About Us





Joan Ewer Thorndike and Le Mera Gardens 
Joan has been farming fresh cut flowers in Southern Oregon's Rogue River Valley for the past 20 years. She was born and raised in Santiago, Chile where flowers come in huge bundles, small posies, and fresh abundance.

In 2001 Le Mera Gardens and Fry Family Farms joined their worlds of flower farming, and have settled into growing and harvesting an ever expanding array of specialty cut flowers from certified organic fields.



Joan credits her "formal" education in commercial flower growing to the Association of Specialty Cut Flower Growers, its its research publications, regional and national conferences, and to the writings of author and professor of horticulture Dr. Allan M. Armitage (Specialty Cut Flowers, Allan M. Armitage & Judy M. Laushman). Le Mera Gardens is a charter member of Thrive (home of the Rogue Flavor Trademark), and is an online member of Local Harvest.

Joan's two daughters, Camila and Isabella, spent their childhood summers seeking shade from 90-100ºF weather on the flower farm. Her husband Dan has been known to moonlight carrying flats of plants, and to provide Le Mera Gardens with many an odd shaped metal structure generously built by Medford Fabrication, his family's metal fabrication business.

Our fields, season extending hoop houses, and propagation greenhouses are located in Talent, Phoenix and northwest Medford. All are managed and cultivated under Oregon Tilth Certified Organic farming practices.
 


We employ dozens of women and men who live in our immediate communities and who seed, transplant, cultivate and harvest our flowers year after year. Our farms produce an ever expanding array of annual and perennial specialty cut flowers, foliage, grasses, berries and branches. 


Le Mera Gardens is grateful for the loyal patronage of its Rogue Valley customers, most especially of its area florists and bridal parties, whose purchasing practices allow us to manage, preserve and protect our Valley's beautiful agricultural lands.

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