in full bloom
8 Kitsap County flower farmers
Words by Jennifer Dorothy
Photo: Blomst Flower Farm
who grows your flowers?
HEALER’S HARVEST / POULSBO
Tears coursed down her cheeks as Alicia Houston watched a flower farming documentary while renovating her grandpa’s home in Poulsbo. At that moment, tender memories of being called “sweet pea” solidified her decision to start growing flowers. She had just moved from San Diego to care for her grandfather, a pioneer of the Bainbridge Island Farmers Market, where he sold his eggs, fruits, veggies and jams. Healer’s Harvest was her solution to caring for her grandpa while earning an income and working with him. “I found healing through growing flowers,” says Houston.
After moving to Kitsap during COVID-19, she felt alone. But now, laughter courses through the rows as she weeds shoulder-to-shoulder with a community of female flower farmers during her 30th birthday planting party. “It’s one way to make friends fast,” Houston chuckles.
Using her dahlias, cosmos and zinnias, Houston offers custom bouquets and centerpieces for weddings and special events. Sign up for her summer CSA subscription, purchase flowers at Byrdies Coffee in Poulsbo, or book the Bloom Bar—where she guides clients in building their own unique bouquets.
Vinnocki Farm’s Heather Carnocki (Photo: Jess Vallance)
PERESEPHONE FARM / INDIANOLA
As the sun sets and golden rays spread over her field, Rebecca Slattery widens her arms, proudly presenting an acre of carefully tended flower beds. “Offering flowers by the bucket allows my customers the joy, inspiration, and creativity of working with exceptional blooms and unique materials,” says Slattery of Persephone Farm. “I love the way their eyes light up when they come to pick up their buckets and see the generosity and diversity of blooms.” who grows your flowers?
Slattery has been growing flowers and vegetables full-time for close to 30 years. She loves her work and celebrates her place as a teacher and elder in the flower community. Her farm is known as “the CSA for flower lovers.” In the words of one of her members, “We came for the vegetables. We stay for the flowers.”
Alicia Houston tends to her blooms at Healer’s Harvest. (Photo: Olya Blase)
BLOMST FLOWER FARM / BAINBRIDGE ISLAND
Stina Tillotson is a one-woman operation who “coaxes” bulbs in her garage on Bainbridge Island and grows seasonal flowers, including peonies, sweet peas and dahlias, on family property in Poulsbo, where she grew up. The text updates from her 92-year-old grandma, who still lives there, are invaluable as her eyes and ears when Tillotson’s not on site.
“Flowers sustain people,” says Tillotson, who launched Blomst (Norwegian for flower) in 2020.
When discussing her winter tulip bouquets—available by subscription January through March—she says, “I do this to be connected to my community. I’ve made so many friends through my customers. There are a lot of beautiful pictures on my Instagram, but when I’m having a hard week, I share the nitty gritty, too. I want people to feel joy through my flowers, but I also want them to feel like they could do this too.”
Blomst flowers are available at Bainbridge Island Farmer’s Market, Tillotson’s island farm stand near Lynwood Center and pop-ups in Winslow, in partnership with the Hitchcock Restaurant Group. Catch Tillotson there or at her side-gig as a lead singer for Wurlipop—an eight-piece funk and soul band that performs locally.
Blomst Flower Farm in Poulsbo (Photo: Courtesy of Blomst Flower Farm)
ZACH AND ELI’S DAHLIAS / BAINBRIDGE ISLAND
This charming flower stand at the far end of Eagle Harbor is an island icon. Over the last 26 years, the Brewer family has grown a variety of vibrant dahlias for sale at Zach and Eli's flower stand and over 100 varieties of dahlia tubers and bulbs, which they ship nationwide. Brothers Zach and Eli started the roadside business as young boys to help pay for family vacations. Their father Dan now owns and operates the self-service stand, where customers often leave notes of gratitude. “Sometimes it’s an IOU. Sometimes it’s a mention of where someone is visiting from. And sometimes it’s a beautiful note of humanity,” Dan posted on Instagram. “We are so touched that our family business can bring light and joy to our community and beyond.”
Photo: Courtesy of Zach & Eli’s Dahlias
PETAL AND PITCHFORK FLOWERS / POULSBO
Stacy Marshall is a flower grower, floral designer and farmland preservation advocate. Her message: purchasing from local growers helps preserve precious, unprotected farmland in Kitsap County.
BAINBRIDGE ISLAND/SUYEMATSU FARMS
Karen Selvar remembers being nine years old, picking strawberries on the land she currently farms: Bainbridge Island/Suyematsu Farms. “Farmer Karen” eventually became the right hand to Akio Suyematsu, the island’s last Japanese-American farmer. Known for its u-pick raspberries and pumpkin patch, the farm is closely linked to the island’s past as a booming agricultural hub. Bring your friends to a Snip ‘n Sip Flower Party and create your own bouquet at one of the largest dahlia growers in the county. U-pick flowers are available Wednesday to Sunday, starting July 5.
WILLOW AND MABEL GARDEN CO. / POULSBO
“If you buy direct from a flower farmer, you’re supporting a crazy dream like mine,” says Carolyn Thompson. Everything Thompson grows at her farm, Willow and Mabel Garden Co., starts from seed. She supplies flowers to Town and Country Markets, creates wedding florals, runs a CSA flower subscription and hosts flower-arranging events on the farm.
Carolyn Thompson of Willow & Mabel Garden Co. (Photo: Jess Vallance)
VINNOCKI FARM / SEABECK
Heather Carnocki’s business motto is inspired by the phrase her old-school, Dutch flower mentor used to say with a twinkle in her eye: “Flowers remind us we are loved.” Whether it’s a dandelion picked for his mom by a little boy or one of Carnocki’s arrangements in an upscale vase, flowers are potent symbols of support. “Flowers,” she says wholeheartedly, “are a gift from the divine.”
In 2018, Carnocki made her first big flower purchase: 100 peony roots. The following year she bought 500 peony roots, soon to become her specialty. As she heads into her third year of full-time flower farming, Carnocki shifts from a long career as a Navy oceanographer to an endless fascination with the dynamics of owning a business and being part of a community of women flower farmers.
Carnocki hosts on-farm day retreats and workshops on plant medicine, flower arranging and yoga, among other topics. She offers full-service event floristry, floral centerpieces delivered in central Kitsap, as well as à la carte wedding pieces, bouquets and DIY buckets.
floral retreat
From an early age at her grandmother’s homestead in Anchorage, Danis Morgan was intuitively drawn to the sensual beauty of flowers—gathering wild blooms, roses, and crabapple branches into arrangements that reflected a deep, holistic reverence for nature and its power to nourish the senses. Morgan now brings those early experiences of Alaska’s raw, wild landscape to Sea Rose Studio, her fine art and landscape design business on Bainbridge Island. Flowers were her first medium as an artist and continue to inspire her work. “Without words, they speak in a language all their own, one of wild abandon and delight in life itself,” says Morgan, who offers seasonal artist retreats at her charming Winslow studio. Join her next retreat on June 7, 2025, to cut and arrange roses from her garden and enjoy a nature walk, poetry and outdoor summer apéro. / danismorgan.com
