Drew Groezinger owns and manages Clara Joyce Flowers, which grows specialty cut flowers and dahlias for wholesale cut flower production as well as for tuber sales to other farmers, gardeners, and dahlia lovers nationwide. The farm’s cut flowers and foliage are sold to local wedding and event designers in the Chicago and Madison areas, shipped nation wide, and are used in their own wedding and event designs.

Lennie Larkin started B-Side Farm and Floral Design after falling head over heels for flowers. She came to farming and flowers from a background in adult education. Naturally, B-Side Farm has quickly become an educational farm where Lennie not only grows and designs with flowers, but teaches others how she’s doing what she’s doing. B-Side Farm workshops are designed to meet every student where they’re at and encourage them to dive a little deeper into the world of flowers – whether in the garden or design studio. The B-Side Blog is a growing resource for both of these arenas.

Lennie recently launched Flower Farming For Profit, an online educational portal for cut flower farmers and gardeners. There Lennie offers three main types of workshops: Live in-person workshops and retreats, live online courses (Zoom, with benefits), and live on-demand courses (lifetime access, purchase and watch anytime). While she’s taught on all subjects farming, flowers, floral design and weddings, she specializes in topics of efficiency and profitability (sustainability for the farmer!), sales strategy, bookkeeping, and business planning for the flower farmer. While everyone all loves flowers, the goal is to empower students to love the other sides of the business as well. In 2024, Lennie published Flower Farming for Profit, a distillation of her knowledge and expertise on these matters.

Sunny Meadows Flower Farm was established in 2006 by Steve and Gretel Adams. They both found a deep passion for farming and a strong drive to make their business the best it can be. Being first generation farmers, finding mentors to learn from has become an important part of how they’ve built Sunny Meadows. Once the farm began growing, Steve and Gretel immediately fell in love with spreading the joy of flowers. Starting by selling straight bunches of flowers (mainly sunflowers and zinnias), they soon started making bouquets, and that’s when the obsession with flower artistry really began. They realized they could create a botanical adventure by using what’s seasonally in bloom, making the weekly bouquets ever-changing. Sunny Meadows has multiple sales outlets, and focus as a business on both production and specialty crops.

Phil Mueller is the Sales and Marketing Director of Star Valley Flowers. With 165 acres in production and with Chicago as the primary transportation hub, Star Valley Flowers ships products as far west as Honolulu and as far east as Boston. They are the largest entirely field-grown cut flower producer in the Midwest – with no greenhouses, minimized fossil fuel use, and stringent soil conservation practices for the surrounding hilly terrain. Star Valley’s customer base includes floral wholesalers, retail grocers, garden centers, floral designers, landscapers, and event planners.

Sunny Meadows Flower Farm was established in 2006 by Steve and Gretel Adams. They both found a deep passion for farming and a strong drive to make their business the best it can be. Being first generation farmers, finding mentors to learn from has become an important part of how they’ve built Sunny Meadows. Once the farm began growing, Steve and Gretel immediately fell in love with spreading the joy of flowers. Starting by selling straight bunches of flowers (mainly sunflowers and zinnias), they soon started making bouquets, and that’s when the obsession with flower artistry really began. They realized they could create a botanical adventure by using what’s seasonally in bloom, making the weekly bouquets ever-changing. Sunny Meadows has multiple sales outlets, and focus as a business on both production and specialty crops.

Joe Schmitt is a 3rd generation grower whose grandparents left the Rhine Valley in 1906 to work in the first carnation greenhouse range in the U.S. They later had greenhouses of their own in Bayport, Long Island, at the time the heart of the largest flower growing region in the country, serving the New York, Boston, Philadelphia and Washington wholesale markets and beyond.

Joe’s parents, early converts to organic farming methods in the Fifties, relocated to Delaware where the family had five acres of field production, serving the same East Coast markets with annual cuts, focusing heavily on Celosia. Joe ended up in Wisconsin, gravitated to the CSA scene there, and spent 20 years growing several acres of flowers from 80,000 home grown plugs, and marketed through CSA shares, too many unavoidable weddings, and primarily by bucket runs to fifty or so retail shops. Retired since 2017, he now does any damn thing he wants, focused largely on growing veggies and flowers. And no weddings.

Dave Dowling owned a cut flower farm in Montgomery County, MD for 20 years.  With field, high tunnel, and greenhouse production, Farmhouse Flowers & Plants produced cut flowers year-round. Most of the flowers raised were sold at farmers markets, including two year-round markets in the Washington, DC area.   Flowers were also sold direct to retail florists and Whole Foods Markets. Working with two other farms, a marketing coop, Capital Flower Growers, LLC, was formed in 2013. 

Early in 2014, Dave closed his cut flower business and began working for Ednie Flower Bulb, which became a division of Fred C Gloeckner & Co. in 2016.   Gloeckner was acquired by Ball Seed in late 2020. Dave now keeps busy as part of the Ball ColorLink Sales Team and working behind the scenes with the Ball Seed Cut Flower Department.  His duties at Ball also include being an advisor to cut flower growers across North America with small to medium sized farms.  Dave has an online class produced by The Gardeners Workshop that teaches cut flower growers about Perennial, Bulb, and Woody cut flower crops.

Dave served as the Mid-Atlantic Regional Director of the Association of Specialty Cut Flower Growers from 2002 through 2004 and served as Conference chair for the 2005 Lancaster Conference.  Dave served as President from 2006 to 2009, and again from 2016 to 2018.  He was the ASCFG Industry Liaison from 2014-2015.  In 2009 the ASCFG named their scholarship the Dave Dowling Scholarship. Dave received the ASCFG Outstanding Service Award in 2018 in recognition of his many years of service to the organization.

Drew Groezinger owns and manages Clara Joyce Flowers, which grows specialty cut flowers and dahlias for wholesale cut flower production as well as for tuber sales to other farmers, gardeners, and dahlia lovers nationwide. The farm’s cut flowers and foliage are sold to local wedding and event designers in the Chicago and Madison areas, shipped nation wide, and are used in their own wedding and event designs.

Krynn Knepfel is the owner of Bloomchick Flower Company, a seasonally oriented floral business. She has a passion for tulips, unique speciality blooms, and beautiful naturally inspired event design. Krynn is a mad advocate for learning by doing and for all things tulip!

Maegan Williams has a way with plants that is truly inspiring. Having grown up in and managed Gilsum Gardens in Gilsum New Hampshire, she has learned and honed her skills and abilities to propagate, grow and deliver gorgeous floral product in an area with a very short growing season. Her experience within the horticulture world knows few bounds!

Drew Groezinger owns and manages Clara Joyce Flowers, which grows specialty cut flowers and dahlias for wholesale cut flower production as well as for tuber sales to other farmers, gardeners, and dahlia lovers nationwide. The farm’s cut flowers and foliage are sold to local wedding and event designers in the Chicago and Madison areas, shipped nation wide, and are used in their own wedding and event designs.

Amanda Cook is the co-founder and co-owner of Cook’s Market, an eclectic farm in Baldwin City, Kansas. She grows on 3 acres and under 2 poly-covered hoop houses. With over a decade of cut flower farming experience, Cook’s Market currently focuses on selling to florists through a collective and to retail customers at a local farmers’ market. Amanda is the current North & Central ASCFG Regional Director.

Rebecca M. Marrall is an education professional with over a decade of experience in online and face-to-face adult learning environments. With significant skills and experience in technical writing, information technology, user experience, project management, and adult education and instruction, she currently serves as the Education Director for the Association of Specialty Cut Flower Growers.

Krynn Knepfel is the owner of Bloomchick Flower Company, a seasonally oriented floral business. She has a passion for tulips, unique speciality blooms, and beautiful naturally inspired event design. Krynn is a mad advocate for learning by doing and for all things tulip!

Maegan Williams has a way with plants that is truly inspiring. Having grown up in and managed Gilsum Gardens in Gilsum New Hampshire, she has learned and honed her skills and abilities to propagate, grow and deliver gorgeous floral product in an area with a very short growing season. Her experience within the horticulture world knows few bounds!

Sunny Meadows Flower Farm was established in 2006 by Steve and Gretel Adams. They both found a deep passion for farming and a strong drive to make their business the best it can be. Being first generation farmers, finding mentors to learn from has become an important part of how they’ve built Sunny Meadows. Once the farm began growing, Steve and Gretel immediately fell in love with spreading the joy of flowers. Starting by selling straight bunches of flowers (mainly sunflowers and zinnias), they soon started making bouquets, and that’s when the obsession with flower artistry really began. They realized they could create a botanical adventure by using what’s seasonally in bloom, making the weekly bouquets ever-changing. Sunny Meadows has multiple sales outlets, and focus as a business on both production and specialty crops.

Dave Dowling owned a cut flower farm in Montgomery County, MD for 20 years.  With field, high tunnel, and greenhouse production, Farmhouse Flowers & Plants produced cut flowers year-round. Most of the flowers raised were sold at farmers markets, including two year-round markets in the Washington, DC area.   Flowers were also sold direct to retail florists and Whole Foods Markets. Working with two other farms, a marketing coop, Capital Flower Growers, LLC, was formed in 2013. 

Early in 2014, Dave closed his cut flower business and began working for Ednie Flower Bulb, which became a division of Fred C Gloeckner & Co. in 2016.   Gloeckner was acquired by Ball Seed in late 2020. Dave now keeps busy as part of the Ball ColorLink Sales Team and working behind the scenes with the Ball Seed Cut Flower Department.  His duties at Ball also include being an advisor to cut flower growers across North America with small to medium sized farms.  Dave has an online class produced by The Gardeners Workshop that teaches cut flower growers about Perennial, Bulb, and Woody cut flower crops.

Dave served as the Mid-Atlantic Regional Director of the Association of Specialty Cut Flower Growers from 2002 through 2004 and served as Conference chair for the 2005 Lancaster Conference.  Dave served as President from 2006 to 2009, and again from 2016 to 2018.  He was the ASCFG Industry Liaison from 2014-2015.  In 2009 the ASCFG named their scholarship the Dave Dowling Scholarship. Dave received the ASCFG Outstanding Service Award in 2018 in recognition of his many years of service to the organization.

Lennie Larkin started B-Side Farm and Floral Design after falling head over heels for flowers. She came to farming and flowers from a background in adult education. Naturally, B-Side Farm has quickly become an educational farm where Lennie not only grows and designs with flowers, but teaches others how she’s doing what she’s doing. B-Side Farm workshops are designed to meet every student where they’re at and encourage them to dive a little deeper into the world of flowers – whether in the garden or design studio. The B-Side Blog is a growing resource for both of these arenas.

Lennie recently launched Flower Farming For Profit, an online educational portal for cut flower farmers and gardeners. There Lennie offers three main types of workshops: Live in-person workshops and retreats, live online courses (Zoom, with benefits), and live on-demand courses (lifetime access, purchase and watch anytime). While she’s taught on all subjects farming, flowers, floral design and weddings, she specializes in topics of efficiency and profitability (sustainability for the farmer!), sales strategy, bookkeeping, and business planning for the flower farmer. While everyone all loves flowers, the goal is to empower students to love the other sides of the business as well. In 2024, Lennie published Flower Farming for Profit, a distillation of her knowledge and expertise on these matters.

Joe had 15 years of experience growing for east coast wholesale flower markets prior to relocating in Wisconsin, and spent twenty more years here growing and selling cut flowers and other ornamental material to regional retail flower shops. He is a retired third-generation cut flower grower who has provided educational workshops nationwide on specialty cut flower production, and is well known for the quality, variety, and uniqueness of his products.

Call to reserve at the following hotels and let them know you are with the ASCFG.

Country Inn & Suites by Radisson
200 Dillon Ave, Stockton, IL, 61085
(815) 947-6060
35 rooms
Cutoff date – Register by August 20
$89.75 double queens
$111.75 king
Sales contact: Sal (GM)

Country Inn & Suites by Radisson
1710 S Dirck Dr, Freeport, IL 61032
(815) 233-3300
20 rooms
Cutoff date – Register by August 1
$110 
Sales contact: Josh or Vicki (GM)

Hampton Inn Freeport
109 S. Galena Avenue
Freeport, Illinois, 61032
(815) 232-7100
20 rooms
Cutoff date – Register by July 26
$119
Sales contact: Kim or Sherry (GM)