Local farmers enjoy sweet smell of success at Pike Place Market

Early on a Friday morning, the Pike Place Market arcade echoes with the sound of clanging metal as merchants push supply carts across the tiled floor and roll up shop doors to start the day. A handful of Pike Place Market patrons sluggishly stroll in and out of coffee shops across the street.

But at 7:30 a.m., the Market's iconic flower farmers — many of whom are from Southeast King County — have been hard at work for several hours.

Back and forth between their cars and their stands, the farmers carry dripping buckets of fresh flowers. With a discriminating eye, their gloved fingers carefully arrange creamy white calla lilies and bright pink peonies that look like lollipops.

Before the first customers arrive, there's not a spare moment.

The farmers spend most of their waking hours tending to their flowers and driving north to sell at the Market in Seattle. It's hard work, but many say they happily do it. Flower farming is a lucrative business, and they enjoy selling at the Market.

"I'm happy selling flowers," said Arnel Mendez, who has been selling flowers from his Kent farm at Pike Place Market since 1982.

Fresh-flower farming starts in the spring — daffodils are usually the first crop, said farmer Lita Mendez of Pacific. It's good business because the flowers are perennials and sell for more than produce, she said.

For these Southeast King County farmers, growing and selling flowers is not easy work. Many wake at sunrise to get their flowers ready to sell at the Market. Sometimes they pick flowers early in the morning, sometimes late at night, after returning home from a long day selling at the Market. They arrive at the Market early in the morning and rarely take breaks throughout the day.

"It's hard work every day at the farm," Arnel Mendez said.

Many of the Southeast King County flower farmers got into the business through a family connection.

Myrna Sebastian worked in data entry in the health-care industry for 10 years before a family member persuaded her to give farming a try.

"My sister-in-law said, 'Why don't you try farming?' " Sebastian said.

Sebastian's sister-in-law had run a farm since the 1950s. Sebastian agreed to give it a shot for one year — and if she didn't like it, she said she would quit.

"It turned out OK, I guess," Sebastian says with a smile.

She's been growing flowers on her 10-acre Auburn farm for 10 years. Selling bouquets at Pike Place Market is now her full-time job.

Lita Mendez started farming when she moved from the Philippines in 1995. Her husband's family had a flower stall at Pike Place Market and after watching him work, she decided to try it for herself.

"I did it by experiment," Mendez said. "It's kind of trial and error."

Now farming and selling flowers at the Market is a full-time gig for Mendez and her husband, John. The Mendezes have several farms in Southeast King County.

Right now, they're selling peonies and calla lilies, picked from their farm in Pacific. They grow seasonal flowers at their farm in Kent.

They also sell flowers wholesale for weddings and other occasions.

Some farmers sell dried flowers at the Market during the winter, but Lita Mendez said she didn't find that to be a good business. She supplements her winter income by working as a real-estate agent.

Lauren Vane: 253-234-8604 or lvane@seattletimes.com