Flatland Flower Farm is a family nursery owned by the husband and wife team of Dan Lehrer and Joanne Krueger just west of the lovely town of Sebastopol, California. We get help from our stellar employee, Ben Renaud, our 5-year-old son Julian, and lots of barn cats.
It all started on a warm spring day in 1995 when, on a whim, we decided to cut bouquets of heirloom sweet peas from our backyard trellis to sell at the Berkeley Farmers’ Market. We made a whopping $60, and a dream was born.
We became regular vendors at the Berkeley Farmers’ Market, selling both bouquets and plants out of the back of a tiny car. Joanne had been learning about propagation from a local farmer friend, and the seeds started popping up left and right. We also became a regular vendor at the San Francisco Ferry Plaza Farmers’ Market, and a few years after that began selling to local garden centers.
Julian laying out seed flats. Many specialty items we’ve saved for propagation have disappeared into Julian’s collection.
We now raise plants in three unheated greenhouses, all nestled among 22 acres of apples in Sebastopol, California, about 1 1/2 hours north of San Francisco.