MEDFORD — When Beth Wismar started working for Fry Family Farm about 20 years ago, the ag operation was the only booth selling bouquets of flowers at Southern Oregon farmers markets.

“In the past five to 10 years, we’ve had so much more competition,” Wismar said, as she wrapped flowers destined for local grocery stores.

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But Wismar, the farm’s greenhouse manager, said it’s great to see more businesses dabbling in blooms.

Diversifying with flowers can boost small farms’ bottom lines, helping them blossom and survive, she added.

In bloom at the market

At the Ashland Tuesday Market on Aug. 13, several farms sold flowers along with fruits, vegetables and other products.

Steven Gidley, owner of Lakota’s Garden near Jacksonville, Ore., offered peaches and squash, but posies pushed profits.

Patrons purchased most of his bouquets and garlands, and the $250 from flowers was about 75% of his sales that day.

Gidley has been growing flowers for the 25 years he’s been farming, but he started focusing more heavily on them in the past five years or so.

“Since we’ve been doing this pretty consistently, people know and we have several repeat customers. … We usually have one of the more colorful booths,” Gidley said.

He estimated that flowers now encompass about 20% of his business.

Nora Kendall said Runnymede Farm, near Rogue River, tries to keep flower bouquets affordable at around $10.

“We sell a lot of them,” added Kendall, a Runnymede employee.

Siskiyou Seeds, an organic grower near Williams, offers seeds for about 250 varieties of flowers, said Wali Tipping, son of owner Don Tipping.

But the business’ booth also sold marigold garlands, dahlias and Australian everlasting flowers.

“I’ve probably pulled in $200 off of flowers today,” Tipping said.

That represented about a third of the booth’s sales — flowers alone justified coming to the Ashland Tuesday Market for Siskiyou Seeds, Tipping added.

A flowering cultural shift

Joan Thorndike runs Le Mera Gardens, which started 32 years ago as an independent wholesaler but merged with Fry Family Farm to become its flower section.

For Fry Family Farm, flowers are just another important aspect of diversification, another crop to sell to retailers, at the farm store — which has a kitchen to create value added products — and at farmers markets. Local weddings also are a critical component of flower sales.

Thorndike, a Chilean immigrant, said community members initially considered her strange because the U.S. didn’t have a strong fresh, seasonal flower culture.

“In Chile, we always have flowers around,” Thorndike said.

She wanted to make flowers a part of daily life in a region with an incredibly rich and long growing season.

That cultural shift has gradually occurred, Thorndike said, in large part due to local farmers markets and growers providing posies.

Thorndike is glad so many ag operators are growing flowers now in Southern Oregon.

“It means we have a larger audience,” she added, as she bundled up rose lilies.

Kyle Odegard is a reporter for the Capital Press.