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Morning Sun Flower Farm

Farm to Vase at Morning Sun Flower Farm

This Earth Day I attended an event at Morning Sun Flower Farm called Farm to Vase. I invited my mom as an early Mother’s Day gift, since she also loves cut flowers!

My mom and I at Farm to Vase

My Mom and Me!

At the event, we talked about how she had worked at a florist in downtown Cincinnati in the 80’s, including while pregnant with me. With no training, she worked her way up from sweeping the floors to creating arrangements, and wanted to make it her career. When I asked why she decided to leave, she answered, “the hours”. It seems there were a lot of working weekends, and also some stories about working till 2am if things got busy!
 
To get to Morning Sun, we drove an hour north from Cincinnati towards Oxford, Ohio. Although the forecast said rain for the day, we never saw a drop. Away from the city, blue skies popped out over open fields of lush spring green. The drive was gorgeous and it was hard not to stop for pictures quite a few times. There were many tranquil scenes full of alpacas, cows, and horses. We saw beautiful old barns that made every property look like it belonged in a magazine.
 

Arriving at the farm, we were welcomed by some amusing and friendly animals. Large, beautiful chestnut-colored horses grazed around the white fencing near the entrance. A particularly friendly one named Beloved walked over to see if we had treats. Our next greeter was a bulldog named Tank. He sat in a bright red utility vehicle watching everyone wander in. We later observed that the varying vehicles were the dogs preferred way of travel. We all had a great time watching them jump in and out, or chase one when they felt left behind!

After parking, we walked to the lower field towards the check-in table. We received a beautiful little apron bundle with clippers and a schedule for the evening. A buffet and long tables were set up under a giant white event tent. There was also a drink table, Porta Potty and soothing live music.

MorningSun_FarmtoVase-3

To our inner flower nerds’ delight, an entire table full of blooms shared the tent with us. After grabbing sweet teas (our drinks of choice, although there was a tempting whisky signature cocktail option), we went exploring. The farm included a high tunnel bursting with colorful ranunculus and anemones. When the event kicked off, we grabbed dinner and chatted with our table-mates. One of the women we talked to had worked with Two Little Buds for her wedding about 9 years before. She had wonderful things to say about working with them and the bouquets she received.

Mindy and Alice own and run both Two Little Buds and Morning Sun Flower Farm. Two Little Buds is a boutique floral design company with a store in Bridgewater Falls. They are a mother-daughter team, and it was fun to hear a few personal stories of how they got started. Morning Sun Flower Farm supplies Two Little Buds with fresh, organic and local flowers. Two Little Buds has been around for about 10 years and Morning Sun Flower Farm for about 2 years.
 
I loved hearing about the slow flower movement and how they started the farm to reduce their need for imported flowers. They’ve also been adding perennials to the farm, with plans to add more over time.
 

I couldn’t believe that they trained at the Floret Flower Farm workshop! I just finished the Floret book, so it was exciting to encounter a connection in Cincinnati!

After dinner and a quick arranging demonstration, they let us loose to raid the beds and high tunnel. We picked buckets of blooms and brought them back to the tables to create our masterpieces!

Farm to Vase Bouquet

Farm to Vase Buckets of Blooms

Before cutting flowers, the atmosphere had been quite relaxed. Now though, everyone stood focused at their workspace while we cut, stripped and bent flowers into vases. Slowly, the arrangements started taking shape and then – it was over! We could have stayed all night in that beautiful setting with the flowers and puppies. My mom and I both bought a shirt to remember the wonderful experience.

Table Full of Blooms

The event was so well done. I recommend going if you get the chance! I found out about the event from their Instagram account (which is beautiful!) and it sounds like there may be future Farm to Vase events in the works!

You can find Morning Sun Flower Farm / Two Little Buds at:

Website / Facebook / Instagram

My Arrangement

I was still so inspired the day after the event, I decided to do a photoshoot with my flowers and t-shirt! I may or may not have gone into a flower photography black hole for a while!

Farm TShirt

Farm to Vase at Morning Sun Flower Farm was last modified: April 25th, 2017 by Nikki Ridenour
April 25, 2017
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Book Thoughts: Floret Farm’s Cut Flower Garden

I completely loved this book! I recently learned of Floret Flower Farm due to the book release, and became an instant fangirl. Imagining all the effort, hard work, research and time that went into creating such a magical place is really inspiring.

I’ve always loved cut flowers, but wasn’t convinced to dedicate much time or room for them in my future garden plans. I thought they would be hard to grow, or that I’d have to stick to the same varieties grown over and over again in my area. Well, not anymore! Now a spectacular cut flower garden is a must!

What I loved:

  • The photos were amazing! Her interesting descriptions created so much anticipation to turn the page for photos.
  • Discovered so many great varieties!
  • Tips on spacing, staking and vase care were helpful.
  • Inclusion of trees, shrubs, vegetables, and vines was exciting. I’m not a bouquet maker (yet!), so this blew my mind. I loved the way it kept arrangements so natural-looking.
  • The projects for each season were incredible. It was neat to see all the elements come together.
What Else I Want to Know:
  • I would love to see an aerial image of the whole farm layout to get a feel for how much she’s squeezing out of the space. I also have nosey questions like: Does her 2 acres include a house? How many high tunnels does she have?
  • Some insight into her processes, just for fun. What does her garden journal look like? What tools are useful for planning? How many people help on the farm?

 

This is a book I will reference again and again for its beauty and inspiration – and while I design my garden!

 

Food for Thought:

  • I’ll be doing some thinking on how to translate her scale down to my needs.
  • Brainstorming incorporation of cut flowers into a vegetable garden, mixed landscape or ecological garden.
  • I’d like to start some in-depth research on the intensive planting techniques I’ve been hearing about lately.
Book Thoughts: Floret Farm’s Cut Flower Garden was last modified: April 21st, 2017 by Nikki Ridenour
April 21, 2017
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Welcome!

Welcome!

Hello! I'm Nikki and I'm in the second year of establishing my farm in Cincinnati, OH. I grow cut flowers for sale, food for my family, and experiment with native varieties for bouquets, food and dyes. I'm working to restore a large portion of my 5 acres to a more native state. I'm also the founder of Plantalytics, a technology startup creating digital tools to save small farmers time on planning and recordkeeping.

Floret Workshop 2018

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