Flower farms sow seeds of connection
Flowers have always marked the moments that matter most: weddings, memorials, birthdays and everything in between. Across Arkansas, flower farmers are doing more than growing blooms. They are strengthening communities, practicing sustainability and fostering connections to nature. Arkansas growers are reshaping how local communities access and engage with flowers.
Rooted here
Kayla Crow, an Arkansas native, began dreaming of creating an oasis after stepping away from her career as a nurse practitioner in the wake of the pandemic. Crow and her husband, Kevin, wanted to use their land for the community and finally had the time to envision just how to do that. Crow enjoyed the peace that gardening brought her and began researching possible crops. She landed on a gap in the local market: flowers. With many flowers imported from other countries, Crow wanted Mount Olive Farms in Gravette to offer a more sustainable alternative. “And who doesn’t want to play in the flowers all day?” Crow jokes.
Mount Olive grows hundreds of varieties of cut flowers, everything from tulips to chrysanthemums. The business wholesales flowers for weddings and special occasions. To engage with the local community, they host seasonal workshops including evergreen wreath making, backyard cutting (which teaches attendees how to create their own do‑it‑yourself flower gardens), flower crown creating and cocktail mixing. They also grow edible flowers for local restaurants, adding a fun garnish to the growing culinary scene in northwest Arkansas.
Mount Olive Farms is a Certified Naturally Grown (CNG) farm. The certification ensures that the farm is sustainable and uses chemical-free practices that protect ecosystems, animals and soil health. “We want people to feel safe smelling our flowers and sticking their faces in them,” Crow shares. Mount Olive Farms values the ability to support community by “following people through their celebrations and to be a part of people’s occasions in a small way.”
Petals for the people
Founded in 2017, Bell Urban Farm, located in Conway, has quickly become a cornerstone of the local agricultural scene. Owners Kim Doughty-McCannon, and her husband, Zach McCannon, started out with vegetables and cut flowers, later transitioning to focus more on flowers after noticing the need in the local market. For the 2026 spring season, Bell Urban harvested 8,000 tulips.
What’s even more impressive, their farm is under an acre, located smack dab in the middle of Conway. Bell Urban Farm grows 15 to 20 varieties of flowers for their bouquets, supplementing what they do not grow with flowers from other local farmers. Like Mount Olive Farms to the north, Bell Urban is a CNG farm. They are also Homegrown by Heroes Certified, thanks to Zach’s service in the National Guard. “We wanted to focus on flowers because we can really produce a lot in a small footprint,” Kim shares.
In 2020, Bell Urban Farm opened their version of a seven-days-a-week farmers market, the Farm Stand. They sell products from over 100 Arkansas farmers, including eggs, bread, vegetables and meat. Bell Urban Farm and the Farm Stand offer the community access to fresh, local produce they would otherwise have to travel to more rural areas to acquire or outsource. “It is so important to support your local farmers. Being connected to who is growing your food and how is so fulfilling,” Kim explains. Bell Urban’s investment in the community is a key example of how Arkansas flower farmers are conducting business — because they live in the communities they serve.
Still in bloom
Twenty-one years ago, Jill Forrester asked for a flower plot for her birthday and her husband, Keith, delivered with a quarter acre of zinnias and sunflowers. Teachers by trade, the Forresters entered the flower world after a neighbor, facing drought, offered them his farmers market booth. After an astoundingly successful day, Keith decided to return to his roots as a fourth generation farmer, and pursue specialty crop farming full time, with Jill joining him full time two years later.
The Forresters used the land that Keith inherited from his parents: 200 acres in Whitton — Jill clarifies that despite their Tyronza address, they live in Whitton. Previously pasture land, Whitton Farms evolved to something more colorful: 5 acres of flowers and 35 acres of a variety of vegetables and fruits. Whitton Farms uses high tunnels to cultivate thousands of chemical-free blooms, including delphinium, snapdragons and Iceland poppies. Other gardens on the property grow more than 3,000 peonies as well as over 200 hydrangeas.
“Sometimes, nature teaches us very tough lessons, but sometimes, everything clicks together and it’s magical,” Jill says.
Whitton Farms has spent two decades proving something that younger Arkansas growers are now building on: local flowers are always worth the effort.
A flowering devotion
Sacred Hollow in Lowell is owned by Sydney Sloan and her husband, Caleb Schoeppe. Originally from Oklahoma, in 2018, Sloan moved to Arkansas, where she met Schoeppe. They later bought the 5-acre farm that would grow into Sacred Hollow. The idea came to them following COVID-19 lockdown, to use their land to contribute to their community, to offer a space for people to come unwind and heal.
The farm is just the place for people to do so. “We have had people show up that didn’t want to be here, like their spouse dragged them along or something, but by the time they left, they were all smiling and laughing, having a good time.” Sloan jokes, “You just don’t see anybody mad when they are picking berries or flowers.”
Sacred Hollow Farm was created to be a place where people could see how things grow and live in natural habitats. The farm is a Certified Wildlife Habitat and Monarch Waystation, making it a place where everyone (and every critter) is welcome. The farm focuses on native plants and wildflowers, as well as traditional summer flowers like zinnias and cosmos.
Sacred Hollow offers a variety of experiences to enjoy their flowers. Customers can hang out in nature and pick their own flowers. The farm also offers coveted date-night events, complete with a mobile bartender, live music and flower picking. Customers can even catch a yoga or a sound bath healing session at Sacred Hollow Farm. Sloan states that she knew they were doing something right once a community member referred to the farm as a “love note to the community.”
Arkansas in bloom
Each of these farms began with a piece of land and a belief that they could offer something meaningful. And each of them found the same thing — land, tended with care and offered to a community, becomes something more than a business.
Flowers mark the milestones, heal the hard days and root people to the place they call home. In Arkansas, the flowers are local, and so is everything that makes them matter.