Northern Michigan flower farmer Charla Burgess wears many hats—mother, gardener, activist. She’s weathered storms in her life, but nurturing her children, her community and her field of flowers has allowed her to fully bloom.
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Charla Burgess has had dirt under her nails her entire life—and she wouldn’t have it any other way. Growing up in Woodstock, a farm town in northern Illinois, one of Burgess’ first jobs as a kid was helping at a local dairy farm.
Later in life, she developed a deep love for gardening, and eventually found herself moving from Illinois to Northern Michigan with her then-husband. “It just felt like home,” she says.
Burgess’ life Up North began in Traverse City—working at Northwestern Michigan College and living in a farmhouse on Old Mission Peninsula—and she started tinkering with a commercial business that revolved around growing produce and flowers, and baking bread and other treats. She also became a mother to her daughter, Willa, and her son, Simon.
Burgess’ family moved to Benzie County in 2009, purchasing a farm—The Farm at Echo Bend—where she intended to raise her kids and put down roots. But her world turned upside down four years later, when she lost the farm in her divorce.
“She took an impossible situation and rebuilt her life from the ground up,” says close friend Christina Ryan-Stoltz, “reinforcing her roots, cultivating her soil and soul, and harnessing her story to propel herself and her children forward.”
Photo by Beth Price
Photo by Beth Price
Photo by Beth Price
In 2014, in a new home in Frankfort, Burgess returned to what she knew: getting her hands dirty. She tended to the land around her, providing organically grown food and flowers for herself, her family and her community.
She started with a vegetable garden, and then put in a flower garden just for herself. “At that point, it was about nurturing myself,” Burgess says.
Before long, people began asking, “Are you going to start selling again?”
Soon enough, she decided to throw open the doors to her whimsical flower shed, offering striking bouquets of seasonal blooms—from tulips and daffodils to cosmos and dahlias. And, with the help of Ryan-Stoltz, Burgess selected a new name for her budding business: Sow She Grows.
Photo by Beth Price
When the pandemic hit, Burgess questioned whether people would buy cut flowers from her garden. “Regardless, I decided to do it for our own [family] enjoyment, for the pollinators and to give flowers away, if no one was buying,” she recalls. “But the demand was so high for flowers that year. Flowers make you stop and appreciate those small, quiet, happy moments. I think there was something about seeking out beauty as an antidote to chaos.”
While her kids still don’t embrace “the drudgery,” as Burgess calls it, they’re each involved in her business in their own way. Willa, who now attends Harvard University, helps with packaging, labeling, pricing, deliveries and artwork when she can. Simon, who’s headed to the University of Michigan this fall, often makes vases and pots for his mom to use, while also helping with construction and assembly projects.
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Photo by Beth Price
Photo by Beth Price
Photo by Beth Price
Farming and mothering have taught Burgess that she doesn’t have control over just about anything, and there’s beauty in that, too. “I’ve learned to give up control. I’ve learned to roll with what life has given me. I’ve learned to grow from my mistakes. Because if you don’t, in farming or in life, what happens to you? You get nowhere. Farming and parenting have taught me resilience, faith, hope and appreciation for these miracles that we’re surrounded by every single day. Life is amazing, and that creation of life is amazing.”
Today, Burgess sells fresh flower bouquets—as well as goods like edible flowers, homemade soaps, botanically-dyed clothing, botanical salts and pressed flower art—directly out of her self-service flower shed in Frankfort. She also does floral arrangements for weddings and events, and offers a 10-week summer bouquet subscription program.
You can follow and support Sow She Grows on Instagram (@sowshegrows_flowerfarm), Facebook (facebook.com/echobend ) or her website, sow-she-grows-flower-farm.square.site. Burgess’ self-serve flower shed, where she sells fresh flowers, wreaths and self-care botanical 1257 Frankfort Highway.
Photo by Beth Price
Photo by Beth Price
Photo by Beth Price