As an architecture undergrad, Fran Parrish felt compelled to draw gardens into all her building designs. The only problem was that she knew nothing about gardens.
To learn what’s what, she began volunteering at a local urban farm.
It was at a time when urban farms began booming in Detroit, her native city. That experience led to an internship at a major Detroit food bank in summer 2012, where she helped grow more than 50,000 pounds of fresh food to serve vulnerable populations. It also put an end to Fran’s plans to be an architect working a desk job.
“Taking that internship changed my entire outlook on what work is,” she says.
Fran on her 10-acre farm in Burt.
These were the first of Fran’s many learning immersions that brought her to where she is today—the proud owner of Heirloom Soul Florals, a regenerative flower farm in Niagara County.
People are also reading…
Getting to this point took a lot of time and training, much of it self-taught.
After a stint in Chicago working for an edible landscaping company where she helped build gardens for schools, corporations and wealthy private clients, she and her husband moved to Buffalo, his hometown. She listened to a podcast about growing flowers and was inspired to start her own farm.
A serendipitous meet-up with the owners of Kin Loch Farmstead in Cambria led to her first opportunity. They welcomed Fran to farm some of their land with flowers, where she was able to learn the ropes and begin perfecting her craft. Four years later—in 2022—she bought her own 10-acre farm in Burt, more than doubling the size of her operation.
Today she actively farms two of those 10 acres, 60 percent of which are perennials. Besides mowing and help from a part-time farmhand two days a week, she does all the work herself—including her side business as a wedding floral designer.
She’s scaled back on weddings in the past few years, with only three in 2026.
“Each wedding would take an entire week and weekend,” Fran explains. “It hurt my body more than farming.”
Instead she’s focused more energy on growing and selling bulk flowers, a business she’s grown by eightfold since 2023. That’s been driven by trends like the popularity of flower bars at events as well as a general appreciation for a more “colorful wildflower vibe.”
But what really makes Heirloom Soul Florals stand out is Fran’s mission to provide the most sustainable source of cut floral products, employing intentional, regenerative growing methods with an ecological mindset.
It’s part of her commitment to the “slow flower movement.” It’s an alternative to the traditional flower industry that Fran describes as “exploitative on every level,” with flowers imported on fuel-guzzling planes; waste produced from excess packaging; and farm workers exposed to cancer-causing chemicals used to extend the life of the flowers. (That chemical treatment is one reason flowers from grocery stores often last much longer than those from the farmer’s market, for instance.) Rather than relying on chemicals for longer-lasting flowers, Fran focuses instead on optimizing the soil and her growing practices to produce the healthiest possible plants.
“Slow flowers are about embracing what nature can offer right now and appreciating what comes from our own community,” Fran says.
Although she grows more than 100 varieties of flowers, Fran has carved a niche in dahlias. She says there’s a misconception that they are hard to grow and has written a book, “Growing Gorgeous Dahlias,” that she calls her “dahlia-growing manifesto,” one she wishes she had when she first started out. She also hosts an annual dahlia tuber sale featuring 50+ varieties of tubers and cuttings you can plant yourself, as well as on-farm events including yoga, you-pick days and flower-arranging classes.
To Fran, it all connects to an ethos that respects the natural world and honors process and patience.
“Having beautiful intention produces beautiful, meaningful work,” she says.
