Gardening came into Xenia D’Ambrosi’s life during a health crisis. While undergoing breast cancer treatments, she began volunteering at local farms, including at the Stone Barns Center for Food & Agriculture in Pocantico Hills, New York. Having her hands in the soil was therapeutic and ultimately, life-changing.
Xenia's diagnosis and treatment coincided with the final months of a successful financial banking career in commercial real estate finance. She left that professional chapter in 2010 as her life’s demands changed along with personal priorities. “I was working all the time and I had two kids at home who needed me,” she explains.
Xenia and her family had moved from the city to the outer suburbs of Westchester County, in Pound Ridge, New York, where they inherited a small backyard garden. “I loved to be there on the weekends," she recalls. "This is where I taught myself a lot about gardening.”
Today, Xenia operates her commercial flower farm on the acreage surrounding a 1800's-built farmhouse. The fields, barn, and design studio teem with life, energy, and creativity. Pollinators abound and the improved health of the soil is good for the environment and for her business. Sweet Earth Co. produces a variety of flowers with a focus on peonies, lisianthus, and dahlias. “These are premium varieties and they look so much better when grown locally and not shipped.”
At the Slow Flowers Summit, Xenia will demonstrate bouquet-making and present her advice on cutting garden design. Her message: “You can grow your own bouquet with a focus on growing and cutting from seasonal flowers. Your designs are fresh and creative when you grow the flowers yourself.”
Clearly, the values of sustainable practices and good land stewardship are important to this floral entrepreneur. Her fields are a toolbox from which she pulls to create bouquets and arrangements for flower subscription members and for wedding and event clients.
Her work, she says, is a continuation of her Puerto Rican heritage. Her parents and relatives grew up farming. “This history of land stewardship and farming is engrained in my DNA.” Through flowers, Xenia has found her passion and her calling — “flowers have the ability to bring joy, inspiration, and healing.”
For more information:
Slow Flowers Summit
www.slowflowerssummit.com
