Appreciating the Overlooked.

Falling in love with most cut flowers is easy...they're colorful, showy, fragrant...what's not to love?! 

There are some plants, though, that make you look beyond their flowers {or lack of} to see their beauty.  I have grown to appreciate many of these plants that are often overlooked or touted as outcasts due to their unruly, aggresive or weedy nature, lack of flowers, short bloom time, lack of fragrance, etc.  Here are a few of the plants that I have become increasingly thankful for as foliage & fillers this season...

Baptisia blooms are gorgeous!...purple, yellow, white & burgandy are available.  When in bloom, they're a great addition to any arrangement!....but...they only bloom for about two weeks.  The best time to use them is when they are just beginning to open...you'll get the best vase life.  Once they're done blooming, though, I LOVE using the foliage!...and these plants produce tons of it!

Poor Gooseneck Loosestrife...it gets a bad rap.  It's a crazy aggresive grower...very crazy!  How pretty is this flower, though?!  It blooms at a time when I always seem to need a flower just like this!  It's perfect!...blooms for about 3 weeks.  If it hasn't been too buggy of a season, I like to use the foliage in fall arrangements as it begans to turn to a red/maroon/orange...amazing!

Grasses are always a huge help!...such great texture & height!  I especially love hackonechloa for it's pretty yellow color & airy feel.  Chasmanthium reseeds like gangbusters, but the flower is gorgeous in fall arrangements.

Amsonia...I love you.  The flowers are aren't too flashy, but work nicely as a filler for a short period of time in early summer.  Like baptisia, this foliage is phenomenal!...it just keeps growing!  I hacked away at this plant all season long & now, I'm getting more new, green growth to use!  The milky sap is a bit of a bummer, but hot water seals it off & the foliage lasts forever in a vase!

Oh....sweet Solomon's Seal...the most beautiful foliage.  I will be growing TONS of this little guy.  Grown in a shady spot, the foliage stays pretty well through June...and lasts & lasts in a vase!

I don't love weigela flowers so much for cuts...they're alright sometimes, but not my favorite.  The foliage on the other hand is fabulous right now!  I'm using tons of it!...it's great because it is available in tons of pretty colors, too!

Going Green?

We have decided that in order to be happier & more successful flower farmers, we need a tractor.  It really will save us from a lot of backache in the long run!  We have narrowed down the possibilities.  Deere or Kubota?

I had the opportunity to check out the Deere last night.  It seems like a very nice tractor.  From everything that Travis had described, I really thought that it would be a lot smaller.  Seeing it & getting on it, it feels like an actual tractor...more than just a lawn tractor with a bucket attached.  This one would definitely work very well for us, but...it is a bit more expensive than the Kubota...even with my John Deere Employee discount...$600?!...c'mon Deere!

I haven't had a chance to meet this tractor in person yet.  Unless our Deere sales guy comes back with a comparable price, I will definitely be making a visit to see this one.  Travis has seen both.  He says that quality wise the Deere definitely looks & feels better. 

I am a bit partial to the Deere because it is awfully pretty...but, eh, a tractor is a tractor & I would be ecstatically happy to have either!  :)

A tractor will be joining the family in the near future...the question is, will it be green or orange? 

Productive.

What a fantastic, productive weekend!  We had great weather for market on Saturday!

A few glads blooming now...500{!!!} should be blooming within the next couple of weeks!

Love the lisianthus & euphorbia together!

Workin' hard!

"Are you the girl that was on Paula Sands this week?"  Yep!  Thanks, Paula!  :)

It's beginning to look & feel like fall...the goldenrod is just beginning to pop open!

We got almost all of the current flower rows watered {please send rain!} and mulched...with grass for now until we figure out which cover crops we want to use for mulch next season.  Look at how happy the yarrow is!...it might need divided & spaced already next season!

It looks like we'll be getting blooms from the helenium, too!

We have a ton of water grass growing near the creek that runs through our property...I really think this would look great as a bouquet filler!  What do ya think?!...such a nice, clean green & great texture!

Just an all around gorgeous day!

Even the chickens seem pleased!  ;)

...and Mr. Rooster........who somehow developed from what was supposed to be an order of all hens.  Hmm...better be nice, buddy!

Into the Future.

It's 11:30 p.m. & I'm just about done with the flowers for a 600 person wedding.  I sit here on our basement floor with my glass of wine beside me {that was poured at 8 p.m.}, look around & think...

I am a dreamer, a wisher and importantly, I suppose,...a do-er.  Some days I am more of a dreamer than others...I get caught up in my excitement & pure hope to succeed in doing something that I am completely passionate about.  For as long as I can remember, I have had this deep desire to have something of my own...working for someone for the rest of my life just isn't in me. 

For the past 7 years, since finishing at Iowa State, I have worked extremely hard at working for others...and I like to think that they have all appreciated the hard work & dedication that I put into my work.  I know that I am forever in debt to them for the invaluable amount of knowledge that they have provided me with...knowledge that helps me tremendously as I make bigger & bigger leaps into pursuing my dreams.

So...anyway...before I get too wordy...I'm here in the chilly basment {who needs a flower cooler?!} completely surrounded by quart sized mason jars filled with flowers  & the entire floor is littered {uh...very littered!} with leaves, greens, stems & a few broken flowers.  Looking at the beauty in this chaos makes me think about the future and where I'll be sitting at this time next year...5 years from now...10??  I have big, huge dreams...and I have enormous hope that we can make them all come true...

All I know is that at this moment I am extremely blessed...and for all that I have been blessed with, I am so thankful...so very, very thankful.

Loving Our Land.

Olive & I had a super productive Monday night!  The 3+ inches of rain over the weekend made planting a breeze!  I was able to get all of the lilies, a bunch of hosta, some limelight hydrangeas & a viburnum in the ground!  We even did some weeding...& butterfly chasing!  {Don't mind the weeds in these photos, though...there's still mulch to go down.}

Olive was a great supervisor!...as her reward for doing such a great job, we took TWO walks back to the field {where the new flower rows are getting started} and did a lot of ball throwing!  :)

...and now, getting ready for a big wedding on Saturday!  Fun! 

Bringing it Home.

May 12th?!  The last time that I posted {...and had just previously promised to post daily?!...oops!} was May 12th?!  Alright...well, I'm back.  Things have still been pretty busy since our wedding on May 21st.  Here are the bouquets that I made for our wedding -- they turned out great!...and so did our wedding!  An 80% chance of thunderstorms was predicted for the day.  Somehow, we ended up with a light breeze, upper 70's & SUNSHINE!  It was perfect!

We closed on our house & 10 acres and began moving in on May 27th!...and have been busy moving in and getting settled ever since!  We just have one more load of things to move & then we will officially be done moving!  I cannot wait! 

Photos of our 10 acres coming soon! 

Good day, sunshine!

We had a picture perfect Freight House Farmers' Market Outdoor Season Grand Opening & Mother's Day weekend!  Blue skies, sunshine & a light breeze on both Saturday and Sunday!  Perfect! 

The first market of the season was wonderful!  We sold out of our arrangments within the first two hours -- I should have made more!!  On top of that, we sold a ton of flower bundles and had quite a few inquiries about wedding flowers!  What a great feeling to know that customers are enjoying the product as much as we do!  It makes all of the hard work worth it!  Thank you!!

The rest of Saturday & Sunday were filled with flower bed cleaning, weeding & mulching!...two full pallets of mulch are now laid out {on top of biodegradable weed block -- paper}.  It was A LOT of work {Thank you, Travis!}, but the garden looks sooo pretty now! 

Besides mulching, I delivered a beautiful Mother's Day bouquet for a friend & was able to get quite a few seedlings planted.  Half of the lisianthus, snapdragons & cardinal basil are in the ground...Love-in-a-Mist & Bells of Ireland are sprouting up!  LOTS more to go, but they'll all be in & flowering soon!...I cannot wait!

Strictly business.

Last night, I decided that it was time to do some work.  Real work.  No more of this playing around seeding, weeding, tilling, mulching stuff.  Work.  Marketing is an important part of a business, right?!  Yes...and of course, it's a horrible job...but...someone has to do it...

Funny....let me tell you, it was pretty rough!  ;)