Katie Tolson of Seed-on-Hudson is a Farmer Bailey customer featured in Debra Prinzing and Robin Avni's just-released book, The Flower Farmers (Bloom Imprint)
The Flower Farmers is a how-to-grow flowers text for gardeners, with guidance and inspiration from professional flower farmers like Katie.
Katie chatted with us about how she grew into her passion for flower farming, why she chose Nicotiana (flowering tobacco) for her feature in the The Flower Farmers, Farmer Bailey plugs she's worked into her business, and her participation in Slow Flowers Society and Brooklyn's Flower Aggregate. Scroll down for highlights from the interview, or watch the full video, above.
Katie Tolson of Seed-on-Hudson, with Nicotiana. Photo Credit: Fennel Harper @Cult.Therapy
Farmer Bailey: How did you become involved in The Flower Farmers book?
Katie Tolson, Seed-on-Hudson: I met Debra and Robin a few years ago, when they were in New York for the Slow Flower Summit, the annual one that we usually do in June. I've been a part of Slow Flowers ever since, and have been attending their conferences. They very graciously invited me to be a part of the book. I was thrilled to be asked. It's a project they've been working on for almost two years now.
It's just a beautiful book, and so incredibly honored to be a part of it. I'm featured in the East-Northeast section. My family farm, Seed-on-Hudson, is in Westchester County, New York. I'm really close to New York City. I'm just above the Bronx on the Hudson River. The flower that I chose is Nicotiana, which is flowering tobacco.
Farmer Bailey: So you have access to a really strong flower buying market right in New York City.
Katie Tolson: It's wonderful. I supply flowers to a lot of designers in Westchester, and Manhattan and Brooklyn. I do some retail. It's a lot of wholesale. I have a small CSA, so a little bit of everything, and then pop up markets for special holidays and seasons and things like that.
Nicotiana in several colors at Seed-on-Hudson. Photo Credit: Katie Tolson
Farmer Bailey: Tell us why you chose Nicotiana for your feature in The Flower Farmers.
Katie Tolson: Well, we brainstormed on a lot of different flowers, and it was personally, I love night blooming flowers. I'm really into fragrance.
I kind of have a backstory in the sense that I I grew up in LA in the Hollywood Hills, and as a young kid we used to go hiking and climb through the hills a lot. There's it's actually considered an invasive. But there is a flowering tobacco that we would pick and kind of play with as kids. I didn't really make the connection until I was growing it. But I started growing it from seed a few years ago.
It was the one flower that sort of was my gateway into wholesale a little bit. I was growing it, I had Nicotiana late in the season, and I had designers that were like, "Oh, my God! I love this!"
In that time of year everyone was sort of excited by the fact that I have a later frost, and I'm so much farther south that I do tend to have blooms much later in the season, into November, sometimes–If I'm lucky as long as until Thanksgiving. So I picked it because it's fragrant, and it's beautiful. And it's kind of whimsical. I just love it; it comes in so many different varieties. I love the Grandiflora, I love the the pure white, but it comes in pinks and purples, and the greens, and all different shapes of trumpets. So it's just a fun flower. And it can be huge. Some of these branches are just enormous. It gets to be really high in the field so you can play with it a lot.
Farmer Bailey: Tell us a bit about your farm name, Seed-on-Hudson.
Katie Tolson: I started as heirloom veg, native plant and herb, fruit and flower nursery. I did a little bit of everything. And I was really seed obsessed, and when I moved to Hastings-on-Hudson, which is where I'm located in Westchester County, they had a seed exchange in our public library, which I thought was just freaking awesome.
And so I went down a rabbit hole of every kind of seed, and I was really seed obsessed–looking for incredibly unusual and heirloom varieties of all sorts of things, tomatoes, everything, not just flowers. That's how the name came about, because I wanted it to be hyper-local and community-based. I just like every kind of seed. Now I manage the the public library seed exchange and our local Hastings Pollinator Pathway.
Photo Credit: Fennel Harper @Cult.Therapy
Farmer Bailey: So we know you're good at starting everything from seed. But of course I have to ask, do you use any Farmer Bailey plugs or perennials in your production?
Katie Tolson: I do! I'm trying your Petunias for the first time this year, which I'm super excited about. I did my Lisianthus from seed last year, but I've supplemented with your plugs this year, so there's always a little of both. I juggle both! I've gotten your Delphinium, your Digitalis; quite a selection of Farmer Bailey plugs.
Farmer Bailey: Perfect examples of things that are just annoying to germinate! Why struggle with delphinium germination when you don't have to? So, we met at an open house event recently at the Flower Aggregate in Brooklyn. They have a retail aspect with daily hours, and they are supplying designers with wholesale local flowers as well. Why did you want to become involved in a collective?
Katie Tolson: I really love selling wholesale. I love the rhythm of it. And so I was looking for another venue for wholesale. I found the Flower Aggregate through a local florist, and connected with Annie and Jess. I love that they're so forward-thinking in supporting local farmers, being sustainable, being soil-focused; everything that's important and near and dear to me when I'm growing. They're really supportive.
It's great, because they've got such a variety coming in from all different farms that it was a really good fit. I'm pretty close to Brooklyn, and if I go down at night it's an easy fit. This past fall I had Heirloom Chrysanthemums later than everyone. So that's how we started.
It's a really great space, really great farmers, a whole variety of crops. So I'm really happy, and I'm excited for what it's going to do this year, because it's growing and that's so exciting.
Photo Credit: Fennel Harper @Cult.Therapy
An incredible number of Farmer Bailey customers are highlighted in The Flower Farmers, and we'll be chatting with many of them this season here on the Farmer Bailey Blog. You can order your own signed copy of The Flower Farmers on the Seed-on-Hudson website, or via Abrams Books. Spring is off to an inspiring start!
The Flower Farmers cover photo credit: Mary Grace Long @ubiquitous_beauty