At FLORA, we care about
People, Nature, and Beauty,
and we think maybe you do too.
Our Mission is to grow and design flowers that delight our customers and neighbors and offer a local, sustainable alternative to the conventional floral industry.
It's about People.
Urban farms foster community. While working at our little flower farm spot on Grady Avenue we have the pleasure of connecting with so many people as they walk by: long-time residents, UVA students, professors, and visitors. Their kind words make the hard work worthwhile and our hope is to add something positive to our community through FLORA.
​We have tremendous gratitude for the people who help us make this happen: the landowner who allows us to farm his unused lots, our friends who share their composted horse manure and plant divisions, and our especially our customers!
It's about Nature.
75-80% of cut flowers in the US come from abroad, mostly grown using practices that are harmful to land and people, flown here (yes, airplanes), transferred to refrigerated trucks to go to refrigerated coolers in warehouses and stores where they wait to be purchased. Many go unsold and end up in landfills...that huge carbon footprint wasted.
There is a better way.
​Our farm is a tiny network of 3 unused city lots and our backyard.
Our focus is on quality over quantity. ​
Our sustainability practices include:
Adding tons of local compost to our low-till beds
Planting drought-tolerant species including many natives
Using low-impact drip irrigation
Companion planting
Cover cropping
Incorporating plants that attract beneficial insects and deter pests
Using reusable floral mechanics in our design work instead of
floral foam (a single-use block of microplastics)
Using upcycled (often vintage) vessels that further decrease our carbon
footprint and make our designs compelling
It's about Beauty.
We think you'll find that you can’t get beauty like this at a big box store or florist. Our flowers are super fresh and they reflect the unique FLORA here in Charlottesville season by season.
We relish the fact that the beauty we grow and design might light up someone’s face, brighten their hospital room, or be enjoyed for years to come in photographs of a special occasion.
Everyone needs beauty and everyone deserves beauty. We leave our unsold bouquets out for free, hoping to spread a little beauty to those who are not able to purchase them
In grade school, my friends and I had a club where we would go around the neighborhood and "prune" (ok, steal) one or two flowers from each house and then use them for projects in the woods.
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Years later, after studying architecture at UVA, I worked at Habitat for Humanity of Greater Charlottesville and was hooked on design, building, and this community. For many years thereafter I worked on design-build projects but I always had at least a small garden that served as a reprieve from the sawdust and nail guns.
Experimenting with floral design revealed an overlap from my other design training: scale, form, texture, color, and movement. I adored the ephemeral, circular nature of it (going from vision to manifestation to compost in a matter of weeks compared to the lengthy process of building design).
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In 2023 I made and sold holiday wreaths and winter florals. I adored the work and dreamed of a way to do it more regularly. I spent the winter researching urban flower farms, poring over bulb, seed, and dahlia catalogs, approaching neighbors about growing on their unused lots, and installing no-till beds with local compost.
FLORA was born. I hope you will join us as we grow!
Hi! I'm Hope.
