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Business is blooming for Minnesota’s flower farmers
One in every five cut flowers comes from another continent, so local flower farms are on a mission to change that.
MINNESOTA, USA — On a double lot in the Longfellow neighborhood, Molly Gaeckle started her flower farm seven years ago. Her family and friends supported her that first season by buying floral subscriptions and giving her the confidence to keep going.
Since then, business has boomed. Four years ago, demand became so strong she had to start leasing land in Hudson, Wisconsin and hired a few employees.
When Belinda and Julie stopped by her city farm in April, Molly and her team had just started spring planting. On the small lot in the middle of the city alone, they can grow 15,000 tulips.
Northerly Flora is just one of many flower farms to pop up in the last decade. They are part of a larger trend taking root across the country, that some are calling the “slow flower movement.”
Much like the slow food movement that emphasizes eating local, sustainable food, the slow flower movement encourages people to buy flowers grown organically by local farmers, rather than flowers imported from other countries that are grown using chemicals and pesticides.
The difference between the two, Molly says, is like the difference between an imported tomato that is perfectly round but doesn’t have much taste and a juicy, locally grown heirloom.
“We are able to grow really delicate, really interesting flowers that have organic curves and have more connection to the place we’re in — and there’s a huge demand for that,” she said. “I think it’s more beautiful and more interesting than these very straight uniform bunches of imported flowers.”
Many of us don’t realize what we’re missing because the U.S. market is flooded with imported flowers. In 1991, Congress eliminated tariffs on cut flowers from several South American countries, putting most American flower farms out of business.
Today, nearly 80 percent of the cut flowers sold here are imported, which means we are mostly buying only those varieties that ship well and have been bred to fit into boxes.
Susan Rockwood and her husband are in their ninth growing season at Arcola Trail Farms in Stillwater. She points out that local flowers are fresher and last longer because local farmers can cut them at the ideal time and get them in their customers’ hands the next day.
The mother-daughter duo behind One Wild Flower Farm in Amery, Wisconsin have recently got into flower farming and appreciate the cooperation between local farmers who all have a slightly different business model. Some farmers sell to co-ops or farmers markets, and many have customer subscription services and self-serve flower carts. Others, like Natalee and Erica, focus on weddings and special events.
When Erica and Natalee started designing flowers for weddings, they mostly used imported flowers. But during COVID, they decided to plant their own. Once they started using their own flowers in bouquets, their business tripled.
“There’s just something in that ingredient of using local grown flowers — our own flowers — it just skyrocketed,” Natalee said as her mother nodded. “It’s been amazing.”
As this year’s crop gets ready to bloom, all of the farmers Bel and Julie talked to anticipate another busy year. They’re confident that as more people discover the beauty of local flowers, the more demand there will be.
“I would just like to encourage people to pay attention to what they’re buying and see if they notice a difference. And if they’re committed to the environment and if they’re committed to fresh and these organically grown flowers, to see if that concept doesn’t resonate with them and really think about it almost like food — you know, knowing where your food comes from, how it’s from nowhere as well as from how they’re grown, and see if that doesn’t make a difference. And I think it will.”
If you’d like to find local growers near you, you can find them on The Association of Specialty Cut Flower Growers’ website.
Check out these other small farms growing fresh flowers in Minnesota:
Twin Cities metro:
Greater Minnesota:
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With a 17-member jury finally seated after an arduous selection process, the prosecution and defense on Thursday took the first step in building their cases.
MANKATO, Minn. — With an arduous jury selection process finally in the rearview mirror, both prosecutors and the defense began laying out their cases Thursday in the murder trial of Adam Fravel.
Fravel is charged with four felony counts – first-degree murder, first-degree premeditated murder, second-degree intentional murder, and second-degree unintentional murder while committing a felony offense – in the death of 26-year-old Maddi Kingsbury, his live-in partner and mother of Favel’s two children.
Kingsbury was last seen dropping her young son and daughter off at daycare in Winona the morning of March 31, 2023. She was reported missing by family and friends later that day. Maddi’s decomposing remains were found south of Winona 68 days later. The medical examiner eventually concluded she died of homicidal violence, likely asphyxiation.
Opening statements began shortly after 9 a.m. in Blue Earth County District Court, chosen as the venue after Judge Nancy Buytendorp ruled Fravel’s trial should be moved from Winona County due to extensive pre-trial publicity.
The state was the first to address the jury panel, with prosecutor Phil Prokopowicz immediately painting a picture of Maddi as a successful career woman and mother who had become increasingly frustrated with Fravel and his inability to contribute as their seven-year relationship crumbled.
Prokopowicz told jurors that Kingsbury had met a man, Spencer Sullivan, on a dating app and as their relationship grew Maddi decided to end her partnership with Fravel. Kingsbury contacted her landlord and said she was terminating the least, and that she had found a townhouse where she and the children would live.
The state also laid out a list of electronic and video evidence it says proves Fravel killed Maddi and engaged in an elaborate coverup, also indicating there will be testimony on alleged abuse in the relationship.
Fravel’s defense team began its opening statement with a geography lesson of sorts, with attorney Zach Bauer naming Winona and the small communities of Rushford, Choice, Mable, and the highways and county roads that run through them. Bauer asked jurors to think about the locations as they listen to testimony and absorb the evidence presented in Fravel’s trial.
The defense then began painting its own picture of the relationship between Fravel and Kingsbury, saying like many couples they had disagreements and there were times Maddi would move out the home and other times when Fravel would go home to stay with his parents.
Unlike prosecutors – who said Kingsbury’s relationship with Spencer Sullivan was getting deeper – the defense told jurors about texts from Maddi to her sister saying she was going to marry Adam Fravel. Ultimately, Bauer told the court, Kingsbury and Fravel agreed to separate but were doing so in a cooperative and planned manner.
Bauer told jurors that Fravel cooperated with police after Kingsbury disappeared, saying his defense team would show that investigators ignored evidence and facts that suggested his innocence. He indicated they will challenge the prosecution’s version of how and where the body was found, and who may have had access to the remote site not far from Mabel.
The defense also said they will call a neighbor who will testify they never heard any fighting or signs of discord in the relationship between Kingsbury and Fravel.
The 16-year-old girl was last seen in September in north Minneapolis.
MINNEAPOLIS — The Anoka County Sheriff’s Office is asking for the public’s help to find a missing teenage girl.
The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA) shared Thursday on X that 16-year-old Tivona Cardenas was last seen in late September in north Minneapolis.
Cardenas is 5 feet 2 inches and 108 pounds, with black hair and brown eyes, according to the Minnesota BCA.
If you have any information on the teen’s whereabouts, call 911.
St. Paul’s Harriet Island will host the event Sunday to raise money for colon cancer awareness and screenings.
ST PAUL, Minn. — St. Paul’s Harriet Island will host runners, walkers and supporters on Sunday for the 20th annual Get Your Rear in Gear event.
The fundraiser boosts money and awareness for colon cancer and the importance of screening for it. Attendees can enjoy music, snacks, a giant inflatable colon, timed 10K and 5K races, untimed 5K and one-mile memory walk and a Kids’ Fun Run.
Chris Evans, the president of the Colon Cancer Coalition, and William Pierce, a caregiver who lost his mom to colorectal cancer, visited KARE 11 News at Noon to share more about the event and the importance of screening.
According to the American Cancer Society, about 2,550 Minnesota residents will be diagnosed and 830 could lose their life to colon cancer in 2024.
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