THE OREGONIAN

There are many ways to love flowers, even among family members. Joan Ewer Thorndike, an organic flower farmer and mom, carries delphiniums in her arms as she walks from one of her greenhouses into a warehouse at Le Mera Gardens in Northwest Medford.

LITERARY GARDENER PODCAST

Literary Gardener host Rhonda Nowak talks with Rogue Valley flower farmer Joan Thorndike. For the past 30 years, Joan has provided the community with locally and organically grown flowers for homes, businesses, weddings, and events.

SLOW FLOWERS JOURNAL

In 2012, with the publication of The 50 Mile Bouquet, readers met Joan Thorndike, a gifted flower-farmer based in Oregon's agriculturally rich Rogue Valley. I featured her in a chapter called "Grower Wisdom," and introduced Le Mera Gardens, one of the state's first certified organic flower farms.

MAIL TRIBUNE

When Joan Thorndike started growing flowers commercially in the Rogue Valley in the early 1990s, no one was asking questions about where their cut flowers came from.

DOCUMENTARY SHORT

This short and impressive documentary is filmmaker Joanne Feinberg’s love letter to flower farming, sustainable and organic growing methods, and the fragile beauty of a flower. It is a tribute to one woman’s journey to change the floral landscape in her own community and beyond.

THE OREGONIAN

Organic flower grower Joan Ewer Thorndike of Le Mera Gardens in Talent, south of Medford, is sentimental about seasonal blooms. She tells brides that each year they see the flowers they chose for their bouquet blossom again, they are reminded of their big day.

SLOW FLOWERS PODCAST

Today is the 5th anniversary of the Slow Flowers Podcast, and I thank you for tuning in. Debra Prinzing talks with original guest Joan Thorndike of Le Mera Gardens and Isabella Thorndike Church of Jacklily Seasonal Floral Design.

SLOW FLOWERS JOURNAL

Slow Flowers members reveal that mindful couples who care about spending their dollars in a meaningful way are choosing local and seasonal bouquets, boutonnieres and floral decor.

CAPITAL PRESS

Joan Ewer Thorndike owns Le Mera Gardens, an organic cut flower business based in Ashland, Ore. “We don't have automation,” she says. “You cannot pick a good flower without using your hands and your eyes.”

MAIL TRIBUNE

Faintly fragrant and faded within a few days, many commercial flower bouquets betray the rigors of transport between grower, retailer and consumer.

But Joan Thorndike’s farm-fresh flowers, picked hours before and shipped mere miles, remain vivid and aromatic for a week or more. Their longevity arises from their locally grown and certified-organic roots.

50 MILE BOUQUET

Organic flower farmer, Joan Thorndike is a smart, generous, soft-spoken woman who has been farming flowers organically since the early nineties, which was well before even organic food had become a blip on many people’s radar screens, let alone organic flowers.