Walking through the doorway into the high tunnel at Floral Compass Flower Farm is akin to stepping through a portal and being transported away from the world outside. The hay barn and farm shop bracketing the tunnel and the acres of corn and soybean stretching to the horizon disappear as soon as you cross the threshold.
Carrie Kleiman, the owner of Floral Compass Flower Farm in Fountaintown, Indiana, tends to flowers in the farm’s high tunnel June 28, 2022. In their place, all that remains is a sea of color, the smell of fresh flowers and the buzz of pollinators darting from blossom to blossom. Sunflowers in a myriad of hues ranging from yellow so pale as to be almost white to the classic bright yellow crowd the back right corner. Eucalyptus fills the rest of the row, adding its scent to the mix. Snapdragons in colors across the spectrum including white, peach and pink occupy more of the space. Cosmos and strawflowers add additional pops of color throughout growing space protected beneath the roof of the high tunnel. They all combine to create a world apart from the row crop operation occurring outside walls of the high tunnel.
More flowers grow in the small field next to the high tunnel, but the roughly 2,000 square feet of growing space within the high tunnel is the center of Carrie Kleiman’s growing business located in Fountaintown, Indiana. And, after an unseasonably wet summer and fall in 2021, the high tunnel is one of the main reasons she still has a business at all.
“Last year, the only flowers that looked good were the flowers in the (high tunnel). It was just so wet and icky that the flowers in the field were not very happy,” Carrie said. “I would not have had the flowers to sell (without the high tunnel).”
Her foray into farming started in 2015 out of a desire to try something new. Her 40th birthday was on the horizon, she’d had the same job for a decade and was ready to make a change.
The idea to channel that desire for a change into starting a flower farm was born on Instagram. She’d started following a flower farmer who also sold seeds, before buying some and falling in love.
She started small, growing flowers just for family and friends in a few raised beds in her backyard before realizing she could turn her hobby into a business. In 2017, the operation relocated to her husband Nick’s family farm where they transformed an old sorting pen that was no longer in use into Floral Compass Flower Farm. Nick, who helps run Floral Compass in his self-proclaimed official role of “cheap labor” is a fifth-generation farmer who grew up working the corn and soybean acres that surround the flower farm.
Sydney Lockett (left), district conservationist with USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service, talks with Carrie Kleiman, the owner of Floral Compass Flower Farm in Fountaintown, Indiana, and Nick Kleiman, about the farm’s high tunnel during a visit to the farm June 28, 2022. Pulling a page from her original inspiration, Carrie set up accounts on Instagram and Facebook and began building a client base. They also have a flower subscription service people can enroll in and sell at local farmers’ markets.
“When I have flowers, I'll post that I have flowers available. I have a lot of people just reach out to me that have been clients in the past or follow me and ask for flowers for special occasions,” Carrie said. “Last year I was selling out a lot. This year, we were trying to grow more because I had to say no a lot last year. That was hard. I don't like to have to tell people no.”
The Kleimans still grow tulips at their house, but the rest of the operation has fully moved to the old sorting pen over the last few years. While Nick had farming experience from working on his family’s land, growing flowers has been a learning curve for both of them. Carrie said she had leaned heavily on the internet to learn about growing flowers and she also turned to other flower farms for advice on setting up beds, building the farm and growing the best flowers possible.
Flowers grow in a high tunnel at Floral Compass Flower Farm in Fountaintown, Indiana June 28, 2022. It was one of those mentors who mentioned they should talk to USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) about building a high tunnel on the farm. While Nick was familiar with NRCS from his family’s operation, they hadn’t previously thought about reaching out for help with the budding flower farm business.
They reached out in 2019 and applied for assistance through NRCS’s Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP). Under EQIP, NRCS pays eligible landowners a portion of the cost to build a high tunnel on a farm with the requirement that plants are grown directly in the soil profile and not in pots or on shelves.
The high tunnel was built in time for the 2020 growing season and in just three years has already had a major impact on the farm. Along with keeping it viable during the turbulent 2021 growing season, the tunnel has added four months of additional growing time to each season and improved the overall quality of the flowers Carrie has for sale. The impact of the viability of her business has been, “Huge,” Carrie said.
Categories: Indiana, Crops