As growers and designers, we know that it’s best to use the freshest blooms possible so that our end consumer – be they a wedding party or a busy dad at the farmers market – gets beautiful long lasting flowers.
Farmer Florists truly understand that relationship because they are experts in both, growing and designing. Local small scale flower farmers know it too, regardless if they identify as a designer – they know the seasonality of floral design as well as they know the seasonality of growing.
Did you know an urban micro farm can have a major impact on a community’s ability to access fresh food as well as life affirming plants and flowers? It’s true! Even in small spaces you have (most) of what you need to garden or even farm. It’s also true that flowers especially have a positive impact on our mental and emotional health as individuals and as a community. Flowers make us feel warm, safe, loved. It’s part of their magic. They also feed an entire ecosystem that is critical to our food chain and survival. Think of the impact a small to medium size professional grower could have on U.S. flower market if they began moving to these amazing cash crops! Think of the impact if a number of growers across America began growing cut flowers!!
Most of us are aware that the bulk of cut flowers are grown overseas – meaning those stems endure days to weeks of being dehydrated and cramped in unhealthy conditions before they ever even get to a florist’s cooler. This doesn’t just affect the longevity and beauty of your flowers it has fundamentally changed some of those flowers. Many have been bred not for scent, beauty or natural form, but instead to withstand the grueling demands of worldwide distribution.
Local flowers, grown in your community, county, state, and even across America are a more sustainable, natural, logical and meaningful part of floral design and agriculture as a whole.
All that said – it’s why as a newbie product manager for Harris Seeds in December 2023, I decided to reach out to the Harmony Harvest Farm team to see if we could work together on empowering current and aspiring flower farmers. I’ve been a longtime fan of Harmony Harvest Farm, watching them from afar on instagam as I grew my own flower business. So it’s no surprise when I saw that they had just posted a wish to Santa, All I want for Christmas is more U.S. Flower Farmers – that I just had to make it so. That’s what I want too! And it just so happens that I’m in a position to do something meaningful to actually make it happen.
The first part of 2024 we laid the groundwork for our partnership, made fun decisions about what we wanted to grow, when where and how, mapped out trips to meet each other and decided what we wanted to talk about and why. For a farmer florist and long time fan girl, it was like meeting my heroes, walking into their barn, the workshop, greenhouses and fields still feels like a dream. To be met with hugs, laughter and so much warmth means the world to me. To work with them side by side and build a program that will help uplift fellow growers, inform newcomers and support the local slow flowers movement I am so passionate about is heaven. Gratitude overload.
Harmony Harvest Farm means business when they say they are ready and willing to support the next generation of flower growers. And as the new Ornamentals Product Manger for Harris Seeds I have the opportunity to share my knowledge, experience, and the legacy and wisdom of the entire Harris Seeds team to help empower growers of all levels. That’s what The Flower Farmer Mission is, a partnership between our two teams in the hope that we can support more locally grown flowers throughout the U.S. and the world.
Please follow along as we expand on our partnership, the mission, our growing seasons together, our community and of course our expert recommendations, how tos and more. Follow both Harmony Harvest Farm and Harris Seeds on @insta and use the #theflowerfarmermission tag to join us in celebrating our journey and bounty together!
Here’s to more U.S. Flower Farmers!
Miya Sohoza
Ornamentals Product Manager
Miya is a Farmer Florist, and the Ornamentals Product Manager for Harris Seeds. She enjoys highlighting the grit of day-to-day farm life in her floral design and creative work. As a seed industry professional she is passionate about lifting the conversation on American Grown Flowers and the Slow Flowers Movement. The Flower Farmer Mission is a passion project for Miya and she is proud to build it with some of the cut flower industries most knowledgeable experts.
