My Name Is Tori

My name is Tori Van Gorp owner and President of Collier Row Cottage Flower Farm LLC. Collier Row Flower Farm is located in rural Northwest Indiana and provides naturally grown cut flowers and arrangements. I was born and raised in a large Catholic family (six children), my father worked at the mill as a computer programmer and my mother was busy with all of us. Prior to marrying my husband, I was a single mother living in Merrillville, Indiana working a couple of jobs trying to juggle the responsibilities of being a single mother of two teenagers.

In 2010, Tony and I were married at the Jasper County Court House. Our blended family also included chickens, dogs, cats, a huge perennial, and vegetable garden. We have been through two construction projects including a demolition and an addition to our home. We now have only memories of the original home.

Each year we added gardens, took out trees, moved landscaping and added wells. In 2018 we acquired a 30 x 50 high tunnel and ultimately became a flower farm in fall of 2020. Our first year was amazing!! No pressure if our seeds didn’t germinate, if our flowers didn’t bloom or if we spent more than we made. Fortunately, all of the things that should have happened did. We learned a lot.

This year we are reconstructing our 1943 chicken coup making it into a cooler for our flowers, office, and design studio. We are expanding our growing capacities and plan to sell at two farmer’s markets, two businesses and have four weddings scheduled. One of the weddings we have scheduled we also have the pleasure of being the parents of the bride. It is exciting to see where this dream of an opportunity will take us.

For more information go to www.crflowerfarm.com

or visit us at our

Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/CollierRowFlowers