Not The First Nor The Last.
From time to time I get asked if what I think about another person growing or selling flowers in the area. My knee jerk reaction used to be to start feeling a little insecure and a little worried. What if they do it better than me? What if everyone likes them so much more than my little flower farm? I bet they don’t have this many weeds. I wonder what they are charging for their bouquets? But then when I dive a little deeper I quickly think isn’t this exactly what I want to happen? More people finding a space to connect with nature. More butterflies and bees and frogs and ladybugs. Less flowers being grown in South Africa and shipped all the way to our super market shelves and plastered with a $9.99 price tag (more on this another time 😬). More people that know the hard work that goes into starting a single dust sized seed in the middle of a snow-filled February and seeing it through until its final September blooms. This flower farm isn’t an original idea - far from it. Everything I have learned has been from people who have done it before and along side me.
I started True Blue Flower Co. for so many reasons. I wanted to stay home with my baby; I needed to feel passionate and proud of something; I desperately wanted to have my own part in the land that my family has farmed for 5 generations; and I wanted to share this space, these flowers, and these stories. Selling as many flowers as possible was never on that list. Being profitable is but selling copious amounts of flowers and being profitable different things completely.
I guess what I am trying to say is flowers make people happy. Whether people are growing them, buying them, receiving them, or just walking among them - they bring joy. And I am grateful that I get to be around them all day and (after a little mindset evaluation) I am just as excited that others are choosing to do the same.
So if you are out there growing and selling I would love to hear from you! The world needs more zone 3 growers - I always say we need to be a little scrappier that the rest.
It has been a week of out with old and in with the new! True and I (emphasis on the I) have been pulling out spend and diseased flowers and watching new blooms speckle the fields. Dahlias are starting, zinnias are popping, strawflowers, lilies to name a few! Bells of Ireland, stock and sadly the poppies are starting to be pulled out and composted. Still no rain since June 26. The grass is feeling it completely but the flowers (and the farmers) are fighting it hard.
