(FREE) ‘Sown’ Is Reaping Rewards of Science, Passion and Hard Work
(FREE) ‘Sown’ Is Reaping Rewards of Science, Passion and Hard Work
Story by Carey Head | Staff Writer
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Anna Ballagh may be small in stature, but she is big in accomplishment. The Jet and Nash area native and Oklahoma Bible Academy graduate topped off her nine years at Oklahoma State with a PhD in plant and soil sciences. Now, Anna, 29, is growing into her chosen profession as a flower farmer.
Growing cut flowers as a crop is more than just taking a front yard flower garden and multiplying its size by an acre or two. To sell flowers for a living, one must plan, months earlier, for what the buyer wants. The un-fun part is the work it takes to have the flowers primed and ready to harvest when the buyer needs them.
Did we mention our Anna has a doctorate? Her love of agriculture and the science of farming is helping Anna earn the respect of florists and bouquet lovers across the area. She continues to focus on field trials and research as she carefully grows her business.
“My PhD allowed me to learn the scientific method and deductive reasoning to implement and partner with my husband on our farm,” Anna explains. “It’s very rewarding to put the skills I learned to use in our operation.”
A benefit to growing her cut flower crop lies in her location, 4051 E. Furguson Road, just south of Kildare. “I’m surrounded by crop fields and our neighbors have been exceptionally nice in supporting me.”
To fully appreciate this significance, it helps to understand farmers may use an herbicide, such as the popular glyphosate marketed as Round-Upã, to control plant pests on their crop fields. Unfortunately, glyphosate can drift onto unintended areas based upon wind direction. Spraying an herbicide could devastate her flower farm should the wind blow the volatile glyphosate her way.
“I’m just appreciative they are taking me into account and making decisions based off knowing there’s a sensitive crop growing nearby,” she says.
Anna’s husband, Brent, has a master’s degree in plant sciences. He also owns Progressive Agronomics, LLC, a soil sampling business. When not attending their wheat , soybean, corn and milo crops, Brent helps Anna with the cut flower crop. They are joined by his parents, a local friend and Anna’s mother in the flower crop care. Her sister Addie designed the Sown logo.
Anna describes harvesting the crop as a process that begins with cutting the stems during the coolest part of the day – often pre-dawn. The staff critically eyes each flower for hydration and development stage before choosing the best for that day’s harvest. Then the flowers are immediately put into a bucket of a special water solution to maintain the stem’s hydration. As buckets fill with flowers, they are rushed to the “cooler room” — a refrigerated space that prolongs the flower’s vigor. From there, the stems are re-cut, lower leaves are stripped, and the stems are placed into a second, sterilized bucket of chlorine solution. The addition of sugars and carbohydrates to the solution helps feed the flowers and prolong their beauty and performance. For final sale, stems are transported in a third bucket, also sterilized. “Buckets have to be super clean,” Anna says. “There’s lots of cleaning buckets involved.”
This year Anna is sowing 50 plant types for her flower farm crop. When choosing which flowers to grow, Anna relies on her experience conducting trials to earn her advanced degrees. Trial and error are how she determines which cut flower varieties to grow and which to table for another time.
“I have a lot of space, which is a blessing because I don’t have to be super picky with what I grow. It’s nice to have the space to be able to just play with it. Ask me in 10 years and I will have a much better way of answering and be more educated,” she laughs.
As for growing what her buyers want, Anna says, “Florists really like the long stems because it allows them to work with the flowers in a greater range of arrangements. Vase life is also important — longevity once cut. Different flowers all have different vase lives. I was kind of worried about that going into last year’s farmers markets, but people were telling me their bouquets were lasting all of two weeks, which is incredible.”
Anna includes a care card with every bouquet to help her customers enjoy their purchase longer. It describes the importance of using the provided flower food, changing the water, rinsing the vase, removing spent blooms and trimming stems with each fresh water change.
To reach her customers, Anna says, “I sell custom bouquets, market bouquets, ‘bucket of blooms,’ wholesale stems, ‘you-pick’ experiences, bouquet subscriptions, and different workshop events.”
She co-hosts events with The Harvest Hall, a downtown Ponca City venue. Anna explains, “it just opened last year as well, it is super cute. The owner, Derion Schieber, wanted to start doing girls night events and reached out to see if I would want to put on a bouquet workshop last summer. After that did well, I mentioned doing a wreath workshop and people loved it!!”
Both events sold out and plans are underway to repeat the workshops this year. Check the Facebook pages of Sown, facebook.com/sownbyanna, and Harvest Hall, facebook.com/theharvesthallpc, to stay on top of workshop dates.
She continues, “We will both post on our Facebook pages announcing dates so they can follow our pages to find out more! I would say the same for estimates on you-pick opening dates. It’ll depend on weather. We will start selling at the Ponca City Farmers Market in June. People can message my page or email me at anna@sownok.com to order a custom bouquet throughout the summer or ask any question. My website, sownok.com; Facebook and Instagram, @sownbyanna, are the best places to find info and follow along. I have an email newsletter I’m starting that people can sign up for on my website.
Farm-to-table is a trending business model. Anna’s Kay County-grown florals are putting a hand-tied twist on this. Instead of days spent in transportation from field to end user, Sown brings the beauty to buyers within hours of harvest . It doesn’t get any fresher than that.
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