Get to Know River Folk Flowers
Hello, and welcome to our cut-flower market garden! We are Joan and Andy Klingensmith, and we started River Folk Flowers in 2022. Our home sits on a little over an acre in our small town, Union, MO outside of St. Louis.
The Farm
Our garden is named River Folk Flowers because that’s what we’re about: rivers (and the lands they sustain), flowers, and folks (our community). We live in an area defined by its bending rivers, and understand that good stewardship includes not just taking care of the land, but also cultivating relationships between people and nature.
As novice growers, we are always looking to learn more sustainable and effective practices for growing. We are proud to be members of the Association of Specialty Cut Flower Growers, the ASCFG, a professional organization of cut flower growers who support each other through education, community, and research.
We strive to grow all of our flowers using regenerative practices. We are continually growing the diversity and resiliency of our land by planting our landscape with natives for our wildlife and pollinators. We use low-till methods, focusing on soil health and putting nutrients back into the ground. Each season is a lesson to learn from, and we continue to adapt and change with what we learn.
For our day jobs, Andy works for East Central College on their student development team and Joan is a horticulturist working exclusively with natives. We each love what we do, and are excited to be able to share nature with our community in a new, beautiful way! We are accompanied at our home and in the garden by our dog Dell and our cat Beaux. Dell loves digging in our leaf mulch, and Beaux is absolutely enthralled when we water our seedlings at the sink each morning.
