Today we’d like to introduce you to Jennifer Flowers Logan.
So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
The plan for Whimsy Flower Farm sprouted on a cold January night in 2014, while I sat in front of our woodstove, dreaming about growing old fashioned fragrant sweet peas. My husband Rusty and I had discussed how our family could become more involved in our community and having a flower stall at the Union County Farmers Market was the perfect solution! Life is about making meaningful connections and striding into those new connections with hope and wholeheartedness. We have made so many new friends, both through our market stall and through many dirt-and-weather conversations with local farmers. Farming connects you to a region like no other occupation. Your thoughts are woven into the grass around you as you walk and your dreams trickle down into the soil like fresh water. Our four years of flower farming have gifted us with relationships with more experienced farmers and growers, like our neighbor Roger Gerber who along with his twin brother completely ran their family’s 500 acre Kansas farm at sixteen years of age! (I occasionally bring this fact up in conversation with my three teenage sons if I think it can strengthen my position.) We run every farming problem by Roger first. He shares his knowledge generously and has taught my children everything from staking tomatoes and grafting cherry trees to punching leather and rebuilding dirt bike engines. Cross generational mentoring can be the catalyst that widens a child’s horizons and launches them into the pursuit of their life’s passion. Farming connects! Flowers spread joy! One Saturday in mid July, at the height of the season when the entire farm was exploding in blooms, we were surprised to find ourselves with leftover bouquets after market. Loading up the extra buckets, we drove them to a nearby nursing home, and when we stepped through the front doors a beautiful resident sitting in her chair by the window erupted into the most genuine laughter and clapped her hands in the air! Just the sight of those colorful blooms brought her soul immediate joy. It was a good day after that. I knew then I was in the right job.
Today, we are growing fresh cut flowers on our new 20 acre farm, just south of Blairsville. What started as a small adventure has grown to an exciting business that makes me smile into my cup of coffee each morning. I head to the greenhouse or out into the field, usually as a neighbor pulls in for a chat, and that’s just one of the many perks of flower farming.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
With a last name like “Flowers,” I grew up bent in a horticultural direction naturally. My mother had a green thumb which she shared with me, but growing on a large scale is a completely different experience. I’ve learned that flower farming is not as simple as casting seeds across open ground and skipping with the rabbits while those seedlings grow. It’s learning to dance with the weather and to breathe deeply as pounding rain pushes your cosmos blooms into the mud. So much is trial and error, even after you have read stacks of books and kept meticulous notes about each variety. Theodore Roosevelt wrote, “Do what you can, with what you’ve got, where you are,” and that has been our mantra! Everyone starts somewhere and then lets their passion direct them and that is exactly what we have done.
Please tell us about Whimsy Flower Farm.
At Whimsy Flower Farm, we grow over 70 varieties of specialty cut flowers, perennials and 50 colors of dahlias. A few hundred peony roots have arrived and we look forward to their fragrant gorgeousness in the coming seasons! Our flowers are sold to the public through our farm store, through the Union County Farmers Market and by wholesale to florists and designers. Flower quality and vase life are important to us and we are actually thrilled to hear customers tell us, “I’m not buying flowers this week because last Saturday’s bouquet still looks great!”
If you had to go back in time and start over, would you have done anything differently?
If I could go back in time and begin again, I would simply grow more flowers! Selling out was our constant problem during the beginning. We thought we were growing an adequate supply, but our customers’ enthusiasm grew exponentially and we have finally caught up with them! Each year, we have doubled our seedlings in addition to adding new varieties. We are kicking off the 2018 season with a new hoophouse full of ranunculus and anemones.
Contact Info:
- Address: Lower Trackrock Road
Blairsville, GA - Website: whimsyflowerfarm.com
- Phone: 7069940671
- Email: whimsyflowerfarmer@gmail.com
- Instagram: _whimsyflowerfarm_
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/whimsyflowerfarmer/
Image Credit:
Shutter Girls Photography, Anna Hedges Photography
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