Fawn Rueckert at her Farmers' Market stall
I have a fabulous and informative conversation for you today, with Fawn Rueckert of Sego Lily Flower Farm, based in Utah's Salt Lake Valley.
The emerging Utah flower farming community gathered at Poppin' Blossoms on September 7th. I'm so glad I met everyone! Fawn is seen second from the right.
I first met Fawn in person in September 2019 when I was in Salt Lake City for the annual GardenComm conference. I skipped out one day and rented a car to drive about 30 minutes south of the city to join a gathering of Utah flower growers. Laura Pittard of Poppin' Blossoms hosted the lovely luncheon and tour of her beautiful cut flower fields and you'll want to go back and listen to Episode 418 that we recorded prior to the event. There, I met Fawn and learned about her urban micro farm and focus on retail sales of her flowers through a CSA subscription and farmers' market outlets.
Students of last summer's popular cutting garden series take home bountiful buckets of flowers like this one
Fawn has been on my wish list to interview. She is vice president of the burgeoning Utah Cut Flower Farm Association and you'll hear an update about that amazing collection of inter-mountain west flower growers. As it turns out, at that same gathering in September 2019, I met Heather Griffiths of Wasatch Blooms, a colleague of Fawns through the Utah Cut Flower Farm Association. You can hear my interview with Heather in Episode 428 which aired in November 2019, along with an interview with Slow Flowers member Ali Harrison of Florage Utah.
Sego Lily Flower Farm, fenced to keep out the family dog!
There's a lot going on in this part of the country, an area that Fawn points out is only recently embracing local flower agriculture and sustainable design.
Making the most of a suburban backyard and a "Sister Farm" at the neighbor's
Fawn shares a lovely "about" essay on her website for Sego Lily Flower Farm, which talks about her childhood wonder of the plant world, and her gardening family roots. She picks up the narrative after moving from Southern California to Utah with her young family, writing:"We were finally able to purchase our first home, a duplex on a tiny unfinished lot. As we dove head first into landscaping, my childhood dreams were coming true, I finally had my own bit of earth to tend and plant. Only it wasn't enough, I needed more, so in 2013 we moved to a smaller home on a larger lot. Now with 4 sons in tow, we began designing and building my dream potager, complete with a cutting garden. It didn't take long to realize that it would be a lot more fun to share the bounty of our garden than keep it to ourselves, and we established Sego Lily Flower Farm in 2017. We focus on growing cut flower varieties that are unique, that wouldn't survive the rigors of shipping, are most beautiful when grown locally and grow them in a way that is safe for our family and yours."Sego Lily Flower Farm is situated in Salt Lake valley on Fawn's 1/3-acre suburban lot. We focus on sustainable growing practices, feeding the soil with organic material, and avoid the excessive use of herbicides and pesticides.
I'm excited for you to hear the rest of the story, including how Fawn is branching out into education and workshops. You will find photos of this talented farmer-florist and links to her social places in our show notes at debraprinzing.com for Episode 489. Let's get started.
Find and follow Fawn at these social places:
Sego Lily Flower Farm on Facebook
Sego Lily Flower Farm on Instagram
Each student has his or her own row at Snuck Farm, where Fawn teaches the "Backyard Cut Flower Garden Course"
Fawn's Backyard Cut Flower Garden Course at Snuck Farm
If you live in any of the inter-mountain states, Nevada, Idaho, Colorado and Wyoming check out the Utah Cut Flower Farm Association. As Fawn mentioned, there are people and resources for the entire region.