Sacramento flower farmers produce bright bouquets with locally grown plants.

When in 2017 she decided to revamp her backyard with some newly purchased dahlia tubers, an unshakeable thrill washed over Amanda Kitaura. The gorgeous pink and purple flowers she painted her backyard with became so alluring, she never wanted to go back inside. “I wanted to be out there all the time,” says Kitaura. “I wanted to eat with them. I’d sleep with them if I could.”

So she quit her job as a speech therapist to grow flowers full time. Now with a crop of thousands of flowers across multiple locations and dozens of customers, Kitaura considers herself a suburban farmer. The term quite literally refers to growing a commodity in a suburban landscape, in this case her home and the homes of her mother and father. “I use the nooks and crannies, all the usable space possible, because land in California is expensive,” says Kitaura, who owns Bloom in Sacramento.

“I’ve taken over my mom’s entire backyard, and I have anywhere from 600 to 800 plants growing in raised beds at all three properties.”

Like Kitaura, Nicole Bond decided to turn her gardening hobby into a fulltime job. About eight years ago, Bond left her career as a clinical psychiatrist to start up Sanctuary Blooms. On less than one acre of land, she grows thousands of seasonal selections of tulips, daffodils, sunflowers, and heirloom mums in Wilton and Elk Grove. “Before I started doing this full time, I was getting weekly requests from friends, and it took off from there,” she says.

Unlike commercial producers, Bond and Kitaura minimize their carbon footprints through conscientious farming practices that limit the use of pesticides in favor of more natural solutions. “Most commercial flowers come from South America,” says Bond “They don’t have the same regulations on pesticides that we do.” She points to the decades old Andean Trade Preference Act, which removed a tariff on cut flowers, motivating farmers to grow flowers instead of drug crops. That agreement caused overseas flower production to boom, resulting in about 80 percent of cut flowers exchanged in the U.S. today being foreign grown. Not only are regulations on pesticide use different abroad, but the plants also require chemical preservation to last the long flight. 

Critics consider cut flowers to be wasteful but Kitaura says, on the contrary, her flower farming benefits the growth of neighboring food systems. “They are great pollinators,” she notes. “My farming is low till, meaning I rarely till and instead use that ‘lasagna method.’ So, it’s better for the environment; I’m improving the soil.” To grow plants in this nontraditional crop space, Kituara revitalizes the soil with a technique referred to as the “lasagna method.” Though no dairy or marinara is involved, this process entails layering cardboard, straw, compost, and leaves to enrich the soil and promote growth. “This land has been grass forever, so the ground is really compacted,” shares Kitaura. “The cardboard decomposes and kills off the grass to create a healthy soil system.”

Bond only grows seasonal selections and doesn’t extend her plants’ growing seasons, which requires row covers or cold frames. “January is our toughest month to grow, so we do supplement from other California growers,” says Bond. “The Department of Agriculture considers ‘local’ within 400 miles, and we don’t source outside that range.”

The same goes for Kitaura, whose subscription box features exclusively local plants. Currently, her flower beds include ranunculi, tulips, daffodils, perennials, snapdragons, and dianthuses. Though she was hugely successful with growing dahlias on her first attempt, the finnicky plant has proven troublesome in recent years. That may be due in part, Kitaura says, to the microclimates of Sacramento. Weather is fairly consistent throughout the many neighborhoods of California’s capital city, but Kitaura has found that her father’s property is slightly cooler than hers and her mother’s. “We’re in a great growing zone with a long growing season,” she says. “But certain plants do better with even the slightest change in conditions.”

When it comes time for delivery, Bloom’s arrangements are packaged in environment-sensitive materials. “When you get your flowers, you can compost or recycle everything we drop off,” Kitaura adds, noting that customers are also encouraged to compost their flowers once they’ve wilted. Kitaura considers the act of gifting flowers a lost tradition, one that should be considered not only on Mother’s Day but any time. “It’s kind of old school, but flowers are such a meaningful gift. They really bring so much joy and can help mental health,” she says. “When you place a vase of flowers in the center of a table, it makes dinnertime so much more special. Flowers create an environment of togetherness and draw family in around the table.”

With a background in mental health and wellness, Bond confidently agrees that flowers are as much for the eye as the mind. “There are many studies around fresh flowers and their impact or impression, and my clients find that to be true,” says Bond. “Any time you’ve been given flowers, think about it, they always make you smile. There’s a lot of self-care involved, and flowers can speak when we don’t have the words.”

Whether flowers are purchased as a gift for a loved one or as a form of selfcare, buying local supports community farmers and the earth. Consider subscribing to one of the many small florists in the Greater Sacramento area, buying a bouquet from a vendor at a farmers’ market, or adding a fresh selection of flowers to a CSA box.