Farmer Friends Series: Ellie Limpert & The Hudson Valley Flower Collective
Ellie & Leslie of Titusville farm Bumpin’ around. Growing the next generation <3
Welcome back to Farmer Friends, and boy, are you in for a treat with a very special interview. This month, we’re featuring musings from someone representing the very heart of the Hudson Valley local flower scene, Ellie Limpert — founder of the Hudson Valley Flower COllective.
The HVFC was founded in 2023, but was on every florist and flower farmer’s mind for many moons before that. They supply the finest local blooms from farms in the bountiful region that we’re incredibly lucky to call home. sustaining a local flower community is a collective effort, and one that Ellie spearheads with such warmth, grace, thoughtful advocacy and loving spirit. ask anyone who is blessed to know her, ellie will move mountains for the collective, its farmers and its designers.
Scroll through HVFC’s instagram feed and you will feel palpable joy. The cartloads of vibrant blooms, smiling designers with heaping armloads of peppy stems, cars & vans & trucks stuffed to the brim with fresh cuts. we Wish could bottle it up and share it with everyone. It’s unmatched and what TRUECommunity is.
we’re so honored to feature her words here and peek behind the magical curtain that is the Hudson Valley Flower COllective.
Tell me the story of how HVFC came to exist! What was the spark?
Well, as you know, this is a dream that was held by many for a long time. Whenever the topic came up in the flower world, the energy shifted. Growers and designers were buzzing with ideas! It was clear that this movement would be a powerful one, but it needed a steward who could ground the project in trust and collaboration. Someone to honor the work and relationships that had anchored the local wholesale market from the start, and weave everyone’s dreams and realities into something cohesive, something solid, and lasting.
How do you balance consistency for designers with the fun, slightly chaotic nature of working with growers and the seasons/Mother Nature?
Oh my gosh, well let me just say I have no idea how designers like you did it before the collective! Nothing gets my heart racing faster than a grower reaching out with something like, “Oh no… my poppies blew out over the weekend with this heat!”. But this is HVFC’s moment to shine… and what could otherwise be heartbreaking is replaced with such a joyful sense of community. All of these growers are in the thick of it in their own fields, yet they can lean on each other to keep local flowers a reliable option. Yep… the elements sometimes try to throw a wrench in our plans, but when they do, I can immediately text 10+ farms that are already coming with orders to see if they can cover what was lost. That kind of collaboration feels like such a team win - one grower is relieved, another is thrilled to help (and make a sale), and the designer knows they’re not alone in the whirlwind.
Has there been a moment with a farmer or a designer that made you think ‘yes, this is exactly why we do this’?
Honestly, I have this deep, wholehearted feeling most weeks!! Friday through Tuesday is a behind-the-scenes hustle, and then on Tuesday afternoon, when growers are dropping off flowers and running into each other- hugging, laughing, commiserating — and on Wednesday mornings designers are showing up and losing their minds over the flowers in front of them…it just feels so deeply right. It’s truly another kind of magic and it is felt so profoundly!
What snack gets you through order pickup days?
Hahah! I’m notoriously a big-time snacker (I literally always have food with me), but pick-up days are a whole different ball game, and I can’t believe this, but sometimes I even forget to eat because I’m so in the zone! I experimented for a while but nothing worked until I realized it needed to go straight into a cup with a straw. Now I bring a giant smoothie packed with protein and fat (don’t sleep on coconut butter). So yeah, I have about four cups I’m juggling while running around (water… coffee… broth…), but if I’m lucky, the one I reach for is the smoothie!
If you had a magic wand for the Collective, what’s the first thing you’d wish into existence?
Selfishly, there’s one thing I’ve been trying to wish into existence for a while: an excuse to regularly bring all the flower kids together. Design day childcare? HVFC Summer Camp?! Of course all you deeply creative, hilarious, thoughtful growers and designers are raising the most fun, spunky, spirited kids. Picture this: you arrive at the collective and a joyful pack of kids are already at play- doing cartwheels beside the sheep paddock, telling jokes and secrets in a sunflower fort, dripping in juice from the raspberries they harvested. Your kid leaps out of the car to join, and suddenly your day stretches open. To me, the true magic of HVFC lies in the ease it brings and the connections it fosters within the flower community. It’s impossible not to daydream about bringing our families into the fold. If we’re talking strategically though, I should probably wish for a refrigerated box truck.
What are you excited about for the future of the Collective?
In these early years, HVFC’s focus has been grounding the project with a strong, collaborative wholesale operation- basically, making sales happen smoothly as a group effort. There’s so much room to grow in community-building, and I’m really excited to see what takes shape in the coming years. Our relationships are deepening, new ideas are popping up all the time, and we’re seeing the unbelievable beauty and strength that comes from working together. By taking the day-to-day admin and wholesale grind off individual growers’ plates, they might be interacting 1:1 with buyers less- but it also gives them the space to dive into some deeper relationship building opportunities beyond fulfilling sales. I feel us at this pivotal moment! I can hardly believe it, but we’re planning workshops, farm-tours, and potlucks for this season?!?
Ellie, thank you so much for taking the time to sharE a bit into the behind-the-scenes of the core of this regional flower community! We’re itching to get our hands on those delicious local flowers so soon! In the next few weeks we will be hauling bucketloads of stems from the Collective through our doors!
Check out The Hudson Valley Flower Collective on Instagram!
Our Upcoming blog post we will be diving into our first real wedding post, which will continue each month. These articles will speak a bit to the design process, from start to finish, and just what it takes to make it all happen!