Dreaming of being a flower farmer?
Just remember the second word
When I was in my last year of undergrad completing a biology degree, salmon farming came to British Columbia. I remember they actually used the words “gold rush.” It was going to be a great new industry, and for us newly minted biologists it offered great potential for jobs related to our schooling. Intrigued, I took a summer job. I mean, it sounded pretty good—I’d be out on the water, I’d get to live in Tofino, I’d learn to drive a boat and use my new skills as a diver. And so on. Friends, it was some of that, but mostly it was farming. I recall the day—standing on the dock throwing feed to the fish and watching them rise out of the net pen to grab the pellets—when I clued in that it was just farming. We raised a crop (a finned one) in an intensive way, and we fed them and cleaned up after them. (This included me diving into the net pens to remove the dead and rotting fish, which I’m sure was a violation of many health and safety rules—I was just a recreational diver, and a new one at that.) Almost four decades on, salmon farming remains controversial, but I am grateful I had the opportunity to see what the industry was like on the ground, at least in its infancy. It was grunt work and it wasn’t pretty (on many levels I won’t get into here).
I think about this often when I’m scrolling through pictures of flower farmers. There are many in my Instagram feed as I’ve written quite a bit about the sustainable floristry industry over the past few years, both from the floristry and the farming sides, and almost all show the beauty: the fields of flowers, the arms full of blooms, the beautifully composed bouquets. It belies the fine print and the harsh reality of the enterprise. See, for instance, Kristen from Primrose Lane Farm in southern Alberta, who recently had her fields smashed in a 15-minute hail storm; and just the sheer grunt of it all as shown in this great post by Galena@microflowerfamer on “normalizing” flower farming. (Note: it includes full raingear and slug picking.) Yeah, you get to grow something that people ooh and ah over, but it’s still farming.
Considering all of this, I was very keen to receive a review copy of The Flower Farmers by Debra Prinzing and Robin Avni. Fittingly to my theme, the subtitle is Inspiration and Advice from Expert Growers. Come for the images—because they are stunning—but sit down, pour a coffee, and grab a pencil and some Post-it notes for the reality and the advice from the growers themselves.
Prinzing and Avni are the natural authors for a book on flower farming. Prinzing coined “slow flowers” over a decade ago and has tracked and nurtured the industry for years through her incredible work starting the Slow Flowers Society and all that she’s built around it (the Slow Flowers Podcast, the Slow Flowers Journal, the Slow Flowers Summit, and more). She’s a force. And Avni, her friend and business partner, is a creative director and designer who had produced 18 floral and lifestyle books, including eight in collaboration with Prinzing under their Bloom Imprint.
Inside The Flower Farmers you’ll meet 29 growers from the US and Canada. Each entry explores how they came to flower farming, and where, how, and what they grow. As a keen cut flower grower myself, I particularly enjoyed the close look at 29 different flowers—one chosen by each farm—with sourcing, growing, and harvesting tips.
Whether you aspire to be a flower farmer or simply enjoy growing flowers or just having them in your home, there’s a lot to glean from The Flower Farmers. As the authors write in their introduction, “the dirt welcomes everyone.”
There are two Canadian farms highlighted in the book. I’ve been lucky enough to visit Fleuris Orchard & Blooms in Victoria, BC, where I took an arranging workshop from Julie Remy. (She’s also a skilled photographer who provided the images for this story.) Julie is a talented grower and designer, as you can glean from these images, and she’s recently opened a sweet shop on the property, where you can pick up flowers, preserves and other small food items, and floral-themes gifts.
The Flower Farmers also introduces readers to Masagana Flower Farm near La Broquerie, Manitoba, where Lourdes Casañares-Still grows natural dye plants that she uses in her on-farm workshops and classes, such a natural dyeing and eco-printing.
If you’re keen to get a copy of The Flower Farmers, please ask for it at your local independent bookstore. If it’s not in stock, it can easily be ordered. Just provide the title and this ISBN: 978-1-4197-7569-7. (Please support local independents. I touched on some of the problems over on my very old blog, but see #5.)
And if you’re an aspiring flower farmer or love the idea of it, I can’t recommend the Slow Flowers Podcast highly enough. Debra has produced over 700 episodes, in which she interviews growers, florists, and other slow flower-adjacent folks. Many of the more recent episodes interview the growers in The Flower Farmers.
Pacific Floral: my friendly neighbourhood flower farmer
As proof of how widespread small-scale flower farming is becoming, let me introduce you to Katlyn Durocher, a farmer-florist from my neck of the woods. I visited Katlyn on her farm last fall, just as things were starting to wind down a bit (although the dahlia fields were flush, as you’ll see!). Katlyn’s story exemplifies the grit of these small growers. She first started Pacific Floral in the backyard of a rented property in Ucluelet, BC, (population < 2,000) and slowly grew the business into a full-time job, not only growing the flowers, but also offering wedding and elopement florals, bouquets, and event arrangements.
Not only am I passionate about growing flowers and veggies for sustainability, but am also delighted to bring happiness and sunshine to others through one of natures greatest gifts: Flowers. – Katylyn Durocher
While Katlyn started on the west coast of Vancouver Island, where she still offers her services, particularly for weddings and events, she now grows full-time on her parent’s property in the Comox Valley. She also sells her own seeds and dahlia tubers. Like many of the farmers profiled in The Flower Farmers, Katlyn does most of the work herself, which is endlessly amazing to me. Thanks for letting me hang out for a while, Katlyn!
You’ll notice I’ve been a bit quiet here at the café, but I have been busy writing (for cash—imagine!), diving into topics such as pollen, dried florals, moths, oaks, green burials, and other places my curiosity takes me. I have some stories being published this fall; I’ll let you know when they’re out. And, honestly, the state of the world makes me question the futility of this endeavour, but we still need beauty. For that inspiration, I’ll leave you with the story of Alla Olkhovska, a clematis grower in Ukraine.
Other News from Café Botanica
I got a “major award!” (Channelling The Christmas Story here.) Well, I got a nice little honour from writing peers. My story, Bringing Back the Alberta Bouquet, received a Silver Laurel Media Award from Garden Communicators International. It’s no leg lamp, but I’ll take it!
Next week is Canadian Flowers Week. Watch for #CanadianFlowersWeek wherever you hashtag.
Loving these life-sized wire mesh animals in the Big Bad Wolf exhibit on rewilding. (Colossal)
This nudibranch (sea slug) steals chloroplasts from algae and uses them for emergency food. (Scientific American) If the link doesn’t work, try this.
Don’t get fooled by butterfly plants and other AI scams. (Bob’s Market)
I love rhubarb. I grow it and buy it often during the growing season, chopping it up and freezing it for later. Here’s a requiem for rhubarb, in which “[the author] contemplates what it will take to get Americans to love this surprisingly unpopular sour vegetable.” Life goal: going to Yorkshire to see if harvested by candlelight. I want to hear it growing. (Offrange)
Painter Wang Mansheng makes his own brushes from twigs, reeds, and dried flowers and seeds. (Colossal)
Collage and seeds—two of my favourite things in one Hudson Valley custom art seed package. (ecastaldo_artandbooks)
This beautifully crafted story really touched my heart. We are in our second month without rain in Nova Scotia. Our province has several wildfires and our bags are packed by the door. My perennial gardens that are four years old and grown using permiculture practices are showing the stress, wild flowers are blooming ahead of my records and going to seed in record time, yet I feel grateful for the weddings and events this flower farm can support. I have chosen sustainability over mass productions so when it was too dry to cut flowers or fertilize I was able to listen. I try and remember my energy is a factor. I need to consider reading a book and causing no harm is a viable option. You reminded me I must get a copy. Congratulations on the Silver medal. Cheers. Susan
Thank you for these gorgeous photographs and anecdotes about independent flower growers and the many links and book recommendations, Adrienne. From soupy, poopy farmed fish pens to fields of zinnias and dahlias...well, that's a promotion whichever way you look at it. Congratulations on the Alberta Silver Medal for your pertinent article too!