Growing up on a family farm, Jamie Rohda developed an early connection to the land. When she married her husband, Norm, they enjoyed gardening together and turned a small patch of fruits and vegetables, planted to offset grocery bills, into a thriving cut flower farm. Their 11 acres outside of Waverly, Nebraska, are well-known and beloved as Harvest Home Flowers.
“Someone before us took good care of that land,” Rohda said. The rich, well-cared-for soil would be the springboard for future success.
Their garden produced in abundance and they sold extra produce at local farmers’ markets. That’s where Rohda discovered a niche market for flowers. “A couple vendors would bring flower bouquets to market and they always sold out—I thought it was so cool,” she said. “So, I started by gathering pretty flowers that grew in our landscape, and made them into bouquets for the market.” Bouquets sold and interest soared. By 2015, the Rohdas were exclusively producing cut flowers and expanding their business ventures to wedding floral arrangements and selling wholesale to florists.
Flower farming isn’t just about planting seeds—it’s about understanding soil, timing, and the perfect conditions for each flower. “Soil health is everything. We work the land by hand, test it, and nurture it, because we know that healthy soil means better crops,” Rohda said. A no-till approach is used on the farm to allow the soil’s natural structure to flourish and encourage biodiversity, from worms to beneficial insects. Her process works, producing a wide variety of beautiful ranunculus, petunias, dahlias, fragrant tuberoses, peonies, hardy lisianthus, vines, delphinium, eucalyptus, hydrangea, and many more over a 25-year career.
There is an art to knowing when to cut each bloom. “I’m out there every day, checking on the buds, watching them grow. It’s like being a new, proud parent when something pops up,” she mused. There are a few crops which need to be cut multiple times each day. Peonies, for example, need to be cut at an exact time of the blooming process, which Rohda describes as the “marshmallow stage, or when squeezing a bud should feel like squeezing a marshmallow.” She recommends storing the stems dry, in a cooler. “Social media and television shows make flower farming look so romantic, and it can be, but it is also a lot of hard work,” she said. “Whatever we are cutting, the maximum vase life for our end customer takes priority.”
Rohda’s impact on the industry extends beyond the farm. In 2021, she collaborated with Omaha event designer Elle Seals and Farma Flowers of Lincoln to launch the Flatland Floral Collective. Farmers experiment with growing unusual crops and florists can source several local farms to fulfill larger-quantity requests or obtain hard-to-get varieties. “We don’t try to compete with standard flowers that can be shipped in. We focus on what must be grown locally because it won’t ship well,” Rohda said. “Zinnias, tuberose, and dahlias are all super easy to grow here but don't ship well at all.”
Collective supporter Holly Lukasiewicz is an artist, environmentalist, and owner of District 2 Floral Studio. When she creates arrangements, her goal is to use local seasonal flowers and prioritize sustainable practices. “To minimize my carbon footprint, I first source from our personal garden and local farm partners, majority through Flatland Floral Collective (FFC), supplementing with flowers from American/domestic farmers. I remember the first large wedding I was able to design 100% with locally-grown blooms in July 2023 was a dream come true!”
When new farmers seek out Rohda’s expertise, her best piece of advice is to “try to relax and just put seeds in the ground to see what happens.” Her commitment and passion for her craft and sustainable practices ensure the farm and the collective are, as Rohda puts it, “alive—full of possibilities for generations to come.”
This article originally appeared in the May 2025 issue of Omaha Home Magazine. To receive the magazine, click here to subscribe.
