Lets Build A Bouquet!

 

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Hello my Farmgirl Friends!!!

Most of you here know that my daughter and I are Flower Farmers (in a VERY small scale) and we sell our flowers by the honor system at on our darling little roadside stand.  This is our ninth summer of business! Through the years we’ve really streamlined our little business.  We know what grows best for us and we know what sells.  We rarely experiment with anything else now that we have it figured out!

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Sometimes we amaze ourselves at how many bouquets we can whip out in a short period of time.  Our mason jar bouquets are only $5 but we still love them to look as good, if not better, than the ones you will find at the farmers market for $20.  So we work to make them beautiful.

This week I was going through some old pictures on my computer and came across these pictures that my daughter texted me 4 years ago when my grand-daughter Jillian was 11.  I loved the reminder of how, at just 11 years old, she could “build a bouquet” just as about as pretty as ours.   These photo’s were just quick little snapshots my daughter had texted me so some of the words are cut off.  (I need to remember to ask her if she saved the original art work!)

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It got me to thinking this morning while I was working in the flower garden that maybe today we could build a bouquet together!  I’ll step you through my simple process!  Please keep in mind that I am NOT a professional at this… simply a little flower farmer that has learned a super quick way to build a bouquet!

 

STEP ONE:  

Fill your clean quart size jar with cold water.  We use both large and small mouth jars but like Jillian said in her tip above:  “it’s easier to have a wide mouth jar”!

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.STEP TWO:

Choose some greenery and lets start there.  We use a lot of different things but honestly my favorite is Dahlia greenery!  Dahlia flowers do not do too great here… between the heat and bugs it is pretty much impossible to get a pretty Dahlia flowers.  BUT we haven’t let all the tubers go to waste that we bought years ago and we still plant them year after year and USE THE GREENERY!!!  It is beautiful, stays fresh in the bouquet and takes up a nice amount of space.   Be sure to snip off the low lying leaves.  Put that nice stem of greenery in your jar.

TIP:  you do not want anything except the main flower stem to be in the water.  Any leaves the water will get slimy and cause the water to murk up immediately.  So snip those off!

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STEP THREE:  

The next thing we put in the jar is approximately 3-4 sunflowers.  Three is a really nice balance and all the official rules tell you to have odd number of flowers.  (We don’t follow the rules though!)  Sometimes I like four sunflowers… or more.

Once again be sure to strip all the leaves.  Place those in the jar amidst the greenery.

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STEP FOUR:  

Now we had our Zinnias.  We have approximately 8 different colors of zinnias and when everything is blooming at it’s peak we will often times put 6-8 zinnias in each bouquet.  Sometimes less if the blooms are huge.  Today I made a bouquet with mixed colors and I put 6 different colors of zinnias in the jar.   There is no formula for this… just make sure the leaves are stripped of, the stems are at the length you like and put them in the jar!

STEP FIVE:

Now the fun part begins!  Pick any extra little bits of “filler” that you’ve got growing.  We plant several things:  Celosia, Gomphrena, Cosmos.  Those three are probably our favorite.  One little stem can make a huge difference.  Mint is great too, but I forgot to pick that today.  All you really need are a few extra bits of tall filler stems for each bouquet.  Chose any that you want (or all of the same) and pop those in your jar.  I like them to be a little taller so they give some dimension and stand out.

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STEP SIX:  

Tie on your tag!  If you don’t have a tag, just tie on a piece of twine.  It adds a nice little look to the bouquet!

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And here is my final bouquet!  Pretty much everything how I wanted it and it is ready to go to the flower stand!  Not including picking the greenery, flowers, and filler this only took me about 3 minutes to make.  

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These are all the bouquets we made this morning… getting ready to load them up in our Ranger and drive across the filed to the flower stand!

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And now, I’m going to leave with a little personal thought.  Monday was ONE YEAR since my Dad died (I can hardly wrap my head around that).  My Dad loved flowers.  And even though he lived across the US from me, during flower season he called me EVERY SINGLE DAY to find out how many bouquets we made, how many sold, how pretty were the flowers, etc.!!!  I’ve taken to texting my mom every single morning from the garden with the flowers I’m working on that minute.  She is usually drinking her coffee and reading her Bible and it makes her happy to get my morning flower picture!  I have loved being in the garden this summer… thinking of my dad, crying tears of missing him SO MUCH, but also so thankful for such beautiful memories of him!  (Below is the picture I sent my Mom this morning!)  

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Until our gravel roads cross again… so long.

Dori