Happy Sunday, I hope today finds you rested and peaceful. It appears that Summer may have arrived….there’s been a bit more sun, and several new faces in the gardens!

We were walking past the corn the other day and Joe spotted purple…..it appears that a beautiful purple Larkspur that a dear friend of ours shared with us before his passing seems to have reseeded itself and found it’s way into the corn. It was a blessing to see, we feel as though he has come to the garden to visit us!

The American Basket flowers that I purchased at a local nursery is beginning to open. Interestingly enough, it appears that they close at night – I’m not sure if it’s just a thing they do when they are new, or if this is a thing in general, and I wonder what it will do once it is harvested….guess I better do some research and perhaps some experiments before I put them in bouquets.

The Wedding Bells are also showing color, lots of it actually – they are in the side garden that desperately needs weeding so I haven’t noticed them, but was very thrilled to see them yesterday, such dainty bells and such lovely soft colors!

My Scarbasia finally decided to give me some color, lots of white at the moment, a few of the Dark Knights-very dramatic! No reds yet, but with the warmth and bright sun I think it will be soon.

On Friday I was able to harvest 30 Zinnias, I was able to make 6 market bouquets, two large arrangements and a medium one. Needless to say, I was very happy and proud to have been able to provide color and beautiful arrangements for my customers. Two of them even posted pictures of them and shared them with their friends and family on Facebook.

Which brings me around to the never ending question – what does next year look like? Does anyone ever really know….?

I’ve had two brides reach out to me asking about flowers. One of them wanted a very formal wedding, so I directed her to a group of flower farmers in the area. The other one liked the idea of DIY buckets and was very unsure of the process of which flowers to choose. I always love to discuss flowers and walk through the gardens with people. Neither wedding is planned until next year, the first one being in May – which is why I passed on that one, I have nothing ready in May, the other one that I did invite out is planning on a July wedding.

They brought the mom of the bride along also, it was fun to chat flowers with them and discuss ideas. I wasn’t planning on it happening, I’ve always sworn off weddings, I’m willing to do whimsical center pieces for any event, but never wanted to do the “wedding” thing. There is a lot of expectations when it comes to weddings. There is a lot of pressure when someone has an idea – especially on their special day!

We walked through the gardens, discussing colors, design, different flowers – that sort of thing. They took pictures of the flowers, we discussed the pro’s and con’s of each flower. She mentioned she wanted Carnations, we talked about what that looked like and how to get them. She wasn’t dead set on hiring someone who grew their own flowers, she wanted to save some money and make things look pretty.

We sat at the patio and chatted more. I always talk too much, I need to get better at just sticking to business lol. It’s a small world, we ended up knowing some of the same people. I had printed out menus in anticipation of passing them out to local business’, but the COVID shut down put an end to that idea, which turns out to be a good thing because I’m not sure I could keep up with mason jar subscriptions for churches or cafes! I came across the menues in May and thought about tossing them, but didn’t. I was thankful to have them, I was able to put one in the hands of each of them, and we could look at the paper together and chat about the different flowers.

The mom ended up buying a bouquet from the stand, and was interested in signing up for a subscription next year. Interesting how all of this happens when I’m contemplating not growing flowers next year?! They ended up ordering several center pieces and wanted to give me a deposit. I told them it wasn’t necessary to do so, they picked out flowers that I enjoy growing and I know thrive on my property, I said we would keep in touch as the season’s progressed. After they left I picked some of those flowers and put some center pieces together just to see how they would look and see what I would need. I sent the pictures to her, she said she really liked them.

I know full well things change, there’s a lot of time between here and there, she might find something else she loves, I don’t want her to be locked in and stuck. I told her that I would be mindful of what I took on, and have her as my priority, not taking on 12 weddings to be sure I had enough for her wedding. All in all, I loved the experience and feel confident that I will be okay with whatever happens. It was an hour and a half time investment, but in the end it was nice chatting with them, and enjoyable sharing my flower passion with people that didn’t know a lot about flowers. There really is no way to put a price on time investment, yes my time is worth something, but so is theirs, they took time to come out and meet me, walk through the gardens and ask questions. I’m not worried…..every experience is something to learn from.

I am sure that part of my peace of mind and confidence comes from a conversation I had with one of my friends whom happens to also be a flower farmer. She came and kept me company on Friday during the pop-up shop. I asked her if she would be willing to help just in case I decided not to grow as much or if she was interested in taking on the wedding if I couldn’t. We chatted about working together to grow different things to share with each other. I know lots can change between here and there, but for now, it was a great conversation to have with her. She is dealing with a lot of uncertainties also. It’s also nice having the network of flower farmers that I can connect people with if I am unable to help.

My sales have been interesting lately, I have sold some bunches of Sweet Peas and some stems of Sun flowers from the stand, but it’s not like they are lining up at the end of the street to get to the stand – but honestly, I don’t have signage out and I don’t have it advertised any other place besides the local Facebook page, so I can’t really be too discouraged by that situation. And last year when I did have signage and advertising elsewhere, it wasn’t super busy until August. It’s been a bit here and a bit there, and it all adds up over time!

Our chickens that my daughter gave us are starting to lay – holy goodness we are getting 6 eggs a day – “get more chickens they said…it will be fun they said….” hopefully we can find buyers for these – I went down to collect yesterday and already have an 18 pack to get rid of! We did drop off some eggs to a dear friend of ours in the big city, in addition to a flower bouquet that I didn’t sell at the pop-up shop, she was very thankful.

Thanks for stopping by, I hope the rest of your weekend goes well and you find yourself ready to tackle a new week. I did manage to get a run in this week, only a mile and a half, but it’s something and it felt great! Joe even came out to ride his bike along side-I run really slow….it might have been boring for him, but it was nice of him to join me! Hugs to you 🤗