Mackenzie Younger & his son Rome
Our story
The New York Flower Farm
The farm & native plant nursery
The New York Flower Farm was officially incorporated as an LLC in 2024, but the idea first took root in 2016. While running a landscape design company in Brooklyn called Native NY Gardens, founder Mackenzie Younger began imagining a different kind of farm—one that grew native plants in rows like a traditional flower farm, allowing for the collection of cuttings and seeds for propagation, living bouquets, and landscape use.
The vision was simple but ambitious: the more native plants grown, the greater the ecological impact on the surrounding landscape and local wildlife. Mackenzie imagined a pollinator paradise—a flower farm not centered on exotic ornamentals common in the cut-flower trade, but on North American native species that support birds, bees, butterflies, and other wildlife.
In 2019, Mackenzie purchased a piece of undeveloped land in the Shawangunk Mountains outside Ellenville, New York, and has been steadily developing the property into a long-term vision: a working native plant farm and nursery, a family homestead, and a future place for the public to visit, learn, and experience the land.
The project is still in its early years. While the farm itself—and a house that will eventually be available as a short-term rental—will not be open for public visitation until 2027, the business is actively propagating plants and collaborating with other trusted growers to provide high-quality native plants to the Hudson Valley community and online customers today.
Learn more about the New York Flower Farm
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![A snake with black and tan patterned scales on a gravel path.]()
Story behind the snake logo
Timber rattlesnake conservation
The timber rattlesnake, a New York State–threatened species, is a long-standing resident of The New York Flower Farm’s Shawangunk Mountain location near Ellenville.
This is an animal we respect, not fear. We are grateful to share the farm’s ecosystem with it, and for this reason, we chose the timber rattlesnake as the iconic feature of our logo, shown holding a flower. Like our native plants, the rattlesnake does not want to be “tread on”.
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![Mackenzie Younger smiling in a garden with pink flowers, holding a gardening tool, wearing a blue t-shirt, shorts, a baseball cap, and gloves.]()
Founder: Mackenzie Younger
Artist, designer & native plant lover
Mackenzie Younger is a landscape designer and artist, born in New York City in 1990. He studied painting at the Rhode Island School of Design and botany at Brown University from 2008-2012, and landscape design studies at the New York Botanical Garden in 2015.
In 2016, he co-founded Native NY Gardens, and is also known for his 2017 art series Jackets. Mackenzie lives in the Hudson Valley with his family.
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![Field of yellow flowers being watered by sprinklers on a farm.]()
Native plants
Growing and sourcing native plants
The New York Flower Farm grows native plants from seed, cuttings, and starter plugs, and also collaborates with trusted wholesale growers to provide high-quality native plants to the Hudson Valley and New York City. This is a patient, long-term process—many plants take several years to reach a size and quality suitable for market.
Looking ahead, The New York Flower Farm plans to expand its branded plant offerings, with a focus on endemic Hudson Valley natives as well as underutilized North American species chosen for their unique aesthetic qualities and exceptional value to pollinators.
