Horton's Flower Farm in Riverhead lets you make your own wildflower bouquet at sunset 

When opportunity knocks, just plant the flowers.

That’s exactly what Claudette and Jeffrey Gross did three years ago when they opened Horton’s Flower Farm in Riverhead. As Jeffrey Gross, 40, explains it, he was in search of a plant that his wife, Claudette, a serious gardener, couldn’t grow from a seed. "I told her I’d track it down," he says, and he found a farmer in Riverhead who had the plant — a lisianthus.

It was a trek (the Grosses lived in Mineola at the time), but thanks to a canceled doctor’s appointment they found time to make the trip. Claudette, 40, picks up the story, explaining that she had been growing flowers in her backyard (and her mom’s) to sell to family and friends.

"I told the farmer what I was doing and that we had no land," she says, and he mentioned that he had 5 acres of land he wasn’t using, "if we wanted them." Initially, she says, it seemed impossible. "How can I do this; it’s an hour away." But her husband encouraged her. As he says, "it was kind of a spur of the moment decision.’’

They leased the land and opened the farm late summer 2021. Claudette had seen u-pick flower farms on YouTube and loved the idea. "There was nothing like it on Long Island," she says, noting there were sunflower fields but nothing where you could pick different varieties of the specialized wildflowers they sell.

That first season, they started late, planting seven rows of flowers in June for a September bloom. "We quietly opened for just a month," she says, "and were excited to see that it worked." Officially opening in May 2022, the Grosses, who now split their time between Riverhead, Wantagh and Raleigh, N.C., threw themselves into the business while maintaining their day jobs — she’s a newborn photographer, he’s a techie, mostly developing and marketing websites.

The first season, they grew everything from seeds, which was "humbling," says Claudette. Now, they use plugs to get an earlier start — "the second year, I grew 20,000 plants in my spare bedroom," she says. "I realized I couldn’t do that myself," she adds. "It was way too much." Now, they get their seedlings from different companies, some grown by local farmers.

The farm throws a planting party in May, inviting the public to help get the seedlings into the ground. They serve lunch and offer $15 a tray for people who want to be paid. "Last year, we had a football team of 10-year-olds," says Claudette. "They were raising money for their team," happy that the farm is building a presence in the community.

The plants bloom by mid-July and the farm stays open until the first frost, sometime in October. "We’re not turning a profit yet, but we get more people every year," says Claudette, noting that they are held back to some extent because the farm is set back and not directly on Sound Avenue. "You have to know somebody who knows about it."

Casey Greene, of Setauket, celebrated her 41st birthday on the farm on a recent Saturday, picking flowers with her husband and two children. "It was perfect, charming and unique," says Greene, who discovered the farm on Instagram. "I wanted to do something different." Her bouquet included dahlias and zinnias, which she is growing in her own garden. "Theirs were a lot nicer," she concludes. The bouquet also included what she was told were weeds, but Green wasn’t bothered. "They were so beautiful."

This year, the farm has added a minimal entrance fee for people who just want to enjoy the beauty of the flowers. "The farm is quiet, you can relax," says Claudette. Also new this season are sunset picking hours, from 6 to 8 p.m. for people who might want to come after work. "The farm is beautiful at sunset," adds ClaudetteGross. "It gets cooler at 6 o’clock and the sky is so pretty."

What surprises Claudette is what people put in their bouquets. Customers tend to ignore the sunflowers, she says, preferring some of the more unusual flowers like celosia and verbena. "And they love the zinnias. People say this reminds them of the flowers they used to grow."