Roughly 80 percent of flowers sold in America are imported. These imported flowers are grown by underpaid laborers using heavy doses of synthetic pesticides, and carry a large carbon footprint given the many hundreds of miles each shipment must travel. Against this backdrop, U.S. growers have carved out a niche for sustainable, local flowers, and they’re finding that it is often more profitable than growing vegetables alone.

Jonathan Leiss and Megan Cornett Leiss are small flower farmers near Durham, North Carolina. The couple has been cultivating flowers on Spring Forth Farm since 2014. They are part of a growing movement towards producing and selling local flowers.

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Spring Forth is one of many farms that are reaping the benefits of flowers—as a way to boost a farm’s bottom line as well as its ecosystem. And, unlike with many food crops, growers are finding a market that’s ready to pay the true cost of growing them in a sustainable way.