http://www.stonemeadowgardens.ca/

Stone Meadow Gardens, Granville Road, Annapolis, NS (2024)

11/12/2024

I sure do miss the dahlias! But I'm breathing a sigh of relief to have them safely tucked away for winter storage. We still have the monumental task of dividing thousands of clumps, but I'm not thinking about that for at least another month! For now I'm just enjoying these beautiful pics and remembering warmer days 😅

How about you? Do you have your tubers safe and sound for winter??

10/30/2024

I should have shared this a couple weeks ago, but it's been such a beautiful fall that I've been working steady to make the most of the nice weather!

Before any more time passes, I need to say a huge ❤️Thank You❤️ for all the support we've had from our new community. This year it really started to feel like we're back in the groove and I can't tell you how good that feels.

As many of you know we made a big move almost three years ago (seriously, how has it been 3 years!!) and we've slowly been building our new farm here in Nova Scotia. When we left BC, we left a lot behind- friends and family (who we miss dearly!), our farm infrastructure (ok, also miss that!), but we also left behind our wonderful customers, many of whom became friends.

When you run a small business, you genuinely get to know your customers. You see them regularly and get to know their kids, their stories, and the ups and downs of their days. When their partner comes to the farm stand to pick up a special gift, you know exactly which bouquet they would want. And that is truly an honor.

So, thank you Annapolis! We love it here and we love getting to know you and becoming part of your days. We're excited to see how the next seasons unfold and are really looking forward to new ways to share the beauty of flowers with you!

Swipe through to see a few highlights from this summer!

10/06/2024

After a couple of very challenging years, it's such a relief to report that this Dahlia season has been epic. Any farmer or gardener will tell you that some years are better than others, but last year was particularly noteworthy for all the wrong reasons. This year, I'm heading into October feeling strong and like things are back on track.

But my heart is breaking as I see the devastation that my farming friends are facing down in North Carolina, and I feel guilty celebrating while they suffer. One minute, everything is fine- but then it can go entirely off the rails in the next. This life and this business is a fragile one, and I don't know how we best prepare or protect ourselves and our livelihoods.

For now, I'm sending lots of love and virtual hugs to all my farmer friends out there. 🌸🩷🌸🩷🌸

09/22/2024

The dahlias are at their peak which must mean fall is really here! It's funny how it just sneaks up. A chilly breeze, a falling leaf, a blanket pulled out of the trunk. Before I know it, we'll be lifting tubers from the ground and putting the fields to bed for the year.

Until then I'll just be over here enjoying every last minute of this beautiful season! I hope you are too 🍁🍂🍁🧡

08/22/2024

I can't believe a whole week has gone by since the Regional Conference at !!

As the regional director, I've been helping organize this conference since January, and it was truly incredible to finally be in Ontario and watch it unfold in front of my eyes.

To have the chance to connect (in person!) with so many Canadian growers, many of whom I've only known through social media, was indeed one of the best parts. There's nothing like being surrounded by your people!

Melanie and the entire crew at had the farm absolutely sparkling ✨️ There are no words for how grateful I am for alllllĺl the hard work they put into preparing for this event! They seriously put their hearts into the project, and their pride for Dahlia May Farm was shining through. We could feel the love!

It was such an amazing experience to have the full behind-the-scenes tour of the farm and facilities! From the barn to the studio to the cooler to the farm stand- everything was well thought out. It was definitely a flower-farmer's dream!

It was a real treat to have our friends from there helping out, too! In the second pic, you can see Louise and Courtney harvesting some last-minute blooms just before the start of the design workshop with the incredibly talented and

We had the opportunity to learn from many of our experienced colleagues and I'm so thankful that they were willing to come share their hard-earned knowledge with everyone!

AND, I'm so glad I got to kick off immersed in the Canadian flower community (check out our after-hours project 🌸🚣‍♀️🌸).

Let's do it again, eh?!! 💐🇨🇦

Were you there? What was your favorite part??

06/16/2024

I just couldn’t let ranunculus season go by without giving them a proper farewell and a permanent spot in our grid. Someday I just might scroll back through all our posts and this little snap shot will be a perfect reminder of this spring in Nova Scotia.

We have lots going on, between finishing the house renovation, preparing ground at our new place and tending the main fields we "lease" from our lovely neighbors. But the pace feels healthy. We're eating well, getting good rest and staying relatively sane. The weeds are (more or less) under control and we have a healthy but cautious amount of optimism for the summer. We'll see where it goes from here!

I hope you're all doing well out there and enjoying this precious time of year 💖

05/19/2024

Fringe: Outside of the mainstream, unconventional, peripheral, or exteme.

I am officially a fringed tulip convert, and I thought it was worthy of commemorating here.

How about you? Are you a fan of fringe?

05/07/2024

Mother's Day is just around the corner, and I'm happy to say we'll have some gorgeous tulips for the weekend! You can find us and these beautiful blooms at the this Saturday at the first outdoor market of the season. I can hardly wait!

03/10/2024

Gomphrena... no, it's not a disease 😂 But it can strike terror in the heart of a flower farmer!

It's one of the flowers that growers tend to have VERY strong feelings about. Known for their adorable, clover-like blooms, these little cuties are also renowned for being a real pain to pick. It can be tedious to fill a bucket when you're clipping stems one by one.

But thanks to a suggestion from my friend Michelle , last year I waited until the whole plant was ready (the stems are all rigid) and harvested the entire plant at once. Then, for fresh bouquets, I would clean them up and strip stems in the barn. It was much faster and easier. The branched stems make a great filler in bouquets, and everyone loves the cheery pops of color!

For dried flowers, I would just split the bucket into a few bundles and hang them to dry.

This year, I'm doubling down and planting a couple of beds. Mostly for dried flowers because they last forever and are just soooo cute! But I'll definitely be adding them to our fresh bouquets too.

How about you? What team are you on? Love 'em or hate 'em?

03/07/2024

Don't mind me! I'll just be over here living in that blissful space between dream and reality called late winter 😂 It's such a beautiful time of year... When I'm reallllly stoked for the upcoming season, when it seems possible that things will indeed go as planned and nothing, yet, has gone sideways. Ahhhh, life is sweet.

Ok, byeeee

02/21/2024

Oof...I killed (read: forgot to water 🙄) a tray of my favorite Campanula yesterday. Ugh! Fortunately, it was the only loss, but still, I'm kicking myself. It happens every year, but I'd rather it happen to something I had extras of hanging around!

I was feeling a little down, not wanting to get behind on seeding, so I started another tray this afternoon. When I checked my seeding records from last year, I saw that I started them around Feb 10th, so I'm not too far behind! Phew! I only had seeds left for pink, so I'll have to roll with that instead, which sounds just fine to me 💖

02/11/2024

I have too many pretty pictures on my phone to keep them hidden. So here's one from last summer!

And it just goes to show that you can make beautiful bouquets from simple but beautiful annual ingredients. Last summer, we were just getting things rolling again after making the big cross-country move. I had limited greenhouse space, no perennials, and hadn't ordered spring bulbs. I was longing for all the established fields of plants we left behind and feeling a little anxious about my ability to make the bouquets I envisioned.

But then I just sat down, put pen to paper, and came up with a field plan that would work well without all those things. And I think it turned out pretty darn good!

Am I looking forward to seeing all those new perennials bloom that I planted last summer? Yes, yes, I am 😅 But in the meantime, I made it work, and sometimes that's what it's all about.

# #

01/30/2024

I never plant branching sunflowers! So when I seeded these last year, it never crossed my mind that was the reason these plants were getting sooo huge. I usually plant the single-stem varieties. I have my program, my favorites, and know what to expect. So I was "shocked" when I went to my Johnny's catalog and saw that, indeed, "Shock-o-lat" was a branching variety. Gah!

For those of you wondering, branching varieties are seeded much farther apart to allow the plant to grow and, well, branch out. For use as a cut flower, it's important to pinch out the center so you get nice long stems. Otherwise, you get monster plants with a bunch of blooms on shorter stems, which is beautiful in a garden but not practical for cut flowers.

I planted these on 6 in spacing instead of 18 and hadn't pinched them. While I did manage to cut some nice flowers off them, it was a bit of a fail.

But, it wasn't a total disaster (I mean they're flowers, so obviously i couldn't be) because I LOVE this color!

So I've had a change of heart and am planning whole bed of branching sunnies for this year. But I'd love to hear what you guys think! Do you have experience with the branching varieties and how do you think they perform compared with the single stem types? (Thinking about yield mostly) Let me know!

01/16/2024

Outside, the snow is behaving for now, falling gently to the ground. Straight down. This seems noteworthy since it usually moves so fast, tapping hard against the window, propelled sideways by big gusts moving across the Atlantic.

Inside, I'm tucking the first tiny seeds of our 2024 season into soil and thinking of spring. It feels far away now, but it's creeping closer every day. I really look forward to spring, but I'm learning to embrace these between-times when the pace is slower. The time when I can enjoy the coziness of watching the snow fall while I sow seeds, knowing that soon, the days will be long and full of things to do.

If you're curious, today I sowed Lisianthus (the apricot bunch of beauty in the 2nd pic), Eucalyptus, Campanula (Canterbury Bells), and Foxgloves.

I hope you're also finding the joy of January!

12/14/2023

Dahlias! We've had lots of questions lately asking if we'll be offering tubers for sale next spring and I'm happy to say the answer is yes!

However, it's definitely a good news/ bad news scenario. And...that was the good news. The bad news is that it was a rough season.

Relentless rain for almost all of July lead to some tubers sitting in water (despite the fact that the soil at that site is 83% sand!) and rotting. We really noticed the subtle differences in elevation throughout the field, and those beds that were a little higher did great. But unfortunately, some tubers in the low areas were total goners. Some wilted from the excess water but recovered, although tuber production was diminished. And some never missed a beat!

Basically, some varieties won't be available this year, some will be limited and some we'll have plenty (please tell me why Cornel seems indestructible 😆!) We'll know more as we start to divide, and we'll be sure to keep you posted.

One thing is for sure: we learned a lot this season and have already started putting some of those strategies in place for next year. Although the way things seem to go lately, we should probably be prepared for drought instead of flooding, so we'll do that too.

12/05/2023

Tell me you work well together without telling me you work well together.

If you've ever done a big construction project with your partner, or even if you've tried assembling a piece of Ikea furniture together, you know it says a lot that we're still smiling (and willing to take a selfie) at the end of the day!

Maybe it's because we've got a few of these builds under our belts already, or perhaps we're just so happy to finally have this project underway at our new home and farm in NovaScotia, but I think we're a pretty good team. Or maybe it's because I'm so tolerant and patient 😜 (Mom, you are not allowed to comment 😆)

Jokes aside, after almost a decade of doing this, we have had many (many) hours to figure out how to work together well. We genuinely respect each other's strengths and (usually 😅) know when to step back and let the other take the lead.

Hopefully, we'll have this buttoned up by next week, and then 2024 here we come!

11/27/2023

I've never been really into holiday decorating, but I'm starting to appreciate it more every year. Now that the days are getting so short and the leaves are off the trees, it's fun to have some green around! And honestly, it just feels good to be a little festive. I've discovered that I actually love satin ribbon and I'm always keen for some fun arts and crafts, so December, here I come!!

11/16/2023

How has a week already flown by since I got back from St Louis for the ASCFG conference! Flower growers- Are you an member? Because I just can't say enough about how great this organization is and how impactful attending a conference can be.

Today, we have an entire world of information at our fingertips. Which can be amazing, but also it's often information overload. Figuring out what and who we can trust can be overwhelming, and when we add social media to the equation, things get even trickier. One small square, as beautiful as it may be, or as confident as the creator appears, doesn't really show us the full picture.

But this is why I love the ASCFG! I know that when I'm attending a conference or virtual event, I'm learning from an industry professional! Whether farmers, growers, or academic researchers, these folks have serious experience in the flower world that they're bringing to the table. And yes, sometimes they're even Instagram stars, too!! But if they are, they've proven they can back it up with more than just a pretty face ✨️😉

So friends, if you're a grower, do yourself a favor and join. It's the warmest bunch of flower geeks you'll ever meet. It's about sharing knowledge and also about building and being in community. These are your people!

Here are some pics from St Louis

1. At the inspiring urban farm of Mimo and Miranda
2. The Arch at sunrise, just outside our hotel
3. Gorgeous roses in the tunnel at Urban Buds
4. The 2024 ASCFG Board of Directors
5. A dry, but mind-blowing (because we saw so much of it in our very wet humid summer here) slide from a presentation on Botrytis.

I'm honored and humbled to be a part of this beautiful organization!

Stone Meadow Gardens

11/12/2024

10/30/2024

10/06/2024

09/22/2024

08/22/2024

06/16/2024

05/19/2024

05/07/2024

03/10/2024

03/07/2024

02/21/2024

02/11/2024

01/30/2024

01/16/2024

12/14/2023

12/05/2023

11/27/2023

11/16/2023

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