp apples sold out!

Fall Family Fun Around Every Corner

From skillets being tossed at the Lumberjack Show, live woodcarving by Zoli, and more, Fall at Selmi’s stayed packed with the experiences families come for every year. Whether you were here for the events, the festive fall atmosphere, or the hot apple cider donuts, there was something happening every time you turned a corner.

The Baby Bunnies Stole the Show

And if we had to name the unofficial stars of the 2025 Fall Season, it would be the baby bunnies. They absolutely won everyone’s heart. We saw so many smiles, so many photos, and so many families slowing down to enjoy a simple moment to hold the little ones.

Thank You for Another Wonderful Year at Selmi’s

Every season we open the gates, we’re reminded how lucky we are to do what we do. Whether you joined a gardening class, visited our mobile markets, came out for fall festivities, or just grabbed a dozen sweet corn on your way home, you helped make 2025 what it was.

From all of us at Selmi’s Greenhouse & Family Farm, thank you for supporting local, showing up season after season, and making this place feel like more than a farm. We’re already working on what’s next, and we can’t wait to welcome you back this Spring.