We're Starting a Cutting Garden!
Since becoming florists, we often run into the assumption that we grow gardens full of colorful blooms. While our Grandmothers were both incredible gardeners, we didn’t seem to inherit their green thumbs. Sadly, more times than not, any potted plant that comes to the cottage usually shrivels up and dies on our watch. However, give us a box of cut flowers, and watch them SHINE!
We understand and appreciate the time and care it takes to grow flowers after watching so many of our family and friends thrive in their gardens. It is truly magical to think of the journey the flowers take from seeds to the gorgeous blooms we get our hands on every wedding season.
When spring flower season rolls around in Western, PA we are practically giddy with excitement. There is something to be said about flowers that get plucked right from the ground and into the buckets in our studio without the added time of shipping them on airplanes or box trucks. They have an incredibly long vase-life because no time was wasted having them sitting in a cooler. They are also practically perfect in every way, free of bruising or dehydration that can take place in transit. There are certain flowers that can’t withstand the harsh conditions of being transported far distances, and those are the times we wished we could just grow our own.
One of those flowers being one of the best- dahlias!!!! Ugh those magical beasts. They are best sourced locally as they’re fragile and don’t love to be handled. Dahlia season in PA is as little as a few weeks, as long as a few months and it is our absolute favorite. (If you’re an Aug/Sept bride you’re doing it right!!). We’re so grateful to the local gardens that provide buckets of dahlias to us every season. Their beauty is refreshing and just what we need to get through the second half of the busy wedding season year!
Goose Creek’s dahlias are showstoppers!!
Like a garden, our business grows bigger and fuller every year as we try new ventures and add more talented people to our team. This year we’re lucky enough to have Cloe and Emma working with us on a regular basis and they planted the idea (he he he) of starting a small cutting garden!
If you’ve been to the cottage you know we’re an intimate space. What we love about our location is that we’re in the heart of Wexford, easily accessible and close to so many food & coffee places. But because of this, there isn’t much to offer in terms of green grassy area. Behind the cottage is a large warehouse, and behind that warehouse is a small (read: tiny) patch of woods where we compost all of our stems and leaves. There is juuust enough usable land back there, so Cloe and Emma have plotted our garden!
They are both spearheading this project and we’re so excited to watch them implement their idea and try something new— to just go for it and see what happens. Best case scenario, we have beautiful blooms to compliment our wedding designs and cottage events—worst case scenario nothing grows but we learn a ton. This is all new for all of us and we’re so excited to take you along in the process however it may go!
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Cloe and Emma curated an amazing collection of blooms and we can’t wait to see what takes! Our favorites are definitely the cream scabiosa, apricot/peach strawflower aaaand of course the dahlias from our friends at Goose Creek Gardens!!
Photos from www.johnnyseeds.com & www.goosecreekgardens.com
If you have any advice for first-time flower farmers please drop it in the comments below! Happy Spring!
