Flower farm flourishes with curated summer events
Pinnacle Farms proprietor Jennifer Arrington stands in her greenhouse amid an early-June profusion of Canterbury Bells. Starting in midsummer, her “you pick” fields will flourish with dozens of other blooms.
Photo by Clay Nations Photography
It started with three dahlias she got as a wedding present, recalls Jennifer Arrington, owner of family-friendly Pinnacle Farms Cut Flowers in Haywood County. “Now I have about an acre divided between two fields of flowers.” The home plot is private, while the other one, established in 2022, is open to the public as a “you-pick” farm where visitors can buy a cup or bucket of flowers or just stroll around and take photos. Orders may also be placed through the farm’s website for convenient pick up.
Just in time for a special July sunset you-pick event, flowers in bloom will include sunflowers, strawflowers, pincushion flowers, cosmos, amaranthus, gomphrena (or “globe amaranth”), statice (known as an ideal flower for drying), craspedia (sometimes called “Billy Balls”), verbena, ageratum (or “floss flower”), marigolds, and celosia.
“We’ll have red, white, and blue flowers to celebrate the 4th of July,” says Arrington. Zinnias start in late July and run through August, and over Labor Day weekend, the farm will host Dahlia Fest, featuring more than 250 of the celebrated late-summer blooms.
Sweet William (above), peonies, and other spring flowers dominated the earlier part of the year. Heading into July and August, it’ll be sunflowers, strawflowers, amaranth, zinnias, cosmos, marigolds, and much more.
Photo by Clay Nations Photography
In 2009, Arrington married her husband Stephen — who co-owns and farms Pinnacle Mountain Orchards and is also a co-owner of the circa-1910 Barber Orchards Fruit Stand, a popular agritourism destination, mostly featuring apples, that his parents purchased from the original owners in the 1990s. Though Jennifer knew virtually nothing about dahlias, she says she took her wedding memento, “threw them in the ground, and hoped for the best.”
They proliferated, and within 12 years she had more than ten dozen blooming in her backyard. Not knowing what to do with them all, she bundled them into a few bouquets to try and sell at the Fruit Stand. They sold out within minutes, inspiring her to start a full-fledged flower farm — something else she knew almost nothing about.
Arrington explains, “I look to YouTube for everything, and signed up for Lisa Mason Ziegler’s online Flower Farming School, taking several of her gardener’s workshops. They are fantastic. I’d put the children to bed and do those courses.”
Her three kids, Sadie, Levi, and Ava, now help out. They paint birdhouses to attract winged allies that eat the detrimental bugs that can potentially damage flowers. Stephen does all the plowing, tilling, and heavy lifting.
She adds, “People think if you have a farm like mine you’re out there picking flowers in a sundress, but it’s not like that. By 10am I’m already filthy, covered with dirt and mud. But I don’t have to do it all myself. Last year was my first year with two employees. Ivey, a high schooler, does an immaculate job and wants to go into horticulture, and Lizzie — who is at Western Carolina University — helps me cut and make bouquets.”
Pinnacle Farms Cut Flowers, 2900 Old Balsam Road in Waynesville. The Second Annual Sunset You-Pick Event will be held Friday, July 18 and Saturday, July 19 from 5-8pm. Purchase a cup ($25) or bucket ($90) to pick your own flowers and enjoy watercolor-painting sessions, local food trucks, photography, and other special amenities. ($5 entry for those not picking flowers.) The farm’s Dahlia Fest happens Friday, Aug. 29 through Monday, Sept. 1, 9am-6pm. See the “2025 Farm Events” section of pinnaclefarmsnc.com for details and for more information on the summer schedule.