Boredom blossoms into business
It was nearing Christmas, and work was slow for Christy Maitland’s husband, who works as a logger. With less than a $100 paycheck, she knew she had to do something.
She decided to make some Christmas wreaths and placed six of them at the Valley Mart, a small gas station on a desolate stretch of Highway 3 between St. Maries and Rose Lake.
“Two hours later the clerk called up and told (me) all her wreaths are sold and to make more,” said Maitland.
She got busy. She gathered boughs and cones and made her own ribbons. In the end she earned $800, and her family had nice presents under the Christmas tree that year.
That was a little more than 12 years ago. Today Maitland makes and sells about 300 wreaths.
“The first time I made a wreath, I was bored sitting at a logging camp in Avery. I had these clothes hangers, so I formed them into a circle, gathered some boughs and made a wreath. It was very bad. Nothing trimmed,” said Maitland.
Today she sells 100 wreaths for hospice at the St. Maries Hospital. She sells them in Coeur d’Alene and also gets orders to ship wreaths to customers from Alaska to Hawaii.
Maitland also makes swags, centerpieces and kissing balls.
“Everything that I think will look good and stay alive goes into the centerpiece,” explains Maitland. “This includes willow branches and flowers like carnations because they last a long time …”
Besides her Christmas business, Maitland runs a greenhouse during the spring and summer. Although she had no experience when she started six years ago, she learned through trial and error which plants would grow and sell the best.
All this trial and error in trying to make a living came about because, she says, “I was scared crazy to go into an office and sit.”
Maitland’s dream of a greenhouse business was fulfilled by a gift from her brother, Leland Gunderson, who, in need of a heart transplant, gave her his retirement money so he could get on “the poor list” to qualify for an organ donation.
He died six months after providing Maitland with the start of her greenhouse operation.
Today the greenhouse, like her wreath business, has expanded, and people call or come from all over to order her natural products, be it flowers, vegetables or wreaths.