ASCFG 2022 Election Ballot
Every election is determined by the people who show up.
This year, all members will have the opportunity to vote for ASCFG Secretary and Treasurer; and those in the Northeast, Mid-Atlantic, Southeast, and Canada Regions will elect new Regional Directors.
All positions will serve 2023, 2024, and 2025. Please review this information, and take just a few minutes to cast your vote now.
Your participation is vital!
Thank you for showing up.
Please vote by September 10
Secretary (2023, 2024, 2025)
Hillary Alger, Johnny’s Selected Seeds, Albion, Maine
As the flower product manager at Johnny’s Selected Seeds for the past ten years, and a lifelong flower enthusiast I have enjoyed many years of membership in the ASCFG. My respect and admiration for the work and collaborative spirit of the ASCFG community is the core of my interest in serving on the board. I would value the opportunity give back by supporting and engaging more deeply with the organization and community of growers.
Linda Chapman, Harvest Moon Farm, Spencer, Indiana
I’m a veteran flower farmer and ASCFG member—almost 36 years as a grower and 25+ years as an ASCFG member. I consider myself so fortunate to have found a vocation and a professional organization that I have enjoyed and loved for so long. This flower-growing “thing” just clicks for some of us and enriches our lives in so many untold ways. Yes, I wanted to pay my bills, but didn’t realize at first how that goal would mean I got to live in an ecological paradise that showcased so much daily beauty. I didn’t realize that I would meet and come to love so many wonderful people as employees, market friends, and business customers or that my children would grow up with strong work ethics—the list goes on and on. We are a very lucky bunch of people, even though we have to work so hard for all the benefits of our trade.
So, I’m downsizing my operation as I move towards my fourth working decade. I’m looking ahead at having more time than in previous decades. Consequently, I’d like to contribute more directly to the ASCFG and become more familiar with the “guts” of the organization: see how it works, help it work—kind of like running a farm!
I’ve had the pleasure of being involved in the Mentor Program for the past four years. Currently I’m working with my second Mentee, though I have guided quite a few “wannabe” flower farmers over the years outside of the ASCFG program. It’s been a very satisfying aspect to my career and I anticipate I’ll continue doing it for quite some time.
I’m running for Secretary. I’ve never been a secretary on a board before. Though I run a “mighty” little farm that’s well regarded in my locale, I don’t rock at social media so I expect I’m not known by many of you. Regardless, I hope you’ll elect me to this position. I’m willing to give it my best shot and contribute as much as I can to the board.
Gretchen Langston, Blooms, Laporte, Colorado
Hello! I am Gretchen, the owner of Blooms. We are a flower farm in our fifth proper year of operation in northern Colorado. Our farm is passionate about the local flower movement and we believe firmly that progress begins by building a community of people who can work together to propel their industry. We are very involved at the local level in Colorado and love every minute of it!
I would be honored to be of service as the Secretary for the ASCFG at the national level. I have almost 30 years of hands-on and executive-level business experience that has required me to be incredibly diligent in listening, participating, recording, structuring, and communicating information in a manner that supports and drives groups toward success. I have been both a participant and leader in working groups and task forces that drive change and implement new initiatives. I believe I could add great value in the position of Secretary because I have extensive experience in organizing teams, facilitating productive working sessions, memorializing information and constructing written plans that interpret and propel the intention of the group. I am excited and eager to contribute and feel the role of Secretary would be a perfect way!
Treasurer (2023, 2024, 2025)
Michelle Elston, Roots Cut Flower Farm, Carlisle, Pennsylvania
As the current Mid-Atlantic Regional Director, I am thoroughly enjoying my time on the Board, and would be honored to serve as Treasurer.
My farm, Roots, was started in 2007, when we moved to central Pennsylvania to return to my family and raise our kids near their roots. The farm has grown beyond my wildest imagination, and we now have a crew of 16 and sell 25,000 supermarket bouquets each season.
I do the bookkeeping for both my farm and my husband’s landscape business. I love numbers nearly as much as I love flowers, and while I have no formal finance background, I did work for my accountant for two winters because he liked the way I turned in my tax packet! Everything I know about flower farming, I learned from the ASCFG and its members. It would be true joy to continue serving this group that I love and regard so highly.
Northeast Regional Director (2023, 2024, 2025)
Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont
Jenny Marks, Trademarks Flower Farm, Clifton Springs, New York
I’m the owner of Trademarks Flower Farm, located in the beautiful Finger Lakes region of central New York State. Our farm intensively grows flowers on about 1.5 acres for a 100+ member CSA, a thriving farmers’ market, and direct-to-florist sales. We focus on growing high-value crops in the field and in our four high tunnels.
Being a part of the ASCFG is one of the most wonderful experiences I’ve had as a lifelong farmer. I have always been deeply passionate about personal growth and continuing education, which makes the ASCFG a perfect group to be a part of. I am interested in serving as Northeast Regional Director because I have found that connecting with and learning from other growers has been one of the most valuable assets to my business (and to my soul!). I believe that learning from others is one of the biggest reasons my business has been so successful.
I’d love to help create additional opportunities to connect growers with one another to foster positive relationships, and learn from each other’s unique experiences, in addition to making education more available both in person and online. I would be honored to give back to this incredible organization that has helped me so much by contributing as Northeast Regional Director. Thank you!
Dave Rubino, Plumb Farms Flowers, Prospect, Connecticut
It would be my honor to serve as Northeast Regional Director of the ASCFG.
I have a long background in Horticulture. I obtained a BS in Horticulture from Penn State, a MS from North Carolina State and a PhD from the University of Minnesota. I was a Research Geneticist at the USDA Florist and Nursery Crops Laboratory for four years before I moved to Connecticut to open Plumb Farms Flowers with my husband in 1993.
For nearly 30 years, we have been growing and selling flowers at our retail flower shop. Shortly after we opened, I heard about the ASCFG, an organization formed to support cut flower growers like myself. When I joined, what a change that made in my outlook for our business; a group of diverse flower farmers with the objective of producing and promoting quality, locally-grown cut flowers.
I have been a longtime member of the ASCFG and, in recent years, I have mentored two new flower growers through the ASCFG Mentorship Program. I have also served as a grant evaluator for the ASCFG Research Foundation.
I have gained much knowledge and support from the ASCFG over the years. I would be thrilled to be able to contribute to this organization as Northeast Regional Director.
Mid-Atlantic Regional Director (2023, 2024, 2025)
Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia
Dave Delbo, Dave’s Flowers, Catawissa, Pennsylvania
Dave’s Flowers began in 1981 when we started selling gladiolus on a table along the state highway we lived on in the small town of Elysburg, Pennsylvania. In the forty-plus years since then, we have grown a wide selection of successful cut flower crops and almost just as many failures. We have sold at farmers’ markets, sold to florists, and even done a few weddings over the years. We grow on about 3-4 acres of land now, down slightly from our peak of 5 acres, along with our greenhouses and high tunnel.
I joined the ASCFG back in 2005 and have been a member since, participating in many years of the Seed Trials, and attending a few conferences over the years. I am now in a position in my life where I can become a part of the ASCFG board, and am running for the Mid-Atlantic Regional Director to help the ASCFG continue to grow for years to come.
Crystal Giesey, Masterpiece Flower Farm, Parsonsburg, Maryland
I’ve operated Masterpiece Flower Farm on the Eastern Shore of Maryland for the past seven years. I grow high-end cut flowers and berries with organic practices and our farm is Certified Naturally Grown. I am passionate about season extension and crop specialization. I hope that with an opportunity to be Regional Director of the Mid-Atlantic Region that I can put myself forward to help our area growers—new and seasoned—with navigating a new and ever-changing season of our industry.
Southeast Regional Director (2023, 2024, 2025)
Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee
Niki Irving, Flourish Flower Farm, Asheville, North Carolina
I would be honored to join the ASCFG Board to support the larger flower-growing community, and the Southeastern Region specifically, and wholeheartedly believe in the ASCGF’s mission. As a member, I have gained invaluable knowledge, access to resources and have made meaningful friendships with other growers. With the interest in cut flower production growing rapidly, I would love to connect with and support other members during this time of expansion. I am passionate about making positive connections and in promoting education, and I would love the opportunity to continue to learn from other members and share what I learn. Farming and owning a small business can be a lonely endeavor at times, especially since we tend to have our heads down in our own patches of soil, so fostering and serving the ASCFG community would be a privilege. Part of my own business’s mission is to share beauty and caring for others through flowers, and it serving as an ASCFG Board member would be a wonderful way to continue to share the beauty and deep meaning of flowers.
I am a lifelong learner and will bring that mindset, combined with my professional experiences, to the ASCFG Board. As the daughter of a tree farmer and landscaper in South Carolina, plants were always an important part of my life and our family’s livelihood. After college, I apprenticed on an organic vegetable farm in Georgia and fell in love with farming. However, I went on to have a 10+ year career in outdoor, environmental and traditional education. I am so grateful for the 10+ years of experience in business management because all of those skills have directly translated to running my own successful small farm business.
In the 7 years I have operated Flourish Flower Farm, I have hosted hundreds of flower-enthusiasts on our farm for workshops, taught private classes for farming and floral design, and now teach online classes on niche topics such as succession planting for bouquet-making. I started a blog as a way to document my own flower-growing journey, which led to publishing a best-selling book in 2021 called Growing Flowers: Everything You Need to Know About Planting, Tending, Harvesting and Arranging Beautiful Blooms. I am just as passionate about running a sustainable, profitable business as I am about farming – and hope to teach and inspire others to do the same – so that we can all continue to grow beautiful flowers to share with others for many years to come.
Cathy Jones, Perry-winkle Farm, Chapel Hill, North Carolina
My husband, Mike Perry, and I started Perry-winkle Farm in 1991. As first-generation farmers, we began the process of converting worn-out crop land into a sustainable farm operation with little more than a few hand tools, a walk-behind tiller, and subscriptions to Organic Gardening and New Farm magazines. We sought advice from local growers and started attending regional/national conferences to broaden our “education,” and Perry-winkle Farm became one of the first “certified organic” farms in our county.
Our first serious step into cut flowers started when I attended the 1995 ASCFG Growers’ School in Baltimore, Maryland. Our 25+ years of membership in ASCFG has contributed greatly to the success we have enjoyed as cut flower growers. We value not only the resources the organization provides but also our relationships with cut flower growers across the country.
After years of serving on the board of directors of Southern Sustainable Agricultural Working Group (SSAWG) and Toxic Free NC, I am hoping to support the work of the ASCFG in a similar capacity. With over thirty years of experience growing crops organically, I am particularly interested in including organic/biological/sustainable growing practices in the ASCFG’s workshops and farm tours. I want to ensure that the organization continues to serve the needs of its more experienced members even as membership rolls greatly expand with newer growers.
d continuing the focus on research and education will be more important than ever, and I would be honored to serve the flower growing community by carrying on this important work.
Canada Regional Director (2023, 2024, 2025)
All provinces
Cathy Bartolic, Perennial Petals, Stouffville, Ontario
I started Perennial Petals Flower Farm a few decades ago when I worked for a seed company that encouraged its employees to trial their seeds. I seemed to be drawn to the flower seeds and was soon growing as many as I could. At that time, I had never heard of a flower farmer or knew anyone making a full-time living growing flowers.
I continued this passion on a part-time basis until April 2021 when I finally made the leap to full-time flower farming. We sell our blooms at a local farmers’ market, through bouquet subscriptions, to florists, and wholesale to on-farm markets. One of my goals this year is to develop some agri-tourism activities on our farm.
Associations can have a huge impact on their members’ lives and businesses. Joining the ASCFG in 2013 was a game changer for me. Just knowing that there were other flower farmers out there struggling with similar issues was immensely comforting. Not to mention the conferences and libraries of educational material that suddenly became available to me. I now have many flower farmer friends all across North America and look forward to serving them on the ASCFG Board.
Education, networking, and the promotion of locally-grown flowers are important to me. I have a wealth of knowledge and experiences that have been accumulated from past professions, and I would be honoured to serve as the Canadian Regional Director and give back to a community that has given me so much.
Sarah Kistner, Stone Meadow Gardens, Granville Ferry, Nova Scotia
My husband and I started Stone Meadow Gardens in 2015, but my flower farming adventure truly began over 20 years ago when I took a job helping caretake a farm for a year. I dove in headfirst and before I knew it, that one year had blossomed into five and I never looked back! Life has taken me in many directions, but since then farming and flowers have been a constant and meaningful part of my life.
For the last 7 years we cultivated 2.5 acres near Nelson, BC, of mixed perennials and annuals with a strong focus on dahlias, for both fresh cuts and tuber sales. We became well known for our bouquets which we sold direct to consumers through our busy farm stand, local grocery stores, and a bouquet subscription which we grew from 10 customers to over well over 200. But last summer, after another season of record-breaking heat and unbearable smoke, we made a huge decision to sell the farm and move across the country to make a new home in Nova Scotia. This season we are focusing on continuing our dahlia production while we build our new farm and learn about the climate and market. While we do this, we are allowing ourselves the time and space to reimagine our business and build it with a new set of guiding principles and goals for the future.
Throughout our journey, the ASCFG has been an invaluable educational resource for growing our business, and I would be honored to have the opportunity to serve as the Canada Regional Director. Moving across the country, I’ve had the opportunity to make connections with growers all over Canada, and I understand the unique set of challenges we face here. I believe my background and experience would bring a unique perspective to the board, and I would be proud to represent farmers from all cross the country and make sure that our voices and issues specific to Canada are heard.
As a member of the board I would encourage the Association to help the flower community prepare for the future by learning how we can build our businesses and farms to be more resilient in the face of our changing climate and economic uncertainty. Connecting with other growers, strengthening our relationships, and continuing the focus on research and education will be more important than ever, and I would be honored to serve the flower growing community by carrying on this important work.