About the Farmer

In Glade Spring’s town square, the first sight visitors are likely to see when approaching the town’s farmers market this October is the rainbow of full, fluffy blossoms on Tom and Joyce Hawthorne’s mums.  Ranging in color from white to deep purple, vibrant yellow, and bright orange, the Hawthornes’ mums fill a tabletop and represent just a small sampling of all that is available at Tom and Joyce’s business, South Fork Greenhouses in Chilhowie. 

                “A lot of people ask how we get mums so big and pretty,” Tom said.  “I tell them thirty years of experience doesn’t hurt!”  There is no one secret to their success, he said, just “little lessons you learn as you go.”  South Fork’s four greenhouses nurture a variety of herbs and 75 types of perennials—“everything from A to Z,” Tom said—plus vegetable plants, shrubs, and annuals.  The mums, of course, are a highlight this fall, as well as other hardy fall-bloomers like Sedums (Joyce is particularly fond of a variety called Autumn Joy) and asters.

                Mums do famously well in the autumn months, Tom said, because they are typically invulnerable to frosts.  Even heavy freezes “won’t kill them, just fade them here and there,” he explained.  “If you just put this plant on your patio, you can expect it to have blooms on it until Thanksgiving,” he said confidently.  “And actually, if you were to plant it in the ground, it would be pretty likely to come back.  They’re that hardy.”

                With the popularity of these late-blooming flowers, the Hawthornes find autumn to be a particularly busy time at the greenhouse.  Tom, who works full-time at Berry Home Center in Chilhowie, spends much of the rest of his time working with Joyce, who runs the greenhouse with the help of two employees.  In addition to their work preparing their flowers to be sold, they are getting ready to begin storing many of their small shrubs and other tender plants in the greenhouses in preparation for the coming frosts. 

Beginning the first week in November, they will also sell seasonal decorative items like wreaths ranging from 8 inches to 5 feet in diameter, and garlands made from a fragrant mix of fir, pine, boxwood, juniper, cypress, and holly.

Long hours getting his hands dirty are nothing new to Tom, who grew up on a beef cattle farm on Mill Creek just outside of Chilhowie.   His jobs on the family farm included “anything and everything,” he laughed, until he went into business running a garden center in Abingdon.  When his father reached retirement, the family farm was sold, but Tom never lost his interest in working the land.  He and Joyce have translated a lifetime of skills acquired from farm maintenance, experience running the garden center, and a love of nature into a long-term commitment to their greenhouses.

Like many farmers, Tom mentions the weather as the primary difficulty in running the family business.  “This has been a difficult year for mums,” he said.  “Some haven’t even started blooming—they need short nights and cool weather to trigger them to bloom, and this year has been too hot too late in the season, so they’ve been slow to start.”  The long, hot summer won’t affect the flowers’ appearance, he said, only the length of time they bloom, as the blossoms emerge later than normal.  

Still, Tom finds the work tremendously rewarding, and particularly enjoys the family-like atmosphere at the Glade Spring market, where he and Joyce have been fixtures since it first opened five years ago.  The Hawthornes also sell their flowers at the farmers markets in Marion and Chilhowie. 

The work is time-consuming, Tom said, but he thrives on “the fresh air and being outdoors.”  He expects that when he retires from his day job, “I’ll just go and get a job at the greenhouse,” he said with a grin, noting that he does have over four decades experience working alongside his future boss; the two celebrate their 44^th wedding anniversary this week. 

Visit South Fork Greenhouse Monday-Saturday from 9-5 (the hours will shorten to 10-3 later in the fall), five miles south of Chilhowie on Loves Mill Road, or call them at 276-646-8388.  The Glade Spring Farmers Market is open on Saturdays from 8am-noon through October.  For more information, visit www.gladespringfarmersmarket.com

Article and photo by Paige Campbell