About – Jo's Farms

In search of my mother’s garden, I found my own.

For as long as I can remember, I have been drawn to flowers and their quiet, effortless beauty

My happiest childhood moments unfolded in the backyard of our family home—hovering over scented lilacs, breathing in lily of the valley, and gathering hydrangeas in full bloom.

That sense of wonder still lives within everything I create, a soft nostalgia woven into each stem and arrangement.

Born to a mother from Sicily and a father from Naples, I was introduced early to the magic of the Mediterranean.

At fourteen, I traveled there for the first time—an experience that left an indelible imprint on my heart. It sparked a lifelong love of travel, food, and nature, eventually leading me to France, where I fell under the spell of Provence and its endless lavender fields.

It was there that my vision began to take shape—where design, art, and florals intertwined.

My work grew to include sourcing beautiful, unusual objects, lighting, and textiles from around the world, all of which continue to influence the spaces I create.

At Jo’s Farms, the scent of French lavender drifts through warm summer evenings, carrying me back to Provence—where the hills seem to exhale the earth itself. That landscape, with its layered beauty and quiet romance, is the soul of my farm and gardens.

Here, rows of lavender meet towering sunflowers, their golden faces turning toward the light, transforming the fields into something reminiscent of an impressionist painting.

It is a place of stillness, of color, of reverence for the land.

With an editorial eye and a deep love for floral artistry, I create arrangements that are deeply personal—each one rooted in the garden it comes from.

My floral mannequins, discovered on trips to Paris, serve as sculptural canvases. Draped in dried blooms, they become living compositions—where fashion, art, and nature meet.

Using flowers grown here on the farm, I allow each piece to unfold intuitively, telling its own story—always with a touch of that unmistakable je ne sais quoi.

Scent, Scenery, and Serenity: The Story of Jo’s Farms

In 2017, I was searching for a place with gardens that seemed to wander. The moment I saw the circa-1900 adobe farmhouse in Albuquerque’s North Valley, I knew I had found it. There was something immediately soulful about the house, as if it had been waiting.

The property held so much charm: an old adobe hacienda with worn wooden beams, Saltillo tile floors, stained-glass windows, five fireplaces, one outdoors, a lily pond, a casita, a gun shop, chicken coops, horse stables, and an aviary. I knew then that this was a place where my imagination could bloom.

At the back of the property sat a half-acre lot, once home to donkeys and horses. I looked at that open land and saw lavender. My husband, Joe Ornelas planted the field with love and purpose.

I imagined the A-frame barn as a place to dry flowers and the casita beside it as my shop and our dream to have a greenhouse built by JJ, a few years later.

I named the estate Jo’s Farms in honor of my mother, Josephine, who loved lavender’s fragrance as deeply as I do, and I began turning a dream into a living landscape.

Jo’s Farms is an extension of the Lisa Fontanarosa Collection, the business I founded in 1997 to celebrate artists from around the world.

Among the lavender rows, flower gardens, flower shed, shop, potting shed and newly built greenhouse, with chickens moving and murmuring through the grounds, I find myself renewed.

The scent of lavender, the brilliance of blossoms, the quiet labor of the garden — all of it brings me joy.

I love to wander through the fields and gardens, gathering fresh bouquets for my table, my floral fashions, and the greenhouse and shop I fill with them.

A garden offers me delight in shifting light, changing views, and layered fragrance. In the end, it becomes a way of telling my story.

Now, I’m thrilled to share the lavender products we create, along with the artist-made treasures I’ve collected on my travels through France and the floral fashions shaped by this place.