Brooke Palmer turns Jenny Creek Flowers in Trumansburg into full-time business

Brooke Palmer, a Finger Lakes native with a green thumb, is helping to brighten upstate New York winters. 

Her Trumansburg flower business, Jenny Creek Flowers, is hyperlocal, but by supplying cheer through bright, beautiful tulips and dahlias during a time when local flowers are low in supply, Palmer said that she is able to make a huge difference.

After establishing her career in teaching in Oregon and finding love for growing vegetables and flowers over the course of 20 years, Palmer moved back to the Finger Lakes, where she said that her new home presented an opportunity to grow vibrant flowers. That started a rush in the local community.

“I started my business out with these tulips and people were like, ‘Wait, what? There are these tulips; someone has got these tulips!’ And so, in that first year, I literally had Facebook messages and people came to pick them up,” Palmer said. “It was a little chaotic, but I was just getting started.”

What started out as about 1,000 flowers growing in Palmer’s home as a side hustle has now blossomed to a full-scale business that fulfills the lifelong teacher’s economic needs — so much so that last July, Palmer retired from being a high school teacher and is now focusing full-time on Jenny Creek Flowers after almost three years.

“I was a full-time teacher and mom, and then just building my business on the side,” Palmer said. “I came to the tulips because one of my friends told me she really wanted flowers in the dead of winter, when it’s just miserable here in New York.”

At that time, Palmer was doing market research, she said.

“One of the things I realized is that we have a glut of flowers in the summer, but this idea of ‘Can I grow flowers in the winter?’ really captivated me,” Palmer noted.

By her second year, Palmer started offering her flowers in the model she uses now, known as community supported agriculture (CSA). This is a subscription service that allows members to receive a share of the farm’s flower harvest. Typically, a CSA model operates as follows: CSA members purchase a share of the farm’s flower harvest in advance, usually in the winter or early spring. In exchange, they receive a set number of bouquets of fresh, locally grown flowers throughout the growing season.

“[The flowers are] really appreciated,” Palmer said. “People commit to having them weekly in their homes. I had no idea how important it is to have this beauty and joy and just a little bit of hope to get through the winter while we wait for the spring.”

Not only are Jenny Creek Flowers’ blooms a respite from the snow and monotone grey landscapes of upstate New York, but Palmer said they also contribute toward environmental sustainability. 

“When we get into the dormant season here, the only flowers anybody’s going to get are imported flowers,” Palmer said. “The reality of the global floral industry is that importing flowers brings in a big carbon footprint a lot of the time. Because flowers are floriculture and not agriculture, they’re also subject to less regulation around pesticides. To me, there’s that environmental health and carbon footprint piece of my business that feels really exciting to help with and that aligns with my sustainability values.”

For Palmer, her business helps her feel like she can offer a sustainable option to her community during the winter. 

“I had my first blooms this year on Jan. 5, and I will harvest tulips every single day until early May, when the field tulips come up in the spring,” she said. “So I will have months of tulips, like daily tulips for months.”

Ulysses Connection appears every week in Tompkins Weekly. Send story ideas to editorial@vizellamedia.com. Contact Eddie Velazquez at edvel37@gmail.com or on X (formerly Twitter) @ezvelazquez.

In brief:

The town of Ulysses is seeking an energetic, enthusiastic individual to provide youth development programming for 5th- through 8th-graders, after school and during the summer.

Candidates must possess an interest in working with middle-grade youth, as well as an appreciation and the ability to foster an inclusive, supportive environment that respects youth in that wondrous and tumultuous space between childhood and adulthood. 

Hours are primarily between 2:30 and 5 p.m. (with some flexibility in the total number of hours worked per week). Experience working with youth is strongly preferred. Additional training and support will be provided.

Find the full job listing at www.tompkinscivilservice.org/civilservice/post/8850.

Apply by Jan. 31 at tompkinscivilservice.org/civilservice/apply/8850.