Elizabeth Seymour walks through rows of yellow sunflowers, zinnias in a mix of colors, starflowers and sweet peas that stand tall and bright against the sky in her garden. 

Growing flowers for Mountain Prairie Flower Farm, just a few miles south of Whitefish, is a labor of love that she shares with the public. The farm offers events and pick-your-own-flower opportunities throughout the summer.  

Seymour says she looks forward to the short six weeks of color that the growing season allows each summer.  

“People really do appreciate flowers,” she said. They aren’t something that is a necessity. It’s something that brings people joy.”   

Originally from Texas, Seymour moved to the Flathead Valley with her husband, Michael Timon Seymour, in 2004. She met her husband, who grew up in the valley in Texas, while she was working as a traveling nurse and he as a paramedic.   

After a stint in West Virginia while her husband earned his master's to become a physician's assistant, the family moved back to Montana. While working, Seymour said, she was also always gardening.   

Her family home in Texas always had a garden, she remembered, thanking her dad’s green thumb for instilling the love for growing in her too.  

“That green thumb passed right through,” Seymour said.   

A mom to four, Seymour started expanding her garden, growing more to feed the family. The kids participated in 4-H throughout their time in school as well, raising pigs, chickens and rabbits that the family also used as a sustainable food option.  

“It was our desire to feed our children from the land and to be as self-sufficient as possible,” the Mountain Prairie Flower Farm’s website says. “As empty nesters now, [we] have come to understand that [our] connection to the land still feeds the soul as well as the body.”  

When the kids graduated, Seymour slowed down the vegetable gardening operation but was left with a lot of unused space. Vegetable beds were converted to grow flowers.  

“I grew them for myself, for my friends,” she said, remembering a moment in 2017 when a friend cried after receiving sunflowers from Seymour. “Someone can be so appreciative of just a handful of flowers.”  

A couple of years ago, Seymour stumbled across the you-pick model for farming, a way for patrons to interact directly with farms, orchards and gardens by coming and picking their own items. Seymour had more flowers than she knew what to do it, so she opened her garden up to the public on select days, allowing people to pick bouquets for $35.   

Seymour also takes flowers weekly to a series of Whitefish restaurants for table decor and occasionally supplies flowers for events like dinners and weddings, with advance notice.   

More than anything, Seymour wants her farm to be a positive and rejuvenating experience for those who enter. As a nurse, Seymour said she knows how chaotic life and work can be. Mountain Prairie Flower Farm, she said, can hopefully be an escape from that. An escape that allows someone to bring something beautiful — like a bouquet of freshly picked flowers — into their own space.   

“The thought of going outside, picking flowers, letting the wind blow your problems away. It sounds amazing after a hard shift. It would be a great thing,” she said.  

Mountain Prairie Flower Farm is committed to growing flowers sustainably and organically, Seymour says, without the use of synthetic fertilizers, herbicides or pesticides.   

Flowers are also available via a community-supported agriculture share, a seasonal subscription that allows patrons to pay upfront and receive flowers regularly. The sign-up usually occurs in May, ahead of the growing season.  

The season ends when the first frost occurs, Seymour said. There is one more opportunity to pick flowers on Sept. 12, 13 and 14 from 5 - 8:30 p.m.   

For more information, visit mountainprairieflowerfarm.com or call 406-253-6398.   

Reporter Kate Heston may be reached at 758-4459 or [email protected].