Creamy Peony ready to open and pink Sweet Peas, Astrantia, and Chokecherry!  Fresh.

Oh! the ever popular small mouth Mason jars with burlap ties.  Rustic but classy.

Ceremony site had the dual purpose Mason jars again, for inside use later.  The Peaks still had snow!!

Ohh LaLa!  The colors in this Bouquet were so HOT!  Buplurum, Delphinium, Green Eyes, Rudbeckia, White Saponaria, AND the most Orange Sweet Pea around!

Azura Winery tables captured in a lovely shot by Devon Meyers Photography

AND THIS fall line up of a wedding party at the T Lazy 7 Ranch was caught bylillianbphotography

These hot table Pieces go along with the bouquet at the top of this post from Jessica and Teds’ Wedding in Aspen at the Historical Society.

Soooo lovely!  More to come!

Jessica and Ted’s wedding at the Aspen Historical Society was beautiful!  More photos to come!

Green and White is represented using Lisianthus and Dahlias with a collar

of Rust Colored Peony Leaves.

Heather’s Bouquet sits in the window at the Telluride Catholic Church with a

reception to follow at New Sheridan Chop House Restaurant (which is lovely!)

Azura Winery is a lovely place for a wedding in Paonia and this bride

carried a beautiful white and green bouquet, well suited to the setting!

For a June wedding at the famous Maroon Bells of Aspen these blues and

whites showed up nicely, especially down at the T Lazy 7 Ranch where the

reception was held!

See the link!!

crimson sweet peas straight from the Field!

Ahh the Peony!

What a great way to get your summer off to a great start, FLOWERS, FLOWERS FLOWERS!!! We start the deliveries for the North Fork Valley the week of June 21st, Summer Solstice.  Our deliveries will run for 12 weeks from June-September.  What a great way to experience the summer of flowers we produce here at Stinky Blooms Flower Farm.  I am picking loads of Delphinium right now, and have Peony coming on every day.  Flowers are a great way to increase your serotonin levels and I think of them as food for the soul.

I am encouraging those who can’t sign up for flowers every week to inquire about my DIY Growers Bunches (which is essentially one type of flower that I have a lot of that is sold either by the stem or in a bunch of ten stems) that I will have upon availability for farm pick up only.  I will have a sign up list that you can receive weekly updates for what is in the Growers Bunch for the week. Hopefully you can walk away with armloads from our fields and make your own beautiful bouquets.  I will be offering a class via Dava at Fresh and Wyld on bouquet making in August, but more on that later…

I anticipate deliveries to Roaring Fork Valley starting up soon too, so stay tuned!  Don’t forget to stop and smell the Peony, they are SO fragrant right now!

The Peony are budding up and we are looking forward to more spring heat (although the moisture has been great!)  We are hopeful that all our little babies in the ground will now start putting on some growth.  It has been a slow spring and yet Daphne at Zephrose Farm and Garden is talking about he blooming lily in the High Tunnel.

Speaking of High Tunnels, we are on a tour this Saturday put on by the Paonia Chamber of Commerce that will tour the valley showing off Greenhouses of all sorts!  If you click here you will see the description for this Saturday, May 22.  They will arrive at Stinky Blooms Farm (our farm at Field Florals) at 1 pm.  Come by!

Photo on Right: Last years High Tunnel Sweet Peas

Textural Arrangements

Brides are adding texture with greenery, ribbons, fabrics and container choices. For example, fabric-wrapped recycled tin cans offer an opportunity to coordinate colors as well as add texture.

Textural

Vintage Appeal/Going Retro

Dahlias of various colors look groovy arranged in silver pitchers, very retro! Inspired by the trendy color combination of lemon and celadon, a blend of yellow Ranunculus and green Lady’s Mantel make a smashing duet for spring and summer weddings.

Vintage

Although these are the three trends that stand out this season, the bottom line is YOU must be the one to choose the flowers that are going to grace your wedding!

What are your favorite flowers? I love Peonies because of the way they grow, the varieties of color and the deep aroma. Lilies are a “hot” floral choice, but do you like Lilies? I encourage you to look to nature for inspiration. If there is a botanical garden in your area, go for a visit. Take a notepad so that you can write down the common names of the flowers that you like the most.

It is easy to get overwhelmed, but don’t feel lost in the garden. Slow down, smell and touch the different varieties. I always encourage the couples I work with to come walk the fields with me. A special luxury afforded only to those who choose to work with a farmer/designer.

Photos below from our farm in Paonia:

Sweet Peas from our Farm

Flower Power

Fresh, local, pesticide-free flowers are the next big thing in the market

By Karen Connington
Sourced from http://www.ediblecommunities.com

Before we incorporated sustainability into our purchasing power, many of us bought fruits and vegetables, and even meats and fish, for their shape, color or shine. Today we’re apt to select the “greenest” apple in the bunch — that is, the organic or locally grown one — over the big, round red one with the highest gloss. We even extend this sensibility to our choice of wines, skin creams and counter-top cleaners. Why is it, then, that we buy flowers so impulsively — almost romantically — as though we were just picking a few daisies from our own garden? Where, in fact, do these flowers come from?

According to a story published in The New York Times, more than three-fourths of cut flowers sold in the U.S. are imported, primarily from warm nations like Colombia, which delivers about half our supply. And Ecuador grows about one-third of our roses. Bulbs and other varieties arrive from Europe and Africa. According to Ashley Krest, owner of Field Florals in Paonia, “most cut flowers travel to more countries than you or I by the time they get from grower to buyer.”

Krest has been growing flowers in the North Fork Valley for 10 years. In 2005 she opened a booth at the Aspen Saturday Market with her friend Daphne Yannakakis, who owns Paonia’s Zephyros Farm and Garden with husband Don Lareau. “When Ashley decided to focus more on design, we took over the farmers’ market booth on our own,” says Yannakakis, “but Ashley still makes guest appearances.”

The two women share a passion for flowers that drives a number of creative projects, from sharing specimens to planning weddings and events, and researching agricultural grants. But the core of their partnership is rooted in a commitment to the purity of their product. They are central players in a slow but gradual movement to clarify not only the cut flower itself, but the public’s understanding of what a “fresh” bloom actually is, or isn’t.

“People are tuned in to eating organic foods, shopping farmers’ markets and booking at restaurants that serve local produce. But they’ll still stick their faces in bouquets of fumigated roses,” Yannakakis says. “Nobody washes these flowers — they permeate pesticides wherever they land.”

Melanie Ettenger is the flower garden manager at The Cameron Place, a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) in Palisade. She’s studied the origins of botanical gardens and seed collecting as part of her doctoral work at the University of Arizona. Though her crop at The Cameron Place is USDA certified, some local growers sow chemical-free fields while choosing not to file for official certification. In Ettenger’s mind, products speak louder than paperwork.

“From my perspective, the important question is, can I check out the primary source of these plants and can I meet the people who grow them? Fresh flowers grown organically mean local flowers grown organically. Organic blooms flown in from thousands of miles away simply cannot look that great unless they’ve been synthetically manipulated in some way, altering quality, fragrance, color and durability,” she says.

The U.S. government does not currently regulate the use of pesticides on cut flowers. In order to deliver an unblemished, pestfree product, foreign exporters employ a laundry list of pesticides that have been documented as carcinogens, immune disruptors and neurotoxins. Public demand, however, particularly from European consumers, is beginning to alter that scenario, largely through the efforts of small, fair-trade growers in South America, but this trend, too, is slow. According to a New York Times report in 2008, only $19 million of a $21-billion-a-year cut-flower industry represented organic sales.

Wendy Scott Blakeslee, owner of Mountain Flowers in Aspen, sees convenience as the culprit: “People go to the grocery store and buy flowers for $9.99 because they happen to be shopping and the bouquets there are cheap. They don’t think about what it costs to ship one box of flowers across continents. It saves no one money in the end, hurts local florists and growers, and takes an enormous toll on the environment.”

Mountain Flowers and Harrington Smith in Basalt are the Roaring Fork Valley’s main retail outlets for local and organic flowers outside of the summer markets. “You can’t beat the freshness factor of a blossom that was growing in a field one day and at my shop the next,” says Eileen Harrington. Both shops are challenged by Colorado’s short growing season and constantly seek the purest wholesale options.

But what local organics lose in longevity is offset by a flourishing diversity. Zephyros, Field Florals and The Cameron Place combined grow more than 40 different varieties of blooms, including common annuals like zinnias, sunflowers and dahlias; herbs like oregano and thyme; perennials; and edibles like lavender, rudbeckia, nasturtiums and violas.

Local growers are constantly devising new schemes to increase distribution and educate budding botanists. Krest and Yannakakis are talking to Whole Foods about supplying their planned store in Basalt and other franchises throughout the region. Zephyros will add workshops to its current calendar of weddings and events next summer, while Ettenger plans to introduce flower-production techniques into the intern-training program at The Cameron Place. And Krest will deliver fresh bouquets across the region once a week, by subscription, all summer long.

For those planning summer nuptials, now is the time to act. Locals Lee Liebmann and Sarah Helsley hired Field Florals months before their celebration. Instead of leafing through photos of glitzy bouquets, they previewed blossoms ready to reap when their wedding bells rang. “My husband and I were turned off by the excesses we saw in the local wedding industry and decided to go a different route,” says Liebmann.

As we watch the last snows of winter melt into the seeds and bulbs bearing this spring’s harvest, there is a hint of fragrance in the air. Tulips, daffodils, peonies, forsythia, flowering quince and lilacs will be the first blossoms ready to cut for the early markets. They beckon us to come to our senses — all of them — and relish the sweet romance in nature.

Tilling Your Own Organic Flower Garden

When we renovate our homes, it is more sustainable to retain current structures, weaving them into new buildings and designs. The same principle holds true for an organic garden. Melanie Ettenger, of The Cameron Place CSA in Palisade, believes “transitional gardens” are a practical option as you head in the direction of organic. “If you have healthy, established perennials, there is no point in pulling them out. I have a mix of native and non-native species, both conventional and organic, in my front yard. I inherited both and work with what I have,” she says.

Closely observing how your yard is situated in relationship to surrounding buildings, trees, prevailing winds and water flow is the first step to designing any garden. Because we live in a series of microclimates, with many variations in altitude, light and moisture, growers suggest taking a soil sample to an expert for analysis.

Daphne Yannakakis, of Zephyros Farm and Garden in Paonia, notes that soils in the region are challenging; they’re composed of heavy clay and have a high alkaline content while generally being low in organic matter. “Amending with good compost low in salts, cover-cropping and mulching with uncontaminated straw will all boost the health of the soil,” she says.

Another local method gaining real ground in recent years is planting native species, such as the drought-tolerant plants that are more adaptable to our arid climate than imports or exotic blooms. “I use native plants as anchors, then supplement them with varieties that are more sensitive and site-specific, such as a shady spot or a rich little pocket by the outflow from my washing machine,” says Ettenger. “Often it’s a matter of experimenting. I have moved plants around like furniture until I find them their niche.”

Because many nurseries ship established plants grown in greenhouses or climates very different from ours, Ettenger prefers to start her own flowers from seeds or to buy from growers who nurture seedlings specifically for Colorado conditions. “Labels are often misleading if the plant is not grown locally. Planting gardens that mimic the Northwest or California can demand obscene amounts of water and imported soil, often for plants that struggle or die off prematurely,” she adds.