I’m learning that I’m not superwoman.
If you’ve been following us for some time, you may have noticed some changes to our little farm over the past two years. I realized lately that I have my farm’s narrative only in my head. I’ve shared our future plans with those I see out in public, but I haven’t really shared an in-depth look into what’s changing and why. Hopefully this post will enlighten our readers (you!), and we sincerely hope y’all stick around for these changes!
We started as a cut flower farm in the Spring of 2019 offering flower subscriptions and retail bouquets. A few years later we started doing weddings. Last year (2023), we made the difficult decision to cut all flower subscriptions. In 2023, we sold mostly retail bouquets, rose bushes, and wedding flowers that season.
In late 2023, we found out we were going to be having our 4th child in May 2024. It was a bit of a surprise! As many of you may suspect, May is one of our most popular months for flowers because we have Mother’s Day (and also the Spring flowers are so welcoming after a long, cold Winter). People are restless to get in their gardens, touch the flowers, smell the flowers, and so on. No matter who you are, it seems that there’s this need to connect with the soil and plants and flowers in May. But having a baby around Mother’s Day means we won’t be able to guarantee cut flowers in Spring this year (2024).
Live Plant Sales
Our limited supply of rose bushes sold well last year! I was excited to see that because one of the questions I get the most is about live plants (at least locally). It seems people are very eager to grow the flower themselves or add some interest to their landscape. If you live around here, you know that our options are quite limited when it comes to unique or healthy plants for the landscape. Big box stores aren’t the best at watering (I know this from experience and also I was one of those teenage big box store employees at one time… my bad.)
A lot of other places around here don’t actually grow the plants themselves, but they order in from plug suppliers or go to big plant auctions. There’s nothing inherently wrong with that, but sometimes when you’re dealing with distribution like that you’re likely to see more basic options (think: the staples for plant pots) or poor health of the plants due to travel wear-and-tear and shuffling about.
I do order in my rose bushes from a supplier out in California. It’s just the nature of the beast, really. There are only a few big suppliers of roses, and then you have smaller ones that may contract grow for these larger companies. Or there are big and small nurseries that have been granted a license to propagate by the big rose companies that actually hold the plant patents on the roses. Most of the roses we sell are plant patented, so I wouldn’t be able to legally propagate from them even if I wanted to right now.
The Main Change
Hayden and I have decided to take a step back from cut flower production. I have had a hard time letting that go, but with the baby due in May, I decided I can’t promise much for this year anyways.
I still have a small lisianthus crop planned and used the beautiful weather yesterday to plant my anemones and ranunculus. I figured that I already have the plants so I might as well plant them, and I’m not sure I can go a Summer without lisianthus! Plus, we grow flowers for the church picnic. We will post in our newsletter and on our social media when we have bouquets available, but supply will be sporadic this year.
So basically, we will have a limited supply of cut flowers available from late July into the Fall to give me time to enjoy the new baby.
Additionally, we are taking a step back from cut flowers so we can focus on our own homestead. We bought some more acreage a few years ago and are planning to sell grassfed beef in the near future, so we’ve been busy fencing in that property. We also want to up our food preservation game and make our home a place we can truly live off of. This is a big reason why we attempted to start a homestead blog and have been sharing more on YouTube. As we learn, we want to help you learn. For now the homestead blog is on pause, but maybe we will pick it up in the future.
I also want to spend some more time writing. If you didn’t know, I published my first book this year! You can check it out in our online shop here. It’s called You Don’t Have a Black Thumb, and it’s basically an intro to gardening and plant growing book. Very quick and easy read.
I want to write more nonfiction, but I also want to write fiction. I’ve always been a writer in my heart (and in my many notebooks), but I finally am taking it seriously for the first time in my life.
I can’t be a good mom, homeschool my kids, have a fully operational cut flower farm, and homestead at the same time. Maybe some of you can, but I’ve come to the realization that I’m not superwoman. Everything has suffered (including my farm) over the past few years because I was trying to be superwoman.
But there will still be flowers.
As mentioned, I don’t plan to halt all cut flower production, but the size of my patch will drastically decrease for my sanity and time’s sake (and hopefully there will be less weeds).
But I so enjoyed selling the rose bushes last year! And I have a fascination with roses that I can’t explain–so much so that I’ve been collecting heirloom and out-of-plant-patent roses on the side with hopes of starting a small rose nursery.
I know, I know… I’m cutting back on farm tasks and yet adding more! It doesn’t make sense. But the reality is, I think this change will be more conducive to my time.
Cut flowers are a perishable product. They must be planted, harvested, and sold within certain windows of time or the product goes to waste.
Potted plants like rose bushes or even perennials (and some annuals) do not have such a short shelf life. I can take my time with them and it’s not a big deal if I’m busy with the kids and can’t get to harvesting and figuring out how to get cut flowers into the hands of my customers as quick as possible!
I also get asked about live plants more than I do cut flowers, so I think for my community locally, Hayden and I are thinking we would like to head that direction, specifically with roses and perennials.
In 2024, I won’t be quite ready to sell anything but the rose bushes we’ve ordered in, but from 2025 on, my goal is to offer roses I’ve propagated myself along with some perennials. We are essentially going to be more nursery, less cut flowers.
With that, we want to make our farm a place of experience for those of you coming out and shopping for plants, so we will be hard at work in the next few years making beautiful, functional spaces for you to peruse on your way to pick up plants.
Maybe you’ll be inspired by some aspects of landscape design we are hoping to include, or maybe you will join us for a workshop or farm tour! We want to be more interactive with the community and have some beautiful spaces to photograph, write about (basically, future book ideas), or share with others in person or through online blog posts and videos. We want you to learn along with us!
See what roses we have available!
Please check out our selection of bare root and potted roses! We have some beautiful varieties lined up this year and beyond, so I hope you will take the time to peruse our online store.
Other happenings…
My book, You Don’t Have a Black Thumb, is available through our online store (signed print copies) or through Amazon (print + e-book; p.s. this Amazon link is an affiliate link) or other major retailers like Barnes and Noble, Kobo, etc. (e-book only).
You can also head on over to my author website to learn more about the book and this writing journey I’m on. If you’re a writer or just one of those people that likes to learn about the book world, I hope you’ll join me there.
The best way to stay up to date on all things around the farm is through our farm newsletter. You can sign up here and receive a free cut flower e-book or free rose guide!
As always, thanks for sticking with us! You all have been such a great support so far. Don’t be afraid to reach out with questions any time.
