Valley Bounty: Wild Life Flowers building community for people and pollinators

For Kimberly Longey, farmer-florist at Wild Life Flowers in Plainfield, the idea of the slow flower movement began with an appreciation for local food. “As a lover of flowers, I have purchased out-of-season blooms at the grocery store because they brightened my mood in the dead of winter. Even though I was conscious of where my food came from, I wasn’t really thinking about where my flowers came from,” says Longey.

With a penchant for community development, Longey was active 15 years ago in the process of converting the Old Cummington Creamery into a model of community ownership. Over a couple of years, Longey says, “I learned a lot about sustainable food and how important it is to do things on a small scale for the sake of community.”

Longey says, “I started learning about sustainability and how the slow-food movement focused on nurturing what we want closer to home.” The vision for Wild Life Flowers began to take hold and Longey, “started with my own practices of learning how to grow flowers with an aim to bring them into my home, onto my table, and to give to friends and family.” She started the farm in 2022, during the pandemic, when “nurturing resilience community seemed important.”

Wild Life Flowers offers cut flowers grown locally, seasonally and ethically. The farmer-florist notes, “I am in the early stages of this learning and growing journey. My farm is very much a ‘micro’ farm, with an acre in production and intentionally limiting my market to an area within 20 miles, with no shipping of flowers.”

Wild Life Flowers customers are residents and businesses in Plainfield and the surrounding towns of Ashfield, Chesterfield, Cummington, Goshen, Hawley, Savoy, Windsor and Worthington. The farm intentionally focuses on a small rural area that is not currently well-served for direct flower sales. The farmer notes, “I offer flowers at an accessible price point with the hopes of bringing joy to my community and to sustain resilience — for people and pollinators.”

Wild Life Flowers grows over 60 varieties of annuals, perennials, and woody shrubs on one acre, using low-till and pollinator-friendly methods. Longey uses organic practices (e.g., sourcing certified seeds, using natural methods to control pests and diseases), but the farm is not certified organic.

All growing and design happens on site. Longey is a seasonal farmer, harvesting each flower at the peak of its natural bloom time. Over the winter, she dries flower petals to make dyes for silk ribbons, which she uses to tie bouquets during the growing season. Longey says, “We hand-harvest and arrange all bouquets and custom florals in our on-site studio.”

Longey offers the community, both near and far, several options to enjoy flowers throughout the season. The Wild Life Flowers website is the hub for pre-ordering and an explanation of options; Community Involved in Sustaining Agriculture (CISA) recently assisted the farmer-florist with website upgrades. She says, “We very much appreciate pre-order/pre-payment through our website. Pre-orders are placed in the reserved area of the farm stand for customer pick up.”

The Flower Club is a version of community supported agriculture, but for flowers. The farm offers Tulip Club (May), Summer Club (July, August, September) and Dahlia Club (September/October). With the farm’s limited offerings, the Flower Clubs let customers reserve blooms, while pre-ordering helps the farm to plan. The Pollinator Club (a share in all three flower clubs) helps the farm receive revenue at the start of the season, when there is more cash going out the door than coming in. To further reduce carbon impact, Longey is exploring drop-off points if there are five or more club members from a particular town.

A new offering on the Wild Life Flowers website is the “Bucket of Blooms.” Longey explains, “As a one-woman show my capacity is limited. I wanted to meet the requests from people seeking flowers for weddings or other special events. This is a way for people to just play or to supplement what they grow themselves with additional blooms, so people can create arrangements for their special events.”

Flowers communicate beyond words, and so Longey created Flower Vouchers as an easy way for people out of town to give flowers to relatives or friends in the area, whether for birthdays, anniversaries, or remembrances. One voucher is good for one farmer’s choice bouquet, available for pick up at the farm stand. Vouchers can be purchased in the Wild Life Flowers online flower shop.

The farm cultivates beauty, resilience, and community while eliciting stories from customers. Longey explains, “I grow flowers that inspire nostalgia and invite curiosity. My bouquets include tulips, hellebore, delphinium, larkspur, and peony. These flowers often elicit conversations with people about their love for a particular bloom, which is often tied to a memory of their grandmother or a dear friend who first shared those flowers with them.”

She continues, “The visual cues of certain flowers can bring back personal connections to childhood homes or family gardens. I grow these flowers because they continue a story line that is present in these hills, and because I love listening to these stories and the memories they inspire people to share. One of my greatest joys is seeing the smiles that a simple bountiful bouquet can illuminate.”

Wild Life Flowers is a place of positive energy. Longey concludes, “Growing flowers has always been a source of joy and inspiration, from placing pansies on a cake to incorporating nasturtium in a salad or using marigold and zinnia for natural fabric dyes. Flowers are not just something to admire — they are meant to be experienced through all senses and in their own season.”

To learn more about Wild Life Flowers, see their website and online flower shop at www.wildlifeflowers.com. The farm stand is self-service and relies upon an honor-system. The stand is open Friday, Saturday and Sunday from May through October. They accept cash, local checks and credit/debit cards. Special orders require 48-hour notice and a phone call at 413-262-9208.

Lisa Goodrich is a communications coordinator for Community Involved in Sustaining Agriculture (CISA). To find cut flowers at local flower farms and nurseries near you, check out CISA’s online guide at buylocalfood.org/find-it-locally.