Five Petal Fields

10/07/2024

That’s a WRAP on our Farmer’s Market season 2024! Thank you to everyone who supported us this season! 🙏🏻

Contact us for locally-grown custom bouquets before first frost! 🩵

We are NOW BOOKING event florals for 2025! Contact us for your next Shower, Wedding, Birthday, Prom, Sympathy and “just ‘cause” - we’d love to be a part of making it a special day!

09/22/2024

Just HAD to share some of the beauty found on our farm walk this evening. Can you believe that snapdragon?!? It’s a sunset 🌅

All in all, we feel pretty proud of this year’s planting expansion. ☺️ Very grateful. Very happy. It’s not always picture perfect, but we’ve created somewhere we love to be. 🥰

09/16/2024

💍 Wedding shower gorgeousness!! We supplied flowers for a flower bar, centerpieces, and a statement-style arrangement for a beautiful bridal shower last weekend.

👰🏼The bride-to-be was beautiful, the venue was perfection, and the flowers were sweet and a fitting accent.

We love doing events like this, and are already booking our 2025 season! Weddings, showers, gifts - we’re here for it all as farmer-florists.

09/08/2024

Can’t get enough of this color palette this year!

Burgundy, peachy pink, coral, a little white…it’s truly a favorite.

I’ve always appreciated color combinations even more than a single color. What about you? Any favorites?

08/26/2024

🍦 Two scoops or three?

Completely in love with these dahlias this year (and it’s no accident)! I think we’ve found some of our favorite varieties, and they’re really starting to pick up their bloom frequency. 🌸

🥵 Hoping this week’s heat wave won’t slow them down again! They slow their growing and blooming in higher temps.

👉 Do you have a favorite dahlia?

👉 Bonus: would you buy a Dahlia Cone like this at a farmer’s market? 😉

08/11/2024

Oh Baby! 🍼 We had the honor of designing centerpieces and statement flowers for a shower celebrating a wonderful mom-to-be. 🤰🏻

We also supplied dried lavender as the favor for the event, which was very much enjoyed by guests. It included a small bundle in kraft paper, tied with ribbon and included a “thank you” stamped tag. 🏷️

08/04/2024

🚨🔔 PLEASE NOTE 🔔🚨

Due to a scheduling conflict, Five Petal Fields will not be at on August 11th as we originally planned. 🌈 Instead, we’ll be there on August 18th and look forward to seeing all your lovely faces! Mark your calendars! See you Aug 18!!! 🥳

And don’t forget: contact us for event flowers any time! We design florals for showers, birthdays, weddings, corporate events, and more.

08/04/2024

🌻 Happy National Sunflower Day! 🌻

Sharing some sunshine with all of you today 🫶🏻 Share a little sunshine with a friend! Tag them here & pass it on. ✨

🌻

07/28/2024

Our booth today at the Dole Mansion, Crystal Lake. It was great to meet so many lovely people who enjoyed our lavender, bouquets, and bloom jars!

We’re nearing peak bloom, so let us know if you need some blooms for parties, events, showers, or weddings…or, just because. 💁🏻‍♀️ 👑

🔸 If no one has told you lately…you’re awesome. 👏🏻 Have a great day!

07/21/2024

Put a few bouquets together for our Summer CSA members. 💐

“Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow” -Melody Beattie

Like most humans, we’re always in a hurry to get things done. Reach our goals. Build the life we want. Change the world.

I often get impatient with myself and want the final outcome today. Each year, I go into the season with a plan that is a bit bigger than reality. Great for initial motivation…but tough when it gets to the midpoint of the growing season and you’re not even at the midpoint of your plan.

We’re often found being hard on ourselves for what we haven’t accomplished…the beds we’ve let get too weedy, or the starts left un-transplanted…BUT it’s SO important to remember to be grateful for what has happened. This week, we’re making a conscious effort to stop and be grateful.

Here’s what we’re grateful for:
1. Life - We’re not guaranteed next month, next week, or even tomorrow. We’re grateful for the lives we have and those who surround us.
2. Opportunities- We have full-time jobs we love, plus our farm. We know not everyone has the same opportunities we do, which have afforded us the resources needed to buy our property and start our farm. We’re forever grateful for it.
3. Beauty - As both Jason and I are classically trained in design, we seek out the beauty of everyday things. A beautiful flower photograph. The dewdrops on the grass. We love capturing and sharing beauty with others through flowers.

We’d love to hear what you’re grateful for! Share in the comments!

07/14/2024

Our latest bloom jar arrangements, showcased at today! 🤩😘

Our farmer’s market is one of THE best in the country! ✨ We absolutely love it and can’t say enough great things about it. 💖

We listened to a podcast about local market competition the other day, and it made us think…you know, there are many other flower vendors at this market. Some, like us, focus only on providing quality, low-pesticide/pesticide-free hyper-local, seasonal flowers. Others are vegetable growers that have added flowers to their mix. …Great selections for customers, but can be tough for a flower farm to stand out to the typical weekend flower buyer.

Some people can see everyone else as a problem, but they’re not looking for a solution. We’re all so different in our goals, flower specialties, services offered, and business model. We feel that there’s room for everyone at the top!

If you only focus on competition as an obstacle, or even challenges in your day-to-day as an obstacle…you won’t see the opportunities that can help you reach your dreams.

For example, what if we all banded together to lift us all up? Start an agritourism trail, or host alternating workshops, or just share best practices with one another…?

Reframe the thought. Flip the script. Not enough time to get something done today? What are the opportunities that will help you get around those limitations? What if you made a list of everything you CAN do, or who might be able to help you?

Especially in times now, we need more positive energy and working together. It might be a little ra-ra to say, but let’s help each other see around perceived obstacles. Let’s find the commonalities instead of differences and believe more in ourselves and our fellow humans. There’s room for us all to succeed.

Hope you all have a great day! ☀️🌈

07/01/2024

A great reminder!! It takes a village…

You’ve been lied to. You can’t do it all.
There's a pervasive myth that we should be able to do:

All the things
All the time
All by ourselves

Nothing could be further from the truth.
The worst part is how we beat ourselves up and make ourselves feel terrible for not being able to do it all.

My farm business coach and mentor, .m.smith , often uses the phrase “You’re trying to pour 5 gallons of milk into a 1 gallon jar, then acting surprised and frustrated that it doesn’t fit.”

You’re not meant to do it all, all by yourself.
It’s unsustainable and unhealthy.
You need a team.
While you mostly see my face in this space, it takes over a dozen people to run this farm.

Let me introduce you to…

1. John - My husband, who is in charge of fixing broken stuff (everything breaks on a farm 😂🙄) and building new infrastructure. He works full time on the farm.
2. Kathryn - My right-hand woman. She does everything - seed sowing, bed prep, transplanting, weeding, harvesting, bouquet making and more.
3. Leigh - My assistant. She keeps me from drowning in emails/admin tasks, and is a wizard with setting up systems and processes for the backend of running the business.
4. Rainelle - My mother-in-law. She handles the bookkeeping and finances.
5. Mindy - My accountant. She helps us stay on track and make good business decisions.
6. Kelly - My house cleaner. For 2 hours a month, my entire house is clean, all at the same time.😂 Hiring her is the best thing I’ve ever done for myself, my marriage and my family.
7. Deanna - My USPS mail carrier. She is a rockstar during Dahlia tuber shipping season. She goes above and beyond the call of duty!
8. Joe Z - My dad. He comes over to hand water the plants during droughts and dry spells.
9. Sue - My mom. She brings us meals and helps with laundry when I’m exhausted and overwhelmed.
10. Ellie - My daughter. She helps with bouquet making and has a great eye for design.
11. Joe H - My son. He’s in charge of landscape maintenance
12. YOU!!!! You are my "Why", the reason I keep showing up.

Stop the madness, friend.
You're not meant to do it all, all the time, all by yourself.
Teamwork makes the dream work.

06/22/2024

We are drying our lavender a new way this year, since our harvest more than doubled!!! 🥳 This is the third year of growth for our plants, so they’re really hitting their stride now.

We plan to have a more formal drying space for them eventually, but they’re doing really well drying outside instead of in our garage (which is what we did last year).

Have any other lavender growers found that drying indoors or outdoors works better for you? We don’t harvest the buds off of the stems for essential oil production. We sell the bundles at our local farmers market, and it’s up to our customers to decide how they want to use them.

06/20/2024

🌤️ IT. IS. TIME. (Cue Lion King Theme Song) 🎵

💜 It’s LAVENDER SEASON, all!! We’ll be at Farmer’s Market At The Dole this Sunday in Crystal Lake if you’d like to get your hands on this premium long-stem variety that’s filled with natural essential oils.

06/06/2024

Five Petal Fields is excited to share the markets we’ll be attending this season! Local lavender and cut flowers.

We hope to see you at the Dole on select Sundays in Crystal Lake.

05/26/2024

🔔 ⚡️ ATTENTION local lovelies!!!! 🌟💐

Five Petal Fields is offering a FLASH SALE on sustainably and locally grown, premium quality peony flower arrangements. TWO arrangement styles are available: a taller (21”) for only $30 (with vase, not pictured). Pictured is the smaller arrangement for $20, in a petite jar with handle. Very elegant addition to your holiday table or entryway.

Available 5/26 and 5/27 ONLY - contact us ASAP because they will go fast!

🇺🇸 HAPPY MEMORIAL DAY!! 🇺🇸

Delivery available for $10 extra to: Crystal Lake, Bull Valley, Woodstock, Barrington, Barrington Hills, Island Lake, Prairie Grove, McHenry, Cary, Algonquin, Fox River Grove, Lakewood, LITH, or Huntley.

.family

05/26/2024

🚨ATTENTION local lovelies!!!! 🫶🏻 🧨 🇺🇸

Five Petal Fields is offering a FLASH SALE on sustainably and locally grown, premium quality peony flower arrangements measuring 21” tall for only $30 (with vase). Also offering a smaller version for $20 (not pictured here), in a small jar with handle. Very elegant addition to your holiday table or entryway.

Available 5/26 and 5/27 ONLY - contact us ASAP because they will go fast!

🇺🇸 HAPPY MEMORIAL DAY!! 🇺🇸

Delivery available for $10 extra to: Crystal Lake, Bull Valley, Woodstock, Barrington, Barrington Hills, Island Lake, Prairie Grove, McHenry, Cary, Algonquin, Fox River Grove, Lakewood, LITH, or Huntley.

.family

05/22/2024

Some very special arrangements for a very special 60th birthday celebration. 🥳 🎂

But, even better…we were thrilled with the timing: peony season has begun!!! Loving these glorious blooms and their luscious fragrance. 🩷

05/17/2024

We're on the map! https://www.grown-not-flown.com/

05/12/2024

💥Who says flower farms have to plant in rows?? Our circle garden is coming to life! We’ve got the landscape fabric down for it now; all we need to do now is define our pathways, burn holes, and plant!

We knew we didn’t want an entirely traditional layout of our flower fields. So, here’s to trying a circular shape! 🤞🏻 It’s a bit offset, as it’s a part of a larger design for the fields.

If you’d like to try it, here’s the process we followed:
1) Determine the rough end size of your circle, then find the center point
2) Put a rebar pole (or similar) in the ground to mark center
3) Measure the radius that you want from the center point. We have a 300ft tape measure that comes in handy for this, since it has a ring at the end of the tape.
4) Draw the circle. To do this, loop the ring of your tape measure (or have someone stand there and hold on to it at the center post). Keeping the measurement line taut, mark out the circumference by pivoting the measured radius. You can do this marking with lawn flags or marking paint (spray paint).
5) Lay landscape fabric over the entire circle, starting from the center, outward. This way, you do not have to move your center post. We recommend overlapping the landscape fabric, but it’s up to you as to how much to overlap. It’s best to start the first fabric row so that the pole holds the edge back a bit. That way, when you eventually take the post out, the fabric will cover the space and overlap, rather than gap, where the center post was.
6) Pin down the landscape fabric as you go using lawn pins or landscape staples (it’s ok if you need to take out your flags or cover up the marking paint - you just needed those to know where to start your fabric roll).
7) Repeat step 4, before t with landscape pins marking your circle, rather than flags or paint.
😎 Repeat step 4 again, except use a handheld propane torch to burn the circle’s edge. If you burn the landscape fabric this way, it won’t fray and get stuck in trees or on your mower.
And, you’re done! Well, aside from burning holes so you can plant (and then planting).

Happy circle garden-ing!

04/29/2024

Over 600 Lisianthus transplanted today! 😲

We look forward to a beautiful row of flowers like you see in the second photo - they are just slllloooow growers.

A bit about Lisianthus…
They are native to warm regions of the southern United States, Mexico, Caribbean and northern South America. This genus is typically found in grasslands and in areas of disturbed ground.

They are herbaceous annuals, growing to 15–60 cm tall, with bluish green, slightly succulent leaves and large funnel-shaped flowers growing on long straight stems: sometimes erect single stems, other times branching stems. The flowers can grow up to 50 millimetres (2 in) across and can be found in a variety of colors. They have been found in all shades of pink, purple, white, and blue.

Lisianthus are a beautiful, high-end cut flower, but they are tricky to grow and require some maintenance and know-how to get them to grow correctly for cut flowers.

Follow for more on when these beauties will be available!

04/29/2024

Protect your younger shrubs and trees!

04/22/2024

A few of our latest creations to celebrate new parents to-be. 👶🏻🍼

04/19/2024

Did you know that tulips have a rich history dating back to the Ottoman Empire? These timeless flowers were once considered a symbol of wealth and prosperity.

During the 17th century in the Netherlands, tulips were considered a symbol of wealth and status, and they were even used as a form of currency. This period, known as “Tulip Mania,” saw the value of tulip bulbs skyrocket to exorbitant prices, with some bulbs being worth more than houses at the time. The craze eventually led to a market crash, but the legacy of tulips as a symbol of luxury and prosperity remains to this day. The intricate patterns and vibrant colors of tulips made them highly coveted among the elite, showcasing their wealth and sophistication.

Today, they continue to captivate us with their beauty and vibrant colors. Take a moment to appreciate the beauty and heritage of these stunning blooms. 🌷