Today we’d like to introduce you to Ciarra Grobe.
Hi Ciarra, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I have enjoyed gardening ever since I was a child, but didn’t get to really get going until my husband and I bought our first home in Madison, Wisconsin in 2017. At that time we desperately wanted to have a baby and the garden was our way of distracting ourselves while we struggled through infertility. At first, we didn’t really know what we were doing but our distraction quickly turned into a passion that sparked in both of us. I began collecting irises and other perennials as Sebastian repeatedly helped me expand our gardens in the yard. With lots of help from fertility specialists, we were also able to have two daughters, Amira and Elena. Each spring we do our family pictures in the gardens.
After years of continuing to expand, our next door neighbor, Bob, had a garden made at his house that he called my canvas. I extended the garden beds to his home and created a pop up self serve flower stand where I would sell bouquets that I made from our yards. It became quite popular and was a fun way for me to stay busy while keeping up with my small children. We would also have small business sales out of the house periodically throughout the growing season where I sell iris rhizomes and other perennials while I invited other neighborhood small business owners to sell their goods or creations as well. Grobe Gardens officially became a business in June of 2024.
In 2025, we bought our forever home and property in Corcoran, Minnesota, but that was a transition year for the business. While still living in Madison for that year, I drove as many plants as I could to Minnesota so that the large majority of our plants are from our home in Madison. My in-laws moved into the property for the year and would greet us as I did multiple road trips with iris, peonies, daylilies, hostas and other plants that we collect. We moved into our Minnesota home and are now here full time as of May 2026. We are now set up to be hosting garden walks when various plants are in full bloom, selling cut flower bouquets and to do our yearly iris sale where we do an online preorder sale and ship across the US. After the preorder and shipping concludes, we do an iris garage sale where we sell any leftover iris rhizomes we dug to the local community over a weekend. As of now, we have 350 unique iris varieties, over 100 daylily varieties and over 80 dahlia varieties on our flower farm.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
A major challenge for Sebastian and I in the beginning wasn’t even gardening related. It was us wanting to build a family. We really struggled with not being able to get pregnant to the point where each month it didn’t work out he would take me to a greenhouse to buy more plants. But, through taking care of our yard, we were able to build a passion and bond over something we didn’t realize we would have in common. We also got to know our neighbors and become active in our community, even taking care of a bunch of the landscaping in our neighborhood parks. One of our neighbors is a nurse and because I was too squeamish, she gave me one of my night injections that lead to our first daughter being born. Through all the longing to become parents and build a family, we were able to build something beautiful in our community and then once our children arrived, we were able to include them in our newfound passion as well.
The biggest gardening obstacle that Sebastian and I encountered was running out of space for all the gardening we wanted to do and not having enough sunlight. Our neighbor, Bob, helped with the space by letting us use the entire side of his yard and we eventually bought our forever home and flower farm in Corcoran, Minnesota.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
We have over 350 unique iris varieties that we ship across the United States. We also sell cut flower bouquets and will host seasonal garden walks and events out at our flower farm. Another plan is to host flower parties as well as have You-Pick sections of our yard for folks that want to get a taste of the flower farming experience without having to pull all the weeds!!
I think I’m most proud that this is a family business. Grobe Gardens would not have been possible without the family behind it. We would not have this gorgeous flower farm without the financial help and physical time and labor that my in-laws, Rainer and Monika, put into making it happen. My brother and sister-in-law also live a few minutes away. My brother-law, Christian, does so much manual labor (he is an expert sod cutter) and babysitting so I can work in the gardens and my sister-in-law, Grace, designed the Grobe Gardens logo. We definitely would not have been able to come so far so quickly without the family cheering us on and being in this journey with us.
What do you like best about our city? What do you like least?
I love how many activities there are for children in the area. It seems very family friendly and I’m grateful to have many opportunities to get acclimated to the area. I think what I like least is that I don’t know many people yet. We came from a very strong community in Madison and so I am definitely interested in developing a community similar to that.
Pricing:
- Standard Mason Jar of Seasonal Flowers $15
Contact Info:
- Website: https://grobegardens.com
- Instagram: grobegardens
- Facebook: thegrobegardens
