Hi. I’m Lari, and I love just about everything FLOWERS!
I love looking at the beautiful photos in seed catalogs, learning about new flower varieties, and one of my favorite things of all time is coaxing the tiny seeds to sprout and grow into full-sized plants. ​
When I talk to people about flowers, they usually divide themselves into two categories: those who garden themselves and those who swear they have killed every plant they’ve ever owned! I believe anyone can learn to grow plants—whether grass, trees, vegetables or flowers. But, I think I came to it genetically.​
My grandpa was a Mississippi farmer, and my mom grew up there picking peas, hoeing rows of corn and preserving that food during the growing season so they’d have enough to eat during winter. They raised cows, chickens, and pigs, and my grandpa hunted deer and turkey in the woods on his property. These days we call it homesteading, but to my grandparents, it was their way of life. ​
We lived so far away, I only got to spend a few days a year on my grandparents’ farm. My favorite memories are eating farm-fresh tomato sandwiches on soft white bread with a generous spread of mayonnaise and getting to drive my grandpa’s tractor. Few things seemed simpler and more joyful for a suburban kid than a respite on the farm. But I know for my family members who farmed day in and day out, it was a lot of work.
So, how did I get into flower farming?
It’s never been my day job, but taking the lead from my parents who love growing plants—both indoors and in the landscape—I dabbled in gardening from the time I purchased my first house in Michigan in 1996. The home was built in 1892, and it had some old, heirloom peony plants that must have produced at least 30 blooms per plant. I fell in love! I tried growing tulips, but wound up in a never-ending battle with voles who ate them for breakfast, lunch and dinner. At this point, I brought a few flowers inside from time to time but mostly left them I the landscape.
​
When I moved to Texas, I had to learn how to grow all over again because the climate is completely different than what I was accustomed to. There are a couple of weeks in the summer that it’s amazing anything survives! (I may have learned that the hard way.) In 2000, I bought myself a small greenhouse and started some stock from seed so I could cut it and bring it indoors. The end.
​
(Just kidding!)
​
Since that time, I’ve always grown some flowers just to cut and arrange while also trying to make my yard look nice with other plants and flowers. At that time, when I told people I was growing cut flowers, they looked at me like they had no idea what I was talking about. I maxed out every flower bed I ever created and never had enough room to grow what I wanted…until 2022 when I saw a home on a piece of property pop up in my search and convince my husband we needed to buy it.
​
Since then, we’ve ordered and spread yards and yards of dirt, mulch and compost. We set up a seed starting station in my laundry room that allows me to grow thousands of baby plants at a time. We’ve built more than a dozen raised beds and…in the summer of 2025…a greenhouse.
​
