Bloom Where You’re Planted
Photography provided by Bloom Hill Farms
The flower stand is cute. Super cute. Freshly painted white and sitting at the end of a long, dirt and gravel drive at the foot of Bloom Hill Farms in Uniontown, Ohio. It’s tucked into a field where Nigerian Dwarf goats munch on fallen fruits from an apple tree and mug for people who stop their SUVs to grab a bouquet of freshly grown, organic flowers.
The flower stand is unmanned, working entirely on the honor system. Ten bucks a bouquet, paid with cash, check, or a few clicks online; blossoms grown on a nine-acre flower farm nestled between Canton and Akron that is owned and operated by first generation farmers Judd and Shannon Allen. The stand is open Thursday through Sunday, July through mid-October, from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m., and is stocked daily. On an average weekend, they’ll sell 300 to 400 bouquets without any video camera wired into the walls to ensure you’re being a Good Samaritan.
“Everyone thought that people would just be grabbing flowers without paying,” Judd says. “But we’ve never had a problem with it. Our experience is that people want to do good and they want to be a part of something positive.”
The idea for an honor-system flower stand was almost as crazy as their idea to own a flower farm. Shannon and Judd didn’t come from farming families. Neither had lofty goals of planting 100 acres of soy beans. But among their First Date Discussions? “Chicken coops,” Shannon says. “It turned out that we both wanted them.”
After living in a fixer-upper in Canton’s historic district, they began eyeing acreage on Hoover Avenue, a stretch of road that cuts through gently rolling hills and larger tracts of land. When a property became available, they pounced. Soon after, they started thinking about a niche crop they could grow. Something unusual. Fruits? Hops?
“When we decided to focus on flowers, people thought we had lost our minds,” Judd says. “They didn’t even know what a flower farm was. They would Google photos and see people sitting in a field of wild flowers and say, ‘You really think you’re going to make money off this?’”
The property also had zero infrastructure. “It wasn’t like you pulled up and saw a big red barn,” he adds. “We had to build a walk-in cooler for our flowers and put in fencing ourselves.”
Fast-forward five years, and you can find Shannon and Judd tending to their nine acres, many of which are dedicated to organically growing over 80 varieties of flowers every year, in addition to 70 varieties of dahlias. Ninety-five percent of all their flowers come from seeds planted in their propagation greenhouse.
The typical growing season runs from late April to mid-to-late October, depending on the frost. They see daffodils, tulips, ranunculus, sweet peas, snapdragons,and peonies blooming in the spring. Summer is for lisianthus, zinnias, marigolds, celosias, dianthus, and plenty of sunflowers. “We plant about 2,000 sunflowers a week,” Shannon says.
Fall is for dahlias, in every color of the rainbow. “People always think we’re not busy in the winter, but we’re always busy,” Judd adds. “We spend a ton of time splitting dahlia tubers, which we’ll sell to markets or other growers. It’s never the same thing day-to-day because the season is constantly changing.”
In addition to parenting their three kids—Maxwell, 7, Mae, 5, and Madeline, 4—both also maintain off-the-farm jobs. Judd heads into UPS around 2 a.m. every morning and Shannon works for a CPA firm. “People have a vision that having a flower farm means Shannon is walking in the fields all day wearing a floral gown,” he laughs.
“The reality is that it’s hard work,” she says. “It’s working when you don’t want to, in conditions you don’t like, like rain and snow, but to us, it’s totally worth it. We love the connection we’ve made with our customers, many of which have been with us since day one. When we go to the markets, we are literally talking to people all day long and we love it.”
Their vision is for the farm to be a family affair, an opportunity for their kids to get a little bit of dirt on their hands. “It’s a lot of work, but we love it,” he adds. “It’s our customers who always invigorate us and keep us going. Every day we feel very blessed.”
“Every year we learn more, and refine our processes,” Judd adds. “We added some employees last year which was a huge milestone for us. Up until that point, we were doing it all ourselves. There were many nights when I was going out into the fields at 10 or 11 o’clock at night with a headlamp, cutting flowers in the dark, and putting them in our bathtub.”
In addition to finding their fresh-cuts at their flower stand, you can also pick up bouquets at Earth Fare or 720 Market in North Canton, as well as the Downtown Canton Flea and Downtown Canton First Friday farm markets between July and October. Bloom Hill also takes special orders, can arrange for pickup or delivery, and offers flower subscriptions in the spring and fall. There are also special, on-farm events held throughout the year, like “You Pick and Design” for adults and kids.
Visit bloomhillfarm.com for hours and directions.
STORY BY KATE BENZ // PHOTOGRAPHY BY BLOOM HILL FARMS
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