Marion Ballas Wiggins became a lavender farmer almost by accident. She started growing the perennials while renovating historic properties in Indiana, which was her main focus. In the end, her plants took off so much that she ended up launching two businesses: Bloomfield Schoolhouse Lavender and Bloomfield Lavender Apothecary.
“I love bringing the historic properties back to life for the community, building something people are proud to have in their town,” Wiggins says. “I love that we’re bringing attention and tourism to our small town! Most of all, I love the life we’re giving our children.”
Buying the Bloomfield Schoolhouse
Wiggins has always been passionate about historic preservation, downtown revitalization, and community building. However, up until 2020, she had never bought a historic property and done this kind of development herself. That’s when the COVID-19 pandemic hit.
“Like many other families, we found ourselves a little bit bored,” Wiggins remembers. “We took a lot of drives. Every time we drove by the Huff Corners Schoolhouse, I would say, ‘If that ever comes on the market, I want to go look at it.’ Sure enough, at the end of the year, it did, and we did. It fell in our laps! We bought it even though we had zero plans for what we would do with it.”
Wiggins and her husband, who also happens to serve as Chief of Anesthesia at Parkview
LaGrange Hospital, brainstormed ideas and eventually decided to turn the schoolhouse into an event space. The plan wasn’t to become lavender farmers and sell artisanal lavender products — but that’s what has happened.
“We didn’t realize how long it would take for the event space,” Wiggins explains. “It’s been years, and it’s still not open yet.”
Meanwhile, they began cultivating lavender as a side project.
Building the Bloomfield Lavender farm
“We decided to plant some lavender in front of the schoolhouse while doing interior demo work and getting the building on the National Register of Historic Places,” Wiggins says. “We researched varieties that were supposed to do well in our area, figured out how to amend the soil, and planted nine different varieties to see what worked best.”
The first year, they didn’t harvest much. “We just figured out what worked and what didn’t,” Wiggins says. “We made some changes like adding rock around the plants and a field at our house.”
By the summer of 2023, they had an abundant crop of lavender.
“The kids were eight years old, and we thought this would be a great idea for the farmers market,” Wiggins says. “We started selling in Howe, and we sold out every week. We sold dried lavender, fresh lavender, and wreaths, but people started asking for value-added products like soap, lotion, and candles.”
They decided to jump all in. “Research and development took up our entire winter,” Wiggins says. “By spring of 2024, we were ready to roll out our lines of bath and body, culinary, and home value-added products. We also planted an additional 3,500 plants offsite. We continued to do well at markets, and my house was overrun with lavender — completely filled.”
Wiggins and her family desperately needed space for themselves! Enter their second historic property — a storefront in downtown Lagrange.
Expanding the Bloomfield Lavender empire
“We purchased what is now Bloomfield Lavender Apothecary in a rough state from the county,” Wiggins says. “But it was all just cosmetic work! My husband and two handymen worked tirelessly, and we opened the shop less than three months after closing.”
Wiggins and her family now own two historic buildings. “We finished the apothecary rather quickly, but the schoolhouse was still taking forever,” Wiggins says. “For the schoolhouse, we worked with architects, engineers, InDOT, the county and the state, and ARCH Fort Wayne, which advised us on historic preservation and restoration. We learned about brick repointing, bee removal, the history of rural schoolhouses, septic system design, and more preservation vocabulary than I could imagine.”
That’s when Wiggins’ husband fell in love with a third historic building.
“It’s the former Lagrange Standard publishing building,” Wiggins says. Characteristically, she and her husband purchased it despite not having set plans. “We know we’ll get it cleaned out and put it on the National Register,” she says.
Developing Bloomfield Lavender’s unique artisanal products
Wiggins’ lavender farm is now 4,400 plants strong, a number she foresees doubling by the end of 2025.
“We chose our nine different varieties for a wide range of aesthetic purposes and uses,” Wiggins explains. “English lavenders are best for culinary use, while others are better for cosmetics. Our current crops are Royal Velvet, Vera, Hidcote, Folgate, Blue Ellagance, Edelweiss, Sensational, Grosso, and Phenomenal.”
Wiggins credits her customers for the inspiration behind her popular products. “My customers have such great ideas!” she says. “We started with our signature line — lotion, bubble bath, soap, oils, and salts — and then keep adding as people request things.”
Wiggins herself is a one-woman research and development team. “I often get a rough formula from the US Lavender Growers Association, the Handmade Soap and Cosmetics Guild, or other reputable formulators and then add changes until I have the product exactly right,” she explains.
Bloomfield Schoolhouse Lavender offers dozens of products, all in a variety of scents. Wiggins produces everything from essential oils and extracts to cuticle balm and body wash, brownie mix, and tea. Her bestselling item is Lavender Lemonade Lip Balm.
“I started with a very basic formula for that and changed the ratios of wax, butters, and oils until I had a consistency I liked,” Wiggins says. “My friends tested it for a minimum of three months, and I took their feedback to make improvements.”
If that wasn’t already enough, Wiggins is hard at work developing a tinted lip balm. “I’m starting with the base I developed and adding pigments until I get a product I feel comfortable asking people to test,” she says.
Lavender for everyone
Given Wiggins’ passion for lavender and unceasing drive to bring additional high-quality products to market, she and her husband are on track to become Indiana’s own Burt Schavitz and Roxanne Quimby, the founders of Burt’s Bees.
Indeed, Wiggins’ vision is expansive enough to encompass vistas far beyond Lagrange. “Lavender for everyone!” she says with a smile.