Suzanne Stewart
Staff Writer
The Pocahontas County Chamber of Commerce hosted its annual Fish Bowl grant program at the Marlinton Municipal Building last Thursday evening, where three hopeful business- owners gave a pitch about their plans for the grant money.
The Fish Bowl is inspired by the popular television series Shark Tank where inventors give a presentation to several business moguls in hopes of getting investments to mass produce their product.
Unlike the show, the winner of the grant is chosen by the audience members who pay $10 each to attend the event. That money is combined with a $500 grant from the Greenbrier Valley Economic Development Corporation and the full amount is given to the winner.
The three businesses vying for the grant were Eight Rivers Cabin Company, LLC, Headwaters Spa and Salon and Cedarleaf Farm and Florals, LLC.
After the presentations, it was announced that Cedarleaf Farm and Florals, LLC, was selected as winner.
Adrienne Cedarleaf star-ted the business in 2024 when she and her husband, Ezra, plowed up a quarter acre of their land in Hillsboro to plant flowers.
“A flower farm is basically where you farm and plant flowers, and you sell them as cut flowers,” she said. “We do wholesale stems to local florists in the area, retail arrangements, market bouquets, dried flowers and also we offer do-it-yourself workshops and CSA subscriptions.”
Cedarleaf serves Pocahontas, Greenbrier and Nicholas counties and delivers flowers to florists and event coordinators for everything from birthdays and anniversaries to weddings and Mother’s Day.
“I also sell to other flower farmers in the area if they need extra stems for weddings,” she said.
The farm grows more than 30 varieties of flowers which are available from April through October. Cedarleaf said she also has a few rows of flowers in a community high tunnel for the winter months.
Cedarleaf was inspired to start her business after helping a friend and fellow flower farmer in Nicholas County with her business. Working with the flowers made her realize her love for the plants and their versatility to be there for people in good times and bad.
“I feel like flowers are really a special thing and they are one of the only things that I can think of that crosses all boundaries,” she said. “They are there when we have wonderful, happy, joyous moments and they’re there just for the fun of it, but they’re also there for those moments that are difficult and hard and challenging.
“They’re pretty magnificent.”
As for the future, Cedarleaf said she has big plans for 2026. She is in the process of purchasing the Flower Garden in Marlinton. The grant funding from the Fish Bowl will go toward upgrading the store front.
“It will be a fresh new look,” she said. “We’ll put out new signs for our business and we would put out nice raised planters on each side of the windows to bring people in, and put out a new awning just to make it new and attract people.”
The store will continue to serve as a flower shop, of course, and will have cut flowers, potted flowers and other merchandise such as small gifts, chocolates and more.
Cedarleaf said she is in the process of getting a loan to purchase the business. If that does not go through, she said she will use the Fish Bowl grant to expand her farm to include perennial crops, which are more expensive and take more time to flourish before they can be sold.
Eight River Cabin Company, LLC, owned by Erica Faulknier, has one rental cabin at this time, located across from the entrance to Stillwell Park in Marlinton.
Faulknier said she has had great success with rentals and has even rented the cabin for events such as baby showers. Her pitch was to purchase a tent, tables and chairs to help the business continue to be used for local events or reunions.
Headwaters Spa and Salon, owned by Casey Horton and Derek Trull, is planning to expand its business once again to include esthetician services. Trull will finish his education to be an esthetician in January and planned to use the funding to buy supplies needed for those services.
Horton is no stranger to the Fish Bowl grant program as he was a winner in 2017 for his salon and photography business Alpha Matter, which he opened in Snowshoe.
Alpha Matter moved to Marlinton in 2018 into Allie’s Salon and thrived there until 2024 when the business expanded and changed to Headwaters Spa and Salon.
The Fish Bowl Grant Program is an annual event hosted by the Pocahontas County Chamber of Commerce and funded by the Greenbrier Valley Economic Development Corporation.
