Northern flower farmers share what brings them joy

The sunflowers at Antila Acres in Cochrane, Ont. are thriving in this long weekend's heatwave.

Kayla Antila and her partner Catherine Boulet said they never envisioned they'd be flower farmers until Antila's mom suggested planting some sunflower seeds and now they are loving every minute of it.

“I would say I don’t have a green thumb but we tried it out,” said Antila.

“It was pretty easy – I mean the weather has to be on your side as well but it’s just a matter of planting them, watering and watch them grow."

"I think it’s a really good thing; people really enjoy it around here cause we’re the only sunflower farm," added Boulet.

Antila told CTV News that the experience has brought her family closer together.

"We work very closely with my parents, they’re both retired so they help us out a lot," she said.

"We’re always out here on the farm having a good laugh and it’s nice to be on the land. It’s calming, it’s relaxing so it’s brought us a lot of joy.”

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In Timmins, Sarah Popovic is known as The Northern Fleurista.

She's been a practicing doctor of naturopathic medicine for 20 years – but one day after posting a picture of a mixed bouquet of perennials from her garden on her social media feed, the response she received was enough to launch her farm.

“So I started researching that winter and I thought I’d get a couple of seeds and then it just kind of exploded from there and I realized there was something there," said Popovic.

"People really liked it, it made people really happy and yeah, it allowed me to have my creative side going.”

Popovic has been a vendor at the Mountjoy Farmers’ Market both last summer and this one. She said she is excited to add even more varieties to her crops next year.

“Every year my goal is to try to bring something new so when I bring my flowers somewhere it’s like I get that ... 'Oh what’s that? I’ve never seen that before,'” said Popovic.

“I love that; it gets me so excited when I can do that for people."

These flower farmers are proof that even though places like Timmins and Cochrane see snow for half of the year, there's hope for the other six months of the year.