Last winter (January 2019), while scrolling Instagram and happened upon @FloretFlower the handle for Floret Flower. OMG - their pictures are stunning! Even if you have no interest in ever growing your own flowers, you have to check out the posts. Anyway, their page inspired me to get some seeds for Ridley, Greta and I to start indoors during the late winter. To be honest, I thought of it just as an activity to keep the kids entertained for an hour or so. And that it did. But as the weeks went on and we eventually moved the flowers outside, we became more an more interested in growing the flowers. Now, the spring of 2019 was a BEAR. It was cold, it rained incessantly and it was not ideal for growing flowers. So many were drowned out, or subsequently fried by the sun, or out-competed by the weeds. It was definitely an eye-opener. But nevertheless, we persisted. We harvested some snapdragons, cosmos, and bells of ireland. And by end of June we direct planted some sunflowers too. When August came around we had dahlias and sunflowers. It was official, we were bitten by the flower farming bug.
I spent all summer studying Floret's book, Cut Flower Garden, and reading ALLLL THE THINGS online. At some point in the course of my research, I became fixated on peonies. They are just so beautiful with their big billowing flower heads. I narrowed down to 8 varieties.... but later added another 3 (haha). Layne helped us prepare the field. He plowed, added compost, and tilled again. Then, we shaped the bed with an implement we borrowed from a friend who produces thousands of pounds of tomatoes for local grocery stores and farmer's markets. In November, we planted 260 peony roots. Peony roots which will eventually bear flowers ranging from white, to magenta, to blush, bubble gum, coral, and even a surprise yellow that I am particularly excited for!
I'll be sharing more photos and information as we go on. To make sure you don't miss a thing, join our mailing list. We have lots of other fun things coming for summer 2020, and I can't wait to share! Hope you all have a great week!!
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