At Hubert Family Farms, there’s always something in bloom

Hubert Family Farms may be best known for their spring tulip fields, but the farm has another season of flowers to enjoy—and the setting couldn’t be any dreamier. This fall, endless rows of sunflowers, cosmos, zinnias and marigolds are filling the fields for the farm’s Fall Flower Festival, giving visitors another opportunity to spend a day on the farm, pick flowers and enjoy the changing season.

Through Oct. 11, visitors can take part in the farm’s Fall Flower Festival, where admission includes wagon rides, farm animals, free face painting, photo opportunities around the property and a visit to the original farmhouse gift shop. For an additional $20, visitors can purchase a You-Pick Bucket and fill it with approximately 30 or more fall flowers to take home, making a simple bouquet a souvenir of an afternoon spent together on the farm.

For the Huberts, however, finding new ways to bring people onto the land is part of a much longer family story. The property, known within the family as the “Home Place,” has been in the Hubert family since 1917, when George Hubert, the son of a German immigrant, and his wife purchased 78 acres. Like many farming families of the era, the Huberts knew lean years, and when the Great Depression hit, the family found ways to keep the farm going. Their eldest son joined the Navy and sent his earnings home to help sustain the family, allowing the farm to remain in the family through difficult years.

By the time Seth Hubert’s grandfather took over the operation, the farm had grown considerably, eventually reaching around 2,000 acres. Seth’s father inherited the operation in 1990, but the family soon faced another devastating turn when he died young. Over the years that followed, the farm gradually dwindled from those 2,000 acres to just a few hundred after various operations ceased.

When Seth and his wife, Kaylee, took the reins in 2016, they were looking for a way to make the farm work for their growing family. There simply wasn’t enough land to sustain a traditional farming operation, so Seth began thinking about agritourism. He knew, however, that he didn’t want to simply create another version of an idea visitors could find anywhere else.

“Strawberry and pumpkin patches had been around,” Seth said. “We did not want to be another cookie cutter version of that.”

The idea for something different came from a small moment at his grandparents’ home. Seth remembers sitting on the steps of the porch while watching his daughter pick henbit and dandelions from the yard. She wasn’t concerned about what kind of flowers they were; she simply wanted to gather anything that had a little color.

“As long as it had some color, she was stuffing her hands full,” Seth said. She kept trying to get him to help poke more flowers down into her little hands.

The moment stayed with him. Strawberries and pumpkins were familiar agritourism offerings, but flower farms offered something different, so Seth began looking for people who could help him learn the business. He formed a relationship with the Iverson family, owners of the Wooden Shoe Tulip Festival in Woodburn, Oregon, who graciously helped point him in the right direction.

That guidance helped the Hubert family turn an idea into something that has now become a spring tradition in North Alabama. For the past decade, visitors have traveled to the farm to walk among rows of tulips in nearly every color, pick flowers for their homes and enjoy a full day of activities that can include trolley rides, food trucks, animals, yoga and even hot air balloon rides.

But the farm’s story has never really been about one particular flower. It is about finding a way forward when circumstances change, something the Huberts have had plenty of practice doing.

That resilience was tested again this year when a hailstorm moved through the farm on Feb. 26. It was the first hailstorm Seth had experienced since taking over the operation, and although it was not widespread and lasted only a few minutes, it caused significant damage to the foliage. The Huberts feared they would lose a substantial number of flowers and have what Seth called a “lousy bloom.”

Instead, the tulips recovered and came through the season remarkably well.

“We managed the situation to the best of our ability and actually feel like [the tulips] came out of the stress and bloomed very well!” Seth said.

It feels fitting, then, that when the tulips have faded and another season arrives, the farm has something else waiting in the fields. This fall, the sunflowers are taking their turn, joined by cosmos, zinnias and marigolds that invite visitors to slow down and enjoy a different side of the farm.

For a family that has spent more than a century adapting to whatever the land and life have brought its way, there is something fitting about that rhythm. The flowers change, the seasons change and the farm changes with them, but the “Home Place” remains a place where families can gather, make memories and carry a little bit of the season home with them.

The Fall Flower Festival runs through Oct. 11; visit Hubert Family Farms online for admission details, hours and more information.