Owner Anna Jane Kocon (right) with
events manager Jill Rizzo at Little State
Flower Company in Portsmouth.
Little State flower
company
A
nna ja n e kocon h a s
flowers tattooed on both arms and a genu-
ine, jubilant laugh as bright as the petal
edges on the dahlias she’s cutting. It’s August
and dahlia season has just started.
“No exaggeration, 50 percent of my clients
don’t show up until dahlia season,” Kocon
says. “They’re pretty hardy at this moment,
but they don’t like to be transported. This is
actually one of the flowers that draws the
florists to us rather than them buying from
the international market. Because dahlias
don’t travel well, florists are more willing to
buy them from local farms.”
Cafe au Lait dahlias are the most popular
variety among brides. Their large, creamy
white centers transition to a delicate pink
62 RHODE ISLAND MONTHLY l
APRIL 2020
around the flower’s outer edge. “There’s a
pretty big market here. One of the biggest
destination wedding areas in the entire
United States is Newport.”
Kocon, who has a master’s in fine arts,
has been farming for about thirteen years.
Her first job in the industry was farming
edible flowers at Eva’s Organic Garden in
South Dartmouth, Massachusetts. At the
time, “I didn’t know anything about flower
farming,” she says. “I thought I was going
to weed arugula.” After about five years
there, she moved to Robin Hollow Farm,
where she worked another three-plus years
for the Hutchinsons. Eventually, she reached
a crossroads. “I finally said to myself, ‘I’m
thirty-five years old. | | CONTINUED ON PAGE 66