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Hello Farmgirl Friends!
A few readers reminded me last month that they would really like to hear how our little flower farm is doing and if there is anything new going on! So my post today is all about flowers!
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My daughter, Andrea, and I talked back in March about wanting to do a flower event to jump start our season. Since we grow from seed and only have summer blooming flowers we never have anything blooming before June. That makes it kind of hard when suddenly in April you see gorgeous spring bouquets all over social media! This year we decided to purchase flowers and arrange them into beautiful bouquets and hold a “pop up” Mothers Day event on the Farm.
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We advertised On on our FaceBook page and got busy organizing our little pop up event. We really stressed the money we had invested in purchased flowers, time to make the bouquets, all the work in setting up for an event like this. Would people come?
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The day came and rain along with it! But we set up early and had just a few minutes to take pictures before… yes. The people came! Here are a few pictures of the event:
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We even had t-shirts made with our darling Farm Fresh logo. They have been a great seller!
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We sold out of flowers in about 45 minutes. It was such a fun event and one that we are very excited to do next year too.
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Now we are getting into our busy season and working so hard in the garden. This is our 6th year of business and we have the weeding and maintaining down to a fine art but it is such a lot of work!
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We love our bees on the farm that thrive on the flowers in the garden.
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When I look down the rows of gorgeous zinnias (my all-time favorite flower) it makes me so happy.
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We cut the flowers and do all the arranging in the open work shed right in our garden. It is such a great way to do it. We do a lot of walking every morning through the rows of flowers and to the work shed… back and forth, back and forth!
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My daughter and I arrange flowers very differently. Mine have more of a free spirit, bohemian look (ha ha!) and Andrea’s are very precise and very beautiful!
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We have added a nice reservation box to the back of our flower stand this year. So far this seems to be working out very well and we’re excited about it. (We are lucky to have husbands that are willing to jump in and help us with any new idea we have!)
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It’s really hard to describe the feeling that we get being flower farmers… small though we may be. There is a feeling of accomplishment and contentment that comes in working with flowers.
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When we fill up the Flower Cart in the mornings and stand back and look at it, we are always in awe of the fact that we grew every one of these flowers! And so thankful that this flower farming path chose us!
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[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iPxtYPHCx94&w=560&h=315]
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I’ll leave you with a fun video… our Polaris Ranger full of flowers heading to the Flower Cart and the girls riding behind in a trough that Grampy tied to the back for fun! It’s not all work at the flower garden!
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So how would you like a little summer GIVEAWAY?
If you’ve made it to the end of this post and would like to enter to win a set of Farm Fresh greeting cards, just tell me this: what is your favorite summertime flower? I’ll announce a winner in my July blog post!
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Until our gravel roads cross again… so long.
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Dori
Such an easy answer: Pansies.
I am totally entranced by those little “faces”. One of my pals recently reminded me that there are OTHER kinds of flowers, but I just smiled at her. Pansies are for ME. Thanks for asking.
I enjoyed the article and your 45-minute sell out story.
I love our Roses
My all time fave is Daisies! My mom used to have them planted along the whole side of our house. My mil has some too. We planted 2 plants this year and although I haven’t cut any to bring inside I look at them daily from inside or going to the mailbox. I wish they lined my house.
I love Columbine flowers, yellow especially. My mother loved, loved flowers. She was born in 1909, on her father’s Box Bar Ranch 37 miles from Globe, AZ. My memories of the flowers and fragrances from that yard are still in my heart today, especially the honeysuckle and columbine flowers. Walking under the arbor the smell was divine. You didn’t ask, but Dahlia’s are 2nd.
Ms
What a fun post Dori!! All your new additions to the flower stand are fantastic !
I’m loving my Farm Fresh T-shirt and have used all but one of my note cards! I have a couple questions, what (if any) pest control do you use? I have tried to grow Zinnias and man do the grasshoppers love the leaves!! And do you strip the leaves off them when you arrange them in your jars?
My favorite summer bloom has to be my roses
Looking forward to your July post!!
Kim
Hi Kim!
We don’t use any pest control on our flowers… we try really hard to practice all organic. Mainly because of the bees we have on our farm. However, you can use Neem Oil; we have in the past when we’ve been desperate! It is considered Organic (but not necessarily bee safe). Mostly we just hope for the best. Every year our biggest pest battle are the Japanese beetles. We literally pick them off and squish them as we pick flowers! Seems to be the best way.
As for picking and arranging. Everything that is going to be in water, you want stripped to the stem. It will turn your water bad in just a few hours if you leave them on. Typically you want to change your water daily anyway; but soggy, wet leaves don’t look pretty in a clear jar! 🙂
~ Dori ~
Hi Dori,
My favorite summertime flower is the Sunflower. I am not sure if that is a summertime flower or not, but it’s my favorite.
I enjoy your posts so much! Thank you for sharing with all of us.
Candy
You brightened my day with just the pictures of flowers, so thanks bunches! They are beautiful.
My favorite summertime flower is Queen Anne’s lace, especially the chocolate Queen Anne’s lace. Mix in a little coreopsis and colorful zinnias, and that’s my favorite of favorites!
I loved seeing the girls in the trough. The flowers are beautiful. Grampy likes the girls to have fun!
And, my favorite summertime flower is Zinna’s!
My all time favorite summer flower is the Gerbera Daisy. I usually put them out in various spots in more than a half dozen pots & urns!! Next in line would be the Zinnias. Love your flower growing business, it’s such a special time for you, your daughter & your two precious, sweet grandgirls❣️
Favorite flower is Stargazer Lily. The fragrance is incredible and I could sit and study the intricacy of the petals all day. And they are long lasting. Hate Japanese beetles but they would make great jewelry. Thanks for the pics.
I love black eyed Susans!
I love this!!! Just charming and so entrepreneurial!! I see how you keep your summertime flowers from wilting by keeping them in mason jars and allowing the customer to transport them that way. However, the spring ones you bought arranged..and wrapped in brown paper..how did the customer keep them from wilting?
Like you, Dori, my favorite summer flower has to be zinnias. This year I have some minis, under 1″ blooms, and State Fair Giants, the bigger the better. So many colors, so cheerful, they look like a PARTY! My daughter and I love to enter them in our County Fair every summer.
Sweet peas!
Poppy’s….so many colors and sizes.
They are “happy” flowers
Poppy’s…so many colors and sizes.
They are “Happy” flowers!
I look forward to your posts. You always seem to make work fun!
Sunflowers and iris are my favorite flowers. How can I get one of your T-shirt’s?
My favorite flower is not just one. I can’t decide which I like best, Heliotrope, forget-me-not or hydrangea.
Favorite Summer Flower is ANY TYPE OF DAISY! Love them all.
Also, you said in this post that you had “weeding & maintaining down to a fine art”, please share! This is my 4th year, I’m doing it alone, and I cannot control the weeds!
Love your flower cart!
Dori, Love the flowers. You have some wonderful ideas!! I typically just plant some Zinnia’s in my garden every year. Who do you purchase your seeds from? I want to order mine this time for next year.
My favorite flowers were my purple petunias. They were beautiful and smelled so nice. But suddenly they dried up. Don’t know what I did wrong. But I loved them.
I love them all! The summer time in the South is a riot of color and fragrance.
My favorite flowers were my purple petunias. They were beautiful and smelled so nice.
Gotta say, my favorite summer flower is the peony.
My favorite summer flowers are the Showy Milkweed. The pretty and smell good
and the hummingbirds love them. They usually are the first to bloom, so i really
hope the Monarchs get here soon! They feed on and need these plants to lay
their eggs.
Gladiolas are my favorite summer flower. My late father always gave my twin sister and me a bouquet for our birthday.
Marilyn
My favorite flower is the “Stella” Day lily…so easy to grow, and it is perennial! I really love the fact that we are so blessed by the beauty of all flowers; they are the simple things in life! Reba
My favorite summer flower is Indian Paintbrush. It grows wild in our fields along with many other wildflowers. It is so pretty and such a bright orange.
Peonies are my very favorite. I don’t think there is a flower that doesn’t make me smile.
Dori, love your darling flower stand and all the flowers. My favorite summer flower has to be love-in-a-mist (Nigella damascena)
Irises!
Sweet peas! When I lived in California sweet peas were winter/ spring flowers but now we live in Wyoming, so they are summer flowers. Always puts a smile on my face.
It’s too hard to pick one favorite but if I can have one chose it would be the sunflower. I love your flower stand. It makes me happy just looking at it.
Too many choices and they are all beautiful!
Too many choices, they are so beautiful!
Peonies. Just love how full they are and colors.
Peonies. Just love how full they are and colors. How can I buy one of your tshirts
IT HAS ALWAYS BEEN ZINNIAS.I LOVE TO PLANT SEEDS AND THEN WAIT IMPATIENTLY TO SEE THE COLORS..
Hi Dori,
I love gardenias!
julie
Daisy’s are my favorite for the pureness they seem to represent, but I love zinnias too, they are my happy flower.
Your post was very much appreciated on this cool rainy Maine morning, thank you.
Congratulations on helping our troubled spirits refresh with your botanical bundles of joy. Though I cannot visit your hearts easing flower stand in person, I delight in visiting via your blog. So wonderful to have this be a multigenerational endeavor. Love those little girl giggles at the end of your post.
Not sure if I could choose just one favorite summer flower. Each reaches the heart in its own way. Annuals especially eager to please without pause. I live among a large community of Amish and eagerly anticipate spring when I can visit as many Amish greenhouses as I have time for to fill my little red RAV4 with amazingly well grown potted plants to fill among the mainstays of my gardens, the perennials. With so much available, I still grow some of my own annuals from seed. My favorite are the the tall variety snapdragons. When my children were small they delighted in gently squeezing the flowers open between chubby finger and thumb to get the “dragon mouths” to open and close. Guess these, along with my memories of them, would be close to the top of my list of summer flowers I wouldn’t want to be without.
Bless you, your girls, and your flowers. thanks
I love the fragrance of peionies, and the long lasting color of rocket larkspur.
Hands down Zinnias !
Sweet Peas. There fragrance is intoxicating!
I love each season’s flowers….especially the ones that are blooming on any given day!
Spring- Iris and Peony. Summer-Roses, Lilies, Larkspur and Zinnias.
Continued success to you!!
I love sunflowers and want to try growing them close to the house to provide shade for a west facing picture window in my living room.
I’ll have to agree with you on the zinnia’s, I just love them. I am growing them along with milkweed, 4 o’clocks a mystery flower that came from my Grandmother’s flower garden. No one seems to know what they are called. I enjoy your flower posts!!
My fav summer flower is Sunflower
Sunflowers are my favorite summer flower.