Hazel Bloom Farm & Flowers

01/21/2025

January seed starts and garden tasks.
While I don’t get most seeds started until Feb/march, if you are itching to plant, here’s a list of flowers that you can cold sow. For me this means sowing seeds in my trays in damp potting mix and putting them outside to freeze and thaw. In a few weeks I can either put them on a heat mat to get them jump started, or leave them outside to germinate naturally. This process is called cold stratification and will improve the germination of

•yarrow
•geum
•Bueplereum
•ladies mantle
•larkspur
•bells of Ireland
•Batchelor buttons
•feverfew
•poppies
•Dara
•nigella
•astrantia

Other slow growing January starts if you are excited to grow indoors, are cold tolerant snapdragons and perennial seeds like drumstick flower, delphinium, echinacea, carnations, godicia and more

01/19/2025

Our peachy keen strawflowers are so stunning they sparkle. Dried they deepen in colour and keep us in flowers while we wait for spring.

Our seed sale will continue for one more week (Saturday 25th) and then it will be my other favourite time of year. Time for me to turn my attention to our dahlias.

Seeds sale link
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/18fzXVdijr/?mibextid=wwXIfr

01/18/2025

Farming is tough enough to make viable. We need to be able to get creative in ways that are environmentally friendly, community friendly and sustainable to be able to earn a living and remain a viable career. I support Smith Lake Farm

Smith Lake Farm Needs Your Help!

Small farms like ours face constant challenges to stay afloat. Competing with big box stores and supermarkets means we must offer more than their convenience and low prices. Agritourism and a connection to the food you eat are muscles we can flex to bring patrons to our farm store and products. At Smith Lake Farm, we provide a connection to the land, the community, and opportunities for health, education, and meaningful experiences. Whether it’s through farm stays, beekeeping tours, disc golf, or farm events, we aim to offer solace and a deeper appreciation for agriculture.

But now, a complaint has forced us into an ALR process in order to continue these activities and protect the viability of our farm. While the Agricultural Advisory Committee to the Comox Valley Regional District board voted unanimously in favour of our proposal, the next critical decision lies with the CVRD Directors on February 24, and your voice can make a difference.

Here’s how you can help: See link below!!
1️⃣ Write a letter of support
2️⃣ Attend the CVRD Directors Meeting and show your support for local farming!

Smith Lake Farm is more than a farm—it’s a lifeline for our community and a model for the future of sustainable agriculture. Please stand with us and help us to continue to do this work. 🙌

These ideas are not all my own but come from the amazing letters of support we’ve received from so many, including FionFireweedFarmsteadrmstead —another incredible farm you should follow if you haven’t already!

Stay tuned for updates—thank you for your incredible support! ❤️

01/13/2025

Our SEED SALE continues on Facebook and I am always curious about what the most requested seed will be….. This year white is stealing the show and this White clementine Columbine is selling out fast. Its unique feature is that unlike most Columbine, its flowers are upright. *chefs kiss*

Link to our seed sale

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1Ay2jEBBLU/?mibextid=wwXIfr

01/13/2025

The epitome of a beautiful winter interest flower. I love hydrangeas. This gorgeous display will stay around for another few weeks before they get pruned to the ground to prepare for next years growth.

01/11/2025

Welcome to Hazel Bloom Farms 2025 seed sale. All seeds are $4.50 + tax per package. Shipping is $4.50 + tax as well Orders will be accepted by EMAIL ONLY, [email protected] please make sure to include your
Name:
Address:
Seed order
When you receive your confirmation email and invoice. Payment can then be made to the same email address as above. Please allow some processing time, we usually get to orders same day, but the first day gets very busy but we do our best. Thank you for supporting Canadian Grown Seed. (We are only able to ship within Canada at this time.)

01/11/2025

Ready, set, grow. I am happy to report that despite this wretched cold. I am ready for our seed sale!! Hallelujah! Tomorrow January 11th 10am PST we launch
on Facebook, if you could do a farmer a favor and like and share this post…... you will be entered into a draw to win 10 seed package of your choice.

Everything has remained the same as last year to keep growing affordable. Our seed packages are $4.50 + tax each and shipping is the same ($4.50, for up to 15 packs) Payment is all by etransfer.

See you in the morning !

01/04/2025

Today was supposed to be “THE DaY” the big seed sale. And today I have to do one of the things that feels awful. I have to post pone again. I am simply not ready yet.

It has been an incredibly challenging year with many hurdles and when push came to shove over the winter holidays, as this team of one was supposed to be wrapping up all of the details on her seed collection, everything went sideways. With the loss of a family member, the breakdown of household appliances, pulling it as together over Christmas followed up by a whopper of a nasty cold that wiped me out for almost a week. I simply burnt out.

So please bear with me, this extra week to recover lost time. My plan is to be ready for the coming weekend.

I am glad to wave farewell to 2024 and feel cautiously optimistic about the year ahead.

Seen in the photo above, figwort. An unbelievably productive 1 year blooming perennial with strong stems, whimsy and texture.

12/24/2024

Wishing you all very Merry holiday blessings.

I am taking a bit of a social media break, to focus on family, health and being present. But spring time thoughts are just around the corner and the dream of seeds that grow into beautiful things will be the focus of the New Year. Many blessing to you all, we’ll see you then. ♥️ 🌱

12/03/2024

Stock Matthiola, Believe it or not this bloom is in the cabbage family.…… Inhale. Exhale. This stunning flower that smells of vanilla and clove is edible, fragrant, beautiful and loved by pollinators. I’m excited to add this to our seed collection this year as every garden should have them tucked in.

12/02/2024

As we welcome In December, I have had to make some changes. Due to the Canada post strike I am choosing to post pone my Annual seed sale until January. Our envelopes arrived late, which has is hustling in the back ground and although I usually like having them out as gifts and stocking stuffers for my fellow farmers and gardeners. This year it will be something to look forward to in the new year and who doesn’t love to cure their January blues dreaming of a spring garden. So we are setting a tentative date of January 4th. Hopefully post will be sorted by then, if not we like many other small business will have to shift both the cost and service.

11/30/2024

Tucking some treasures into our farm stand every Saturday and Sunday for the month of December. Open 10am-4pm

6235 Whitaker rd

11/28/2024

I am excited that this weekend we will have a few festive offerings in our farm stand. A mix of fresh evergreens, holiday berries, herbs and dried flowers. In tones of silver and gold and classic holiday green and red.

Our farm stand is located at
6235 Whitaker Rd

11/25/2024

Another new addition to our seed line up. This is Holy Basil, I fell in love with this basil for our flower arrangements because of its incredibly unique scent. A blend of basil, mint, liquorice and lemon. It’s truly sensual! The really amazing part is how much scent it retains even when dried. I am loving having it in dried arrangement in my home this winter.

It has medicinal value, as well as being excellent for pollinators. Which is making this one a must grow on the farm.

11/14/2024

Yarrow Noblessa, one of my favourite perennial fillers, charming, elegant, easy to grow. Love adding this one to our 2024/25 seed line up.

11/01/2024

This year I have decided not to grow tulips. It’s a decision that I have been waffling on the last few years. And here’s why……..

Every fall for the last eight years, I have slugged it out in the rain and cold planted thousands upon thousands of imported tulip bulbs, they are the one crop that I grow that I don’t feel aligns with my sustainability principles and for me that needs to change.

#1 As a cut flower, tulips are harvested bulb and all, then the bulbs are thrown away. The bulbs are bulky, heavy and have a substantial environmental footprint to ship them around the world.

#2 They are plagued by botrytis, a fungus, specifically fire blight, so production often uses increasingly more fungicides ( which I choose not to use)

#3 They just aren’t all that profitable. By the time we calculate the cost of product, planting, loss due to rot, rodent or disease there just isn’t enough profit to cover the costs and some years being a total loss.

#4 Market flooding, tulips ripen all at once for the most part, and our small farm finds itself up against large growing operations that sell for cheaper, in the past I have tried to offset set this by growing specialty varieties, but with all the flooding in holland and poor bulb production, increased cost and use of fertilizer, it’s just a losing game.

The sad part is tulips are the flower of May, one of the few… it’s a challenging month for flower growers.

If you are a flower farmer, have you had the same internal debate?

I’m up for the challenge! Creative sustainability is what it’s all about.

10/31/2024

Happy Hollows Eve. May you receive more treats than tricks. 🎃

10/30/2024

This is what the last days of October look like. Music in my ears, endlessly surrounded by alien looking tubers. Almost done for another year and can’t wait to get started packaging up this years seed collection.