Today we’d like to introduce you to Amanda Griffith.
Hi Amanda, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start, maybe you can share some of your backstories with our readers.
My name is Amanda Griffith, and I am a small-scale farmer-florist under the name of Obstinate Farmer Events. I grow unique cut flowers that I sell through a flower subscription in the Spring, and for special events, designs Spring through the Fall.
Flower farming, for me, started with a seed planted in my mind centered around aspirational living. I subscribed to Martha Stewart Living magazine starting decades ago. The cover would consistently be some lush floral landscaping or stems of flowers grown on Martha’s property which were cut and arranged for the home. That ability to care for something and then walk outside to gather the flowers to enjoy was the epitome of class and taste to me. I didn’t realize it takes a staff and decades of care to manicure a property to those standards.
Over the years, I have had vegetable and herb gardens which I found to be exciting to start and nurture, but once they really got going, they turned too unruly for my taste.
When we built what we consider to be our permanent home, I started to think more about our landscaping. I ordered many David Austin English garden roses; shrubs and climbing roses and even rose trees. When I like something, I usually over-order. I had to patiently wait for the roses to be productive but what really wowed me right away were the zinnias I planted from seed. They were cheerful and effortless cut-and-come-again flowers. Even my husband commented on them along the garden fence. One night searching for new zinnia seeds online I ended up finding Floret Flowers. A company that sells seeds but also provides education on cut flowers, and I was captivated. Photos of an old truck bed full of buckets of colorful flowers I didn’t even know the name of, they were dahlias, all grown on 2 acres. I thought instantly, “I have two acres to spare!” And what I really had was a complete lack of insight as to how much space two acres was and how much physical work was required. And suddenly I’m telling my husband that I was going to grow flowers. That was the Fall of 2017.
My hobby soon got out of hand.
Each year I add something big to help get me the flowers I covet and to scale up my future offerings. A plot of peonies, garden boxes, a fence to keep the deer from eating my tulips and roses, and high tunnels. To produce some of my favorite flowers in Zone 6b, the Spring varieties such as ranunculus and anemones, I grow in a high tunnel. This allows them to grow under greenhouse plastic and keeps the winter weather out.
I am on year 5 of my cut flower production and feel comfortable at the size of my growing operation and my mix of annual and perennial offerings. I am passionate about local seasonal flowers and growing organically. Most of my flowers are enjoyed within 20 miles of where they are grown, and I limit my use of single-use plastics. These are ways I try to be as sustainable as possible.
In the last three years, I have been asked to flower weddings. I haven’t advertised this service, but through friends, acquaintances, and referrals I have a rather busy August, September, and October ahead of me. Participating in these events is an honor as I really believe flowers can be art pieces.
We all face challenges, but looking back, would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
My first-year growing was a series of lessons in not knowing what I didn’t know. I didn’t know some seeds need light to germinate and some want to be buried. I didn’t know some plants would want to be planted out when the weather is still cool.
I didn’t know foliage and flowers may be ready at different times and come and go quickly before the others could catch up. So, I would have may lovely additions to a bouquet but no real focal flowers.
I didn’t know how I was going to get my flowers in the hands of people, or if they would even like them.
And I didn’t know when I tilled the soil I was bringing to the surface weed seed. And each time it rained, I was in for another round of weeds. There were just so many weeds! But I didn’t quit. I just realized Summer is not my favorite growing season. And that I better find flowers I loved to make it worth the variety of growing conditions.
Early on, I had a goal of hosting flower-arranging workshops. I wanted to have little gatherings, the types of things I would like to attend with friends, and arrange the flowers I grew. So, I did. I was brimming with energy and optimism and flower love. I co-hosted my first class with Alexa Hess, owner of Lucca’s flower truck. That night was great fun, but I was so nervous! I talked way too much and went on design tangents, but I left with a better insight into what people really want. Just to play with pretty flowers and take something home they can be proud of.
I have hosted a handful of classes since and always remembered that lesson. I have struggled to get my motivation back around the flower arranging workshops since Covid. Momentum halted, and certain supply chain issues for simple things like vases persistent for a long time. But I am challenging myself this year to get back to bringing people together with flowers.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I graduated college with an art history minor. But I never had any skills as a studio artist. I only had a deep appreciation for how the study of art history brings together the culture, the social history, and the religion of an era from the hands of an artist through their medium. I simply wanted to be a cultured person through study.
I never had an artistic medium until I had flowers to play with. Being a flower farmer allows me access to my medium and to share that access, that indulgence, with other flower friends. The flowers always find their people. When I have an abundance growing my favorite thing to do is to take all the odd flowers, the extras, the almost too far gone, and make an over-the-top arrangement for my home, then photograph it to share in some way.
What I have become known for is a modern take on flower corsages, little art pieces I make for special occasions. I make dozens of them for homecomings and proms for area schools.
Is there a quality that you most attribute to your success?
The characteristic I feel is most important to my success is grit. There is no shortcut to get a good product. Each season is different with weather, and you have to adapt when necessary and accept some things are out of your control. There will be losses with perishables. There may be soil issues. Even seasoned professionals kill flowers. You need the mental and the physical grit. It is hard physical work I do mostly by hand with few tools, and alone. I have to go outside in all weather which is against my natural tendencies. Then you have to be thinking of next year before you have enjoyed the flowers of this year, ordering way ahead to get the good product. And knowing every year, there will be weeds to battle. And if you ever go out of town during flower season you better believe the weeds will have doubled. But it’s all worth it!
Contact Info:
- Website: www.obstinatefarmerevents.com
- Instagram: @Obstinatefarmer
- Facebook: @Obstinatefarmer
