I wish I could remember what I came across that planted this seed of interest in me . Perhaps it came about reading the delightfully dense, “The Invention of Nature” by Andrea Wulf, an excellent read I found on a Master Naturalists booklist. It’s amazing to think that a booklist and one sequential book could result in 1,000 blooms.
The next book that came home with me was, “The Reason for Flowers” by Stephen Buchmann (the source of all information in this post). Soon Floriculture and FloriBusiness began to seem not only exciting, but something realistic for me. I am a farmers daughter and have access to land use. After a year of work at the university, I decided that if fate saw it fit, perhaps I would have the opportunity to experiment with flowers on Len Lu Farms.
I flipped and dog eared seed catalogs, filled up online shopping carts, planning multiple bouquets, some everlasting or edible, celebrating both life and death, and all could be combined for the mega bouquet. I pulled the trigger on a $300 seed order late one night to call and cancel it the next morning frantically. It was already April and I don’t YET have a greenhouse. I needed to start humbly. I was offered a job close to the family farm with the US Forest Service. I had no excuse not to try.
Buying seeds from hardware stores in the area, I accumulated the following:
Sunflowers
- Tigers Eye
- Ms. Mars
- Teddy Bear
- Italian White
- Evening Sun
Zinnias
- Oklahoma
- Canary Bird
- Lilliput
- Envy
- Purity
I also have planted both mixed and Blue Boy Bachelor Buttons, every winter squash one can think of, herbs and greens.
There once was Tulipmania, the Dutch flower trade is still alive and well. This is a billion dollar industry. Jets make trips from Colombia and Ecuador to the ports of California daily for blooms. Flowers are a necessary indulgence. I grew up frugal and rural. I once was leaving our hometown hardware store carrying a four pack of discounted flower plugs. Myself and my common sense were insulted as I left by a old timer, “You can’t eat those, dumb ass”. What about pollination? and the real threat to the monarchs?
I imagine both a monk in the late 17th century dapping a paint brush on a stamen and a goggle clad lab coat dropping a gene into a petri dish, all for the love of flowers. Some seeds on the market today have been tinkered with in the lab for ten years others natural selection and human hands cultivated over time.
The effects flowers have on us are not common knowledge. I was thrilled to be a part of Pollinator week this year in a way that I hadn’t been able before. I helped plant multiple pollinator sites on federal, forest land with the United States Forest Service. The USFS is making steps in the right direction by planting sites with informational signs nearby. America must work harder to keep essential pollinators in our mists. Before my time with the USFS, I didn’t know so many creatures were on watch lists or endangered. Bat, bird and bee feed us by pollunating our blooming fruits and vegetables. Plants and flowers, based on the developing princples of biophillia, can possibly heal the sick, calm nerves and increase one’s quality of life. The scent of a rose can give release in your brain a lesser, albeit similar chemical as a sedative.
Flowers are a essential indulgence. I can indulge in my daydreams and that’s what makes life worth living. I am not a novice gardener or large scale farmer. I am somewhere in between. I am not known to be a risk taker, nor can I predict a summer of pestilence, but I have currently put hundreds of seeds into my 75 x 25 foot plot of land next to my Flowers bread delivery box truck/retreat/tiny house. No one is questioning why I’m doing this, which often amazes me, because I’m constantly humbled by my mission this summer. To grow something beautiful for the sake of doing it (and maybe a killer instagram picture).
Find me on there: @folkmasses
FOLKMASSES 