We are a family-oriented micro flower farm in the Miami Valley of Ohio. Our picturesque farm is nestled on a country road in Clark County not-so-far from Dayton and Springfield, Huber Heights and Troy. Our homestead faces east and the sun greets us each day on the ‘morning side’. Many cool misty mornings we can look out over our 5 acre meadow towards the rising sun and are thankful that God brought us here. One summer our second daughter decided to plant a small corner of our vegetable garden in cut flowers….
With a son and 5 daughters my husband and I have always had a desire to teach our children to work with their hands and to fill their time with meaningful pursuits. I (Wendy) have fond childhood memories growing up in the classic 1940’s home place where my father was born, on an acre nestled in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. I was blessed with a mother who dared to dream—cultivating a beautiful backyard with a creek and lush flora and fauna. I spent many hours in the woodlands on the mountain behind our home, watching my mother dig and replant wild things in her yard. She came from a family of fruit farmers in the Central Valley of California and a long line of creative visionaries from growing roses to producing peaches and almonds. I grew up being traipsed through every nursery and garden center around, as a teenager enjoyed a short stint as a hired hand in a local greenhouse and grew to appreciate entrepreneurship from my Daddy, who was in the farm equipment business. Married to my builder husband, we settled in Ohio and built our own home on a 5 acre piece of ground that his great-grandfather farmed all his life. We live deeply in a rich heritage and desire for our children to know the fruits of labor of our past generations.
Learning & Growing.
As our children began to grow up, it was important to find ways to enrich their home education experience and to provide them a way to invest their lives and find their interests. Our only son grew up being mentored alongside his Dad in the construction and custom remodeling field. We had to get creative to give our daughters something to call their own. Gracey, our second daughter thought to try her hand at flower farming. I guess you could say the rest is history!
In 2017, as a mother-daughter duo, Gracey and I began to pour our hearts and sweat into learning what it takes to succeed in agricultural floristry. We are alumni of The Gardener’s Workshop Flower Farming School and became a member of The Association of Specialty Cut Flower Growers. It has been (and still is) quite a journey as we find ourselves a part of this nationwide movement to return the commercial flower market to U.S. soil.
Year 2020.
And so begins our 2nd full season of growing commercially for farmer’s markets, wholesale to florists and our own bouquet subscribers. Between the two of us and the mother/daughter relationship that we care to cultivate-- we are still finding a comfortable division of duties as we take on both growing and marketing, not to mention those necessary home duties that are always calling. This is indeed a family adventure with many supporting roles and all of our family members helping to pull the load! While it hasn’t been easy, we are learning to be real farmers, florists and business owners. We are teaching ourselves and our children values and patience. All told, we are loving [almost] every minute of it!
Gracey’s Dream.
Between the busy social life of a teenager and home life of a homeschooler-- Gracey is (usually) the photographer and face behind our Instagram posts. You can meet her in person at The Heights Farmer’s Market behind our signature black and white checked tables fluffed and filled with fresh flowers. She loves interacting with our faithful customers each week and cheerfully wraps and hand ties every bouquet sold. A great little homemaker, 2nd mother to little sisters, gardener and encourager—she is a hard worker doing everything from laundry and cooking to seed starting, planting, and making bouquets for market. She is cultivating a talent for design work and her input is important to the success of our business.
Wendy’s Part.
Over the years I’ve found myself wearing many hats. When I became a mother I knew I wanted to teach and train our children at home. It is a blessing to instill in them the values that will give them a good start in life. It is also my pleasure to nurture that part of their hearts that only God can fill. I have been granted that dream for 23 years and counting! I am now a grandma of one sweet little granddaughter and pray I can be an inspiration to the next generation.
The many changing hats are rather mind boggling at times. From being mother to these little ones to supporting my husband as the head of our family + keeping our household running smoothly >>> to running our flower farm. “Micro” our farm may be... but the mental stretch of a new career at middle age is nothing to sneeze at, I will admit. I never imagined that a little home-based farming could take me so many places! But this is my messy well-lived life and I really would’nt want it any other way!
The Land.
When we gave our property its name 25 years ago it was just a blank 5 acre piece of ground. In my mind I always referred to our little plot a ‘meadow’ rather than just an empty field. (My poetic conscience for what it’s worth.) Originally part of a family farm, it was slowly divided between the children and finally the great-grandson (my husband) got the last plot. I drew up the plans and my builder hubby built our dream. Our new home faced the east with woods behind so the sun would only shine on the morning side. Morningside Meadows became a part of who we are.
The Farm and Beyond.
Our little piece of paradise is not far off the beaten path. Located in the elbow of State Route 235 and 41. We live down a country road just across the meadow from our horse and sheep farming Uncle. Over the years my husband and I have sweated out new projects as we continue to grow our little piece of the world… to give it boundaries and a sense of belonging to the land. A big barn for the construction business, a little barn for our gardening. From my husband’s remodeling jobs we add little bits and pieces of treasure, the castoffs of others… vintage this and that… to fill in our wide open spaces. Old barn siding became a potting shed. Left over paint keeps the children’s playhouse fresh and white! Castoff tropical deck wood built Morningside Kennels. The back woods are full of ‘projects’ that keep our growing children’s imaginations alive. Our first daughter’s wedding took place down a quaint path through the woods and over to the sheep pasture. The huge rope swing beyond the rusty gate was an old barn beam from who knows where. Currently, we are constructing a sweet little greenhouse for seed starting... using a heavy 5-panel back porch door with old wavy glass. We love living our lives on a farm—it’s the stuff that dreams are made of!
The Flowers.
At Morningside Meadows Flower Farm we pride ourselves in providing fresh seasonal blooms literally from the ground up… we call it “seed to centerpiece”. We go to great lengths to practice sustainable farming and use organic products that makes our flowers touchable and fragrant. Between the months of April and October you can be assured of beautiful blooms in many flower varieties and a plethora of colors and shades. It’s really a win win situation—our customers enjoy a rich bounty that last in the vase far beyond what they’ve come to expect with imported flowers. We get the opportunity to be an active part of our community and to make other humans smile.
The blooms we offer change as the season progresses. Beginning in April (pending weather) we start cutting early spring bulbs from our production field—tulips, hyacinths, daffodils and mixing in early season flowers such as bachelor buttons, larkspur and Nigella. Sometimes we forage and steal from our landscape many interesting woodies and perennials. For a distinctive combination we often use textured vegetable greens and fragrant herbs in our floral bouquets. The common becomes unique and our customers love it! In May our focus will be on a grand peony harvest with many companion flowers blooming such as delphinium, snapdragons, yarrow and, dill, feverfew, and many others. Between June and July the full array of summertime blooms begin to make their debut. Lisianthus, sunflowers, marigolds, zinnias, ageratum, celosia, amaranth— there is a long list and new trials every year! In late summer the dahlia steals the show as we continue into our second and third succession plantings of the summer work horses.
In March 2020 on a wing and a prayer, we made the decision to grow more than our usual family vegetables among the flowers in an effort to meet the demands in our community potentially associated with the state of world affairs and the coronavirus pandemic.
Our customers are important to us!
For those of you who took a chance on us during our first growing season... we thank you from the bottom of our hearts! It was our pleasure to serve you. To those of you new to the concept of buying fresh flowers from the farmer... we encourage you to try one of our seasonal subscriptions. You won’t be disappointed. We look forward to seeing what the future holds as we expand our customer base. Be assured-- we will put flower lovers first. We will continue striving to produce beauty as well as quality.
Follow our process from the beginning on Instagram. We would love to have you be a part of our community of fellow flower friends!
https://www.instagram.com/morningside.meadows
