Pranee Loffer is the owner of The Secrest Garden, a five-acre flower farm in Monroe, North Carolina. She began farming in mid-2021 after closing her Thai restaurant during the pandemic, turning to flowers as a source of healing and resilience. What started as a therapeutic hobby has since blossomed into a thriving second career centered around growing peonies and seasonal spring and summer flowers.
With the support of this grant, Pranee will purchase a flower cooler that extends the post-harvest life of her blooms from two weeks to up to four months. This upgrade will reduce waste, create longer sales windows, and allow The Secrest Garden to provide customers with fresh, high-quality, locally grown flowers well beyond the short natural bloom cycle.
Pranee sells directly to customers and is developing subscription options to make local flowers more accessible throughout the season. She farms with the help of her four children and local support during harvest. For her, flower farming is about more than just blooms, it’s about seeing her community embrace fresh flowers, teaching her children the value of hard work, and contributing to a growing movement of local flower growers in Union County.
