Land Access Stories: Aura Rosa Florals – Squamish, BC

Posted by Kat Roger on December 14, 2023

Aura Rosa Florals is a micro cut flower farm and design studio in Squamish, BC that specializes in unique, seasonal, and local floral designs. Leasing farmer Amanda Bagliore was matched to 0.5 acres of land through the B.C. Land Matching Program in March of 2022, where she grows flowers for herself, the land and flower-lovers in Squamish and throughout B.C.

Aura Rosa Florals is committed to local production, regenerative farming practices and crafting offerings full of magic, love and joy. Flowers from Aura Rosa Florals are available through weekly CSA bouquets, weekly designer floral arrangements, and custom event and wedding designs throughout the growing season.

HOW AURA ROSA CAME TO BE

Amanda has always had her hands in the soil, running her own landscaping business and farming operation for the past 15 years. Amanda began her farming journey growing food plants, but, over time, flowers have won her heart. Starting in her own backyard, Amanda has owned and operated Aura Rosa Florals for the past six years. 

Prior to its current home in Brackendale, Aura Rosa Florals operated on a combination of Amanda’s yard space and leased land. While Amanda’s flowers bloomed beautifully and her CSA customers were loyal and enthusiastic, access to land was always a challenge. Come 2021, Amanda was four seasons into her flower business and once again looking for land. She was, as she describes it, nearing despair. Although friends, neighbours and community members offered up plots for Amanda’s use, the land in question was either not suitable for flower farming or was being offered at real estate market rental prices, which did not make sense for Amanda’s local, small-scale, direct-to-consumer business model. After four years of running a successful business, Amanda was starting to seriously consider that she might have to shelve Aura Rosa Florals. Like many other farmers in her position, the barrier of land access looked like it might shut down a thriving operation.

However, also like many other farmers in her position, Amanda’s business was saved by the strength of her community connections. At the time, Amanda’s landscaping business partner happened to be a friend of Krystle tenBrink, the Executive Director of Squamish Climate Action Network (CAN), and Krystle happened to be a friend of Young Agrarians! Krystle was five years into developing a community farm project that would support small farmers and local food security. In late 2021, through the B.C. Land Matching Program, Krystle and Squamish CAN were able to secure land for their local food hub at Easter Seals, Camp Squamish in Brackendale.Serendipitously for Amanda and Aura Rosa Florals, Squamish CAN was in the process of selecting farmers to farm their new plot of land at Easter Seals just as Amanda was looking for land in 2021. Amanda was selected in addition to two other farmers to sublease parcels of the land for their farming operations. Squamish CAN helped Amanda and the other farmers with grants for infrastructure, and the B.C. Land Matching Program provided lease and negotiation support. 

By March of 2022, Aura Rosa Florals was back in business, just in time for the growing season! Amanda brought in an excavator for the soil from her landscaping operation, and she and the other leasing farmers got to work preparing the soil for their businesses. By summer 2022, Amanda was selling flowers again, and by summer 2023, when we went out to visit her, she was selling 60 bouquets per week through her CSA, providing flower design for 1-2 events per month, and dreaming up a whole host of new projects for the farm.

Now two years into a five-year lease with the hope of renewal, Amanda runs Aura Rosa Florals with secure land tenure and the added benefit of sharing land with two other farming operations, who all help each other out with tools, advice and shared marketing. Amanda describes that, without the support of Squamish CAN and the B.C. Land Matching Program, it would have taken her years to find land and set up the appropriate infrastructure, and guesses that her business probably would not have survived. Instead, Aura Rosa Florals is doing better than ever!

LEARNING PLANT TIME: WHY AMANDA FARMS

As Amanda describes the wild and uncertain journey she went through to secure land for Aura Rosa Florals, her passion for growing flowers–and willingness to do whatever it takes to make that happen–rings clear. For Amanda, growing flowers is more than a business, or even a career: it’s how she connects to herself and the world around her. Growing flowers isn’t a choice for Amanda, it’s a calling. 

Before she started Aura Rosa, Amanda felt like she was “inside of somebody’s washing machine,” constantly pulled this way and that by her landscaping business and by her kids’ timelines and needs. Though she deeply loves both her job and her kids, Amanda was lacking something that was just hers, something to settle into and focus on, a space where she could really be with herself–and most importantly, a space where she could grow, a space that had the longevity to see Amanda through changes big and small in her life, self and family. Growing flowers turned out to be that space. 

With both smiles and tears, Amanda describes the gratitude she feels for the land she works with, and stands in awe of the teachings the land has offered her over the years. As she tends to soil and flowers, Amanda has the space to work through the emotional, practical and spiritual matters that press on her, and to learn from the teachings of plants–whether that’s watching a companion plant step up to the plate to support its neighbour, or the delightful surprise of volunteer yarrow finding its way into her beds when she’s in need of it. Most poignantly, Amanda describes the magic of being on “plant time,” where her body can rest into the rhythms of the growing season. As a mother and the owner of two businesses, she is so often beholden to the clock of so many other people and structures. But because Amanda is tied to the land through her flowers, there is always a cultivated piece of her life, and of herself, that runs with the seasons, that gets to be small, peaceful, and attentive amidst the workings of the natural world. 

The respect that Amanda has for the land that she tends is palpable, and she emphasizes that the land is not “hers.” Amanda sees herself as a humble facilitator and collaborator of the land, in awe of the generosity it offers and always in pursuit of ways to reciprocate that generosity.

WHAT’S NEXT FOR AURA ROSA FLORALS?

Now that Amanda has concluded her second growing season on the land and is feeling more comfortably set up, she is keen to find ways to give back and share the land’s abundance. She would love to dedicate a currently unused back portion of the land to hosting community events and providing educational opportunities for the farm- and flower-curious. In particular, Amanda wants to teach workshops on cut flowers, bouquet making, and sustainable agriculture. Amanda would also love to share the emotional and spiritual benefits she has received from working with plants, and would like to find creative ways to teach the language of relationships with plants. Lastly, Amanda would love to see how she can integrate the resources and specialties of her landscaping crew moving forward, to connect the two sides of her plant world together.

Also scheming about the future of Aura Rosa Florals is Elliott, Amanda’s teenager and beekeeping protégé. Following in Amanda’s footsteps, Elliott has taken full responsibility for the bees of Aura Rosa Florals, and according to Amanda, “all Elliott wanted for Christmas last year was a beekeeping class.” A recent addition to the farm, Amanda and Elliott can’t wait to see what’s next for the bees. Amanda is delighted that Elliott wants to spend time on the land learning and growing with her, and Elliott is keen to participate in supporting Aura Rosa Florals’ exciting new projects.

 

CONNECT WITH AURA ROSA FLORALS:

Facebook: Aura Rosa Florals

Instagram: @aura_rosa_florals

Website: visit shop.aurarosaflorals.com to learn more about Amanda and Aura Rosa Florals and to shop for her beautiful flowers!

You can also find a newsletter sign-up, information about upcoming workshops, and information about CSA subscriptions on Aura Rosa’s website. Stay tuned for more information about 2024 offerings.

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Got Land? Want Land?

Through the B.C. Land Matching Program, Young Agrarians offers support to farmers looking for land for their farm business, and landholders looking for farmers to farm their land. We’ve made more than 298 matches on over 11,800 acres to date! To learn about available land opportunities, and to learn about the B.C. Land Matching program in Squamish-Lillooet and the Lower Mainland, please visit youngagrarians.org/land or contact the Metro Vancouver Land Matcher, Ve-Jane Duong, at vejane@youngagrarians.org.