Home Grown Blooms

The beauty of flowers is something Kari Geary says she’s been drawn to since she was eight years old, and by the time she was in fourth grade she knew she wanted to be a florist. That passion for plants never wavered, and after briefly working toward a degree in botany and plant pathology, Geary traded the classroom for the real-life experience she’d get in a greenhouse. The rest, as they say, is history. 

“It’s so funny because I never even went into a flower shop when I was little, so I had no idea why I thought I wanted to be a florist, but that’s what I’ve always wanted to be,” Geary recalls. 

Today, after more than two decades in the flower industry, Geary owns and runs Ruby Moon Floral in rural Noble County. Her business has evolved over the years, but her commitment to the highest quality products and exceptional customer service hasn’t changed. What makes her bouquets, centerpieces and other arrangements especially unique is that the flowers she uses are often grown on her own property. After having a couple of negative experiences with wholesale distributors, Geary says she had a lightbulb moment.

“Finally, it clicked. I wondered, ‘Why am I having them shipped from California or Florida and not growing these myself?’ That’s when I really started seriously growing stuff,” she says. “A lot of those flowers were grown in Ecuador and Colombia by people who don’t really make a good decent living wage, and they’re sprayed with a lot of chemicals. Also, they have to be shipped a long way, where they get fumigated and then put on a truck, so they’re a week-and-a-half old before we get them.” 

Her farm now includes greenhouses as well as land dedicated to growing a variety of flowers, including sweet peas, dahlias, ranunculus, foxgloves, sunflowers, zinnias and celosia. 

“That really sets us apart. We have the ability to custom grow flowers for people. We’re already talking to brides for 2025 and we will plan our fields and our greenhouse schedule based on the things they want. I don’t think many other florists have that capability,” Geary stresses.

That customization is one of the reasons Sandy Budzon has hired Geary to take care of the flowers for three of her children’s weddings. 

“She’s so talented and she has such attention to detail. I felt comfortable and so at ease. Whenever I walked in the room, I would cry. She transformed the venue into something magical,” says Budzon. “Flowers are super important to me and her work makes me emotional because it’s so beautiful. I would recommend her again and again. She’s fabulous, she listens and she’s just so talented. She makes sure wedding dreams come true. She’s passionate about her work and her farm.”

No matter how big or how small, Geary says she enjoys turning a bride’s vision into something memorable. “Some brides have very specific requests and others just give us a color palette and trust us to come up with something beautiful,” she says. “For our full-service weddings, we’ll go and set it all up and then we’ll come back that night and tear it all down. Or we can do bulk buckets of flowers, so if people have little bud vases and they want to do those themselves, they can. We can work within their budget to find something that’s perfect for them.” 

While weddings and receptions are a huge focus of her business — she and her small team did 57 last year — she also holds classes to help share her knowledge and experience with others.

“I really love to see how people light up when they come out here and when they get to pick their own flowers,” she says. “I find a lot of joy in helping people learn how to garden or how to grow their own cut flowers, and I really enjoy having people come out here to the farm.”

Each spring around Mother’s Day, Geary holds a plant sale for people who want to grow their own cut flower gardens. “This year we also had 53 varieties of tomato plants that people could buy,” she adds. 

Geary hopes the Ruby Moon farm and design studio is an oasis for those who want to experience the joy of growing their own flowers as well as a place that inspires others to reconnect with nature. 

“That’s really where I get my inspiration,” Geary says. “Being outside brings me so much joy and I want to share that with others.” 

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