Hey everybody!  We have been busy this August.  We just had a second harvest of our lavender.  English lavender tends to produce a harvest in June and then again in late summer.  So I was out in the fields this past weekend doing a harvest.  We have been working on weeding and some repair of the lavender fields.  We still have some empty spots for replacement lavender.  I have been waiting on getting the Royal Velvet lavender to replace the Phenomenal plants we lost earlier this year.  As I mentioned previously, we are going to grown more English lavender in our fields as we find it's more hardy for our growing zone.  However, we still have quite a few Grosso and Phenomenal plants and those actually gave a bit of a second harvest as well in August.  

The Pollinator Garden (wildflower fields) are also looking amazing.  The annual zinnas and cosmos I intermixed with the perennial wildflower are blooming and look gorgeous. There are just so  many pollinators coming to the garden.  

A short announcement regarding our retail stores.  After much thought, we have decided to stay with one retail location, which is Honeycomb Creative in Monroe at 415 N. Monroe Street, Monroe Mi.   I found maintaining products and stocking two stores too time consuming for the return.  This past year was our first foray into retail locations.  As a vendor there is upkeep, stocking, changing out products for seasonal items etc.  We have decided to stick with just one hometown location and concentrate on our online shop which is bulk of our business.  

Since Honeycomb Creative is quite literally less than 3 miles from my home and in our hometown, it's easier of the two for upkeep and restocking.  We love Dayna and her family!  They have such a cute store housed in an old historic house that was renovated in the Downtown Monroe corridor.  They also offer classes upstairs and one of the few locations that carry Fusion Mineral Paint.  Follow them on Facebook for updates.  

We enjoyed and love The Vintage Market Home in Wyandotte.  I want to wish them luck on their new location and expansion. They are moving to a new location (just down the block) in September.  We love Rina and Angie - the owners!  They have been very helpful to us in this past year and they did such lovely displays with our lavender products and floral designs.  However, August is our last month with them.  The distance is really the main factor in this decision.  As we are not residing Downriver any longer and we are really only up in the area once a week for church, we decided to withdraw from the store. 

I have been asked many times for floral crowns, wall swags, and more wreaths.  I am working on those.  Here is the delay:  Spring through summer into fall is our busiest season, especially for floral design and weddings. Doing floral designs for wedding parties is time consuming.  I am doing multiple weddings per week as an average plus all the field work that is required and harvesting.  So, as summer winds down and we start to slow down,  you will start to see more of the new products cropping up on our shop later this fall.  I also will post them on social media and our blog. 

I did have have a chance recently to do one fall wreath which is listed on our shop! It's the Fall Meadow Wreath.  It has Sweet Annie, safflower, sunflower, oats, flax, and daisy.  I love it and it smells WONDERFUL!   Also included in our gallery are some English lavender and baby's breath bouquets and boutonnieres for a local wedding and a bud vase arrangement in the Summer Festival Style.  

Sometimes there is confusion on the coloration of lavenders.  Especially with floral designs clients many are expecting deeper colors on the Intermediate (Grosso/Phenomenal).  The intermediates really have a wide range of coloration. The long-stemmed Intermediate lavenders are much sturdier and have larger buds so they hold up better to mixed floral design arrangements, but I do occasionally mix in some English lavender for color in season.  I will break down the color differences between Intermediate and English below. 

Our farm is moving towards growing probably about 75% English lavender after this season.  We were about half and half between English and Intermediate lavender previously.  However, our intermediates were hard hit by the winter and not as hardy.  I will keep what we have that survived and have babied them back to health, but I will be starting to grow a longer stemmed variety of English lavender soon and we will move to incorporate it more into designs.  All our English lavender - Hidcote and Melissa survived quite well despite the harsh winter and cold, wet spring. 

Here is the breakdown of color on the two types of lavender I use in my designs:  

Intermediate Lavender - Are long-stemmed- (Grosso and Phenomenal) vary in color from purplish blue to soft faded blue to gray-blue.  Color is highly dependent upon what is in stock and varies.  We do grow our own Grosso and Phenomenal lavender, which tends to be a deeper color than many I have received as supplemental from other farms.  I will use our own lavender whenever possible and when in season.  However, when our supplies are exhausted we do supplement with lavender from other farms in order to offer floral designs year round.  We are a small farm and we cannot possibly grow enough to supply the demands for lavender bouquets and floral designs year round.  

While I cannot control the color factor on lavender I receive from other sources, I will use the best blooms and color possible and tend to know which suppliers have the best color/sizes.  I am very particular about who I receive supplemental bunches from.  It needs to meet a certain standard.  Since I work with it daily in designs,  I know how sturdy I need it be and the size I prefer.  I request pictures before I purchase to see if it will meet my needs. Right before the new harvest can get a little towards slim pickings as many supplies are starting to run out or blooms are more faded . Please be patient while we get our harvest in (usually July for us here in Michigan) and also for our supplemental suppliers to get their harvests ready as well.   

Intermediate lavenders are used in oil production for essential oil.  As we are a flower farm that grows for cut flowers and floral design, we do not distill oils at this time.  

We also use English lavender. English lavender is generally smaller in size and length and has a more delicate look.   We also grow our own English lavender and will have it for sale in season but I am usually out of our stock very quickly.  English lavender is harvested usually in late June, but I will also get a second harvest in August or even September although not as big. I mostly sell it in small petite bundles and sometimes in larger wedding bouquets.  To me it is a more premium lavender.  We personally grow a mix of Hidcote - small deep purple flowers - and Melissa, slightly large flowers and lighter true lavender color.  I will mix the two together, which makes a unique two-toned bouquet.   When I have to supplement lavender from other farms It is usually Munstead or Hidcote, which is the true purple.  I do not tend to keep English in year round as supplemental.  However, at times I will get it by special request if I am out of my own. 

We will start to grow a longer-stemmed version of English Lavender in 2019 and our farm is moving more and more towards English lavender production as it is hardiest for our growing zone and winters.  Look for it to start to be available more on our shop and in our designs as we convert more to English lavender.  My personal preference is the English lavender so I am excited about moving towards growing more of it. 

A good example of different lavenders is our mixed bouquet of English and Grosso bouquet - See picture at top of blog. 

Grosso and Phenomenal Intermediate Lavender Pictured below.  First picture is fresh intermediate from our farm before drying.  Middle and third pics are bundles of dried Grosso.  Notice the light faded color.  This completely normal for dried Grosso or Phenomenal. Our home grown tends to be a bit darker than this although buds are a bit smaller, which is more due to the size of the plants not being fully mature.  Last row:  Our Dried Grosso - somewhat deeper color.  Second pic:  Fresh Grosso Drying from our fields.  Last pic:  Mixed Grosso and English lavender. 

Below is the English lavender.  First picture is fresh English lavender, before drying, from our fields. Second picture are petite bundles of English lavender from our fields.  Last pictures - larger bundle of Munstead lavender.  Notice the English lavender has a deeper colors although there are some variations.  Second row of pictures are our bundles of Mixed Hidcote and Melissa - Notice the deeper color of Hidcote and lighter lavender of Melissa.  Not all farms mix lavenders - most do not.  However, I just really like the look of these two mixed so since they bloom at the same time I usually mix them together in finished bouquets.  

Happy 4th of July! A day early that is!  We are closing down the shop tomorrow and will reopen on July 8th for some much needed rest and relaxation.  We have been SO busy the month of June!  After the crazy wet and cold spring , we've had massive clean up in the lavender fields (and major weeding, which is still ongoing).  I am happy to report we've had a GREAT harvest of our English lavender!.  Such a beautiful bounty!  Most of our English lavender survived the polar vortex this winter coupled with the massive rains of spring.  I believe we only lost 1-2 plants.  Sadly, I cannot say the same on the intermediate lavender.  We lost about 40-50 plants so far (Grosso and Pheonmenal)  which I use in our floral designs.  Intermediates don't tend to have intense purple color of the English, but because they are very sturdy and long they work very well in our larger designs.  We may end up pulling more depending on they do now that we are finally getting some warm and dry weather. 

We have replacement plants coming this month.  It's a set back, but such is the life of a farmer!  We can't beat Mother Nature that's for sure.  It has been a disappointing season so far, but we are moving ahead!  We are starting to go with more English lavender in the fields than ever before.  It's just more hardy for our 6A growing climate and able to handle our winters.  I have placed a later order for plants that will be coming soon.  We will start incorporating our English lavender more and more into floral designs in the future. 

 We have completed our Raised Bed Gardens!  Woo-hoo!  My husband did such a great job building them.  They are 8'x4'.  So far there are three of them.  He is working on making the fourth.  We have planted some tomatoes, jalapeno peppers, squash, cucumbers, eggplant,  and cauliflower.  We also have a bed devoted to herbs.  We have basil, sage, lemon verbena, dill to name a few.  Due to weather we just completed planting last weekend so it's a late start.  

We also finally got the tractor into the field and plowed another new field last weekend. Told you we have been busy!  This will be used to extended our lavender fields when new plants arrive and also be used to place all the milkweed, butterfly weed, and other plants to support our ever growing Monarch Waystation/Wildflower fields. 

RETAIL NEWS:  The Wyandotte Street Fair starts next week.  July 10th-13th . This is a big annual fair filled with artisans.  "Over 200,000 visitors, 200 fine artists, 25 restaurants, and a multitude of local merchants." For more info check out this page

We are a vendor at the Vintage Market Home at 110 Sycamore Street.  We have supplied them with lots of new products.  They have both our English and Grosso Lavender in stock!  This is from our 2019 harvest! We have new bath bombs (lavender and lace) and also resupplied them with our bath and body products, candles, gift baskets and more.  Make sure you stop in at the street fair and at Vintage Market Home (right next to Stroh's Ice Cream).

Honeycomb Creative at 415 N. Monroe Street in Monroe Michigan also received some lavender bundles from us! Again, these are super fresh and just harvest and dried a couple of weeks ago!  Smells amazing.  

The Etsy shop is hopping with orders - many for summer and fall weddings/floral design.  However, our birdseed favors, sachets, gift baskets, and botanical candles are also selling very well now too!  Right now we are running about a  MINIMUM 4-week time frame to complete wedding party/floral design orders and then ship out.  Please make sure you allow enough time!   Other products go out according to shipping time on the listings - usually between 1-3 days or 3-5 days depending on product. 

Everyone have a safe and happy holiday.  We will answer any emails when return on July 8th.  Enjoy the slideshow - Pictures of our English lavender harvest, bundles wrapped for retail sales, raised bed gardens, and new tilled field. 

It's wedding season!  I have been busy for the past couple of months and still taking orders!   I wanted to share some of the photos I have received.  Remember to send in your photos from your wedding or event!  We love to see our floral design at the actual event (and other products).  You can send them to me at  my email elaine@lavenderosefarms.com or upload them to our Etsy shop as part of your review of the item you purchased.  Lastly, you can send them to me through private message through our Facebook page.   

How do I use your photos?  First, I will give credit to the photographer if you provide their name.  Professional photography tends to have a watermark to identify the studio or photographer so of course that's the easiest way to post them.  If they are your own personal photos that's fine too.  I will watermark with Lavender Rose Farms watermark on bottom. This is just so it identifies the photograph and prevents anyone from using your photo without permission. If you would like photo credit just send me the name of the person who took the photo andI will post the photo credit with the picture. 

Where will they post?  I post them on our listing on the Etsy shop.  When you purchase our floral design there is a carousel of 10 photos for each design.  I love to post wedding photos as well as my own photos of the floral design so potential clients can see how the floral design will look at an actual wedding or event.   Your photo may be featured as our profile or cover photo on our Facebook page and on our Etsy shop profile/cover photo, and also on our floral design page of our website!  

So keep them coming!  I love, love, love seeing these photos! Thank you!! 

So much worry about the lavender this season.  We are experience problems in our fields and delays like so many other growers around the Midwest and the South.  Many farms are experiencing massive losses of plants due to the very wet spring. I am unsure of what our losses are, but know there are some.  It's too early to tell on the intermediate lavender.  I had some time with God about it and realized I am going to just leave them alone for a few weeks to see if they recover. Most of them have been pruned back to get the dead off and expose the tender new growth to sunshine - when we get it. Most of the Augustifolia or English lavender is greening up nicely but we have also lost some plants.  Most notably a large plant I transplanted in 2017 from the old house.  There is a bit of green on it, but assuming it will have to go.  The Grosso and Phenomenal are way behind and some I have already been pulled out a few. The combo of polar vortex in winter and unusually wet spring have done double duty on them. Many are trying to rally. I am guesstimating a loss of possibly half of them.  Only time will tell.  I did purchase some replacements. but I am hesitant to put plants in just yet. I would like to see if this raining stops in a week or two.

In the end, I am thinking of starting to replace the Lavadins with augustifolia. While it's not as long-stemmed as the intermediates it's much hardier for both cold and wet.  I use the Lavadins more extensively in floral design, but I may start incorporating more English and doing a mix of the lavenders.  We could go many years without a winter/spring such as the one we just experienced or we could experience another next year.  Last year we also had an unusually wet spring although not as bad as this year.  

I did go out and seed the Monarch field today on a happier note.  I decided to fill it in with perennial wildflower mixed with a little zinnia and cosmos and more yarrow. We shall see how it does. Doing the perennial mix last year gave us good results on the test plot. This year it's twice the size of plants and different plants have emerged - including daisies which I love and didn't see last year. The instructions say it takes 2 to 3 years to fully fill in. My goal is to just let it go to wildflowers and stay that way. I do have some butterfly weed to also add to the mix.  

I have decided to concentrate on our raised bed area this year instead of expanding the fields. Since we are getting such a late start to the seeding process this year I feel it's the smartest way to go. My husband is making some huge 6' x 4' beds. So far we have four of them and two more to complete. Two will be used for herbs and veggies and the rest I am going to seed or plant cutting flowers rather than in the fields.

As with anything with Mother Nature, we just sometimes have to go with it and revise.

Here are some photos of the WF fields.  

Our growing season this year, much like last year, is off to a slow, wet start.  It's been chilly for May and rainy.  Last year, I had a lot of concern for the plants.  However, they did perk right up as soon as it warmed up and dried out.  I am hoping for the same this year.  I have been holding off on pruning lavender because it's been either raining or too cold.  We have had a few 60 and 70 degree days here or there, but nothing consistent.  As it is, that has given me some guilt-free days inside to try to catch up on floral design and wedding party orders.  

Speaking of floral design.  I have run into a snafu as far as availability of larkspur which we use in a lot of bouquets.  I have ready access to the deep blue/purple.  However, the pink larkspur is difficult to find as is the white/cream.  Many growers suffered losses of these colors last year for unknown reason, which caused a shortage. At Lavender Rose Farms, we will to start growing larkspur along with other cut flowers this year.  Since it's early May, we do not have a crop right now and other growers are sold out of what was produced last year.   Leading me to a dilemma on some of my designs. 

So, I will rework these designs that rely on the larkspur. Summer Festival, Country Meadow, Lavender and Larkspur, Mountain Meadow, Woodland Bouquets, Peony Jewel and possibly a few other designs use either pink or ivory larkspur or both.  These colors schemes can be be substituted with other flowers such as pink or ivory peonies or pink or ivory strawflowers and natural ivory/white baby's breath and pink gomphrena.  There really are a lot of different options to substitute the pink and ivory color scheme.  Most bouquets it will not make a significant impact to the design.  As I said the deep blue/purple Larkspur is still available and will use this in designs. 

If you place an order I can send a picture with the new flowers added for approval before shipping.  Mostly, though you just have to trust my design sense to rework the flowers available for the ones not available.  By my past work, I believe you will find I am pretty good at customizing and redesigning bouquets.  Floral design does require artistic eyes and impression. So I am confident I can rework things for great result.  As soon as I have new pictures I can add them to the listings.  

Larkspur will be available again later in the summer so  don't worry it will return to the line up.  We will return to using it unless we find clients like the new designs better.  You never know! 

This is reminder that dried flowers are a natural product and crop.  Like any other farmers, flower farmer's crops have good years and less successful years.  It's  part of growing anything natural.  Very reliant on multiple factors.  Crops have good years and bad years and we just adjust. 

As for now, I have strawflowers on order and will have them in soon and I have peonies in stock.  I will post a few stock photos of the new flowers below.  I do have a little ivory and pink larkspur in stock, which I will use until they are gone.  

Thanks for the support and understanding!  

​Elaine 

Super excited. We had to have some underground utilities and such marked today. Now we have a great idea what is usable space on our property, and we have so much more than I thought originally. We really have a LOT Of space to expand.  We are in a semi-rural area.  We are just on the outskirts of town before more rural areas.  We sit on land that was once ribbon or strip farms that the French settlers started with access to the River Raisin.  

Up until now, we were unsure about having the public to our property. However, now with the idea of expansion firmer and what we can actually do here we are thinking of having a Lavender Festival Weekends in future seasons. These will not be regular business hours per se, but more of special events in future growing seasons.  

I am working full-time on the farm and creating all our products, filling orders and doing all the floral design.  I am a busy lady.  My hubby has a full-time job!  My husband and I and our adult sons work the fields.  Sometimes it's a bit juggling it all especially in May-Sept growing and planting season.  It can be a challenge to keep up with the fields, weeding, and planting and pruning and the orders.  I guess that's a good problem to have, right?

Floral design makes up probably well over half of our business. As such, we have decided to concentrate on expanding our cutting flower field this year.  We plan to dry much of what we cut for our dried bouquets and designs.  We have about 300 lavender plants in multiple varieties we have planted over the past two seasons. Most of the planting is coming on it's third growing season so this means it's at maturity and the plants produce much more lavender. Last year we got a lot more lavender than I anticipated and hopefully if all goes well we will have full harvest this year. As such, we decided to focus on expanding the wildflower fields for the Monarch Waystation which was registered Nationally last year.  We also plan to start planting other things I use in my designs such as peonies, yarrow, gomphrena, blue thistle, gypsophilia (babies breath), and roses. We are also working on making six 8x4 raised beds. Some will hold flowers, but others will be vegetables. We will be planting a berry patch as well. So we have our hands full as usual.  If we had as much time (and money?) as I have ideas we'd be probably be working at a much faster pace.  However,  in reality we undertake projects as we can afford to do so both monetarily and time wise.  We have done our farm debt-free, which is an important aspect to us.  

Our farm is still a work in progress, but we are happy about how things are progressing.  If anyone would like a tour we can see about doing an appointment only showing while we work on the fields this summer especially for anyone local in the Monroe area who is interested in the lavender farm down the street! ​

Other News:  The Vintage Market at 110 Sycamore St in Wyandotte is having a 1 year anniversary bash on May 11th.  We are vendor with this store so please check out our table/area at the store. They have lots of fun events planned for the day see below. 

DATE:  Saturday, May 11, 2019 at 4 PM – 9 PM
 "Our party will include an amazing pop-up Market!  Sycamore will be closed to host 50+ Vintage Market vendors for even MORE amazing shopping!! Free birthday cake and bubbly to our shoppers (while supplies last). Free gift with purchase to the first 25 shoppers! Live music, free photo booth, shopping, food truck. "

Also please remember Honeycomb Creative, which is located at 415 N. Monroe Street  in Monroe Mi.  We love this little shop and it's Hometown for us being just a few miles down the road from us.   It's a new store just having opened in November of 2018!  We also have our products in this store and have enjoyed working with them.  I love this beautiful little store that is housed in a pretty old vintage home right next to Enchanted Shoes in Historic Downtown Monroe.  They also hold classes upstairs as well for different creative projects.  I have to say whenever I deliver products I am sorely tempted to buy many things. I particularly am partial to the vintage and antique plate collection.  They have furniture, art, and many more treasures (our lavender products as well! )  One thing I will definitely be purchasing from them is their Fusion Paint.  We are doing a kitchen cabinet reno this summer on top of our other plans.  Honeycomb Creative is one of the few Fusion Paint dealers locally so we have been working with owner Dayna in looking at different color schemes and choices for our project.  She is super helpful!  

You can check out all things Honeycomb here

MOTHER'S DAY:   We have 10% off our gift baskets and gift bags PLUS FREE shipping!  We also have a lot of other items on sale that would make great gifts for mom.  Go to www.lavenderrosefarms.com and click Etsy Shop.  From there on the side bar click "On Sale" for all the items marked down for Mother's Day.  

Now through Mother's Day we are offering 10% off all kinds of wonderful gift ideas for Mom.  Some of the gifts we have are sachets, gift baskets,  gift bags, soaps, candles, natural gifts such as birdseed ornaments and decorative wood slices,  hand-painted mason jars, potpourri and so much more.  Our products are also available at Honeycomb Creative at 415 N. Monroe Street, Monroe, Mi - in Downtown Monroe.  Love this store.  They also have Fusion paint!  We are planning on redoing our kitchen cupboards using that paint this spring.   Our products are with Vintage Market Home in Downtown Wyandotte at 110 Sycamore Street, right next to Stroh's Ice Cream.  They have a lovely display there of our products and I just recently resupplied them.  See picture above.  There are additional products on the shelf to the left as well as the table.  

Floral Design News:  We are running about 4-6 weeks processing time on our floral designs.  Single Bouquets I may be able to get to before that time frame.  However, larger wedding parties please allow minimum 4-6 weeks, with 8 weeks being the best time frame.  I can occasionally accommodate a rush order, but it really does depend how many orders I have at the time.  

Our Etsy shop floral design listings have been revamped.  I have combined the floral designs listing to include all the matching boutonnieres, corsages, and bouquets on ONE listing for each type of bouquet design. This way customers don't have to go searching on the shop for the coordinating boutonnieres and such.  I have also included bud vase arrangements for each listing.  I recently supplied these for an order and they worked out Great!  They are basically a downsized version of the bouquet made to fit an approximately 9-10 inch tall bud vase with a 1-to-1-1/2 inch opening.  These dimensions can be tweaked if you have a bud vase outside these parameters.  Just send a note with your dimensions.  A small bouquet is usually good for a pint or Quart mason jar arrangement.  A medium bouquet would be equal to a larger table arrangement and the large bouquet would be equal to an ex-large table arrangement.   I have updated shipping also to also better accommodate ordering multiple items.  

E-commerce:  Our website e-commerce should be up and running soon.  I know I have been promising, but we are getting close!  I just need to add our floral design.  This way you can come right to the website and order direct through us.  We will be keeping our Etsy shop as well that way if you enjoy shopping on Etsy you can still have that experience.  The benefit to the E-commmerce web is I am able to offer discounts or sales not available with Etsy due to the fact the E-commerce does not have a transaction fees associated with it that Etsy does.

Farm News:   Michigan has been playing hide and seek with spring.  We've had some great 60 and 70 degree weather days, but it's been inconsistent.  Hubby and I are getting ready nonetheless.  We are getting ready to retill the Monarch Waystation area and reseed as soon as our frost date has passed adding in some milkweed and some new perennial wildflower, bee balm and more.  We also will be tilling a new areas to grow other flowers that we use in our floral designs.   Hubby has acquired the lumber to make 6 large raised beds.  We plan to use some of these to grow florals and some for veggies.   In lavender news, the plants are starting to green up on the underside.  I am just waiting for it consistently warm up in order to do a good spring pruning.  On one of the warmer days they smelled wonderful.  I could already get the lovely fragrance of lavender on the warm breeze.  ​ Looking forward to this season of lavender!   ​All images © Lavender Rose Farms LLC