WHERE LOVE TAKES ROOT

For Stacey Laschen and her daughter Elin, a lifelong passion for gardening has grown a thriving family business known as Sweet E’s Flowers.

The love that Stacey Laschen has always had for gardening has never faltered.

It’s a love that has carried the former speech pathologist across the country and through the ups and downs of life—rooted in the generations before her. “My mom loved gardening and my grandparents loved gardening and I’ve always loved gardening,” the self-proclaimed “collector of flowers” says. “After my husband and I met in Colorado, we moved to Seattle, and then moved to Texas before making our home here.”

It was here in Barrington that Laschen not only began growing vegetables and herbs, but it was also here that she began growing flowers alongside her young daughter Elin. And while their shared love of gardening undoubtedly strengthened their already strong bond, this mother-daughter duo never could have imagined that all that love would turn into a thriving business.

42 Cornocopia Of Sizes — Cornocopia of sizes

“I knew I’d have a garden,” she says with a smile. “I just never envisioned having a flower farm.”

The roots of this flower farm, now lovingly known as Sweet E’s Flowers, took hold during the pandemic, when Laschen created a “tiny little cutting garden” for Elin. “It was both joyful for us,” says Laschen, who moved with her family to Barrington in 2016. “Together, we started learning about different flowers that we never even knew existed.”

But as much as Elin loved flowers, she too loved her horses. So, Elin shared her idea about selling their flowers to subsidize her equestrian sport. And soon, a family business was born, offering sustainably and locally grown flowers.

“My oldest son, who is more business-minded like my husband, likes doing the computer tasks, including printing the labels,” says Laschen, who sold her first jar of flowers in July 2021. “And then my youngest helps me plant here and there––he is the artist who draws the pictures. The whole family gets involved.”

There is more than enough work for everyone to do on a true working farm such as Sweet E’s Flowers, especially during the springtime. “The goal of pulling tulips is that as soon as they make color, you pull them out and you get them in the cooler so that they make beautiful tulips for people in their homes,” says Laschen, who with the help of her family planted over 7,000 tulips for this season.

Perhaps the most beautiful time visually at Sweet E’s Flowers is towards the end of summer, as so many flowers are blooming at once. “The dahlias are blooming everywhere,” says Laschen, whose business has grown to offer many of the most beloved and unique cut flower dahlia varieties. “I have a knack for growing way too many because I get very anxious if I don’t have enough. I want enough for the people and the animals and the birds and the bees and the butterflies. It just gives me so much happiness to share them with everyone.”

Zinnias At Dusk In August — August sunset on the farm

42 Pretty In Pink — August sunset on the farm

With multiple offerings available, flowers are available for purchase seasonally at Ambrosia Patisserie in Barrington, or locals can choose to have a weekly flower subscription delivered (depending on location), or ready for them to pick-up. For those looking to start their own flower garden, their unique dahlia varieties’ tubers are available for purchase to get you growing.

As the business continues to grow, Laschen says she too hopes to grow more and more unique varieties of flowers for florists and neighbors. “We aren’t just growing a little bit of everything anymore,” says Laschen, who focuses on avoiding pesticides and herbicides, while continuing to enhance the native areas around the farm. “Now we are growing more volume of the things that our customers love, like snapdragons, ranunculus, lisianthus, and dahlias.”

It’s that customer base that continues to grow, with orders now coming from all over the United States. “Our tiny little farm is starting to have nationwide recognition, especially for our dahlias,” says Laschen. “I could have never dreamed that we would be at this point. To share the joy with everybody in the community and to teach the kids that if you set your mind to do something, you really can––there really is no end of the road. It will be interesting to see where this path takes us.”

She certainly hopes that future generations will love florals as much as past generations did. “If my grandmother could see this field now when everything is blooming,” she says quietly. “I can’t help but get choked up just thinking about it. I love that long after I’m gone, this legacy will outlive me. I’ll be in the flowers. It’s prettier there.”