The Flowering Fig

The Final Finished Bouquet!

What Does it Take to Make a Bouquet? Part 6 - Creating the bouquet! This is one of my favorite parts of growing flowers. And one of the parts that require the most creativity on my part. I love looking at the buckets of flowers and greens that come in from the field. They are amazingly beautiful in mass! I am then tasked with the challenge of putting these flowers and greens together in a way that look equally amazing in smaller bunches. Because I am such a small flower farmer . . . I need to use whatever blooms my garden gives me. Often times, what I have planned on paper during the winter . . . is not actually what my field gives me. (Shocking, I know!) As a result, each bouquet is a creative endeavor. I need to be sure that each bouquet has a complementary color palette and is full of fun textures. At the end of several hours of arranging, I love looking at what has been created. Then I pop the flowers in my cooler and get them to your homes as fast as possible! I literally pick, condition, and arranged my bouquets the day before they come to your home. I then keep them in my cooler until I can deliver them in clean water and with a food packet right to your doorstep. I really try to get them to you in the best condition possible. So that is a snapshot that goes behind every bouquet! I hope you enjoy your flowers!! I love growing them and love, even more, getting them to you! Here is a video of me arranging my last bouquet of flowers for the season. I demonstrate the spiral technique which I have come to love and use extensively.

What Does it Take to Make a Bouquet: Part 5 - Harvesting! After I have planned my garden, started my seeds, prepared my soil, planted my transplants, and nurtured them to flowers. . . it is time to harvest! When harvesting flowers, your container needs to be CLEAN. The pro’s in the flower world always say, “If your container is not clean enough to drink from, it is not clean enough for flowers.” Why does it matter? Well, flowers suck up water through their stems. If the water is contaminated with bacteria, etc. . . . the flowers will drink the water and the bacteria will clog the stems. These clogged stems result in your flowers dying sooner. So, it matters A LOT. Every time I prepare to harvest flowers, I clean my buckets with dish soap and a little bit of bleach. Then I fill up the buckets with water and drop a Chrysal bleach tablet in it. I am on well water . . . so it has lots of microscopic stuff in it. If you are on city water, you do not need to worry about bleaching your water. At first, I didn’t bother with putting bleach in my water . . . and my flowers died quickly. Once I began to use a little bleach . . . my flowers lasted so much longer. It was amazing. After I harvest my flowers, I put them in a cool location and let them sit in water for at least 6 hours. This is important because it allows the flowers to cool down and soak up water after being cut. They will last a lot longer if they are allowed this “spa” treatment. Here is a video of me harvesting some of your flowers:

What Does It Take to Make a Bouquet? Part Four - Planting out: Wait! Not yet! Once you have your seedlings, make sure to let them harden outside for almost a week. This lets them get use to the air temperature, wind, and most importantly . . . the sun! I put my transplants outside in an area that gets part sun and part shade. I don’t bring them in and out . . . unless the rain is going to ruin the blocks. I just let them sit in the partly sunny area and make sure that they don’t dry out and die. It is time for these little babies to grow up! And for plants, growing up means that you have to face the big wild world. My transplants are always so happy to finally be put in the ground. They take a little time adjusting to being in the ground, but then they begin to grow robustly as they stretch out their roots and soak up more nutrients. Here is a video of me planting out some of my transplants. I love using a stick to make a hole and then just pushing my little plants into the hole. It is simple and fast. Thank you Charles Dowding for the idea! (He is another wonderful farmer to YouTube).

What does it take to make a bouquet? Part Two: Start your seeds! If you follow my Facebook, you have already read all about my seed starting efforts. I still have much to learn and improve on. If you are interested in learning more about starting seeds . . . I would recommend you going to The Gardener Workshop and learning all you can from Lisa Mason Zeigler. In addition, there is a wonderful podcast by Jennie Love on The No-Till Flower podcast. It is called: Seed Starting, Regenerative Style with Lisa Mason Zeigler. Here is a video of me planting some strawflowers:

Make your pathways work for you!

Snapdragons: Flowers that inspire.