Mary SLINGLUFF
& THE JOURNEY From THE nursery to OUR farm
My career started out as a clinical laboratory specialist in cytogenetics at the Cleveland Clinic. I was also the mother of a 5 year old and 3 year old triplets. After some time, I felt the need to follow my passion, and take my kids and biological knowledge out in the field- and so on January 1, 1998, Avalon Gardens Inn and Nursery was born, and was the beginning of my floral journey. My little family of four, my amazingly supportive and understanding husband, and my aging mother all began a journey on Fowlers Mill Road in Chardon. The nursery grew, my children grew, and my mom grew older and passed away. During that time, I learned so much about native plants, people, nature, flower farming and floral design. From 1998 to 2021, the nursery thrived and many amazing people stayed at the airbnb we hosted on the property. During this time my love for floral design was born. I then embarked on many workshops and conferences all over the country learning all that I could about flower farming, and floral design- learning from the best.
Avalon Gardens Nursery and Inn - our Airbnb that welcomed hundreds of guests to Fowlers Mill Road.
Our Nursery- where I grew my business over the past 24 years.
We sold native-grown plants to the public, and met so many dear customers.
My inspiration and intense passion to be apart of peoples weddings led me to a thriving floral business. Being a part of peoples weddings, celebrations, and events is the ultimate honor in my eyes, and my love for floral design grew and grew. I quickly realized I needed more time to devote to my brides and wedding florals. This led to the decision to hire Amy Goletz, who was the amazing set of hands that I was looking for to help me with the nursery. Amy added so much to the farm and nursery- and after a while I started to feel it was as much Amy’s nursery as mine. Today, Amy is now the proud owner of that property! She has changed the name of the actual house and nursery to Avonlea Gardens and I have moved my floral farm and wedding design business, Avalon Gardens Farmer Florist, to my 40 acre dream farm, still here in Chardon.
Over the past three years, I had been growing all the cut flowers at my farmstead anyway- adding hundreds of peonies, shrubs, and cut foliage over those years. This year we will be planting even more cut flowers to supplement the roses that we buy from wholesalers for our floral events. I now have been able to devote more time to weddings and events as well as my grandchildren and family. This farm is a slice of heaven and it only makes sense that our flowers will make heavenly bouquets and arrangements as well! The best is yet to come!