Get smart about flower farms with Emmalie Holt

Megan Raposa -

Simplified: Emmalie Holt and her husband opened Lavender Lane Flower Farm earlier this month northeast of Sioux Falls near Brandon and Corson. She chatted with Sioux Falls Simplified about how a "you-pick" flower farm works, her dream garden and what to grow if you want to make your own bouquets.

Answers have been edited for length and clarity.

Let's start with your background. How did you 'get smart' about flowers, and what led you to start Lavender Lane Flower Farm?

A couple of years ago I visited a flower farm near my hometown in Minnesota, and I was kind of just blown away and inspired by everything that I saw.

There was a moment of clarity, of, OK I know what I want to do. It just felt so good to be there.

  • I wanted to create a space that gives other people that same feeling and also just something for me to do that brings joy.

I went home and told my husband about the idea, and last year we just started looking for acreages. We moved in November, and here we are.

We’re all about simplicity here. Can you describe Lavender Lane Flower Farm in 10 words or fewer?

It’s a space to decompress from the hustle and bustle.

How does the "you-pick" flower farm work?

We have a space for parking, and then you just walk over to where the flowers are.

  • There’s a farm stand set up, so we have buckets and scissors set out there for everyone.

You can go and cut whatever calls to you and then put it in that bucket as you're going around the field cutting flowers. We have vases at the farm stand as well, and you can arrange the vases yourself.

It's really self-serve once you're out there. It's $30 per vase, and there's a cash box out there – otherwise we have Venmo and PayPal.

It seems like we're seeing more and more "you-pick" flower farms in South Dakota – what is it about that experience that you think appeals so much to folks?

I think a lot of us are looking for experiences instead of things, and so it's just kind of a way to get together.

  • We have a lot of mother-daughter duos come out, or best friends, or even boyfriend-girlfriend or husband-wife. It's a fun little day date activity.

It's kind of a forced slow down – just letting yourself be, open up to a creative side we didn't know we had.

A lot of times what I hear is people say, "I'm not good at this," or "I don't know what I'm doing." They say that, but I haven't seen a bouquet that hasn't looked great when it left.

What are some of the types of flowers people will find?

We have a wide variety.

We have snapdragons, sunflowers, dahlias, zinnias, forget-me-nots. I'm missing some, but people will have to just come check it out.

If you could grow anything (regardless of climate/geographic location) what would it be?

Probably just endless dahlias.

I think they're easily a favorite and always seem to be one of the first things to go every weekend. The layers and layers of petals are really appealing to people. There will be more of those next year.

Do you have any advice for people who want to have more flowers in their own yards for bouquets?

Plant a couple of focal flowers and a couple of fillers, and greenery, if that's important to you.

Just pick a color palette that you love and go crazy.

You really don't need that many plants. A lot of the ones that we have are cut and come again – the more you cut from them, the more they produce.

Anything else you want the good people of Sioux Falls to know about you, Lavender Lane or flower farms in general?

This is our first year, so we're figuring it out. Next year will be even bigger and better. We have an expansion planned, so there will be more flowers, a spring season of flowers, and we're also looking to add pumpkins next fall.