A Flower Farmer’s Journal: Garden Roses, Sweet Peas and Ranunculus.
Honey Dijon Garden Roses
Finally!
In looking back through pictures of Flower Thief Farms in May, that was the word that came to mind…Finally, all the patience and hard work of the last 7 months was started to show off its beauty. It felt like a long, well fought challenge this year!
See, it has been such a cool, wet, prolonged spring for us here in Napa, that many of the flowers we expected to be in bloom in March, much less April, were just starting to open their little petals finally in May. Patience and release of control are two constant lessons from the fields.
Spring encapsulated with a custom signature market wrap.
Walking the flower rows in early morning and dusk are my two favorite times to be out there. To walk out there and see a flash of color from the corner of your eye, a flash of color that wasn’t there the day previous, is still such an absolute thrill. You quickly rush over to inspect it further and then typically oooh/ahhh/squeal when you realize “it’s” finally in bloom. That special sweet pea color you planted in January, or the first flush of roses you haven’t seen since last September, or the first flower head of the new Nigella trial you tucked into the back row. It’s truly one of the best thrills and makes all the hard work finally feel worth it.
A bonus to that prolonged cold was that the early spring flowers like Ranunculus and Anemones held on a little later than their usual timing, much to our delight.
In between thrilling flashes of color, May saw much of the mad rush that was March and April: keep seed trays alive, flip spring beds into summer plantings, lay drip lines, compare flower farmer notes and hatch plans for late summer plantings. February to May is incredibly intense time on the flower farm. All the tasks that are spread out the rest of the year, converge together at the same time during these peak 3 months: prep, planting, planning, harvesting, selling, launching, seed sowing, germination, transplanting, and more. So those flashes of color kept me going week by week.
Now the fields are in bloom again, en masse, and the task list is finding its way to a more reasonable pace. I find myself enjoying the fields again in between harvests. As I allow myself a hammock break every once and a while, I gaze around at the pollinators buzzing in the purple clary sage, or Max dashing between four foot high scabiosa plants, and I have that same realization I do every year around this time: Ahhhh, it was all worth it.
Max, my constant farm companion.
Here are some photos from the flower farm in May showing what was in bloom and some of our activities. Enjoy!
