Blossoms on the Rocky Top

Fresh flowers have a way of bringing a smile to almost anyone’s face. The vibrant colors and unique fragrances have a way of making one feel happy and make any space feel more alive and welcoming. A bouquet of flowers says I care, is a thoughtful gift, and is a great way to celebrate life’s special moments. Beyond their beauty, flowers often convey emotion and meaning —  and Rocky Top Flower Farm is sharing their blooms to help locals express love, joy, sympathy, or celebration in ways words sometimes cannot.

In 2022, Autumn and Joe Harrier relocated their family from Minnesota to Tennessee to put down new roots. Joe, being a bassist, had some musician friends who moved to Tennessee and recommended making the move. Autumn, having grown up on a farm, always dreamed of returning to farm life. The couple found their new home in Columbia, and although the property was heavily wooded, they began exploring ways to turn Autumn’s vision for a farm into reality.

About a year after moving to Columbia, the EF-3 tornado hit, and the tornado’s path completely took out the wooded area on the Harrier’s land. Autumn explained, “We took shelter in the basement, and when we came up after the tornado, my husband said, ‘Well, you got your farmland you wanted!’ Everything was entirely flattened, and we could see the sky where we couldn’t see it before because the trees were leveled.”

The cleanup after the destruction was a massive undertaking, and to this day, there is still a lot of work to do on the property. “Honestly, we are still living in tornado destruction because there was just so much. We couldn’t afford to clean it all up, but we have been picking away at small sections at a time,” Autumn said. “Once we finally got an area of land cleaned, I wanted a garden, and that’s when we decided to plant flowers.”  And just like that, Rocky Top Flower Farm blossomed.

One might ponder how the name Rocky Top Flower Farm came to be, and the explanation makes complete sense. As the planting began on the farm, the topsoil was covered with rocks. “My goodness! We have been hand-digging the holes because we literally have thousands upon thousands of rocks in our topsoil, since it is a rocky top,” Autumn said. “And we are at the top of the hill too, so we thought it was fitting with Tennessee, so we decided on the name — Rocky Top Flower Farm.”

That first year, while the initial cleanup was underway, they used raised beds to test whether their plan would work for growing a small selection of summer annuals, and set up an itty-bitty garden off to the side to see what the soil was like. Even though they began their endeavor in 2025, it was a trial year, and the Harriers consider 2026 the first true year.

Rocky Top is a small operation that is now producing flowers, and this spring, they planted snapdragons, vernacular, statice, ranunculus, and calendula. A larger selection of summer annuals, including zinnias, cosmos, basil, mint, sunflowers, and strawflowers, is now available. Going into the fall months, succession planting keeps flowers producing, with additions of eucalyptus, zinnia, and dried arrangements available for purchase.  

The Harrier’s flower farm currently operates on around an 1/4 acre of land. However, as they continue to grow and turn the Rocky Top Flower Farm into a steady business, there is plenty of room for expansion. “We have so much yard left that we could expand into,” Autumn said. “So, the goal obviously is to plant more and sell more, but we are trying to figure out how we want to do that at the moment because it all takes time.”

At present, bouquets are available at Kedron’s Little Loafery (@kedronslittleloafery) in Columbia and The AWAKEN House (@theawakenhouse) in Spring Hill. There are also plans in the works for a roadside stand near their house where their premium cut-flower bouquets will be available.

For additional information on Rocky Top Flower Farm, follow on social media @rockytopflowerfarm. Be sure to stop by and pick up a beautiful bouquet for yourself or someone special today — it’s sure to brighten your day!