Episode 439: Meet Hans and Lisa Larsen, Sunborn Gardens’ next generation

Fresh and beautiful - an all-Wisconsin-grown bouquet, with flowers and design from Sunborn Gardens

I'm so delighted today to welcome Hans Larsen and Lisa Larsen, partners in Sunborn Gardens, a Wisconsin flower farm and design studio with a long history in cut flower growing.

Hans Larsen and Lisa Larsen, partners in Sunborn Gardens, 2.0!

Tucked in a little valley near downtown Mount Horeb,  Sunborn has been growing beautiful cut flowers for over 40 years. Owners Hans and Lisa Larsen run the flower farm and design studio, working closely together to create unique and artful floral.  The farmer and florist relationship is what makes their floral designs one-of-a-kind, as they constantly trial new varieties and color palettes to showcase the best Wisconsin has to offer. All farming is done using organic practices in order to properly care for their family land. Sunborn's modern designs are inspired by the garden, full of specialty blooms, heirloom varieties and rich with texture. 

Inside one of the Sunborn Gardens' high tunnels, with Farmer Hans.

Sunborn Gardens' founder Carol Larsen is Hans' mother. She originally began to sell at the Dane County Farmer’s Market in Madison, Wisconsin, 44 years ago. Her love affair with flowers began with a bucket of orange marigolds and she and Sunborn have grown cut flowers ever since. Many of you will recall that Carol is a pioneering cut flower farmer who co-founded Fair Field Flowers, a marketing cooperative of Wisconsin and Illinois specialty cut flower growers.

Hans and Lisa with two of their three young children.

Fair Field Flowers permanently closed as of January 1, 2019, but the roots of this legendary and innovative regional model remain deep in Madison, Milwaukee and other markets formely served by the cooperative. These are talented people who really made a mark on the Wisconsin floral scene and whose reach went far beyond their region through education, workshops and sharing their knowledge generously.This is posted on the Fair Field Gardens FB Page: Fair Field Flowers has ceased operation as of 1/1/19. Should you wish to contact any of the former partners please check out the info below:

FAIR FIELD FLOWERS PO Box 2071 Madison WI 53701

Mary Jo Borchardt [email protected] Five Green Acres

Catherine Cooper [email protected] Kate's Fresh Flowers

Christine Curley [email protected] Bee Happy Blooms

Hans Larsen [email protected] Sunborn Gardens

Jeanie McKewan [email protected] Bright Flower Farm

Cheryl Burton and Gina Graham [email protected] Old Stone House Farm, LLC

At harvest with Hans Larsen

Here's more about Flower Farmer Hans Larsen:

"When the opportunity to take over the family farm business came up I had just had my first child. It was in that moment that I knew I had to do it. I wanted my daughter to live the magical, nature-filled life I had as a kid. I wanted her to play in those woods and talk to the flowers. This is by far the hardest thing I have ever done. Learning greenhouse production, bookkeeping, seed starting and more is no walk in the park.  I keep showing up for the flowers. The entrepreneurship journey is a interesting one, full of ups and downs, but unlike the jobs I had before, this gig feeds the soul.  Working so closely with my designer wife, we are cultivating something really special."

Spring market bouquets (left) and summer lisianthus harvest (right)

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