Ontario flower farm keeps growing even among uncertainty

In March 2020, Janis Harris finally took the leap. After more than a decade of slowly building a flower-growing side business, she left her job as an optician to run the farm full time. Weeks later, the COVID-19 pandemic shut the world down.

Instead of the fresh start she had imagined, Harris found herself navigating cancelled events and markets, shifting demand and an uncertain future. The experience became an unexpected crash course in resilience, and one that continues to shape how she runs her farm today.

Harris and her husband, Mark, own Harris Flower Farm, a fresh-cut flower operation located north of St. Thomas, Ont. Together they grow more than 40 varieties of flowers, including bulbs, annuals, perennials and flowering branches. Today the farm supplies seasonal cut flowers for farmers markets, online customers, weddings and local events from mid-February through December.

“In the beginning we started small by planting 3,000 gladioli bulbs,” Harris says. “Over time, we’ve expanded to nearly eight acres of flowers, along with a series of heated and unheated greenhouses.”