Hey all!  We are getting info on some farmer's markets and some great suggestions.  We also have been contacted by a few markets as well to join.  Just wanted to update where we are.  We finally got the lavender field completely planted.  We are almost finished spreading rock.  I have harvested some English lavender and waiting on the Grosso and Phenomenal.   We started with the Vintage Home Market at 110 Sycamore in Downtown Wyandotte in June.  They don't have all our products but a sampling.  I will be taking more down in the next couple of weeks to stock up for the Wyandotte Street Fair/Art Fair.  The shop will be open during the street fair so please stop in and shop!

We have a few Vintage and Handmade  in person markets scheduled for fall and the holidays.  Those are posted on our Events page.  As far as this summer, we are not involved in any Farmer's Markets.  What we hope to do is make a list of the different markets we are interested in or have contacted us and go down and look.  

What we don't want to do is spread ourselves too thin.  I am the only full-time worker (farmer, product maker, floral designer, painter, web person, sales and market person and many other hats!).  My husband helps and supports me tremendously, but he works a full-time job.  He's not a full-time farmer yet!  My adults sons also help as needed but both work and one is in college.  So we are definitely being a bit choosy about what markets we go with to fit our schedule best as I will need some help from at least one family member to transport and set up products, tents, etc.  

Good news is we have some ideas for a couple of in-person farm events next season.  I am working on them and will announce when everything is worked out.  We are excited to be able have some people come out to the farm and see the lavender and what we are doing here.  

Hopefully soon I can add a few markets to the events page as well!  

It's a hot one - Happy Father's Day! 

Here Just a quick update to show you the start of our harvest.   Most of our plants are first and second year plants so they are not at maturity.  Next year's harvest should be larger. Today I harvested the English lavender that was ready.  There was Hidcote, Melissa, and Munstead varieties.  The Grosso and Phenomenal intermediate lavender, which we have quite a few of,  are not ready to harvest yet.  They come a bit behind the English lavender.  Here are some photos of the harvest today.  I was so happy that for our first harvest season since we moved to our property in Monroe that we got such nice bundles. 

We are impatiently awaiting harvest here but yet still planting at the same time!  We have many of our English lavenders that are this close to harvest.  I am planning a day out in the field (not doing orders inside) tomorrow through Wednesday, to get caught up on planting and harvesting.  We have almost all of our Grosso and Phenomenal budding. The Grosso have gotten so big.  I was really worried about that particular type of lavender because it's less hardy for overwintering, but they seem to be doing just great.  

We hung our make-shift drying rack up and it's awaiting bundles.  We talk to/network with a lot of lavender growers and other farm owners through the United States Lavender Growers Association.   A great idea for a make-shift drying rack was posted via a picture.  It was using cattle panels.  Those non-farmers - that is a sort of a panel of fencing to keep livestock in.  They have cattle panels, hog panels, and goat panels.  We wanted the cattle because they have a taller height.  The issue was they were 16 feet long and we don't have a truck! We have an SUV.  We lucked out at our local Tractor Supply store when the sales clerk took us out back to look at the panels out back of the store.  Lo and behold, they had some cattle panels that were called Easy Panels that had the height we were looking for  but were only 8 feet long.  So we took two and tied them to the roof of the SUV.   My husband hung them up in the barn with baling twine.  When we harvest I will get some pictures of the entire process.  Since this is our first harvest, I don't expect it to be huge.  These are mostly 1st and 2nd year plants.  They reach maturity at 3 years.  We do have a handful of older plants that we brought from our old house.  I was happy to see they are doing great, survived the transplanting, and are very close to harvest as well.  

We bought more plants this weekend- of course, why stop now? I ran out and got two trays of mostly Munstead.  It's what the closest greenhouse had left, but to be honest with you I have always had really good luck with Munstead.   I like our Hidocote as well.  Our Melissa is doing very well although looking light lavender instead of pink.  They aren't completely in bloom so maybe that will change.  I am having a harder time with Folgate.  I heard this was a good variety for cold winters, but it's probably just so-so for us.  I have a couple die on me this season.  Our Phenomenal is doing well too.   So I will be finishing off the back field planting and harvesting very likely the same week.  

We got more rock.... yes more.  We had 18 tons the first deliveyr.  This time we have about half that.  We need to fill in bare spots in the front field and cover the back field.  So tomorrow son #1 is coming to help spread rock while I plant and possibly start to harvest.  

The test plot for sunflowers, zinnas and wildflowers is coming along.  I see shoots and things growing.  Our test plot for gladiolus, dahlia, and yarrow is doing well.  We got two more roses - Gypsy red and yellow.  Things are coming along.  I should have some harvest pics soon!  Happy harvesting.   

We packaged our wildflower and herbal potpourri in mason jars for gift giving.  You can still get them by the bag, but if you'd like to give a quaint gift of some wonderful smelling dried wildflowers, lavender, chamomile, rose petals etc this a cute way to give as a gift.  I also have been working one some Summer Festival Bouquets and wreaths!  

 We worked all through a very hot Memorial Day weekend.  I finished the planting of the new lavender plants.  We have a total of 300 now.  We still have a few more rows to fill in the back field.  We also have room for further expansion for other fields, but pretty happy with what we have at the present time.  The plants are all growing by leaps and bounds due to the hot weather.  Lavender is a sun lover for sure.  We have some buds on our Melissa, Grosso, Hidcote and Phenomenal.  I am not sure what kind of harvest we will have due to the plants only being second year plants (and some first year replacements).  If you want larger plants to produce faster you can purchase gallon
-sized plants.  However, for us, this was not economical to purchase 300 gallon size plants - that would be expensive - so we went with 3.5 inch pots.  The trade off is waiting for them to mature, which is usually around the third year.

I also planted yarrow, gladiolus, dahlias, an delphinium in a bed up by our patio.  We also started a test plot for cut flowers and wildflowers.  I planted some sunflower seeds, zinnias, and a wildflower meadow mix.  Our plan is if this works we will expand next year and give the sunflowers and zinnaes each their own beds and fill in the current bed with a wildflower meadow.  

We also filled in the our first lavender field with river rock.  This was quite the endeavor!  It took myself, my husband, and two adult sons several days to spread the rock.  We were very blessed by a neighbor with a tractor who not only tilled the new bed for the cut flowers, but used his scoop attachment to put the 18 ton! of rock in various places on the field so we didn't have to scoop it into a wheelbarrow.  He allowed my husband to use his tractor free for this.  We could not have done it without his help!  We do still have to order a smaller pile of rocks because we were a bit short and need to mulch the back lavender field I just planted.  So more rocks to spread! I do think the rock makes a night and day difference in the appearance of the field.  It will also help with reflection of the sun and drainage.  

Hope everyone has a happy June!  We will post further updates to harvest as they come!  

Today I would like to first remember and honor all those who have served and gave their lives in service for our country.  These are the real heroes and we definitely give thanks and honor their memory.  Memorial Day is so much more than cook outs and fun times, but a solemn day to remember and honor those who gave the ultimate sacrifice for our country.  

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 We are working hard at the farm.  We will have planted replacement plants for any lavender plants in the field that didn't survive the winter or were decimated last summer by the bunnies.  We have the tractor scheduled to come tomorrow on Memorial Day.  We will get the rest of lavender field tilled so we can plant the couple of trays of Hidcote and Phenomenal we have.  We also are having a field tilled for fresh cuts - zinnas and sunflowers, and a section tilled for a wildflower meadow.   I was also very pleased to see the Purple Boomerrang lilacs bushes we planted last year are blooming beautifully already this year!  We plan to start harvesting lilacs as well to make potpourri and lilac jelly.  

We had rive rock dumped this past week.  This is going to serve as  mulch for the entire lavender field. It will be a lot of work, but we be spreading it over time this summer on top of the lavender field weed barrier.  The rocks serve a couple of purposes.  First, it looks aesthetically pleasing.  Second, it helps keep the weed barrier intact and from being pulled up or blown away in high winds.  Lastly, it helps with sunlight reflection and drainage.  Lavender likes dry and warm conditions.   ​

Our products will begin to be carried in the Vintage Market Home on June 1, 2018!  We are really excited about becoming a vendor with them.  The Vintage Market Home is located at 110 Sycamore Street in Wyandotte, Mi.  They are right next to Stroh's ice cream in downtown Wyandotte.  

The Vintage Market is an upscale flea market style shopping experience.  They have pop-up markets in Monroe (at the country fairgrounds) and in Wyandotte and other locations.  The Vintage Market Home is their new brick and mortar store in downtown Wyandotte.  Their boutique features vintage, furniture, home decor, clothing, jewelry, upscale handmade, unique gifts, and more!  

Lavender Rose Farms LLC will be providing our various floral designs/bouquets, English and Grosso lavender bundles (wrapped), hand-painted lavender mason jars, wreaths, and sachets.  Later in the season fresh cuts will be available as well.  Again, look for our products on June 1st at the Vintage Market Home!   As always, a full line of our products are available at our store on www.lavenderrosefarms.com. 

We also have a fall market coming up with Chic and Unique Vintage and Handmade Market in Brownstown on September 22, 2018.  This is at the Events Center on King Road.  Please see our Events page for full details.   Our table will be inside the Events Center building.  We will bring a full line of our products and floral designs with us for you to see in person! 
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I hope everyone has a lovely and happy Memorial Day weekend.  

We will not be at the Brownstown Market this next Saturday for Mother's Day.  We are sorry for the late cancellation.  I would encourage everyone to still attend as it's a great event!  We've been dealing with some personal/health issues.  Just keep us in prayer.  We are still signed up for the market in September and I will update our events page with this information.  Hoping some of these issues will be taken care of by then. 

Because we aren't doing the show next Saturday, we will be keeping the online store open next week instead of closing for vacation.  This good news for those who would like to continue to order gift baskets and other items for Mother's Day online.  I can ship as late as Wednesday/Thursday using Priority Mail and still have it arrive by Saturday.  Please keep in mind the processing time of items, which I have expedited to 1-2 days on the gift baskets and few other products.  If you'd like a bouquet or another item that has longer processing time - contact me via the store.  I can see if I can help in getting that item to you in a rush for the holiday.  We also offer Priority 1-day shipping on gift baskets or other items.  This is an upgrade in cost so please be aware of the extra cost for this option.  Unfortunately this option has a significant upcharge (blame the Post Office! It's their pricing lol). However, if you need it quick and are willing to pay the extra cost it's an option for those who order late. 

 As far as our brick and mortar markets - Those arrangements are still in effect for June 2018.

 We will still be starting with the Vintage Home Market in Wyandotte on Sycamore Street on June 1st.   I will not be selling there or working at this market, as they handle that for us, which is one reason this appeals to us.  We simply keep the items stocked and that frees us up to do our farming and filling online store orders.  This store is a regular business hour store location is 110 Sycamore, Wyandotte. Tuesday-Saturday 11-6.

We also will be still be starting with BayCreek & Co. in Erie on June 7th.  This is brick and mortar MONTHLY market.  The are open the the first Thursday-Sunday of each month only.  Address is 9770 S Dixie Hwy, Erie, MI 48133. 

Both stores will carry our floral designs, wreaths and some of our other products such as candles, hand-painted mason jars etc.  We are still working out details on the rest of our product lines.  We also hope to supply both with fresh cuts (not just lavender! but sunflowers, dahlias, other wildflowers) this summer - pending harvest.  You can still buy all our products online.  Also if you'd like bulk floral designs for weddings please use the online store as this is the best way for me to help create your wedding party or event bouquets or centerpieces. 

We believe for now the two brick and mortar stores, our online shop (which is jamming this month for Mother's Day), and trying to get rest of our field planted is more than even activity for the summer.  Our plans for the lavender fields this month are to do some replacement planting as needed to any plants that didn't make the winter.  We also will be planting about 100 more Royal Velvet - I am eagerly awaiting these plants as I looked all over for them last summer.  We also plan to get a huge load of river rock delivered to spread on the lavender field as mulch.  This will help keep our weed barrier down under high winds and also will look beautiful and help the plants with sun.  

Our last project is a cutting bed.  We will have our friendly tractor fellow come out mid-May to till a new bed where we will be growing dahlias, yarrow, sunflowers, and more for fresh cut flowers.  

Lavender Rose Farms LLC News Story Reminder:  Our short news story will still run on May 6 and 7th through on NBC24 Toledo.  6pm or 11 pm broadcast on May 6th and 6:30 a.m. on May 7th.   I will post the link to the story online at NBC24 Toledo as soon as it's posted.  

We have some exciting news to share.  Channel 24 NBC News out of Toledo contacted us for an interview and a story about our farm.  The reporter, Allison, is from the Monroe area.  She contacted us for a feature on our business and small lavender farm.  Unfortunately, it was a bit cold so the lavender had not awoken from their slumber for the story.  Maybe they will do a follow-up when the lavender is in bloom.  

The story will air on NBC24 on May 6th 6 p.m. newscast - unless bumped by hockey, then it will be shown instead at 11 p.m. newscast.  It will also air on May 7th at 6:30 a.m.  If you are out of the local viewing area for NBC24 Toledo then you can go to the NBC24 website and view it there under local news here:  nbc24.com/news/local.  

We were really excited with this opportunity.  Not only did we go out to the fields we had good deal of our products shown in the piece. I set up the display table pictured on this blog for the story to display some our favorite products. 
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Mothers' Day Updates/Online Shop:  Our shop will remain open through next week.  Unfortunately we will be unable to attend the Brownstown Market as planned due to family/health issues.    

​ We've had a few days in the 70s and today in the low 80s and the dormant lavender is greening right up.  We will be laying pea gravel mulch and planting the rest of our field in the new few weeks.  Hope to see some of you at the show on May 12th.  

Happy Spring! I think... It's still cold here in SE Mi.  Our town and areas near the lakeshore of Lake Erie experienced some massive flooding with several communities being evacuated.  Here are the farm we are west of the city of Monroe (actually in Frenchtown Twp) so we were safe from lakeshore flooding.  The River Raisin at the back of our property didn't flood by us either.  When we purchased our property the river gave us pause at it's well-known for flooding especially in springtime.  However, the former ribbon farm land that we occupy is set up with two berms.  There is also several acres between the lavender field and the river.  So far so good.   

I would like to ask for prayer for those in the city of Monroe and the Lakeshore communities that have been affected by the floods, lost property/homes and that have been evacuated.  How utterly devastating.  I don't recall such flooding in the area ever. 

I have posted some pics of our Spring Romance Bouquet above.  We have had this listing on  the shop for awhile now.  It's one of the first bouquets I created.  I have revamped it slightly.  It makes a great Mother's Day gift with it's pastel and deeper pinks.  I also will have these bouquets along with other bouquet designs at our show on May 12th in Brownstown Event Center - see events page.  

I also recently revamped the design of our gift basket.  The products are the same but our basket style as changed. These baskets make a great mother's day gift  The include goat's milk guest soap, soy botanical candle, tin of culinary lavender, embroidered lavender sachet, bath salts in small mason jar, and lavender linen/floral water spray.  

Reminder:  Our farm is closed currently.  We are not open to the public at this time.  We will not be open to the public this summer.  We are still in process of planting the lavender field.  As such it would be difficult to have people come to the lavender fields while we are still working on them. When we do open to the public, we prefer by appointment rather than open public hours.  We will definitely keep you posted when that option is available!  

Pick up for products!  In certain instances I can arrange a pick of products if you are local to our area and do not wish to use shipping.  An occasional pick up particularly of large wedding party orders for bouquets or favors often  just make sense for local orders.  You can email at elaine@lavenderrosefarms.com or use the contact form. 

I don't have large quantities for wholesale lavender bundles or dried loose lavender.  As I mentioned, we are newer farm and not to that point yet.  However, I am a member of the United States Lavender Grower's Association and these great group of farmers do network and support each other.  I can reach out and try to connect you with another farm in Michigan (local residents) that may have bulk items you are interested in.  You can make arrangements for shipping with other farm or take a drive out if they have public hours. 

I hope everyone has great day and hopefully some warmer weather!  

Hopping along halfway into April!   Mother's Day is around the corner so I wanted to share some gift ideas as well as update everyone on our spring market coming up the day before Mother's Day.  

 We have many lovely choices for Mother's Day gifts. Our gift baskets our most popular. Any one of our lovely handmade dried bouquets made a beautiful gift. These are not for weddings only. They can be a lovely a gift for home decor for that special someone. We have embroidered and hand-stamped sachets, floral water (linen spray). Our hand-painted solid color and lavender flower mason jars also made a lovely gift. These jars look cute as vases, as bathroom, kitchen, or living room decor. They are also cute for a child's room. Please take a look at our offerings.

LOCAL RESIDENTS: SE Michigan: We will be at Chic and Unique handmade/antique market the day before Mother's Day (May 12th). Don't miss the fun!  We also will have our homemade lavender jelly - only available at our in-person markets!

LOCATION: 23345 King Road Brownstown Mi. This is a mostly outdoor market, but a select few vendors will be inside the Events Center Building behind the community gardens.  This is where you will find our table. Go to www.lavenderrosefarms.com/events.html for more details and market hours.  

FARM UPDATE: The lavender is just barely starting to green up.  We've had a cold spring so far.  Yesterday was our first day in the 70s.  However, I am assured the plants are alive!  I did a scratch test to te wood stems (just use your fingernail to lightly scratch the wood), and I found the inside was green.  That means they are indeed alive.  If the stem is hollow or brown the plant is dead.  Lavender can be tricky as often the plants will look dead, but they are still just dormant.  If you want to be sure if a plant is alive just do the scratch test.  

 We have plants on order to fill the lavender bed that was tilled but not filled last year.  These will be arriving the beginning of May. We also will be going to get replacement plants on the row of Hidcote that we lost to bunnies last year.  

My husband and I started on maintenance of the field already despite the weather.  We tacked down any loose barrier that the high winds had loosened.  We ordered and received new barrier to finish off the field.  We are waiting for high winds to die down before we start spreading the barrier.  We also made a trip to a local landscaping company to price pea gravel/river rocks for the field.  We are using this as mulch on top of the barrier.  We should be getting this in the next few weeks and it will be quite the job to spread on the entire fields, but the means justify the end.  The rock will give the field a finished look and help with a variety of issues we have encountered.  

While, you can do rows with grass in between (we didn't want to mow) or  do as we did and use weed barrier between rows and mulch with gravel (no limestone please, as it can change pH of soil).  We are using a small river rock which is slightly larger than pea gravel.  We made this choice because this is what our local landscaper has in stock for a good price.  The river rock as a bit of color and will look nice on the field.   The rocks helps protect the weed barrier especially weighing it down from high winds or tears.  The rocks also assists with keeping weeds down.   River rock or pea gravel is decorative and pleasing to the eye and has the added benefit of  helping reflect the sun. as lavender loves the sun/heat and does not like wet feet. 

Hope to see local folks come out the market on May 12th!  We will post some pictures of our progress in the field soon!   Everyone enjoy spring where ever you are! 

Spring has finally sprung!  It's a bit chilly here still, but I am starting to see a bit of green to the grass and some daffodils sprouting.  Most of the lavender still looks fairly dormant, but if you look underneath the plants you can see the beginning of greening! 

Old man winter took a  toll on our weed barrier.  We got a late start to planting last year, our first year planting at our new house.  We didn't completely finish the planting until late summer.  We also did the battle of the bunnies which gave us some fits and starts with the outer rows.   Due to all these factors, we went into winter without putting the pea gravel on the barrier as intended.  Even though the barrier was tacked down the winter winds/early spring winds pulled up some barrier between rows.  So we've got some repair to do on the fields.  My husband and I are planning on starting this as soon as weather cooperates (isn't raining). 

We will be getting the pea gravel in the next few weeks and have new plants coming the beginning of May to finish the back lavender field.  We will also have to weed barrier and pea gravel the field after planting.  So that is our main goal for this year  - to completely finish the lavender field.  

I've had a lot of requests about picking fresh lavender for the summer!  I am so pleased that people are interested in us and coming to see our lavender!  Thank you!  Unfortunately,  I am not sure what our harvest will be because we have mostly newer plants (planted only last summer) and a few transplants (more mature plants).  We also do not know what, if any, losses we've had from  winter.  So we may have to replace some plants in addition to planting the new ones already ordered.  

To those who have requested, I will update status around June/July which is when lavender blooms.  I will know if we have any to sell fresh cut wise then.  If we do not, next year should be a better year.  Lavender usually doubles in size the second year of planting.  The third year of growing it usually is at maturity.  Please bear with us as we give our plants time to get where they need to be!  

Other news:  We have two new consultations listed on our shop.  

We have put our lavender growing consultation back up on our shop.  This is a private consultation.  You get up to an hour of consultation (either by phone/email or Etsy conversation, whichever you prefer).  We will also provide a lavender growing/business guide with many important resources.  

We have had to institute a Custom Order Consultation fee for our Floral Designs/Centerpieces.  Customer order Request for Floral Design and Lavender Growing consults can be found on side bar menu under "Consultations" on our Shop. 

While  I can make minor changes to existing floral design listings such as changing ribbon color or adjusting quantities at no fee; however, if you are interested in an entirely new creation for floral designs other than the prelisted designs please use our custom consultation. 

With our custom consult, we can create a listing from scratch or use one of our existing designs as a starting point and customize it by making additions, deletions, or changing colors entirely.  We can also put together bridal packages such as multiple bouquets, boutonnieres, corsages, and centerpieces that match or coordinate.  

Q. What does the Consultation Fee include?

A. Up to 1 hour of cumulative conversations messaging through Etsy or private email about the specifications you need in order for me to create your piece. This conversation may happen all at once, or over the course of several days depending on your schedule or mine. This may include me sending you photos of potential designs and/or examples of pieces that you can choose from.  If you decide you want me to make the design for you, I will offer you a price for the materials, labor and shipping and list it in my shop as a "Custom Order" for you.  After you purchase the Custom Order, I will begin making the piece. When I have finished it, I will send you a photo of the piece. If after seeing the photo you decide to change some of the details, there may be an additional charge for time and extra materials used if the change is significant.  For more details on the custom orders please follow the link

www.etsy.com/listing/590577562/custom-floral-designcenterpiecetable

If you'd' just like one of our listed bouquets with no changes or small changes (such as quantity or ribbon colors) please just order from those listings. 

Fees for Consults:  
1.  Lavender Growing Consult is $50.00.  
2.  Lavender Floral Design/Centerpieces/Wedding Packages for CUSTOM Design Consult is $25.00.

I pray everyone has a very blessed Easter!  We are excited to be attending church services and also to have a backyard Easter Egg hunt with granddaughter and egg coloring!