Branch & Thorn – Local Flower Growers in the Upper Valley, Vermont
Our Values
We (You & I) are connected by the fabric of our community.
We believe in the everyday magic of being in relationship with our community. We are focused on cultivating flowers and connection. We are grateful to grow beautiful flowers and then hand them off to you for you to take into your life. We think about you. We love you. We want you to be well.
Buying flowers can be an act of radical love and resistance.
Every bouquet is an opportunity to center relationship over transaction, abundance over scarcity, and sustainability over extraction. Our flowers are grown with intention and love for all beings. We are striving for collective liberation here, folks.
You deserve beauty in your life.
Beauty is not a luxury. It is not reserved for a select few. It doesn’t need to be earned. Beauty and flowers are for everyone. You deserve beauty in your life. We all do. So, we grow exceptionally beautiful flowers for everyone.
Dave Richardson
Dave is steady, thoughtful, and reliable. He is tender and caring. He is the kind of person who quietly shows up, in all weather, day after day, day after day, day after day... to do the work that needs doing. You’ll find him outside with his earbuds in and dirt on his hands. He’s the one who makes thousands of soil blocks by hand, who hauls compost, sets irrigation, preps beds, and harvests with care. Dave is the reason Branch & Thorn flowers are so outrageously beautiful — because he grows them with care, attention, and love.
When Dave isn’t playing in the dirt, he is playing music. Dave is a folk singer/songwriter and performs all over New England and beyond. Check out his music here.
Renée Pepin
Renée is curious, reflective, and relational. She’s a relentless chatterbox - asking questions, talk-talk-talking, and building connection. She’s usually dreaming, scheming, and tending to plans. She is an indoor cat and does her work from a comfy spot – figuring what will be grown, planning crops, designing bouquet palettes, and making sure the flowers get where they need to go. (And she’s the one who starts the seeds most of the time.) Renée leads with care, clarity, and commitment.
A scientist in the field and everywhere else: Renée’s day job is researching ways to improve social connectedness and wellbeing for all of us as we age.
Farm
We moved into a lovely 1850’s farmhouse in Windsor, Vermont in 2016. The house sits on 5 acres of mostly wooded, hilly land. In 2019 we carved out a flat sunny space, perfect for cut flower growing. Since then, our growing space has gradually expanded as we figure out how to work with the contours and constraints of this special little spot.
Branch & Thorn Flower Farm is located on unceded land of the Western Abenaki people.
Our Approach
Easy for you, Rigorous for us, Rooted in love
Easy for you: Life is busy and messy. We bring flowers into our homes for lots of reasons: to celebrate, to honor, to grieve, as a pick-me-up, or just because. You have plenty going on already and buying flowers doesn’t need to be burdensome. We’ve got this for you. We focus on simple, intentional, and sustainable offerings to keep your decision making to a minimum.
Rigorous for us: We move with intention, grounded in our values. Our decisions reflect a desire to reduce harm and contribute to a connected community. We’re not certified organic, but we grow with rigor and responsibility — and we’re always happy to share exactly how we do things. Just ask.
Growing Practices
At Branch & Thorn Flower Farm, we care about our soil, our plants, the pollinators that visit our flowers and everything else in our ecosystem. We are a local flower farm serving the Upper Valley. We offer an ethical and sustainable alternative to imported, factory-farmed flowers. While we are not certified organic, our farming methods are rooted in organic principles and low-impact practices:
Soil Health: Ultra-low til, crop rotation, and compost, compost, compost. We start our plants in soil blocks, growing ultra-healthy little plants with minimal plastic use.
Mindful Resource Use: Minimize plastic use, mindful material selection, source local whenever possible. Very rarely do we even use OMRI approved pesticides. We release beneficial insects.
Solar: The whole operation is powered by the sun
Resource Redistribution: We reinvest 10% of all Branch & Thorn income into QT-BIPOC organizations working to build community and support healing.
Get Connected with Flowers
Our Flower CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) is one of our favorite ways to connect through flowers. Through our CSA, we deepen our relationship by sharing the rhythm of the growing season, from the first spring blooms to late summer abundance. Each week, you’ll receive the very best of what’s blooming in the field, and with every bouquet, you’ll be more connected to the season, the farm, and the people who grow your flowers. Everything we grow is meant to be shared, and our flower CSA lets us do that in the most meaningful way, allowing us to grow together, week by week. Get the full scoop on our CSA here.
