Roots Cut Flower Farm

fresh cut flower farm that sits on the southern edge of Carlisle, Roots is an enterprise in balance. Aesthetically that means the balance of blooms to greens in the farm's best selling one of a kind bouquets. Philosophically that means the balance between a gardener's approach to sustainable, seasonal farming and growing enough stock to meet increasing demand. And, practically, that means striking the most delicate of balances between running a family business and having quality family time.

Owner, operator and farmer Michelle Elston, who was raised in Cumberland county by “gardening parents” and went on to Cornell University to earn a horticulture degree, used to grow flowers and run a garden center with a dozen employees under her management in Amherst, Massachusetts, with her landscaper husband, Mike. “That business was a good one, but it was a constant one,” said Elston. She wasn’t convinced that kind of constancy was conducive to raising a young family.

In 2007, the couple moved to Carlisle with their young son Jake in tow to be nearer family and the support that encompasses. They’ve since added Lucy to their brood and the kids help Mom out (when they’re not taking frequent snack breaks) in the rows of perennial flower beds that span the three acres around the family’s home on Church Road. Even 2-year-old Lucy understands the deeper meaning behind her mother’s gentle command to “only walk on the woodchips” as to protect the flowers in the beds from unintended trampling. Elston also leases an acre of land from a farmer on Walnut Bottom Road where she plants and harvests long rows of annuals.

On this cut flower farm around her home, Elston grows over 50 varieties of flowers that bloom at staggered points, with some of her major crops including sunflowers, celosia, snapdragons, dahlias, lilies and larkspur. From June through early November (with peak running August and September), Elston and Lucy sell their bouquets on Wednesdays at FOTs. Their flowers are also available daily through local flower shops including Garden Bouquet (Mechanicsburg), Garden Path (Harrisburg), Pealers (Carlisle) and Whimsical Poppy (Mount Holly Springs). Elston also sells her bouquets at Saylors in Newville and provides cut flowers for event and weddings by special order and extends her selling season into the holidays with fresh greens and holiday wreaths – both green ones and twig ones containing curly willow and blueberry.

If you ask her why she chose to farm flowers, Elston admittedly goes all cheesy on you. “I really feel I have a gift of identifying and appreciating natural beauty. I love sharing this with people,” says Elston. “When people bring little bits of nature into their homes, it changes perspectives and gives us an appreciation for our beautiful planet.”

Elston also identifies with the perishable nature of cut flowers. “It is part of it being alive; we have to change with it. It also forces us to keep things fresh, literally.”