Rising From the Ashes: Mother and Daughter Revitalize Family Farmland Through Flower Farming
Photo Credits: Patti & Chelsea Best
Mother-daughter duo Patti and Chelsea Best are bringing new life to their family farmland through their new business venture: cut-flower farming. They’ve named the farm, located in Haywood County, NC, Phoenix Acres Farm. While they are passionate about their work, flower farming hasn’t always been their career plan.
Chelsea Best spent eleven years working as a paramedic, and began working as a sleep technologist a year and a half ago. Simultaneously, Chelsea was focused on her education. She recently graduated from Western Carolina University with a BSBA in Innovation, Leadership, and Entrepreneurship, and is continuing her education in grad school. Chelsea says that the busy schedule of working both a full-time and part-time job while going to school was one of the catalysts for the change in her career plans. “Too many inside hours for her,” Patti jokes.
For Patti Best, the pivot was an extension of the years their family spent farming. “We’ve farmed forever–just gardens and whatnot. But I’ve been interested in the flower farming aspect for about seven years,” she shares. Patti says that over the years, she studied the methods of Lisa Mason Ziegler, a prominent voice in the world of flower farming.
In 2016, Patti lost her youngest son, Jared, to suicide after his return from military service with a traumatic brain injury and PTSD. “When he passed, my husband and I wanted to finish up some of the things he was doing, in his memory,” Patti shares. “He was following Joel Salatin’s ideas [about] sustainable farming. We were still living in Canton at the time, and we moved back home. This is my husband’s home; it’s been in his family for a couple hundred years.” After moving back to the farm, Patti says she and her husband attended the Mother Earth News conference in Asheville. “It’s something that Jared had planned on doing that year. We were following his trajectory. While we were there, on a lark, I went to Lisa Mason Ziegler’s flower farming classes. They came back next year and I went again, and I started [buying] every book that she had.”
In 2023, Patti finally took one of Ziegler’s online classes. “It was just kind of a pipe dream,” she says. “We had so many things happen to prevent me from moving forward on my own.” She shares that her husband had a stroke, followed by several family tragedies that kept her from pursuing the venture. “I knew that the business end of it would overwhelm me,” She shares. “So I told [Chelsea], ‘well, if you want to join me, we can make a go of this.” Thus the farm was born, and named Phoenix Acres, a nod to their rise from the ashes of family tragedy.
The farm is still in its beginning stages, and the Bests are focused on manageable growth. “We are growing, right now, about a half acre of cut flowers,” Patti shares. “Everything from zinnias and sunflowers to gomphrena and cosmos. We have about ten thousand plants in the ground right now, and another three thousand that will be going out next week.” Patti and Chelsea use a succession planting method, replacing and refreshing plants to ensure a constant supply of new flowers.
The pair are currently focused on selling pre-cut flowers. “We’ll put together wrapped bouquets [for] three market locations. And then we’re also doing three events each week called ‘Flowers with Friends’,” Patti says. Flowers with Friends, she explains, is a hands-on experience. They provide buckets of pre-cut flowers, separated by type. “We’re just inviting people to come and build their own bouquets. They can have a full bouquet of zinnias or sunflowers, or however many or few [varieties] they want,” Chelsea explains.
The venture is truly a joint effort, and the mother and daughter use their strengths to their advantage. “Mom has the knowledge,” Chelsea says. “She knows what all the plants are, when they go in, when to harvest, how to harvest. She’s spent years researching this. I do the business end of it, because she hates that. I actually really like writing business plans.” Patti laughs with her daughter, adding, “I’m an artist. Numbers are not my thing.”
Over time, Phoenix Acres Farm will grow and offer a wider variety of services. “Chelsea spent weeks developing a ten-year plan for us. So if we can stay on track with it, we should be multi-millionaires within the next ten years,” Patti jokes. Chelsea explains that eventually, the pair hopes to build short-term rentals and remodel their century-old barn into an event center, as well as expanding their flower selection to include more uncommon varieties.
In addition to their farming pursuits, both Patti and Chelsea are artistically inclined, which informs their business. Chelsea plays piano and loves music, sharing, “I never do anything without music.” Patti paints, and plans to open a personal art gallery on the farm this year. Her work can be seen on Facebook at Mountain Brushworks by P.H. Best.
Everything Patti and Chelsea do is centered on family. Chelsea shares that her goal is for the farm to be able to support her family, ensuring medical expenses are covered and her parents never have to live in an extended living facility. The mother-daughter duo hopes their farm will grow into a welcoming space for North Carolinians of all walks of life. They plan to create a program to work with local florists, and offer photo shoots in the flower fields. Chelsea says that her goal is to turn Phoenix Acres into a “gathering place,” hosting weddings, live music, barbecues, and more. She says that she and her family want the farm to be “a safe place for people to come where they feel welcome, appreciated, and they don’t have to worry about being judged or looked down upon.”
You can find Phoenix Acres Farm on Facebook to stay in the loop about everything happening on the farm.
