with brightness

Fiedler flourishes with Sunny Mary Meadow

BY SARAH COLBURN STAFF WRITER

SARTELL – On a half acre of land, on the soil her late husband was raised, Liz Fiedler grows flowers.

Tens of thousands of flowers are grown at Sunny Mary Meadow near Sartell. Fiedler launched the business in 2020 and caters to 114 subscription-based customers. Customers receive 10 bouquets weekly from July through September.

Fiedler page 4

Fiedler from page 3

It is a business and livelihood for Fiedler that almost was not.

During the coronavirus pandemic, Fiedler, a nurse practitioner, told her husband, Josh, she wanted to spend a few hundred dollars on seeds to nourish a hobby that would make her happy.

Fiedler sowed the seeds and began selling cut flower bouquets out of a stand at the end of her driveway. For every bouquet she sold, she donated one to a nursing home in honor of her grandmother who could not receive visitors.

She donated 201 bouquets, and the couple gathered 25 subscribers for the following year.

But in December 2020, Josh died of a heart attack while exercising on his lunch break. It was just two days after their daughter Vidalia’s 3rd birthday. The day after Fiedler buried Josh, she found out she was pregnant with their second child, Davie.

Fiedler was at a loss.

In the weeks to follow, Fiedler debated calling the subscribers and returning their money, walking away from the flowers she knew brought people joy. But then, she received an email from one of the owners of Hilltop Health Care Center, a company operating assisted living facilities, asking her to create 200 Easter bouquets for its residents. It created a spark.

At first, Fiedler told the owner she could not possibly make