If you’ve ever driven by, around about, or visited the Boothbay Farmers Market, you may have noticed one of the vendor vehicles – a purple, 1958 Jeep Forward Control 170! It’s hard to miss. And, gearhead that I am, I wanted to know more about where the heck that critter came from.

Well, it is my good fortune to tell you that the Jeep, though unique and eye catching, was just the tip of the iceberg. The cargo transported by and displayed from the rear cargo space of “Maisy” (meaning “Pearl”) was unexpected and delightful. Flowers beautifully positioned and arranged could not be ignored.

Heidi Fuller, the owner of what I call “The Flower Truck,” was born in Vermont but relocated to Southport in 1999. She moved around a lot, attending four high schools and a vocational school in three states, eventually graduating early from Thetford Academy in Vermont in 2006.

During her travels, Heidi and our oldest daughter Megan were classmates at Boothbay Region High School. In 2008 Heidi moved back to Maine, reconnected with her now husband Barrett, married in 2011, and bought their home in Edgecomb in 2012, where they are raising two daughters.

Heidi worked at the Boothbay Town Office while a stay-at-home mom, helping to run a landscaping company, trying to advance the family cause as their children grew and responsibilities accumulated. Somewhere along the way Heidi had some time to consider a different adventure and began to research flower farming. The Edgecomb property was a little over one acre and with some clearing a new possibility began to evolve.

That’s when Maisy the flower truck entered the picture and when in the late fall of 2022 Heidi planted over 12,000 bulbs producing flowers that she hoped could be sold from the back of the newly painted and freshened up Jeep. The rest, as they say, is history. The seeds were planted!

The winter of 2022-23 was spent attending classes through the Maine State Florists and Growers Association, graduating in the spring of 2023 as a professional certified florist. Flowers happened! Then, as luck would have it, when Boothbay Region Greenhouses closed, Heidi was able to acquire some of the floral side equipment and supplies. This alone helped to encourage progress at home, making flower production and sales a more realistic possibility.

Heidi spent the summer at the Boothbay Farmers Market selling flowers grown in their gardens as well as flowers from farms across the state of Maine through the Maine Flower Collective. She also has been delivering flowers to local restaurants, residents and events, and even dipped her toes into weddings. Ultimately Heidi would like to create a space for visiting house plants, succulents, air plants and floral arrangements, with maybe even a location in the Harbor. She’d like to offer workshops for dish garden making, pressed flower picture frames and wreath making.

Heidi’s business is called Gracelynn’s (Flower Truck), named for her two daughters. She can be contacted via website, www.gracelynnsflowertruck.com, by phone at 207-450-3624 or email at hello@gracelynnsflowertruck.com

Keep an eye out for the purple Jeep flower truck. It’s hard to miss and impossible to ignore. Have a chat with Heidi and watch her garden grow!