HUSON — This time of year, Huson’s Field Five Flowers is blooming with business. With Mother’s Day on Sunday and customers across Montana, the vegetable-turned-flower operation is springing into busy season.
“We're moving somewhere around 10,000 flowers just this week,” said Tracy Potter-Fins, co-owner and manager of Field Five Flowers. “Mother's Day, I think, aside from Valentine's Day, is the biggest flower day of the year and Mother's Day for us means that we can have fresh flowers.”
Field Five Flowers began in 2020 as a small plot at County Rail Farm, a vegetable farm open since 2011. Since, the flower operation has blossomed far beyond the expectations of the couple behind it, Potter-Fins and her partner Bethany Stanberry.
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“Field Five Flowers actually started in field number 5 and it is now the whole farm and we love them,” Potter-Fins said. “They are beautiful. We can grow them during the winter, especially these tulips, and for really early spring sales, and they just bring a lot of joy and light to everyone around us and around them.”
They still grow vegetables, but the focus has shifted more to the flowers. The success has opened new opportunities for the farm. They offer U-pick flowers in the summer and photoshoots.
You can find the flowers themselves near and far, including at the end of their driveway in Huson, at farmer’s markers and restaurants in Missoula and at florists across the state.
“We work with the Western Montana Growers’ Co-op to distribute flowers statewide” Potter-Fins said. “we also flower for weddings throughout Montana. We design and use our own flowers, as well as buying flowers from other growers, for weddings and we do events, so funerals, parties, all kinds of things.”
They grow more than 100 different varieties of flowers, from tulips and daffodils to dahlias and roses. They are grown organically right at the Huson farm.
“There are tons of flowers that get shipped in internationally and nationally into Montana. We are one of just a few larger flower growers in the state of Montana,” Potter-Fins said. “They’re safe to the touch, they're safe to smell and that's really important to us.”
Buying local, Potter-Fins said, means fresher flowers for the customers.
“We really value that piece of growing flowers locally, because we don't have to use the preservation chemicals that are used when you're shipping internationally,” she said. “Moreover, our flowers are generally at a nicer stage of harvest for our florists and for our markets and they last longer, even though we're not using those chemicals. They last a lot longer in the vase than most of the flowers that you can buy at a supermarket.”
Tulips are Potter-Fins favorite flowers. This year, they have been growing since February. Despite handling about 1,000 every week, she is not sick of picking them, and there are still many flowers yet to bloom.
“I think tulips have a special place in my heart because of how long their season is and how we can grow them in the middle of winter, when nobody else has flowers, and we get to have fresh flowers in everybody's home,” she said. “We really appreciate the power of flowers.”
