Local flowers are closer than you think. Here's a sampling of farms statewide.
Kate Thompson
Flowers are a blooming business here in Virginia, where local flower farms have proliferated by 80 percent over the past 20 years. Some call this bloom-boom the “slow flower” movement—a play on “slow food’s” know-your-farmer approach to eating. Others use the term “farm-to-vase” or “seed-to-centerpiece.” Either way, locally grown flowers are a growing field, pun intended.
You’ll spot them at farmers markets, where some growers offer weekly bouquet subscriptions. You can find them online, through local collectives. Or you can pick up a basket and pick your own. At Burnside Farms in Nokesville, you can wander the fields, clippers in hand, then pay for your fragrant haul. Burnside’s proprietors Leslie and Michale Dawley, mother and son, are third and fourth-generation flower farmers, but growers today are as varied as their blooms. Some are retirees, tending suburban cutting gardens. Others hold full-time jobs and cultivate flowers on the side. Some growers supply grocers and wholesalers, others sell directly to floral designers, but most are happy to take your order, too.
And local flowers are closer than you think. Here's a sampling of farms statewide. (see the full article in our July/Aug. 2023 issue)
Central
- Otter Bend Farm, Altavista
- Blue Heron Farm, Nelllysford
- Foothills Flower Farm, Charlottesville
- Wollam Gardens, Culpeper
- Bloom Bay Flower Farm, Culpeper
- Sweet Greens Farm, Scottsville
- Alight Flower Farm, Keswick
- Liliharp Flowers, Crozet
- Hummingbird Flower Co., Midlothian
- Prospect Hill Flower Farm, Bumpass
- Eleusinia Flowers, Madison
- Pharsalia, Tyro
- Irvington Spring Farm, Lynchburg
- Laughing Crow Flower Farm, Maidens
- Rosefield Farm and Flowers, Appomattox
- The Freckled Flower Farm, Montpelier
Eastern
- Mermaid City Flowers, Norfolk
- Tupelo Farm & Garden, Urbanna
- ONECommunity Museum & Micro-Farm, Norfolk
- The Petal Manor & Wagon, Virginia Beach
- Blumenfolk, Norfolk
- Birdsnest Blooms, Virginia Beach
- Lakeside Blooms, Norfolk
- Chatham Flower Farm, Painter
- So Many Flowers, Virginia Beach
- Interstate 8 Floristry, Norfolk
- Wind Haven Farm, King William
Kate Thompson
Northern
- Bee’s Wing Farm, Bluemont
- Fields of Flowers, Purcellville
- Hope Flower Farm and Winery, Waterford
- Burnside Farms, Nokesville
- Bloom Flower Farm, Nokesville
- LynnVale Studios, Gainesville
- Hidden Gems Farm, Centreville
Shenandoah Valley
- Harmony Harvest Farm, Weyers Cave
- Mary Jo’s Flowers, Harrisonburg
- Farrish Farm, Weyers Cave
- Sonrise Flower Farm, Winchester
- Tiny Fields Farm, Churchville
- Thornfield Farm, Fincastle
- Lark & Sky Farms, Troutville
- Yonderyear Farm, Rockbridge Baths
Southwest
- Stonecrop Farm, Newport
To find local flower growers nationwide, visit the Association of Specialty Cut Flower Growers, Slow Flowers Society, the Floret Farmer-Florist Collective, or Rooted Farmers.
