This year is a significant year for our family and for this business. Just a few months ago we celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary and 25 years ago during the month of May we came to this home on Stumptown Rd.  This house, this land is where everything began. We have brought 7 children home to this house, we have designed over a thousand weddings from this house, and we have gardened here all of those years. Initially we focused on being growers. At that time my father owned the largest garden center in our town. We worked with daddy to add to our cutting gardens. Those flowers were cut and gathered into bouquets and I would go to farmers markets with the stems.  At the time we had only one young child.  The work on the property seemed endless but it was a fabulous way for us to supplement our income. 20 years ago on Mothers day eve, I delivered my first bunches of flowers to a corporate weekly account. That account was Tuskies Restaurant, now 20 years later we still gratefully provide their weekly flowers and designs. Mothers day signifies the anniversary of my first real flower job. Shortly there after I was given my first wedding. That wedding came in Sept 20 years ago. During the last 20 years the ability to cut from our gardens has been one of our biggest assets and blessings. Designing with fresh flowers or accents from our garden was always what defined our look. It is a known and practiced fact in this studio, if a designer is working on a piece that is not quite right, the answer is always in the garden. In the garden we can always find that missing element be it a rich green foliage or a unique and precious bloom. What defines our look are the flowers from this land.

Mothers day also signifies the beginning of spring and serious planting. Oddly enough 25 years later we are returning to our roots. With Evan now a full time partner of the business we have the time to turn our sights back to growing in a very big way. Thankfully all that we planted all those years ago has carried us for the last 20 years but with a new idea and a new found passion we are turning our focus back to growing. I have a really nice and big dream brewing right now!!!

This design was created almost completely from our garden and was delivered to a lucky lady in Leesburg. We received countless requests to design for mothers day this year. Unfortunately we typically don’t do that type of work because we are always so busy with weddings. This year with only 2 weddings to design for and extra flowers in the garden I was able to fill some 911 orders.   One particular lady from TX won my heart when she shared that other shops had declined her order because they had reached maximum capacity for the day. Being one that likes to solve emergencies I came to the rescue with this design for her sister in law.

My personal mothers day started bright and early with these designs. I woke early to create these pieces that were taken down the road to my fathers farmers market. With extra flowers in the garden and it being mothers day I thought I could sell a few extra designs. Which indeed I did!! That money was used to purchase more plants.

At dads market (Heiders Country Store) we gathered yet another van load of perennials, and annuals. Mothers day is my favorite day of the year because the kids will help in the garden with a slightly more ambitious heart.  Every mothers day we plant, they plant, we all plant.

Many of the gardens on this property are very sentimental. This garden is the baby garden. It’s just a little tiny space but it was built in a time of big sorrow. Before we had our second round of children or the bottom 3, Evan and I suffered two very serious miscarriages. When that kind of hurt comes along you actually just don’t know what to do with yourself. The pain makes you restless and you ramble around trying to figure out what to do. Out of total grief, Evan went into the garden and just started digging, I will always remember looking out the window watching him shovel dirt in anguish. The spot he created that day became the baby garden. Many of the plants in this garden were given to me for mothers day presents.

One of my mothers day roses, given to me by Hannah.

This garden is behind the house and we have several varieties of peony and hydrangea here.

This is our new deer proof garden. Every year we plant gardens down at the bottom of our yard and every year the deer destroy the garden. With Evan home this year he built a huge fence to protect our plants.

This is Eli’s garden.

The hens hang out down at this garden as well.

Sam is a chicken stalker, he loves the chickens.

Go Eli go!!!

This is by far Riley’s least favorite day. He kept asking “why do you want to work for mothers day? Can’t you want a present or something!!” I happily responded, “your working is my present!!!”

This is Evan’s seed bench and it was completely full a few days ago. Many of the tiny plants have been moved into the big garden.

All over this property are tiny miracles, special gardens, first Christmas trees, and happy kids.

More babies coming!!

I love it here, I am happy here, we built our life here.  As the business grows I often think we may need to move but honestly that just is not an option for us. We are so tied to this piece of land. I believe the answers are here, the next phase for this business is here. We are trying to figure out a lot of things right now but I must remember the answers are here in the garden.  This property has given us everything. So since we can’t leave we are dreaming up all kinds of ideas for the next phase.

One of the wishes on our list is this field. The field is across the street from our house and it has been vacant for 25 years. If a really big dream were to come true, the owner of this land would sell me just a little slice.  I believe in putting your dreams out into the universe. Please hear me world, I would really like to add another field to our land.  Every day I stare out into that field and for the last 6 months, when I look into that field I see flowers, lots, and lots of flowers.

My mothers day ended with a wonderful meal cooked by Evan. He grilled vegetables and chicken, and he made his famous garlic string beans. Notice we are dinning right in front of that field I dream of. Can you see the flowers, I can.  My only regret on this mothers day was that we were not with our college girls Hannah, and Abby.

We ended the day in exhaustion, but with lots of dreams!!!