Stay Informed

While the number of flower farms in the state has expanded rapidly in the past two or three years, Indiana is hardly alone in this trend.

Figures specifically for flower farms are difficult to come by, but the U.S. Department of Agriculture said that the 2020 wholesale value of all floriculture crops – a category that includes cut flowers, potted plants and both annual and perennial bedding plants – rose 9% from 2019.

The practice of encouraging consumers to seek out local flowers rather than the imported and hothouse blooms found in most florist shops has even developed into what some people consider a movement – the “slow flowers” movement. Like the slow food movement, the emphasis is on using locally sourced and in-season flowers. It takes its name from a book called Slow Flowers: Four Seasons of Locally Grown Bouquets from the Garden, Meadow and Farm by Debra Prinzing, published in 2013.

There is now an online slow flowers directory, a Slow Flowers Society and a Slow Flowers Summit, held this year in San Francisco and slated for Pocantico Hills, New York, in 2022.