Cut Flower Gardens TO GO

What’s better than a bouquet of fresh cut flowers? A summer’s worth! I am selling (LOCAL ONLY) a limited number of “cut flower gardens to go” in peach and orange // pink themes for you to plant in your home gardens and am super excited to hear how it goes for you! I am going to be updating this page with answers to your FAQ’s as they come in…Here we go!

What’s in the tray?

A mix of 25 plants — zinnias, celosias, gomphrenas, cosmos, eucalyptus (yes you read that right — Eucalyptus!!!), nicotiana, strawflower and delphinium, basil...I am also hoping to tuck in a dahlia tuber or cutting depending on how well my tubers store (fingers crossed, all look great right now!!) The varieties will vary depending on the color way you choose - there will be some white mixed in and the delphinium is a light blue. The tray will come with instructions on plant spacing and growing / cutting instructions. Most of these varieties are cut and come again meaning that the plant will keep churning blooms out especially if you deadhead the spent blooms, and the more you cut, typically the longer the stems. They all make great cuts to bring indoors and enjoy a bouquet. Eucalyptus is especially fun to grow and will become quite large by the end of 2020 - And may even overwinter for you if given protection and a little luck :) Eucalyptus is typically ready to cut from in September for us here at the farm and will keep growing typically until around Thanksgiving depending on how many frosts we see.

A sample of the varieties in the pink assortment

Spacing // Sunlight

These varieties will all thrive in full sun. Some can be planted as tight as 9” apart - The exceptions being zinnias, scabiosa, and cosmos (I recommend 12” for these). To make it easy you could plant everything at 12” intervals. The eucalyptus can grow quite tall - Up to 6’ plus in the first year, and if you are lucky enough to have it (/want it) to survive into year two, it can grow taller than 8’, so you will want to keep that in mind. And the dahlia varieties I hope to include are on the smaller side but still make excellent cuts.

The good news is, you really do not need a ton of space to grow a lot of flowers!

Eucalyptus “Silver Dollar”

When will the trays be ready?

I will have them ready for pickup the week of May 4 - 8 and Mother’s Day weekend (May 10!!!) will have some pickup availability as well (HMMMM…What a great gift!). Our average frost date is around 5/15 and these are for the most part tender plants that prefer warm soil and heat. They will be cranking in your gardens in no time!

A sample of the varieties in the peach + orange assortment

While it seems like May is far off, it will be here before you know it! These gardens-to-go make great gifts! If you have questions please email me or leave a comment and I will answer ASAP.

Thanks so much, as always, for your support of our farm 🖤

Welcoming 2020...

I always resolve to write in this space more often and alas…This is the nature of farming. A never-ending to do list that you constantly re-prioritize and only the most urgent tasks seem to make it to the top.

So instead of resolving to write bi-weekly or even monthly, I think quarterly would be a great goal for 2020! This first post of the year finds me knee deep in dahlia tubers, co-op to-do lists, notes and seed catalogs. Planning the year is truly one of my favorite tasks - starting seeds a fast second, so it’s kind of like Christmas in January right now!

Wishing you lots of joy and happiness in 2020 - I promise to write again soon!

Here we go again!

I always mean to update this blog more often than I get to! But cheers to the 2019 season which is already off and running (well, some of us are crawling, ahem…) and we are so excited to get back into the swing of growing and selling our highest quality cut flowers. We will be selling weekly at The Common Market and to our regular wholesale design clients, and we hope to offer some other options once we get rolling, so stay tuned to our Instagram page and to this space to be the first to learn more.

We are dipping our toes into selling some dahlia tubers this spring, just in time to get them planted in your home gardens! Check out the “dahlia tubers” page to learn more.

Thanks for checking in and we look forward to staying in touch this season!

A wild ride!

So much could be said about this season. It was full of ups and downs, highs and lows. Rain. SO MUCH RAIN…But let’s focus on the beauty, shall we?

Ivory Calendula - Definitely growing again in 2019

Spring brought lots and lots and lots of rain. We lost several crops - Larkspur hates wet feet and rotted from the tips and the roots. Weeds loved the conditions and I quickly lost control of some of my field. But while we were losing flowers, we also had some successes…

There was a big learning curve on the ranunculus — We will try again, though taking a break from them in 2019 because they are very expensive to grow and with a baby on the way, I don’t feel like I can give them enough of my attention this fall. But we are all definitely smitten!

Our peonies bloomed all at once - Two varieties went gangbusters on Mother’s Day which meant harvesting in the rain and drying the blooms out in front of a fan. Besides the weather, our crop was insanely beautiful and sold fast to our designer clients. Seems you can really never have enough peonies…Excited to see our new varieties really take off in 2019 after blinking and missing them this past spring!

I finally had success with spring stock and will never let a season go by without growing some of this lovely, fragrant flower. It comes in such a great variety of colors!

Cherry blossom stock (Matthiola)

Sweet William was a real winner…It cranked and cranked and cranked - At one point its all I had blooming in June. This is a crop we overwinter — It is extremely hardy here and has great vase life.

New-to-me godetia was hit or miss. We planted the white variety in a wetter part of our field and between the rain and thrips, lost the entire crop. The Salmon color is so vibrant it is hard to figure out what goes with it, but in a rainy year, it was a bright spot. This flower blooms all at once and there is only so much you can move at one time, so we will grow it again but scale back…It benefits from a hard pinch to encourage branching…And definitely net//stake!!!

This was the earliest I have ever had zinnias…The plants we planted late spring did not seem to mind the rain - They cranked forever. I did not do as great a job at succession planting them this year, and need to revisit which varieties sell vs. which varieties I grow because I like them :) I am very excited about the new Queen Orange for 2019. Long live the Queen(s)!!!

Another consistent producer and best seller, scabiosa is a small flower that makes a big impact. I will cut it back again next year for a second flush (and also, STAKE/NET it!!!) and plan to succession plant for fall sales as I never seemed to have enough.

Fata Morgana Scabiosa

Another new fave in our field is this Delhi Pearl Celosia. It is a soft pinky-coral color and I am obsessed. We will definitely be growing so much more of this in 2019 - At least 3 successions.

Delhi Pearl Celosia

I had a total love affair with celosia this season. I did better (still lots of room for improvement) with succession planting and selecting colors that designers would like and that I could incorporate into our market bouquets. It is such a reliable, colorful crop. Can’t wait to add more to the repertoire in 2019…

Terracotta Celosia

I have grown lisianthus from seed for three years and have been fairly successful…The plants I actually got into the ground this season did wonderfully, but because of the rain and being a one-woman-show, I failed at transplanting these miserably and really missed them in my production. Will 100% do better in 2019!!! Their long vase life and stunning blooms make them a must-grow.

More on zinnias…I love the smaller size of the Oklahoma series and will definitely continue to grow them in 2019. I am also going to try again with the Cupcake and Zinderella series because even if they don’t produce the Pinterest-worthy blooms they are insta-famous for, they are still sough-after because of their size and colors. The Benary series just don’t perform well for me here with short vase life, weak stems and quick susceptibility to diseases like Powdery Mildew.

Oklahoma Salmon Zinnias

This season I focused on adding more blue and purple to my field and it really paid off. Ageratum, salvia and several varieties of delphinium helped to add so much to our mixed bouquets all season long - Blue and/or purple go with almost all other colors, it turns out. I hope to grow more of the same along with light and dark purple lisianthus, more delphinium, larkspur, and sweet peas in shades of blue and purple in 2019…

Blue bedder salvia

Besides being my favorite flower, Foxglove really was a workhorse for me in 2018. I will grow at least 3X as many dalmation apricot plants next year, and probably less of the more vibrant colors, the lilac in the Foxy series being the exception - They have longer stems for some reason and I sold more of them than any other foxglove. I just love these freckle-faced beauties.

FOXGLOVE LOVE

SUNFLOWERS!!! I really struggled to keep up with my succession plantings on these guys but when they were good, they were sooooo good. I am determined to do better in 2019 as they really do add so much to mixed bouquets and I had so many requests for them that I couldn’t keep up demand. These are definitely not your grandmothers sunflowers :)

Some flowers just aren’t meant to be cut, but instead, meant to be enjoyed in the field at golden hour or by our pollinator friends :) Verbena definitely falls into this category for me…

Verbena - Not a great cut, but definitely a pollinator favorite!

I promise to do so much better in 2019! I will also share some favorite dahlia varieties soon, it was a rough year for them but they are always worth reviewing!

Thanks for checking in // following along on our flower-filled adventures!

Blooms - Just around the corner?

While it may not look like it outside today, blooms really are on their way and we cannot wait to be swimming in them. I was asked recently what the hardest part of my job is and while SO MUCH of farming is hard, one of the biggest challenges is the partnership with Mother Nature. It is a constant push and pull, every day I am reminded that I really have very little control over the environment in which I grow. And that is so hard to learn over and over (and over) again, especially for a control freak. Just when you think you've gotten it, you get hit with a late March spring snowstorm. I keep reminding myself that 80 + 90 degree days are, literally, just around the corner :) Also, the snow is quite lovely, and has given me the opportunity to catch up on data entry, baking (a lemon bundt cake AND French bread! Thankfully I ran out of flour...) and romping with the dogs...

Sugar is almost always running...

Hope to have some progress shots for you soon as we clean up the perennial garden and the big field, begin to divide the dahlias in storage, and, hopefully begin to see some real growth on the ranunculus and hardy annuals once the snow melts...

Speaking of garden cleanup - Here is a lovely article I wanted to share about the benefits of NOT cleaning up at the end of your season. I actually find clean-up easier to deal with in the spring, when I am eager to get back into the dirt after a long cold winter, and I love having a garden full of wild birds in every season. Just something to think about! 

Happy shoveling :)

On change!

Change is just around the corner and I couldn't be more nervous + excited! At this point I can't remember where I've shared this news and where I haven't, but I will be flower farming FULL TIME in 2018 --> !!! Even typing it seems surreal, so I can't imagine what it will feel like after this short month when I am answering to myself (my dad tells me I am a tough boss...)

I am excited to see what this year brings both professionally and personally, and to grow the best flowers yet.

Stock babies

Thank you for following along on this incredible journey and especially for supporting locally grown flowers! We will be updating this site more often in the coming months, and are excited for all that is in store for the coming season including some open farm days this summer. We can't wait to share the beauty and bounty with you! 

Looking towards 2018

I love goal setting and brainstorming sessions and long car rides when the ideas flow and the clean slate and new calendars that January 1 brings! I am deep into planning for the 2018 growing season, have finalized my seed selections and am putting the final touches on my seed starting schedule. I am also trying to keep the hundreds of dahlia tubers we have in storage from waking up too early or perishing in the cold (Storage is what I think makes dahlias so difficult!)...Trying to keep pipes from freezing in the greenhouse and workshop with a wood burning pellet stove that decided on Christmas Eve to shut itself down (we are back up and running just in the nick of time because it is bitter cold now with no warm up in sight - it is winter after all!)

We started some lisianthus in early December as a test to see if we can get some earlier blooms, and it sure feels good to get back into the warm greenhouse, back into the soil. It is the nicest place to be for sure in the winter -- I should have asked for a hammock for Christmas to put up in there :) We are excited to grow more (and sell more!) blooms than ever in 2018 and to getting them into more hands + homes! If you would like to receive emails about what we are up to, we have a newsletter sign-up here.

Wishing you a warm, happy and healthy 2018, full of more locally grown and seasonal flowers!

Dinner under the stars...

I wanted to share some recent photos from a lovely al fresco dinner we hosted on the evening of the eclipse. These were all taken by Kate Headley. I have always loved Kate's work and am still pinching myself that she came to my farm. My amazingly talented friend Arney Walker dreamed up a beautiful menu + tablescapes, made some delicious salads and orchestrated the afternoon and evening (Arney's nickname is "dream maker" -- and she is just that!). I am hopeful we will host a farm + flower - to - table dinner like this annually!

Where do I even start with the magic Arney and Kate created + captured? They looked at our farm through such different (rose colored) glasses. I see messes everywhere (trust me - there are lots of weeds and messes here!!) They made everything beautiful...

This has been an insanely intense year. Taking a day to enjoy all of the hard work and invite some of my best friends to join us around the table was such a highlight. Seeing the farm through other peoples eyes, and being reminded of the beauty here has really helped me focus on buckling down to finish out the fall strong...

barn light

Flower farming is HARD WORK -- Don't let Instagram fool you (and this is not meant as the complaint department) I've had poison ivy in some crazy places this season. I bought my very own weed whacker and its incredibly empowering to use it. I am learning (kicking and screaming) to drive the tractor. I suck at staking my plants (and MUST get better at it). I make lots of mistakes. I always have 2 laundry baskets of dirty clothes...

But it is beautiful, rewarding, exciting (stressful) and awesome. I am so glad I jumped in and didn't let my fear of failure stop me.

I always look like this in the field :)

Thank you for following along, supporting our farm, being excited with me over the small successes and listening to me talk about all I am learning + growing. Thanks for laughing with me when I make fun of myself (coping mechanism!) Thank you for buying local flowers, supporting local farmers and the local economy, and enjoying the seasonality of the growing season - it sure is sweet.

Kate captured some of the heat lightning that mesmerized us during dinner...Magic I tell you!!!