 We are winding down here at Lavender Rose Farms for the fall and doing final planting, pruning, and clean up. Today, was unusually warm and I had a couple of Phenomenal plants to put in the grounds still. I've never planted this late in the season considering our Michigan winters, but if any lavender can handle it I've heard it's Phenomenal plants, which are particularly cold hardy. The last plant pictured (below) is a 2-year-old English lavender, Hidcote variety. I pruned this plant back after it bloomed in the summer and then a little more pruning was done this fall. Since the pruning in early fall, we've had a lot of warm weather here and I can't believe how it's grown. The other three plants are the phenomenal I planted today. I am looking forward to seeing how these grow. I had a surprise helper in the lavender beds today! My granddaughter decided to be my unsolicited helper. Her Daddy found her sitting next to a lavender plant playing. We think the attraction was the pea gravel and making piles with it more than the plants themselves, but she is definitely drawn to the lavender bed. I can see some gardening in her future! I am sure she will be a big helper to me next season. I did want to post a picture of our lavender and lavender-rose petal Christmas bulbs. We had these last year on our Etsy shop for sale and I have brought them back again this year! They are available here https://www.etsy.com/listing/231201844/lavender-filled-christmas-bulb-or?ref=shop_home_feat_4 Hope everyone has a happy Halloween! Enjoy the last days of warm weather (at least here in Michigan)!
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 Holidays are right around the corner! Please consider supporting local Michigan artisans, crafters, and businesses. Buy local! I've just joined the Etsy Michigan Team, which is a new team for Etsy shop owners who currently live in Michigan and sell handmade or vintage items. The team has started a new online market that features handmade and vintage items available in the shops of Etsy Michigan members. Here is the link.
www.facebook.com/groups/EtsyMichiganShowplace/ If you have trouble joining - I can add you. Please contact me via private message at Facebook - Lavender Rose Farms Business Page www.facebook.com/lavenderrosefarms Friends of Lavender Rose Farms Facebook Group. https://www.facebook.com/groups/343813162638255/344334035919501 Why buy local? Buying local encourages local prosperity, puts your tax dollars to good use, and is an invest in the community. "Several studies have shown that when you buy from an independent, locally-owned business, rather than a nationally-owned businesses, significantly more of your money is used to make purchases from other local businesses, service providers, and farms -- continuing to strengthen the economic base of the community." - SustainableConnections. For full article please go to sustainableconnections.org/thinklocal/why Hope you will support local Michigan handmade and vintage sellers. Thank you and happy shopping. We've started a new Facebook Group: While we do have a FB business page, FB is limiting the reach of posts unless businesses pay to promote. This is a hardship on small businesses financially. While we are still posting, many of our posts are simply not reaching you on Facebook. Therefore, we have started a FB group you can join as an alterantive. This allows us to reach out to friends and customers about farm updates, new products and specials. This group ensures those who wish to see our content will receive it. You don't have to know us personally to join. Simply go to group and request to join. www.facebook.com/groups/343813162638255/ . We also recently have started an Instagram page www.instagram.com/lavenderrosefarms/ A note about custom orders: Would you like to order more than what is in the listing on our Etsy shop? A different color? Send me a message through Etsy or the Facebook group, I may be able to make you a custom order. Please allow extra time for custom orders or bulk orders. Organza sachets listings are in lavender color in our listings. However, I can get just about any color you may desire. Remember to add approximately 7-10 days extra for processing time for me to order your custom colors. Wholesale: We are not currently doing wholesale orders. New Additions: We've carried beeswax candles since we've opened the shop. I just love them and I use them in my own home. I've added some new scents. We have our old standbys - lavender, honey (unscented), and lemon. We've added vanilla, cinnamon, and pumpkin spice. Please note: Lavender and Lemon are true essential oils. Honey- unscented is just plain beeswax with no oil or fragrance added. The other scents are fragrance oils - not essential oils. Beeswax candles are organic and 100% pure beeswax with cotton braid wicks. No zinc or lead. Beeswax give a cleaner burn and last longer than soy or parafin candles.
 I've been super busy this past week and a half making bouquets and lavender wreaths. I finally got around to putting all the listings up on Etsy today. One of the number one complaints or questions I get about dried lavender is related to shedding. You certainly can minimize shedding by drying the bunches properly and picking them at the right time. The best time to pick lavender is before the flowers fully open. This will help a lot in minimizing shedding. Dry bundles upside down in dark shed or garage, but it's important there be good air circulation as well. Even with all these precautions lavender can still shed. By nature it's very delicate. Most dried flowers experience some breakage and shedding because well they are dried, of course. Dried flower are more brittle than fresh flowers. To help combat shedding, I give a light dusting of florist preservative spray to my bouquets and wreaths. This seems to help with the brittleness and the shedding. You can buy the preservative spray at Hobby Lobby or you can simply dust dried flowers with a light coating of hairspray. Another question I sometimes get is why the bouquets and wreaths are so expensive. Lavender can be costly to purchase. If you grow your own you need many, many bundles to make a single wreath. Also lavender bouquets and lavender wreaths are quite time intensive to make. These are not items you can just pop out quickly. They take time to design and create. For my wreaths I ask at least for 1-2 weeks time to create the wreath. I do not pre-make my wreaths generally. I like to make them as fresh as possible so they re not just sitting in storage for weeks or months at a time. The other reason is simply lack of storage. They do take up a lot of room and I'd rather just make them up when I get an order and ship it off. Shipping is usually 2 days priority mail. Do not shoot the messenger on the shipping costs! I know shipping can be a real pain and expensive, but USPS creates the rates not shop owners. Wreaths and big orders of bouquets aren't usually very heavy items, but they must be shipped in larger boxes, which increases costs. USPS charges more for anything that weighs a pound or more and anything that exceeds 12 inches. I do try to ship as cheaply as possibly, but I do prefer Priority mail as opposed to Parcel Select Ground. Parcel Select takes up to 9 days and it's slow, but also the package will be jostled around much more often (it says so right on the USPS website if you look it up). With the delicate nature of wreaths and bouquets, I do not want to chance damage. I'm always working and playing around with shipping to try to get things shipped as economically as possible. However, on some larger or heavier items it is a challenge. Just as a note: I do only make a limited supply of wreaths and bouquets. When my lavender is out I am usually done! Sometimes I will get extra lavender from other farms or vendor sources to fill an order if I am out. However, I am dependent on how much is available in the market. Right now I have quite a few bundles so I am happy to put up some new listings. So now on to the wreath and bouquet pictures. I hope you enjoy them as much as I did taking them. Hubby and I have a new camera and have been having fun learning with it. |
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