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When helping source flowers for her sister’s wedding, Laura Beth Resnick learned that 80% of blooms sold in the U.S. are shipped from overseas. “The carbon footprint of the global floral industry is astronomical,” says Resnick. At that moment, the seed for Butterbee Farm had been planted.
“I decided to try growing flowers. That way, florists could get higher quality, longer lasting flowers, plus they could lower their carbon footprint.” With the help of friends who volunteered until Resnick and her husband and farming partner, Jascha Owens, could afford to hire employees, Butterbee Farm saw a hardy business take root, with a successful business delivering flowers to the Baltimore and D.C. areas and providing bulk flowers for events.
But they wanted to do more. With the help of a BGE Energizing Small Business Grant, Butterbee Farm is reaching full flower. “After leasing for 10 years, we were finally able to invest in our own land,” Resnick says. In 2023, Owen and Resnick found acreage in Harford County, Maryland, and doubled their greenhouse space and efforts to grow regeneratively.
“The grant has been a game changer for us,” says Resnick. Now, everything’s coming up roses and dahlias and eucalyptus and countless other seasonal varieties of Butterbee Farm’s “uncommonly beautiful blooms.”