FairGrow was started by Zaruhi Mikayelyan, an Armenian agronomist who knows every plant on the place by name. The land has grown row by row since 2019.
What grows under the glass
Inside the greenhouse: rows of calla lilies, the farm’s signature flower, alongside artichokes and melons that ripen under the same roof. In the open field: seasonal cut flowers, tended in their weeks, harvested in the morning, delivered the same day to florists in Yerevan and to weddings across the region. The callas are what most people come for. They are also what visiting friends from the Netherlands tend to remember, because they recognise the bulb.
From Lisse to Aghavnatun
Every autumn, crates of bulbs travel from the Netherlands to this corner of Armenia. The Dutch have spent generations refining these varieties. Armenian volcanic soil and high-altitude sun ripen them with a different intensity. When Dutch visitors walk the cutting garden in spring, they often pick a single stem and pause. The bulb began in their own country. It bloomed here. That small distance carries more weight than they expected. The friendship with Kom over en Help has helped make this connection real, and the farm itself possible.What is sown in care ripens in its own time.
Tending what was given
Groups come from churches in the Netherlands, from villages nearby, from families further afield. Some come to look. Others come to plant. A tree set into the soil today will outlive the people who plant it. A flower farm is, in its way, a long-term promise. There is always work for the hands that turn up. There is always time to sit afterwards, in the shade.Hands in the soil
A young plant lifted from the seedling tray. Roots wrapped in dark earth. Drip lines waiting between the rows. Behind it all, the same horizon you see from every part of the farm. Some visitors leave with calluses they did not have when they arrived. Some leave only with a single calla lily wrapped in paper. Both kinds of guest are welcome.
The end of the day
Gawrosh is the farm dog. He has the run of the place. He walks the rows when no one else is looking, sits under the kitchen window in the heat of the afternoon, and waits at the gate when Zaruhi has been gone too long. When the gates are closed and the visitors have gone, Zaruhi puts on the kettle and the dog lies down beside her. Tomorrow there is irrigation to check, melons to weigh, callas to cut. The work is patient, and so is the dog.Three ways to be part of the story
There is more than one way to walk the rows with us.
