Who We Are
We are a local family run farm in Waterport, NY surrounded by apple orchards near Lake Ontario. We currently grow peonies and sell buds to florists in Rochester and Buffalo, NY. We have a limited amount of foliage available and plan to offer subscriptions to consumers in the near future. We are growing a number of woodie stems and foliage, including Lilacs, Lavender, Mock Orange, Viburnum, Ninebark, Pussy Willow, Honeysuckle, and Dock, most of which won’t be available to florists for a few years.
Our History – A Life-Long Love Affair with Flowers
Sharon, head grower, grew up in Auburn, NY on Owasco Lake in a home worthy of inclusion in Better Homes & Gardens, both inside and out. Her mom was a self-taught Master Gardner without the formal title and helped local florists from time to time with wedding flowers and bouquets. She supplied locally grown flowers and created arrangements for multiple weddings over the years – including Sharon’s – and was responsible for the fresh and dried flowers that changed seasonally for a local country club and Sharon’s father’s music stores. Sharon’s first paying job was at Dickman Farms, watering eight greenhouses, seeding plug trays, transplanting annuals and helping customers select annual flowers and vegetables. Dickman’s is now well-known regionally for its Garden Center and nationally as a Ball Seed supplier. Sharon didn’t enjoy her botany class in high school and pursued a Journalism degree instead. But she was always what she likes to call agriculturally-adjacent. Her first journalism job was as the sole editor of the Farm Forum, a weekly agricultural newspaper covering six counties in Central New York.
Throughout her journalism career, Sharon continuously wrote about agriculture, including a cover story and subsequent stories on Washington State’s apple, the Cosmic Crisp, for Seattle Business; growing purple potatoes, tulips, and mustard seed in Skagit County, WA, and how, using a new micropropagation method, Phytelligence found a way to significantly reduce growing cycles of apples, pears, hazelnuts, and raspberries.
Sharon’s husband and three now-adult children, loved making small batches of apple cider annually and growing fruit, flowers, vegetables and herbs. (A cherished potted Festiva Maxima made many of our moves and now grows happily in the peony field.)
Our traditions and desire to farm led my son, Tyler, to get a B.S. in Integrated Plant Sciences. He graduated with majors in landscape, nursery and greenhouse management, and fruit and vegetable management, and with minors in viticulture, horticulture and agriculture and food systems. He is responsible for farm management and assists in pest control, soil management and field design.
My daughters Kate and Anne share design, social media, technology, and public relations duties.
After finally securing property in 2018, we now grow soybeans and corn on the bulk of our land with help of our wonderful and very experienced partners. In 2023, we carved out a quarter acre to begin growing peonies. The field was expanded this year to add woodies and more flowers.