Hidden Gems: Meet Ashley Berman of Whitney Flower Farm

Today we’d like to introduce you to Ashley Berman.

Hi Ashley, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I had no intention of ever owning a small business. I’m type A sometimes, sometimes not. Also, for full transparency, you couldn’t have paid me to be in the garden helping my parents growing up…and now I’m a flower farmer? A bit shocking I’d say.

I have my master’s in Speech-Language Pathology and worked in acute care hospitals from 2013-early 2025. After having my first daughter, I decided to reduce my hours to PRN (as needed) so that I could stay home with her. I found that the career wasn’t quite what I expected and the hospital environment can be a heavy place to spend so much time.

While considering switching career paths, I was looking for a way I could contribute to our income while also continuing to be able to be home with my children. We live on 3 acres, the majority being open field, and I wondered about a way I could utilize the property we already have as my solution for a career shift. My husband is quite business-savvy and would tell me honestly when I had a terrible idea for a business, however this time, he was on board from the get go. Now this is with full knowledge of the fact that I have zero agricultural background and zero farming experience. So his thoughts that I could be successful really boosted my confidence to take a leap into something new.

I was also looking for a way to spread joy without contributing to the constant clutter that seems to be all around us. Flowers are perishable gifts, that only take up counter space for a finite amount of time. That appeals to me along with the fact that I, very simply, love pretty things. It could be anything – a book cover, a craft cocktail, or a home-grown bloom. One way I’ve found that I can spread joy is through baking. The feeling I get when I send in a baked good to my husband’s work, then receive messages about how much it was loved…that’s hard to find. Despite loving it, I wasn’t interested in feeding the masses (seems like an awful lot of rules/regulations). However, I did realize I can get that same feeling through growing my own flowers and sharing them with others. After mountains of research, I landed on the crops that could be successful in our growing zone and took the leap, starting an LLC and jumping, well more like diving, into the deep end of flower farming.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
I have been remarkably fortunate with the support of my friends and family. But farming is not without its stressors. I’m still grappling with the fact that I cannot nor will I ever be able to control the weather. In our first 2 seasons we drowned a couple hundred peony roots. We’ve struggled with pest control (I became a mice/vole murderer there for a bit…shhhh) and environmental factors (prolonged extreme low temperatures, frequent freeze/thaw cycles, some disease control issues, and all the weeds in the world), which I think every farmer combats each season. I fully failed at growing dahlias, so I cut them from the crop plan. Despite these things, we’ve also grown some incredible blooms.

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
Whitney Flower Farm is a seasonal, specialty cut flower farm located in Geauga County. A unique thing about the farm is that we grow zero annuals. I don’t plant seeds. I don’t understand seeds as a matter of fact. We have fewer than 5 crops that we grow. I’m striving to grow only a few things very well, rather than growing it all. Planting, weeding, harvesting, arranging – it’s all done by hand here. I cut every stem and wrap every bouquet myself. I am proud of the fact that I’m honest with my customers – I am not a florist and I don’t intend to be. I also had zero farming experience prior to starting this, so the majority of things I’m learning as I go and I don’t mind sharing that on my social media.

Something really special about our farm is its name. The farm is named after my sister, Whitney. I never got to meet her, as she was born before me and passed away at only 6 weeks old from a heart defect. As it so happens, my first daughter was born early on the same day as Whitney, exactly 36 years later. There are some things in life that can’t be explained. My daughter and sister having the same birthday is one of those things. I like to think that Whitney would love our flowers, it could have been one of her favorite things.

I would like readers to know that there is such high value in seasonal, locally grown flowers. Our flowers don’t spend weeks after being cut moving from one country to another, doused in chemicals to sustain them on their travels. These blooms go from our field or hoop house to your hands, sometimes the exact same day they were cut.

What do you like and dislike about the city?
We essentially live in a nature preserve and it is stunning. The community tends to be supportive of local small businesses of which we are surround by many. I don’t always love that it takes me 15 minutes to get anywhere I need to go, but I’ll take it to be able to raise my children where we live.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.whitneyflowerfarm.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/whitneyflowerfarm/