It\u2019s mid-August, and the landscape has been suffused in a kaleidoscope of colours: among them are the cheery yellow of black-eyed Susans, scarlet\u00a0beebalm\u2019s fiery red, the vibrant purple of dense blazing star, and butterfly milkweed\u2019s vivid orange.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn two weeks even the farm will look different,\u201d said Jenny Fortier, the company\u2019s founder and CEO, while surveying the rolling acreage, bees buzzing from flower to flower.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe varieties that are flowering now will be done and there will be a new bunch of varieties taking their turn flowering. That’s one of the appeals of a native meadow ecosystem, both from a visual and biodiversity perspective.\u201d<\/p>\n
As lovely as the flowers are, only once they wither and go to seed does the harvesting begin.<\/p>\n
On this 40-acre Whitefish property west of Sudbury \u2014 along the serendipitously named Flowers Road \u2014 Fortier and her staff grow native perennials and then gather, clean and sort the seed for sale to customers across Canada.<\/p>\n
The company also contracts more than a dozen wild collectors and growers at locations throughout the country to cultivate vegetable varieties under its Cutleaf Seeds brand, along with some wildflower varieties that don\u2019t do well in the farm\u2019s clay soil.\u200b<\/p>\n
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\nA stand of black-eyed Susans waves its cheery yellow blooms in a mid-August breeze at Northern Wildflowers. Lindsay Kelly\/Northern Ontario Business
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\u200bAbout 70 per cent of Northern Wildflowers\u2019 business comprises industrial bulk sales, Fortier said.<\/p>\n
That includes mining and construction clients looking to rehabilitate scarred land, municipalities seeking pollinator-friendly alternatives for their public spaces, and landscape architects requesting native seed for new projects.<\/p>\n
The remaining 30 per cent are residential customers ordering from the website or grabbing a packet of seeds from a Northern Wildflowers rack at one of more than 100 garden centres nationwide.<\/p>\n
SEE:\u00a0From mine site to pollinators paradise<\/a><\/p>\n Fortier attends a variety of tradeshows every year to promote the brand, including at the largest mining show in Ontario, hosted each spring by the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada. This fall, she\u2019ll be debuting her products at the Natural Organic Wellness show<\/a> in Toronto, presented by the Canadian Food and Health Association.<\/p>\n \u201cRight now, our retail program focuses on independent garden centres, which has been really excellent,\u201d Fortier said. \u201cBut we really haven\u2019t formed a deal yet with a large chain, so that is one of our goals this coming year.\u201d<\/p>\n Plans to expand into the U.S. this year are on hold for now, given the tumult associated with trade tariffs, but Fortier is now aiming for 2026 to make that move.\u200b<\/p>\n \u200bAn ecologist and master gardener who holds a master\u2019s degree in watershed ecosystems, Fortier joked that she and her husband \u201cdid not know what we were doing\u201d when they purchased the property nine years ago.<\/p>\n Enjoyed by the previous owners for leisure activities like hunting, it had never been used for agricultural purposes. It\u2019s hilly, surrounded by tall pines, and has slightly acidic, heavy clay soil \u2014 \u201cnot a super desirable piece of land,\u201d Fortier laughed. \u201cBut not the most terrible land either.\u201d<\/p>\n Each year, they spread lime, a natural mineral, to balance out the acidity, but beyond that, they work with what they\u2019ve got.<\/p>\n \u201cIf we want to really amend [the soil], it would either be too costly on scale, or require amendments that would get us out of the organic space,\u201d Fortier said. \u201cSo we\u2019ve had to just really adjust our processes to work with the heavy clay.\u201d\u200b<\/p>\n \u200bKnowing this has meant a lot of trial and error for the farm and accepting that flower farming is a long game.<\/p>\n They\u2019ve learned that some flower varieties, along with the vegetables, just won\u2019t grow there, and that\u2019s where their network of contract growers and wild collectors \u2014 15 by recent count \u2014 comes in.<\/p>\n It enables Northern Wildflowers to offer unique varieties other seed houses don\u2019t have, including those found in wetlands and forest floors, Fortier said.<\/p>\n Some varieties prefer to grow in a community of other flowers, using them as support for their top-heavy blooms, while others thrive as the sole variety in a plot. There are species that do well in full sun, and others that prefer shade. The more dramatic varieties wait to make their entrance: wild indigo, for example, can take five to seven years to produce flowers, and the first year of seed isn\u2019t usable for anything more than replanting.\u200b<\/p>\n \u200bIt\u2019s a unique way of farming, said Erin Fraser, the company\u2019s recently hired marketing and sales coordinator. And because there isn\u2019t much out there in the way of best practices for wildflower farming, Northern Wildflowers has become its own best resource.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve worked really hard to produce seed and design mixes that are incredibly resilient for our conditions,\u201d Fraser said, noting that many garden centres stock seed adapted for growing conditions outside of Canada. \u201cOur mixes are for growing here and include species that will come up every year.\u201d<\/p>\n Land-clearing is currently underway on another five acres, which will enable staff to plant more crops and expand production.<\/p>\n In advance of that, last March, the company moved into a new, 5,500-square-foot shop where the seed is laid out to dry before being cleaned, sorted and packaged.<\/p>\n \u201cOur new shop has really expanded our seed processing capacity and ability to process a larger volume of orders,\u201d said Fraser, who\u2019s tasked with growing the brand and signing more clients on to the retailer program.<\/p>\n Chase Beaudoin, who came on as chief technical officer last year, is also part owner. He specializes in seed processing, seed coating, and production.<\/p>\n But his responsibilities extend to finding creative solutions that align with the farm\u2019s commitment to organic, small-scale farming, like tracking down an antique Allis-Chalmers tractor that\u2019s been modified for weeding.<\/p>\n Four more people work full-time at the farm. They\u2019re joined by two part-timers in the summer and one in the winter months.<\/p>\n![\"2025-08-18-northern-wildflowers4-lk\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/2025-08-18-northern-wildflowers4-lk.jpg;w=960.jpeg\"\/)
\nScarlet beebalm, a relative of wild bergamot, is a prized garden addition for its ability to attract bees, butterflies and other pollinators, but it’s also said to repel mosquitoes. Lindsay Kelly\/Northern Ontario Business
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\nJacob Tryon, Northern Wildflowers’ native seed processing and production technologist, drives the farm’s antique Allis-Chalmers tractor. Fewer than 30,000 of these “G model” tractors were manufactured between 1948 and 1955 by the now-defunct U.S. company. Lindsay Kelly\/Northern Ontario Business
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