A few years ago I visited an Uncle who owns a large cut flower farm in Virginia, Wollam Gardens. I only went down to visit him for a short while, but discovered that he needed some extra help, so I ended up working for him. The short visit turned into a six month stay and I worked daily from dawn to dusk on the farm, absolutely loving every moment. For many years I had worked on farms and in greenhouses, but it was that visit to Virginia that made me realize my real passion was with flowers.

Working with flowers entails many things. Often people think working with flowers means arranging and displaying -- this is true, but there are many steps prior to that point. Growing the flowers is an enormous amount of work, but again it is this labor intensive work that I truly enjoy. I am slowly developing my flower farm in Groton, Massachusetts. I had no desire to borrow money from the bank in order to buy a huge farm, at least not in this climate. So instead, I started by leasing some land from Steve Parker of Parker Farms in Lunenburg, where I seeded annuals such as zinnias, larkspur, lisianthus, asters, sunflowers, and sweet peas. I grew my perennials on one acre of land which my husband and I cleared behind our house. Some of the perennials I grow are hydrangeas, dahlias, tuberose, yarrow, delphinium, shasta daisies, chocolate cosmos, buddlia, hypericum....the list goes on. Last year we cleared another acre behind our house and I am now able to grow everything at my own farm. I have access to a few fields and permission to cut wild flowers which I often use in my bouquets.

At the moment, I split my working time between my flower farm, Flora Restaurant in Arlington, MA and Weston Nurseries. My ultimate goal is to be able to fully support myself from the farm alone. This could be tough in New England, but I think I can do it. The best part is that I love every minute of my work and derive constant pleasure from it. -melissa oothout