Dreaming big, growing joy Lourdes Still and Masagana Flower Farm & Studio

by Oscar Pantaleon Jr.

	Inside her studio, Lourdes cradles a crate of freshly cut blooms, the starting point for Masagana’s natural dyeing workshops and seasonal arrangements. Each flower is grown without synthetic fertilizers, in garden beds where lawns once were. (Photo by Jules Regalado)

Lourdes approaches her days like a carefully tended garden. Each task is planted with intention; each errand is chosen for its place in the bigger picture. On the Sunday we met, her list was already in full bloom: a city run that began with treasure hunting along Henderson Highway. She was on the lookout for serving platters for an upcoming Kultivation Festival event she’s hosting with Cambio & Co., but the day held room for surprises. Between stacks of dishes and rows of trinkets, she uncovered not only the platters she needed but also a sickle, perfect for harvesting indigo that fuels her art.

A few weeks earlier, Lourdes brought me a copy of The Flower Farmers by Debra Prinzing and Robin Avni. A newly released book, it features 29 of today’s most inspiring North American flower farmers. She is one of them. She also handed me a DIY Tinta Experience Kit, a small box brimming with potential for colour and creativity.

Lourdes’ path to becoming an award-winning flower farmer and natural dyer began far from the open skies of Manitoba. Born and raised in the Philippines, she earned a degree in nutrition from the University of the Philippines and imagined a future working in nutrition care. In 2009, she moved to Canada through the provincial nominee program, drawn by family connections and the promise of new opportunities.

Her first brush with the floral industry came in 2012 when she became a flower buyer for a wholesaler, sourcing blooms from Ecuador and Colombia.

“I loved going to farmers’ markets,” she recalls, “and I wondered if there’s a slow food movement, is there a slow flower movement?” She discovered there was. By 2017, she was growing flowers from seed on the property of her now-husband, Kevin. The following year, she registered Masagana Flower Farm & Studio.

The name Masagana (Tagalog for “prosperous” and “plentiful”) reflects both the bounty of her gardens and a shift in her own perspective.

“Before country life, I always felt the need to fill my calendar. I didn’t know how to deal with quietude,” Lourdes says. “Now I see the abundance around me.” From the beginning, Masagana was rooted in eco-conscious practices: no synthetic fertilizers, crop rotation, composting, growing plants native to the prairies, and cultivating dye plants alongside flowers. The turning point came when Lourdes learned from neighbouring fibre farmers that many blooms could yield natural dyes. This revelation shaped the farm’s signature offering, Tinta Experience, a five-hour workshop where guests pick flowers, learn natural dyeing, and create their own wearable art.

For Lourdes, the prairies are both classroom and collaborator. Inspired by authors like Chef Dan Barber (The Third Plate), Jenna Butler (A Profession of Hope), and Leah Kostamo (Planted), she embraced the idea of stewardship by leaving the land better than she found it.

“The land taught me boundaries and acceptance,” she says. “It takes care of me, and I take care of it. It’s a gesture of gratitude.”

Her latest offering, 12 Dips of Blue, an indigo dyeing workshop, blends technical skill, seasonal rhythms, and cultural heritage. Guided by full moons and Filipino folklore, the process becomes meditative, a way to reconnect with ancestral stories while honouring nature’s pace.

“You can’t force indigo to be ready,” Lourdes explains. “Just like in relationships, you can’t give what you don’t have. It taught me to start over without forcing what isn’t working.”

Starting Masagana meant trial and error. “Failure is part of it,” Lourdes says matter-of-factly. “You keep trying to see what works. It’s okay to change.” She credits mentors like Gelaine Santiago of Cambio & Co. for teaching her that “done is better than perfect” and that feedback is a gift.

Her Filipino heritage is woven throughout her work, sometimes literally: in the pansit and lumpia served at workshops, other times in the values of hospitality and community. But her journey also meant challenging cultural expectations, especially as the eldest child. “I felt guilty prioritizing myself,” she admits. “But with success, I’m in a better position to help my family.”

This coming week’s Learning from the Land, Dreaming Where We Are dinner is a natural extension of her philosophy. Co-hosted with and co-facilitated by Lourdes, Gelaine, and University of Manitoba professor Monica Batac, and featuring dishes by chef Dre Mejia, the evening aims to spark big dreams among attendees.

“We are our ancestors’ biggest dreams,” Lourdes says, “but are we dreaming big enough for them?” She hopes guests leave feeling connected not just to the food and stories, but to the possibility of their own ambitions. “In 2017, I was struggling to believe my big dreams could come to life. Now I want to share that it’s possible. When you put it out there, it starts to feel feasible.”

Lourdes’ story is one of cultivating joy through flowers, colours, and conversations, and inviting others to do the same. Whether you visit the farm, take home a piece of naturally dyed fabric, or join her in a moonlit indigo ritual, you leave with more than you came for.

As for me, I’ll be trying the Tinta Experience Starter Kit she gave me, dyeing fabric with flowers and seeing what magic unfolds.

Lourdes is hosting Learning from the Land, Dreaming Where We Are: A Dinner and Kuwentuhan at the Masagana Flower Farm & Studio this Thursday, August 21, 2025, at 6:00 pm. Tickets are available via Eventbrite.