ELLSWORTH, Ohio (WKBN) – Lavender is used in essential oils, which are supposed to calm you down. But a lavender farm in Ellsworth had storm damage from Saturday’s high winds that it wasn’t expecting. On Wednesday, we found out what went wrong and what the impact is on the business.

The greenhouse at Ellsworth Lavender Farm is open, wide open, but not by design. Saturday’s storm opened a hole and ripped open the film that was covering the greenhouse.

“It was scary to see it and I was trying to think how can I take this and how can I secure it so it doesn’t get any worse? And there was no safe way to do it,” said co-founder Bill Hendricks.

The film kept ripping open and within two hours, the rest blew off. The business is just in its second year. The 30×72-foot greenhouse had been built specifically to withstand strong winds.

“We went with extra reinforcing and everything and it was sad. It’s really disappointing, but it’s not something we can’t overcome. We’ll be fine with it,” Hendricks said.

It will take over $1,000 for a new film to cover the greenhouse and about double that amount for the work to do it.

The greenhouse is normally 90 degrees to help new plants establish roots before they get planted in the field. There are 1,300 new plants waiting for their time in the greenhouse, which was expected to start this weekend.

“It’s a couple $1,000 setback when it takes three years to get your product going out there before you start seeing any return, so we’re gonna make it work,” Hendricks said.

The first set of 1,300 lavender plants was put in the ground last year. They’re OK and ready to be pruned. Right at the end of May or beginning of June, you’ll be able to see the bloom from Western Reserve Road in a variety of colors.

“It’ll be beautiful — different colors from pinks, the purples to whites all through the blues. Then the back section is going to be more of the lavenders for oils that we’ll be distilling and selling products created by the oils right here,” Hendricks said.

Ellsworth Lavender Farm will have support programs using the field and even some agri-tourism with people coming to take pictures for weddings and different things.

Most of the lavender oils it will distill will be used in cooking.