About Us
Welcome! My name is Lou Bauer and I operate Bent Oak Ridge Flowers flower farm with the help of my grandson Brody, husband Jay, sister Caroline and the terrorizers of all chipmunks, Rudy and Newt.
We started building the gardens in 2008 when we built our house. Over the years, our gardens have grown to include over 800 varieties of iris including bearded, arilbred, miniature, siberian, louisiana, japanese and spuria, many of which are historic and unique. Daylilies became a large focus adding in approximately 300 different cultivars. We specialize in unique perennials including 50 different types of clematis, dwarf conifers and local wildflowers. We have a dragonfly pond that is a hub of activity not only for the dragonfly life cycle but also for birds, butterflies, the occasional snake and home to our specialty water iris. Almost all of our moisture drainage from the roof is designed to feed into the gardens via a dry creek bed and underground piping in addition to the rainwater we collect from our outbuilding roofs.
Our gardens are a pollinator’s paradise. We garden as ethically and sustainably as possible as the earth and water are important to all of us. We practice no till gardening along with regenerative practices like cover cropping, mulching, pocket prairies and leaving the gardens standing until spring which all benefit the soil. We plant enough flowers to share and always leave some to sustain the pollinators.
In 2021, we wanted to share our passion for flowers with the local community and added a small cutting garden. The response was better than we could have imagined which meant MORE FLOWERS for 2022!
The following spring started the process of adding more cut flower garden beds along with expanding the perennials that are used for cut flower bouquets. I retired from my corporate job to live my dream of flower farming. Down came some trees, in came the dirt and fencing along with, of course, lots of plants. We have added over 300 feet of flower rows, a hedgerow full of cuttable shrubs, perennials, wildflowers, a new rose and peony bed along with a hoophouse to grow more tender perennials and annuals.
We quickly realized that arranging the flowers into bouquets, helping customers do the same and sharing our flower geek passions are the perfect outlet to share this beauty with our local community. We get to educate, spread happiness with smiles and make the world just a little bit better. With the abundance of flowers here on the farm, we started drying, pressing and preserving flowers to keep the beauty just a little longer in many different forms of art.
We added more to the farm in 2024 with a greenhouse, more flowerbeds, Junebug, our refabbed horse trailer and the Farmshed for on farm sales. Fun was had working with Justin Straw Designs on their weddings this year! What an amazing gift they have for creating dream weddings and the most beautiful bouquets. We were able to do several DIY buckets for weddings/events and arrangements for some special occasions.
Grandson Brody was able to come work with me on the farm this summer and was a huge help at the farmers market on Saturdays. He now makes bouquets on his own and likes teaching others all he has learned. Proud Gramma moment!
I can’t thank my fabulous friends, awesome neighbors and the Black Hills community enough for their support in this flowering adventure!