-Photo courtesy of The Vinery Flowers
Amy Cox, right, and her mother and business partner, Robin Collins, are pictured in front of their mobile flower bar, which is popular for special events. Together, the pair began The Vinery Flowers in 2019, growing their own flowers on their farm in rural Nevada.

NEVADA — When the weather’s gloomy with snow blanketing the ground and temperatures dipping close to freezing, Amy Cox and her mom and business partner, Robin Collins, are dreaming of a vividly bold and brilliantly hued flower garden that provides the base for their on-farm flower business.

As owners of The Vinery Flowers, Cox and her mom started their flower business in 2019. The family farm grows corn and soybeans, but Collins wanted to try her hand growing a different type of crop.

“She’s always loved flowers. Since I was a child, we’ve talked about having a flower shop. We always had a vegetable garden with flowers in it, so in 2019, she came to me with the idea to start our own flower business,” Cox said. “I was a stay-at-home mom at the time and agreed to try it.”

Cox assumed the role of designing arrangements and floral products, while Collins was the green thumb who taught her daughter everything she could about gardening.

“Even though I was the designer, it was just the two of us in the first two years of business, so we focused on growing and designing, and less on selling anything. It was so much fun and we loved it,” Cox said. “Then we went more into our respective roles and started selling arrangements in 2021 during the pandemic.”

The Vinery Flowers focuses on weddings and works closely with brides not just in Story County where their farm is located, but all across Iowa and even out of state. The pair also designs floral arrangements for special events.

“We will travel pretty much anywhere. We’ve gone down to Des Moines and up to Clear Lake even,” Cox said. “When you’re young, you say yes to everything. During the growing season, we work for one wedding per weekend. Last year, we hired our first employee. She’s farm help, so she helps us in the garden harvesting the flowers, which helps free us up to design arrangements and be at the weddings.”

Their busiest season for weddings happens to be the spring. Brides traditionally lean toward peonies, garden roses and buttercups. If brides have a specific flower they want for their wedding, Cox and Collins prefer to have nine months’ notice.

“But we always have flowers on hand in every color, so if they aren’t super specific on the type of flowers, they could call as close as two weeks before and we could make something happen,” Cox said. “We do prefer a couple weeks’ notice for special events.”

The Vinery Flowers welcomes ideas from clients who want their own spin on the floral decor.

“We do love it when brides come to us with a custom idea, something unique to their wedding. One bride had canvas tents with quilts her grandma made for the bridal party to sleep in with air mattresses and string lights. At her ceremony, she had an arch built off the ground that made a half circle around them, which we cocooned with flowers,” she said. “We also love figuring out how to implement unique, one-of-a-kind ideas. We don’t use floral foam, since it’s toxic, so we love working out the mechanics.”

For special events, The Vinery Flowers offers a mobile flower bar that people can rent. It’s popular for showers and similar gatherings. It also can be customized to fit an event with premade bouquets or where people can make their own arrangements.

The florists grow their flowers on a couple of acres shared with a pumpkin patch. They focus on growing flowers for clients that are hard to ship, that other florists typically can’t get or grow, which Cox said sets them apart from other event florists.

The Vinery Flowers’ growing season typically wraps up at the first frost, but Cox and Collins can order flowers for winter brides.

“But they’re not as good of a quality as what we grow on the farm,” Cox said. “We grow a lot of drought tolerant flowers that work well in weddings. There’s also themes each year. Last year, every bride was choosing color, so we plant based on what the brides are wanting, since we’re working with them six to 12 months in advance. The year before, it was all white and green. So it was refreshing to have color last year.”

Always present in the garden are rows of zinnias, dahlias and similar annuals, but perennials help save time and effort.

“It takes so much work off our schedule with seeding and planting if they come up on their own,” Cox said.

In the off-season, the mother-daughter team focuses on the upcoming growing season. So while the winds howl across their farm and snow falls, they’re busy drawing up the grid that will guide them in growing the next batch of flowers.

Cox and Collins utilize biodynamic farming practices in their business, which essentially is a holistic, organic farming system that also uses herbal and mineral preparations, along with cosmic rhythms, such as lunar cycles. For example, they make teas out of yarrow to spray on their plants as pesticides instead of using chemicals.

“We also use the lunar schedule — the stars and the moon — for planting and harvesting, weeding, etc. We also take classes in the winter, so I’ll take design classes, for example,” Cox said. “We’re interested in biodynamic farming because it focuses on growing in harmony with the natural systems that already support plant life. It’s a holistic approach; we use plant-based preparations and compost. We pay attention to seasonal rhythms and lunar cycles that influence the plant’s growth. For us, it creates a more intentional, regenerative way of farming that supports healthier plants and a more resilient ecosystem.”

The pair works a few days a week in December and January, prepping for the upcoming year by ordering seeds, mapping out the garden since everything needs rotated, outlining the seeding schedule, the planting schedule and other details.

“When you need flowers for a spring wedding, but the weather in Iowa doesn’t cooperate, you need another plan. So we have a set-up indoors in the shop with lights and stackable bulb crates where we force tulips and lilies. We have 500 bulbs we put in a big cooler and pull them out and place them under the lights to jumpstart their growing,” Cox said. “We also need flowers for Valentine’s Day, so we start those 30 to 40 days before we need them. There’s always something to do with the flower business on the farm.”

For years, the family farm was run by Cox’ dad, brother and uncle who retired this year. But they also pitch in and help the florists in the garden when it’s crunch time.

“It’s all hands on deck,” Cox said. “I also return the favor by driving the grain cart at harvest.”

A couple of years ago, The Vinery Flowers found its crop of flowers growing next to a traditional crop field completely obliterated by pesticide drift. It was a hard lesson to learn, Cox said.

“It killed everything the week after we got done planting. It’s Iowa and it happens, but it broke our hearts. So we put a high tunnel up next to the field, so there’s a barrier between the crop field and the field of flowers. We also grow specialty flowers, show flowers and expensive flowers that need protected in our two tunnels where they’re protected,” Cox said. “My dad is pretty progressive when it comes to farming. He does strip till and doesn’t use anhydrous; he side dresses and does what he can. When he sprays or my brother does, they don’t do the strip by the garden until it’s dead.”

When Cox was growing up, she spent a lot of time picking vegetables out of the family’s garden, a chore she said she “hated.” So she moved to Florida where she worked as a hair stylist, then ended up returning to Iowa, living in her childhood farmhouse and farming flowers with her mom.

“I love working with my mom. She’s my best friend and we work really well together. Our personalities just mesh. Everyone in the family pitches in, too — my brother and sister, dad, my husband and our kids,” Cox said. “Our son is 10 and he loves nature and is always helping us harvest. He’ll even nap in the garden. My daughter is 14 and isn’t quite into the flower business, but has shown an interest on the design side.”