Hedda Brorstrom, Full Bloom Flower Farm
Over the past decade, Sonoma County has experienced a bloom boom. Our region’s climate, soil, and extended growing season make it ideal for cut-flower farming, enhancing our agricultural diversity and nourishing our soul. Since founding Full Bloom Flower Farm in 2012, Hedda Brorstrom has become one of the county’s most influential flower farmers. Remarkable for her honesty and transparency about the challenges and joys of farming, Hedda has helped the public view—and value—local, regeneratively grown flowers as they do produce, meat, wine, and other crops. As she says, “You can feel and see the difference in the care and love in a well-grown, well-crafted bouquet.” In this Member Spotlight, we chat with Hedda about her formative years in Sonoma County and her path to coming home again, to bloom in full.
Full Bloom Flower Farm, 9516 Graton Road, Sebastopol; 3855 Roblar Road, Petaluma; fullbloomflower.com
Farm Trails member since 2017
How did you get interested in farming?
I grew up in Graton and was a free-range child with access to what is now Earthseed Farm and lots of acres of old orchards and wild spaces. I have always loved and communicated with plants. I now lease land and farm on the property I grew up on, which was Wiggle Worm Bait Farm when my parents purchased it in the 1980s. Just a half-mile outside the town of Graton, it is an ideal spot for soil growing and therefore flower farming and I am lucky to give my little farm my time. I studied landscape design and regenerative agriculture at UC Berkeley while the Slow Food movement was at its peak; it was an exciting and inspiring time. I eventfully made my way to the Farm and Garden program at UC Santa Cruz, where I learned to farm and grow flowers in a place where I could experiment with large crop yields. I was a garden teacher for years in San Francisco, working at the Academy of Sciences, Save the Bay, and many local schools, but at some point I knew I needed to farm while I could, and like a salmon, returned back to Sonoma County. When I started Full Bloom Flower Farm in 2013, I also was able to attend the wonderful School of California Herbal Studies. Plant mediation and reverence is something I have studied for years and informs how I run my business and life. I owe a lot to Occidental Arts and Ecology Center as well, having done some nursery work and many courses there.
What do you do?
I grow an acre of cut flowers with no-till farm practices. I focus on more high-end flowers like garden roses, dahlias, lisianthus, tulips, ranunculus, and anemones, but also have the full range of classic blooms like marigolds, celosia, amaranth, and zinnias. The emphasis is on unique flowers and color combinations and I design in an English Garden loose, organic style with an emphasis on diversity and lushness. I run two farm stands out of 9516 Graton Road and 3855 Roblar Road with a self-serve model as well as a summer and spring CSA with weekly bouquets for pickup. In the last 12 years, I have sold flowers every way possible. I do big weddings, small weddings, deliveries, wholesale to florists via the Sonoma Flower Hub, and grocery stores and custom workshops and events.
What do you find most rewarding about your work?
I have been farming flowers for 12 years and working with plants my entire life. Something is beautiful every single day and I am still learning. I love to nerd out on farming, design, and business skills so I’ve never once been bored at my job.
What do you value about being a member of Farm Trails?
I love being part of Farm Trails as a small, woman-owned business who grows what I sell and grows it with all organic practices. It’s lovely to be part of a larger grower community and to be seen by those who value crafted work. I helped to start the North Bay Flower Collective years ago and love making connections with other growers; it’s a lifeline and friendship base in my life.
What are your hopes for the future of your business and/or Sonoma County ag?
I’d love to keep doing what I am doing with my farm. Sounds simple, but it is always so easy. Cut flowers have become increasingly popular to grow, and prices haven’t moved to match the cost of growing them. I’d love to see both the farm stands able to move the majority of what we grow so we don’t have to sell in so many ways; direct to customer is best in my book. As far as larger ag in Sonoma County, well, I am a firm believer in no spray especially for vineyards. I find myself surrounded by spray and find it deeply depressing and disturbing to watch our community’s health be a risk for a few to profit. I feel the same about flowers; I’d love to see more florists locally buy all organic flowers as there is a huge difference between “local” and “regenerative and local” flowers. Their hands are a gateway to all sorts of chemicals and cancer rates are high among conventional florists using sprayed blooms, which nationally are outsourced from South America by nearly 80% of all cut flowers sales. You can feel and see the difference in the care and love in a well-grown, well-crafted bouquet. It shouldn’t be so hard to sell a fantastic product, but it is.
What advice would you share with someone starting out in your line of business?
First off, is it needed? If it is, then don’t be an island. Make friends with the people you admire. Don’t plant too much; start small. Design the pieces you wish to see in the world; don’t wait for someone to order what you think is gorgeous. I fail all the time, epic mistakes that cost thousands and I always get back out in the field and replace dead plants as quickly as possible. Always seed something!
Photos by Lisa Rose, The Farmers Photographer.