Siegel’s Planting Concepts Business Blooms

In 1991, Chattanooga-born and Columbus-raised Michael Siegel returned to Atlanta after studying at an Israeli yeshiva for two years. While there, he met his wife, Dawn, who is from South Africa and was then studying at a seminary. They ultimately put down roots in Atlanta, married and began a career that has brightened the city of Atlanta, as well as simchas all over the country.

Siegel took over a landscape design company belonging to his sister, Faye Lefkoff, incorporating Planting Concepts in 1993, which he and Dawn run now. For the Siegels, who are Orthodox Jews, there’s no landscaping challenge they don’t embrace.

Planting Concepts is a full-service company that also includes a cut-flower business growing magnificent peonies for simchas and retail.

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Michael Siegel runs a 10-acre farm, a greenhouse, full-service landscaping service and cut-flower business producing peonies.

Siegel comes from a line of engineers, but likens himself to a rabbi. “Just like rabbis have lineage,” he says, “I have lineage in this business and am a third-generation Georgia Tech graduate in building construction. My father, Leon, was a civil and industrial engineer and my grandfather Abe was a civil engineer.”

Over the past two decades, Planting Concepts has grown literally from the ground up. In 1998, the Siegels bought a farm in the Appalachian foothills, near Homer, Ga., a hilly terrain just 15 minutes south of Cornelia, in the North Georgia mountains, where Siegel grows peonies in every shade from pink to fuchsia. The farm features a two-acre lake, streams, a heavily wooded area where their flower business is based and 20 cows and pregnant goats (the Siegels are on stand-by for the occasion). Their goal is to grow their cow herd to 30 and start a goat cheese, milk and soap producing operation.

Dawn Siegel picks stunning flowers on their farm in the North Georgia Mountains.

“The peonies are planted on seven fields, totaling about 10 acres,” Siegel said. “Multiple colors line each individual row, and our first year we had a crop of peonies in the tens of thousands. They come from 15 different varieties and they are all different shades of white with red specs and dark fuchsia, baby pinks and a couple varieties that are pink on the outside, with a cream color.”

He can distinguish the flower varieties just by smell. “There’s crosses of different varieties and every single bud is breathtaking,” Siegel said, “you never tire of this flower. There are certain days when we cut 3,000 stems — which is 300 bunches — and we ship all over the country.”

Magnificent peonies are the flower of choice for Siegel’s cut-flower business.

The fields are all named after the six Siegel children: Rachael, Aaron, David, Herschel, Sarah and Joshie. “After my kids graduate high school,” he said, “they go to Israel for a year to study and we’ve even visiting peony farms in Israel.”

Siegel’s is the southernmost farm that grows peonies. “They grow them in Chile, which is closer to the equator,” he says. “But what makes it tricky for us is that we are in a moderate zone, not as cold a winter and it’s hard because in the summer, we’re battling fungus due to the heat. Our peonies come out in the middle of April, around Passover and then we don’t cut them after Mother’s Day.”

Because different varieties mature at different times, they’re planted in different fields, Siegel says. “We hand-pick the flowers just before they explode; they call that the marshmallow stage. Since our market is Atlanta — an hour and ten minutes away — and we can pick to the last minute, we cut it, process it and have it to the wholesalers the next morning, as fresh as it can possibly be. It’s just been the family doing this and my kids know more about peonies than many growers do. Of course, my crew helps me when my kids are not available.”

Siegel grows a large variety of peony.

Siegel also grows ornamental lilies, Peruvian daffodils that are rare and bloom later in the spring and is currently working on propagating new varieties with over 100 types of plants. “You realize how at mercy you are to God, dependent on the rain, a late frost that won’t burn the buds, or a cold weather winter,” he confesses. “It blows you away that everything is related to nature and you have limited control. That’s the one physical side. There’s a spiritual side, and I feel that God is in control. If you go through the Oral Torah, the bulk of all that writing is based on agricultural life. Every time I turn around, I find something else that was discussed 2,000 years ago.”

Siegel’s company also focuses on the finer details of landscaping. “I can recontour the dirt and the owners are often shocked,” he says. “I feel happy that we just helped a client enjoy their property. The fun part is when I take on a radical change that requires an engineering background. That’s the installation side and there’s another side, where maintenance becomes important, and sometimes it buys me time to focus on composting, the leaves and gardening. It doesn’t put food on the table, but at the end of a long journey, those types of projects are such fun for me.”

Planting Concepts transforms backyards into landscaped settings.

Siegel also owns antique wood and glass greenhouses that took two years to disassemble and move. Originally built in Buckhead, they were relocated to Brookhaven by the late Col. Morrison, known locally for his poinsettias. Planting Concepts purchased the greenhouses and moved them to Sandy Springs, where it grows organic vegetables and off-season cut flowers.

“I wanted to grow boutique specialty vegetables for the restaurants, but with more research I found that it was not profitable,” Siegel said. “We found a greenhouse and organic vegetables. It took two years to move the greenhouse and, three days a week, we’d go to Colonel Morrison’s site with a million photographs. It’s 20 thousand square feet and recently we bought organic shitake mushrooms, lion’s mane and blue oyster spores. Three or four weeks ago, we inoculated logs with those spores and the spores have started to spread.”

At the end of the day, Siegel says it’s the little things that mean the most to him. “Ten years ago, I planted a pomegranate and it’s white and very sweet,” he said. “It is a fun thing to give people for Rosh Hashanah, and this year I had only one due to (we think) raccoons getting to them. I treasured that one plant. I normally get 50 to 100 per tree and this year, we had just one.”

Siegel’s Planting Concepts brightens Atlanta’s lawns and yards.

The Siegels are proud parents to six children, ages 20 to 28, and members of Beth Jacob and associate members of Beth Tefilla. Synagogue plays a large role. Over the years, when his kids were younger, the teachers at Torah Day School knew it was April, or flower season, when the kids would miss a few days to help pick flowers at the family farm. “Dawn monitored their attendance closely to make sure they weren’t out for long,” Siegel assures.

Still, his biggest thrill is pleasing other people. “The farm has taught me the rain is a blessing, a brachah, no matter what. 25 years ago, I’d get upset because it rained, but after owning a farm, rain is a blessing no matter what. We can’t do without the rain, and we roll with those punches.”

For more information, visit www.plantingconcepts.com.