The Seedlings Flower Farm

Flowers have the power to inspire and be part of our life stories. Laura Deck, founder of The Seedlings Flower Farm in Bloomington, turned to flowers at a significant point in her life, prompting the start of a thriving flower business. “I had three babies in 20 months and, as many new mothers do, was feeling lost and unsure of my identity,” Laura recalls. Along with husband Logan, toddler daughter and the one-year old twins, Laura was living on the family farm where Logan had planted 5,000 sunflowers on a patch of land. Spending a moment by herself on the hillside with the sunflowers, Laura realized she felt at peace and was happiest when surrounded by flowers. She ran to her husband to share “I think we will be flower farmers!”

This inspiration was a new way of looking at agriculture for the land that had been in the family for several generations with a focus on row crops and animals. “I threw things into a bit of a tailspin with the flower idea,” Laura recalls. Yet determination is something that also has been part of the family farm fabric. “Logan’s grandmother, Anna Deck, was ahead of her time, keeping the farm going and milking the cows on her own for a decade after his grandfather died.”

Laura, who was a 10 year 4-Her in Monroe County, literally “dug in” and got to work planting flowers in beds around the house. She would dig out weeds at night by the light of a headlamp and characterizes those initial years as “surviving and thriving in flowers.” Laura had left her job as a special education teacher, and while Logan remains a fireman and runs a diesel mechanic business, the flower business concept bloomed.

Inside the house, Laura had vases filled with flowers, experimenting with which blooms lasted the longest, and outside she was figuring out weed prevention and other nuances of flower raising. “I was self-taught, as growing up I was showing cattle, sheep and hogs – not things that grew it the ground,” she says. “It has been an adventure!”

Going to her first farmers’ market brought surprising success as customers were delighted by her zinnias, cosmos and sunflowers. The flower business took off, growing by word of mouth and exposure at the farmers markets. “I really didn’t plan to become a florist, yet people kept asking me to do the flowers for their weddings,” Laura says, noting she would reply with “but I’m a farmer.” Her love of people and helping create special moments led her to say “yes” and she now provides and arranges the flowers for as many as 40 weddings a year.

The care Laura gives to flowers is only second to her caring for people. “We are people first, flowers second,” she says. “We have an awesome product and we want to know about you and what flowers represent as part of your event. When you walk into the space, we want it to feel like you.”

As the flower business grew, so did ideas for how to expand its reach. In 2019, Laura was following an Alabama farm on social media that had a flower truck. A series of events, including her mom getting her a shirt from the exact farm she admired, led the Decks to know they should keep looking for the right truck. The perfect 1965 Chevy came up for sale locally, and the farm had a mobile business. The truck, which can be filled with as many as 150 bouquets, is perfect for events including many at nearby Indiana University (IU). For smaller events, Laura has added the “Flower Bike” which holds blooms ready for a bridal shower or birthday party.

With the many facets of the business now, Laura now has a year-round assistant, Jessica Lowry, to help with the scheduling and paperwork. She also has a group of people she calls on for events, friends with flexible schedules who don’t need steady hours but can jump in for the big event weekends. While there isn’t time now for the farmer’s markets with so many pre-booked events, Laura reaches individual customers with year-round flower subscriptions.

With the business booming and flowers everywhere, the Decks wanted a little separation from work and home, so moved to a house five minutes away from the farm. With the house being there on farm, they realized it could add to the income stream as an Air B&B. “We love showing people what country life is like, from the blooming flowers to the mini pony to the quiet at night,” Laura says. IU’s many events from graduations to parents’ weekends provide a steady stream of customers.

Always the educator, Laura uses the farm to teach classes in the summer and provide teachable moments for her own children. “The kids know how to identify plants, and they learned their colors by looking at the blooms and how to count by putting ten stems in a bouquet,” she says. Evelyn is now 11 and twins Annie and Abe are nine. “They love living on the farm with all of our spunky little animals and the beautiful blooms that we grow. They help me plant, harvest, and arrange all summer long.”

The family’s U-Pick field is open July to September from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. “It is a special way that the community can come enjoy the field and pick their own flowers,” Laura says. “We love having people come visit the farm.”

The land is the foundation of every aspect of The Seedlings Flower Farm, and the Decks are focused on enriching the soil. “You are only as good as your soil, so we do things like composting leaves into mulch and using red clover as a cover crop, plus we’re always trying new practices to create an environment that is beneficial,” she says. These practices and effort earned the family the Emerging Conservations of the Year from the local Soil and Water Conservation District.

The initial flower fields that inspired Laura have helped the Decks continue the family farm with their own touch. “We are so blessed with this life, and always wanted the kids to experience ag,” Laura says. “Yes it is a business - but is a wonderful way of life,” she says. “We always want to make the farm better and be a blessing to our community.”