The Ever Lea

10/30/2024

Last arrangement of the year! Loving my heirloom mums that are blooming now 🥰🌸

10/18/2024

We ended up surviving frost warnings earlier this week! Now we are looking at upper 70’s this weekend as we begin to pull up tubers. Much nicer than cold and 30’s last November! I will also be doing some planting of snapdragons, campanula and sweet William in my little hoop houses for my first attempt at overwintering.

10/15/2024

One last magical zinnia harvest….??? We will see! First frost forecasted tonight. Lots of wind though so we’ll see if it sticks 😉

10/11/2024

Hi! I’m Shanna Edwards and I’m the owner of The Ever Lea! I have been a wedding floral designer for my own design business for about ten years. In 2016 as part of that business I started growing my own flowers in our small backyard garden in Western Wisconsin. This was when I discovered growing dahlias. Cafe au Lait was becoming a popularly requested wedding flower but was impossible to get and expensive! Dahlias just sort of captured my attention through my clients and eight years later they are my continued obsession. In 2021 my husband and I relocated to northeast Wisconsin with the ultimate goal to have a home on some land. We got lucky and found an estate for sale on two acres in the north Appleton area. I cried when we walked the property. I just knew this was where I could start my dream.
It is really crazy to know we are wrapping up our third growing season. The first year here was absolute dahlia and flower farm heaven. Our second year we faced drought and this year we faced flooding and too much rain. I am starting to feel like a grizzled vet lol
I closed my wedding business at the end of last year and pursued full time flower farming this year. I began the year growing for florists as I had the previous two years but quickly realized I wanted to share my creative abilities and flowers with my community. I’m excited to continue growing and selling dahlia tubers as well as adding design services, bouquet subscriptions, design workshops, and more!
In this photo, captured by the incredibly talented I was designing a stunning early September wedding at . I’m grateful for the beautiful photograph as this wedding was particularly memorable with the floral and the wonderful couple I served that day.
As I jump into Fall farm tasks I can’t help but be incredibly excited to see what my growth can bring in 2025! I’m looking forward to connecting with more members of our community through the beauty of flowers. As far as the flowers themselves I miss them already and they are not even gone yet! I love being a flower farmer ❤️

10/09/2024

The first online dahlia tuber sale of the season will be this Sunday October 13th at 12pm CST! I am currently still updating my catalog so stay tuned as that will be completed before the sale! Email subscribers watch for an update and a possible special treat! 🪻🌸🌺🌷🌻🌼

10/02/2024

Another dahlia I would love to give a special shout out to is Kate Olivia. She kind of took me by surprise with her grey-lavender coloring. I think it’s one of those hard to find colors in dahlias. Anyways, she’s a keeper. And you know me, the dahlias I keep have to be good cut varieties so she fits the bill for that too 🥰

09/29/2024

I wanted to start featuring some beautiful dahlias that will be available in my upcoming online tuber sale. This is River’s Rosie. I love her hot pink-raspberry tones and her fluffy and wild petals. She is a great little addition of color and style to floral designs 🥰

09/26/2024

Hi! I’m going to delay the online dahlia tuber sale for a week or two for now. I need to get a few things together for it! I’m aiming for mid October. Sign up for emails on my website and watch for announcements here! www.TheEverLea.com

09/24/2024

Online dahlia tuber sale coming on October 2nd! I am working on updating the website so you can preview the varieties. Some quantities will be limited. I will consider Fall shipping for folks in warmer climates as long as our Wisconsin weather is cooperating. Sign up for emails to be notified of the sale details! I will be giving my email subscribers a head start on shopping before the sale is opened to the public. As we get closer I will announce the exact times. Thank you!!

09/23/2024

Happy Autumn equinox 🍁🍂🍃 We have rounded the corner and headed into the final weeks of the growing season. It’s really hard to believe as I don’t really know where the summer went. I think this year would be best categorized as a learning year. And that’s okay because that means we come back even better next season! Fall is an incredibly busy time in flower farming so I will watch for the fleeting moments I can slow down and enjoy and I hope you do too! 🍃🍂🍁

09/19/2024

Thank you for supporting my farm Sami! You rock!!

(WFRV)- Bring a smile to everyone’s face with flowers from Mobile Mini Trucks. In this segment, Sami Schmidt from Mobile Mini Trucks discusses how to book her for your special occasions and h…

09/17/2024

Did you know we are now offering retail floral services? Such as sympathy arrangements like this one we created this morning for a grieving family. My hope when I designed this was the flowers and colors would evoke peace for the family. That a simple fleeting moment seeing the beauty of nature could help them catch their breath and remember their loved one in happy times. Locally grown flowers are so personal and this was created with love & intention. Hand picked and thoughtfully curated. I always try to imagine what this person may have enjoyed in colors and flowers, shape, texture and so forth. Know that when you are grieving as an artist I am trying to speak love and light through the power and comfort of nature. That through my art I could convey our divine connection to one another. And so, rest in the sweetest peace to our lost loved ones. Take a moment to remember them today.

09/16/2024

09/10/2024

I absolutely loved designing for Sara & Matt this past weekend. What a vibrant color palette! I was thrilled to use red in a late summer styling 💋❤️

08/28/2024

The dahlias are slowly gaining some ground now that we have gotten the powdery mildew under control a bit. I will keep heavily cleaning up the plants this week and removing foliage. I did ultimately apply a systemic fungicide as the milk and water was not cutting it. At our farm we try to limit using chemicals but we are still pretty new to all of this. It’s our third year and year four will be all about healthy soil to combat weather, diseases and pests! Our soil tests are going out this week too.
Once we receive the results we can figure out Fall amendments so come spring our flower beds are ready to rock n roll! We will also be using cover crops this year which will nourish the soil again.
Can’t wait to see how we do with all of these amazing things we are learning!

08/18/2024

I’m loving the vibrant sunset colors in this arrangement. Bonus that I grew everything in the bouquet 🥰🥰🥰

08/16/2024

At the end of last year I closed my wedding business I had owned for ten years and fully committed to my flower farm. I love floral design so I knew I would likely still book weddings here and there. In the past week I added five weddings to my 2025 calendar and I couldn’t be more excited. The events will now operate under my flower farm and with the help of what I grow. I will be very excited to share a wedding I have been looking forward to all year in just a few short weeks. Think reds, raspberry, magenta, and sherbet colors. 😍 I can’t wait! In the meantime, enjoy one of my favorites from last season!

08/15/2024

Bring on the dahlias!!! 😍😍😍

08/09/2024

I like it.

08/02/2024

I’ve been so blessed with creative opportunities in my ten years as a floral designer. What do you think of this garden-grown vibrant, late summer styling? My favorite is the tree floral installation 🥰

08/01/2024

First year growing these beauties 😍 stunning zinnias from in partnership with who bred the varieties pictured here. Dawn creek blush & Dawn creek peach 🌸

07/27/2024

Designing for the bride (or broom) is my favorite floral piece of every wedding 🥰🌸

07/23/2024

Please welcome to the dahlia party: Oreti Candy, Narrows Ryder, Lakeview Peach Fuzz, Genova & Castle Drive 😍😍😍 My soul is happy 🥰

Which one is your favorite?!