ABOUT US

We love hand-making dried flower art that make you happy. In the beginning, our blooms are planted from seed by hand on our Greenacres, Washington flower farm. Our seeds are natural, organic, and grown without chemicals. Inspired by the sweet colors of Nature’s flowers and greenery, for months we nurture a diverse cultural showcase of blooms with utmost respect for the sustainability of Earth. Then, our flowers are air-dried or organically preserved, embracing the beauty of everlasting botanicals and Nature’s choice of flowers to represent the Cycle of Life beyond the Cycle of the 4 Seasons. Welcoming the differences of our world and each flower, all of our creations have a special, unique identity, are handmade with love - and celebrate Nature's Art of Dried Flowers where no two items will be identical.

Enjoy!

The Story Behind Our Name

The name Vancortlandt Farms is deeply personal to me. It is a name rooted in family, history, agriculture, and a love of plants that has been passed down through generations.

My family’s connection to New York reaches back to the 1600s. One of my ancestors was the first mayor of New Amsterdam, which would later become Manhattan, and generations of the family continued to cultivate the land. The Van Cortlandt family once owned a large wheat plantation in what is now the Bronx, not far from the present-day New York Botanical Garden and Van Cortlandt Park.

When I was choosing a name for my flower farm in Greenacres, Washington, I was drawn to that connection to the land, agriculture, and especially wheat—a crop that had been part of my family’s story for generations. As I began researching my family more deeply, I discovered even more remarkable connections to the early history of this country, including an ancestor who worked as a clerk for the Dutch West India Company, keeping records of trade from a Dutch-Swedish trading post in what is now Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania.

But the name became especially meaningful when I thought about my grandmother, Francena.

I was named Francena after my grandmother, who was herself named for her great-aunt, Francena Jay Van Cortlandt—the aunt of John Jay, one of America’s Founding Fathers and the first Chief Justice of the United States.

My grandmother Francena had a remarkable life shaped by her love of plants. As a teenager, she volunteered at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, an experience that inspired her to study biology at Cornell University. After marrying a biology professor and horticulturist, she continued to devote her life to plants, gardens, and the preservation of beautiful landscapes. She helped create the cutting garden at Bruton Parish Church in Williamsburg, the Rectory Garden at Washington National Cathedral, and worked with Lady Bird Johnson’s Native Plant Parkway System.

Growing up with her story, I always felt a connection to the gardens and plants that meant so much to her. So when I began my own flower farm, it felt natural to carry the Vancortlandt name forward.

Today, Vancortlandt Farms is my way of creating a new chapter in that family story. Here in the Pacific Northwest, I grow, gather, dry, and preserve flowers, creating pieces that allow the beauty of the garden to live on long after the growing season has passed.

The name is a connection between generations—a family history rooted in the land, my grandmother’s lifelong love of plants, and my own passion for creating beauty from what we grow.

From Seed to Everlasting Beauty.

A painting by Kirk Larsen featuring the founder of VanCortlandt Farms, Francena Chalfant, creating arrangements in her home flower shop.

AN AWARD-WINNING dried flower artist and founder of VanCortlandtfarms.com, Francena Chalfant studied at Parson's School of Design, New York, and in England with Amanda Docker and Jane Packer. Her floral arrangements have been commissioned for presentation to celebrities including Audrey Hepburn, Richard Dreyfuss, Hugh Grant, Daniel Radcliffe, opening night of The Producers on Broadway, and President George H.W. Bush. Two arrangements honoring the early-American/Swedish-instigated Flax Industry of the Old Brandywine Village/ Beaver Valley/Chadds Ford area are in the collection of the American Swedish Historical Museum in Philadelphia. Born to parents passionate about the creation and conservation of architecture, urban design, interior design, painting, sculpture, landscape design/gardening, and textile design and who were also connoisseurs of the culinary arts and classical music, Francie "grew up in an art school" but came into her own as a Rotary Exchange Student to New Zealand for her junior year in high school.

CHALFANT WRITES: "The fun of being an artist has been the unconfined range of mediums that receive a "smile." My entire life has been spent helping artistic ideas go into production for selective audiences. Whether it was customizing my father Richard Chalfant's designs for condominiums and townhouses, creating "SymFunnies Concerts for Kids" for my husband Stefan Kozinski's dream of expanding symphonic audiences, or transforming flowers grown to be bunches in a craft store into rings of dried flower art for most of the major home accessory catalogues in the U.S., the thrill of creation is the smile on the recipient's face. It is an honor to be considered a part of the Chalfant Artistic Legacy."

 

The Breeders Cup
2003 - 2011

 

Everlasting Potpourri Under Glass
2024

 

Arrangement created in honor of the Swedish women who, in 1650, started the flax industry, propelling Pennsylvania to be the leading producer of flax in the U.S. until the Civil War.

American Swedish Historical Museum, Philadelphia
2024

 

Floral Cloud
2024