Whistling Bee Farm & Florals

01/23/2025

You knew it was coming. I can’t name our favorite spring flowers without mentioning daffodils! We’ve planted hundreds of heirloom narcissus in over a dozen varieties on the farm. The fragrant varieties are my favorite, such as Sir Winston Churchill, pictured here. This variety once brought one of our members to tears because the fragrance reminded her of a recently passed grandmother. She was so thankful for that moment of remembrance. It was such a lovely, touching moment that reminded me how powerful flowers can be and how much they touch our hearts.

01/22/2025

Of course we couldn’t talk about our favorite spring flowers without mentioning peonies! We get so excited each season when these ruffled, elegant flowers are about to bloom. We’ve been growing some of our peonies for 20 years here on the farm and when they arrive it feels like seeing an old friend. We love sharing these beauties with our community.

01/21/2025

We only have a few flowers left in our favorite spring flowers list! Today’s pick is Iceland Poppies. We grew them for the first time last season and fell head over heels in love with them. The colors, textures, and movement in these stems are incredible!

01/19/2025

We’ve been taking a look back at our favorite spring flowers! So far, we’ve highlighted ranunculus, hyacinth, gravetye giant, Spanish bluebells, Geum, bleeding heart, and lilacs. Today’s pick is irises! We love tucking both the bearded and Siberian varieties into our spring bouquets.

01/17/2025

We are continuing our look back at our favorite spring blooms and today’s pick is Dicentra, commonly known as Bleeding Heart. These shade-loving perennials send up beautiful arching stems lined with delicate heart shaped flowers. They are stunning in arrangements next to other spring favorites such as lilacs and tulips, adding a touch of romantic whimsy.

01/17/2025

It's time to set some gardening goals!

It’s that time of year again when I sit and reflect on the past season and look forward to the next. Goals emerge as I reflect on what I hope to accomplish in the upcoming year. Yup, with a new yea…

01/16/2025

We’re looking back at our favorite spring flowers and today’s favorite is Geum! These perennial flowers come in a beautiful array of colors, and their graceful stems, topped with delicate papery flowers, look lovely in arrangements.

01/15/2025

This week we are taking a look back at our favorite spring blooms! Today’s pick is Spanish Bluebells. I love the dainty bell-shaped flowers in shades of pale blue, white, and pink. They add a whimsical touch to any spring bouquet.

01/13/2025

I extended our hyacinth trial into 2025 to include more of these beautiful Gipsy Queen hyacinth. Their apricot coloration is exquisite and I can’t wait to share them with our community.

01/09/2025

Yesterday we started our first flowers of 2025! We adore the fluffy, marshmallowy blooms of ranunculus and can’t wait to see them blooming on the farm again.

01/08/2025

Let the 2025 season begin! Believe it or not, today we started the first flowers of our 2025 season! These ranunculus corms were soaked and planted today and will grow strong roots indoors for the next few weeks before being planted outdoors in our low tunnel. I can’t wait to share these fluffy petaled beauties with you in the spring!

01/06/2025

“The color of springtime is in the flowers; the color of winter is in the imagination.” ~Terri Guillemets

I am spending my days lately planning and imagining a beautiful 2025 season!

01/03/2025

As I began to plan for the 2025 season, I took time to reflect on and review our 2024 season. Check out my recap of our favorite flowers of the year!

Happy New Year, garden friends! I’m back after taking time to be with family over the holidays. I hope you also enjoyed the holidays and had time with loved ones. It’s 2025! With a new year comes n…

01/02/2025

It’s a new year, and we have a lot of new followers! I’m so happy you’re all here! It’s been a while since I introduced myself and showed the grower behind Whistling Bee Farm, so here I am, popping in front of the camera to say hello!

I’m Dawn, and I’ll be starting our fourth season here on our micro farm. I can hardly believe it’s been nearly four years since I started this flower-farming journey! I’ve learned so much about growing in that time and have fallen even more in love with flowers (I didn’t think that was possible!). And sharing that love with you in each bouquet I create is immensely gratifying.

A bit about me: The two greatest loves in my life are my family and growing. I’m happily married to my high school sweetheart (we just celebrated 30 years as a couple!). I’m also a mom of a high school senior who amazes me daily and has my heart (fair warning, expect me to be a sobbing empty nester in a few months!). I am an author, artist, avid foodie, and animal lover with five furry rescues living under our roof (you might see them in our stories from time to time). I’m also a budding novice dahlia hybridizer with my first dahlia seedling, Whistling Bee’s Dawn’s Early Light, set to release later this year through . I’m passionate about my family, plants, pollinators, and spending time in nature and in the kitchen. I’m a 2022 workshop graduate, ASCFG member, and certified Pollinator Steward. I love to keep learning, and I’m on a mission to spread joy with every flower I grow, ultimately bringing more happiness to the world through flowers!

I am excited about where I see our farm heading, and I’m so happy you are here sharing this journey with me!

01/01/2025

Wishing you many reasons to bloom and sow joy in 2025!

12/20/2024

This week I had fun practicing my wreath-making skills! Dried alliums, pine cones, and ornamental grasses combined beautifully with mixed evergreens to create the magical winter woodland vibe I was hoping for.

12/19/2024

Today, I am thrilled to share some exciting news with you! As some of you may know, one of our dahlia seedlings I’ve been developing for the past four years was selected to participate in Triple Wren Farms Novice Hybridizer Program in 2024. This wonderful program helps novice hybridizers by evaluating their dahlias and, if selected, grow out, market, and sell them so that hybridizers can share their dahlias with the world. Over the past year, the fantastic team at Triple Wren grew our dahlia on their farm in Washington and evaluated our seedling for vigor, plant habit, color, blooms, vase life, tuber production, and more. It was absolutely amazing (and a bit surreal!) getting updates throughout the season on how our seedling was performing across the country.

With the dahlia growing season over and evaluation nearly complete, I just received the exciting news that would like to add our dahlia, Whistling Bee’s Dawn’s Early Light, for sale from their farm! They plan to multiply 100 cuttings this winter, grow them out into tuber clumps next summer, and offer them from their farm as both tubers and tissue culture, virus-tested rooted cuttings in the U.S. and Canada in winter 2025-2026 for spring 2026 shipping! I would not have achieved this on our micro-farm with limited growing space without the Triple Wren Farms Novice Hybridizer Program. I am so thankful to them, as this is a dream I never thought possible, and I’m still pinching myself to make sure it’s real! So get ready because Whistling Bee’s Dawn’s Early Light can grow in YOUR garden in 2026!

12/18/2024

It’s the final day of our look back at our top ten favorite dahlias of the season! Lastly, I have to mention our Whistling Bee dahlia seedlings because they, too, stood out this season. They performed like champs during the climate challenges, providing plenty of food for the pollinators. We plan to continue growing these seedlings and many more next season to expand our dahlia breeding project. And speaking of that project, I can’t wait to share some really exciting news with you tomorrow! Great things will be blooming in 2025!