Before Old Barn Flower Farm there was an Old Barn

It was easy coming up with the name of our flower farm. The farm property and its gigantic old barn have always been admired by visitors. It has been photographed and painted on canvases. But none of it was a part of a working farm, not until we discovered flowers. As it turns out, a substantial acreage comes with incredibly fertile soil, and luckily for those fields, somebody who doesn’t mind getting dirty came along. For the love of flowers, Old Barn Flower Farm was born, and all of its gardens and buildings are put to good use. Our barn now dries flowers and facilitates a long list of our busy farm operations. Welcome to the pages of our small-scale flower farm and online flower shop based in Uxbridge, Ontario.

Produced in Canada

The clock is ticking; our planet needs help, so does our economy, so let’s stop flying in goods from abroad and cherish what we can produce right here at home. We, Canadians, learned to adapt to our climate and make the most of every season. The same goes with homegrown flowers, and we are so thrilled to join the flower farming movement that’s taking a leap across the country. #BUYLOCAL

Organically Grown

Flower farming in Canada is not regulated the same as food farming, so when we say organically grown, we mean non-certified organic approach in our practices. We don’t use any artificial fertilizers or pesticides to grow our crops. We focus on providing the best soil and conditions for plants to fight off any pest attacks in the field. For example, horse manure and fish emulsion are doing a pretty good job!

Sustainably Prepared

Here at the Old Barn Flower Farm, we care that the material we use in our flower operation are sustainably sourced, made from recyclable medium and can be further recycled or even composted. That includes bouquets sleeves, brand stickers and tags, stock on which we print our greeting cards, the choice of vessels. We don’t use floral foam, and some unavoidable plastics are being reused repeatedly.

Naturally Presented

You can feel the nature in our floral arrangements. We love how blooms look in our cut flower garden: loose, airy, not constrained, almost wild, and we love to give them to you just the same way. Not heavily designed, just natural. Even when we use the spiral technique for a bouquet or an armature for a vessel arrangement or a floral installation, we let those stems go where they want to go.

A florist from Old Barn Flower Farm holding a large white bucket full of colourful blooms and posing in front of the red barn doors.

A Journey to Flower Farming & Floral Design

Well, hello, friends! My name is Olja (reads as Olya), and I’m the one behind the Old Barn Flower Farm. A farmer, a florist, also an operation manager and the designer of these pages. Clearly an entrepreneur with many hats and definitely a flower enthusiast. Together with my family, I started a cut flower garden and an online flower shop during the COVID-19 crisis. I’ve been a city girl most of my life, and my transition from Toronto to the countryside has been gradual. When this pandemic started, I was still commuting daily for my marketing job in financial services in Toronto.

I’ve always been fond of, yes, a big city, but also, old things, vintage, cottagey, and I fell in love with this rustic farm that became my home. But it wasn’t until covid restrictions came into play that I had time to get to know it better. I started growing food, then flowers, then I realized I really like this middle of nowhere of mine, how I lovingly refer to the farm. And when I came down with sudden health issues, not one diagnosis but two (lucky me, yay!), I’ve decided to let go of the city altogether, avoid office work, and embrace digging the field, growing flowers and being outside. So, you could say this business idea came from my entirely selfish needs, but luckily for me, I know a lot of you out there share my love for flowers. I’m growing a lot for all of us!

When I Discover Something New, I Go Long

By profession, I am a marketing strategist and a brand manager. During my corporate career, I had an opportunity to work for a world leader in financial services in Europe and here in Canada. I also worked for smaller companies, and I dared to switch industries and try something new. It turns out “new” is something to be excited about, not afraid of, and it’s making my life fulfilled. Some decisions I made, some have been made for me, but as long as I was able to adapt, I came to find immense benefits on the other side. Over the last decade, whether by plan or by accident, I discovered a LOT of new things I have never done before, and I also discovered that when I tap into something, I can’t just scratch the surface. I get curious, I press on, and I always go long.

Florist mudding the newly installed walls.

So, when I started running for recreation, I became a marathon runner. When I bought my fixer-upper house in Toronto, I ended up designing it and rebuilding it with my own two hands and sold it well. When I found a discarded vintage sofa on the side of the street, I went on to upholster it myself and save thousands of dollars for a piece like that. When I dived into learning to knit beads and to use jewellery-making techniques, I started creating and selling unique mixed media fashion jewellery designs, which also got published. And after I planted a few flower seeds for the first time, I didn’t know then that soon I’ll be growing over 300 different plants in MY cut flower garden at MY Old Barn Flower Farm. How crazy is that?!

Florist turns jewellery into wearable art.

Florist picks flowers form her cut flower garden.

Florist works with the flowers she grew into a floral design.

Farm’s Little Helpers – Specialists in Photobombing

Speaking of new, I’ve inherited two idiot cats. They sort of came with the farm as a package deal. I wasn’t much into cats. I love dogs. Big dogs. I had a harlequin Great Dane a long time ago, but now, I officially become a crazy cat lady. And I mean really crazy, crazy about these two, my first ones. They seem to be crazy about me too. Always following me in step, so they keep walking into my flower beds, real beds and, of course, photos. Except for my jewellery design studio, which is off-limits, they pretty much rule the farm. They were also modelling for our oil paintings and got featured on our greeting cards.

Nothing but girl power here at the Old Barn Flower Farm with the help of my two furry girlfriends who, it’s safe to say, changed my life for the better.

The same picture of a florist with a bucket of flowers only zoomed out to include a black and white cat from the flower farm.

Balancing Act of a Multi-Passionate Entrepreneur

What I learned about myself is that I need the space to be creative to be happy. We are all searching for happiness, and I think it’s utterly wrong to expect someone else to make you happy. I firmly believe that each of us is responsible for how content we are with our own lives. That’s why it is so important to discover your true self and not blindly follow a box a society designed for you. Also, the world keeps changing. Maintaining the status quo means dying slowly. It’s just not sustainable. Change is not a bad thing. For me, being open-minded to learning and experimenting with new things is what keeps me alive the most. My downside is that I sometimes feel one lifetime is not enough for all my ideas. There are so many areas I’d love to let my creativity go nuts with, so finding the right balance is the key.

A picture of a florist and a renowned jewellery magazine where her designs got published.

The journey from seed to flower presented with the view of tiny seedlings on the left and a lush flower arrangement on the right.

I am also an introvert, and I found when I work in solitude in my cut flower garden, I allow to feel, and my brain makes space to clear thoughts. And at the end of the day, yes, I feel physically exhausted but overall replenished and energized not only for flower farming but for everything else. Old Barn Flower Farm is heading full force to grow more flowers and share them with you. Also, in the near future, I’ll be building upon my already established brand in DIY home reno space, as well as my online shop for all my jewellery designs. By the name of Sgravalli, my first brand too is moving ahead with new plans! Together with the Old Barn Flower Farm, it has a single goal of making positive change in people’s lives, making their working and living spaces more comfortable, and making you feel more productive, confident, and good about yourself.

A before and after view of a bedroom makeover represents another passion of florist from Old Barn Flower Farm.

A before and after shot of a sofa makeover as refurbishing furniture is another passion of Uxbridge florist.

Harvesting My Cut Flower Garden is Always Exciting!

Floral arrangements are my most recent passion, and because of it, going into my cut flower garden for a harvest is so exciting. Even on a bad mosquito day! I love seeing buckets full of fresh-cut flowers as I adjust my design vision or start creating one right on the spot. Whether I am designing a room or a necklace, or I’m doing graphic design or video editing, approaching floral design comes the same way – I play! I like to be alone, turn on some house music and just let myself go. I’ve studied a great deal of floral design material, attended online and in-person workshops, and I do use a lot of helpful techniques I’ve learned. But for the most part, I allow my creativity to explore, and often, as in my other creative work, I see beauty in asymmetry. I think something wild in me is leaning that way always, not sure.

Old Barn Flower Farm’s Art on Our Greeting Cards

An artist paints Uxbridge motifs for Old Barn Flower Farm and their greeting cards.

Meet My Dad

Daddyyyyyyy! When you say art, I say dad. Art! Dad! My dad, you guys – I can’t even control my excitement about this part – my dad painted amazing pieces of art depicting our farm, scenery around Uxbridge, our animals, Canadian birds, and some of my flower arrangements, which we translated onto our greeting cards! This way, every time you order flowers as a gift, you can include your personal message written on a little piece of printed art. And a kind you won’t find anywhere else! This collection features original oil-on-canvas-board paintings, which are now also available to purchase on our website right here.

It’s Uxbridge and the region that was so inspiring. It was me who first fell in love with it during my long runs zig-zagging the country roads. I took a million photos and shared them with my dad. He just started painting it. He consumed it all so quickly. A meadow by the road, curious pigs, a random country driveway. It just looks like where our home used to be. In Croatia. Before 1991 and the Balkan war. I guess this place in Ontario took us back, filled in the painful gap, as we never returned home. And my cut flower garden is more and more reminiscent of my grandparent’s farm and fields of crops left behind in a hurry.

An Artist with Over 40 Years of Work Under His Belt

My dad, Milojko Blagojevic, Brko, has been painting all his life pretty much. He worked as a salesman; painting was his hobby. A hobby that brought him recognition, exhibited and awarded work in pre-war Croatia, and hundreds of commissioned pieces over the span of 40 years. His favourite medium is oil on stretched canvas, but he enjoys working with charcoal, pastel and acrylics. He easily travels through realism, surrealism and abstract art periods; it really depends on what and in which way prompts him to take the brush. For example, when we first found ourselves as refugees in his native Montenegro, the only way he knew how to process war was to paint a collection on large-sized canvases named “Ripped out of their roots.”

Ripped Out Of Their Roots_1_Milojko Blagojevic

Ripped Out Of Their Roots_2_Milojko Blagojevic

Then, the fact that he had painted my cut flower garden means that he is so excited about the Old Barn Flower Farm project because he had never painted any flower before. More likely, a rock from a Montenegrin mountain or a dead tree will be more inspiring to him; sunflowers and cosmos are definitely a stretch. Yet, he suddenly enjoyed painting that too! Our family lives now between Canada and Serbia, and we miss each other when we are not together. Dishing art and farm plans keeps us connected. More than that, dad’s art always helped us overcome difficult moments in life, so we couldn’t be happier as a family to share it with others. A selection of greeting cards with his art is now available through our online flower shop.