Louisville Flower Farmers see Business Bloom amid

Louisville flower farmers see business bloom ami pan emic

In the morning, Jessica Bush and Aral Michalow, the owners of Phoenix Hill Flower Farm, fill their truck with flowers of all colours, shapes and sizes, and then head off to make the day’s deliveries.

“Honestly we’re having so much fun with it,” Bush said.

Last year, the couple sold to five or six local florists. This year that number is up to 16. One of the florists they sell to is Carolyn Minutillo, the owner of Lavender Hill in Jeffersonville.

“They’re bringing us the freshest of the fresh and then we’re able to support another local small business,” Minutillo said.

At the beginning of the pandemic, many flower shipments from overseas were halted. The change forced more local florists to get their flowers locally from farms like Phoenix Hill Flower Farm.

Before the truck is loaded to make deliveries throughout Kentuckiana, the work starts at their farm in Simpsonville.

Bush and Michalow started farming on this land a year ago. They are now harvesting about an acre with even more room to grow.

“Really we wanted to try everything. This colour, that variety and so we have a lot of varieties, a lot of colours right now,” Bush said.

The farm is new, but their passion for the business is not. The couple started farming in their yard four years ago after buying a house.

“We had a yard for the first time,” Bush said. “And so we were like let’s plant every flower imaginable. And we did.”

They would bring bouquets of flowers for the hostess stand at the restaurant where they both work.

“Customers would come in and buy the bouquets out of the vase and we were like, oh man maybe we’re onto something,” Michalow said.

They went from farmers markets to now florists and designers.

“I genuinely love the people that we sell to and because of that I want to bring them the best product,” Bush said.

As the flowers have grown, so has their business.

With that blooming business, Jessica and Aral set their sights on a future as full-time flower farmers.

“We really realized that this could be a dream that we live,” Michalow said. “I think the end goal is to really be a local source of beautiful blooms to the whole area.”