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Lavender Rose Farms Blog

Happy Thanksgiving/New Bouquets

11/22/2016

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 I've recently been making dried bouquets and they have quickly become my very favorite products to make.  I enjoy creating, arranging and coming up with new seasonal ideas.   We've previously listed some rustic lavender bouquets along with a a colorful wildflower bouquet mixed with purple and pink larkspur.  They are available in our online store. 

Last week I added a new Woodland bouquet and a new Christmas/Winter berry bouquet.  The Christmas bouquet makes a great holiday decor piece or makes a wonderful  gift.  It comes with a rustic Christmas ribbon (pictured)  This bouquet can also be used for winter weddings even after Christmas!  The bouquet has lavender, dried grasses, cedar clippings, and Holly berries and pepperberries.  Berries are for decorative purposes only!  I do offer to change out the Christmas themed bow with other color choices of satin ribbon for weddings - I have red, green, purple, blue and lace to name a few.  I can also get just about any custom color satin ribbon for this bouquet so just send me a custom order request on our Etsy store.  Here are few more pictures of this bouquet, which is also pictured at the beginning of this blog post.  There is a listing for this bouquet on our store.  I do only have a limited quantity of these bouquets!  I generally make each bouquet when ordered.  
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The Woodland bouquet is filled with rustic woodsy elements such as lichen, dark green caspia,  cream larkspur, lavender and some gold wheat and dried grasses.   I love the natural look of this bouquet.   It comes wrapped in burlap and the green ribbon on the listing can be changed out for other colors such a lace, blue, pink, purple or your custom color.   
Thanksgiving is only days away.  We have so much to be thankful for!  This year has been a year of great joys, great sorrows, and lots of changes.  Sadly, we lost my mother this year in April after a lengthy illness.  We've had some job changes (for my husband) which brought our family back together in Southeastern Michigan.  However, we had to say good-bye to Marquette and the Upper Peninsula - a place we have come to love over the past two years.  

As we enter into the holiday season we are definitely grateful, but ask for prayers as well.  My husband will be having open heart surgery for a bicuspid aortic valve directly after Christmas.  We are confident that all will go well and we place all our fears, anxieties, and worries in God's hands.  We know He definitely has a plan for our family.  ​I hope everyone has a truly blessed Thanksgiving !

The Lavender Rose Family
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Christmas Gift Baskets

11/15/2016

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CHRISTMAS SPECIAL: Choice of Christmas bulb in place of the culinary lavender. To order go to our Etsy store/Store Tab on this website.  Make sure to make a choice on the drop down menu when ordering - lavender filled bulb, rose petal filled bulb or culinary order.  You also get a choice of soap style. 

This listing is for one (1) gift basket. Many of the containers are re-usable! Makes a beautiful gift for many occasions. 

Birthday Gift, Mother's Day gift, Christmas Gift, Thank you Gift, Shower Gift Basket. Christmas Gift Basket. 

Gift Baskets Include: 
1 (one) 4 oz lavender beeswax candle in a mason jar. Aromatherapy grade beeswax, essential oils. 
1 (one) 2 oz lavender dead sea bath salt/soak in a resusable mason jar with flip lid. 
1 (one) Embroidered lavender sachet filled to the brim 3 x 5". Over a half of a cup of lavender! 
1 (one) bottle of linen water/room spray. 2 oz. 
3 oz Goats milk Lavender guest soap in an organza sachet - Choose soap shape - honey bee or two hearts. 
1 (one) tin of culinary lavender. About 6 teaspoons for the budding chef or foodie. 
OR Choose a Christmas Bulb in place of the culinary lavender - Choice of lavender- filled or lavender rose-petal filled. 


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Balsam and Balsam-Lavender Sachets

11/13/2016

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I just listed our newest holiday sachet.   We have rustic balsam or balsam-lavender sachets in a muslin bag with a hand-stamped pine tree. You can chose 1 sachet in either balsam or balsam-lavender starting at $3.50 each or get discounted pricing by ordering 3 cedar sachets or 3 cedar-lavender sachets - starting at $9.00.  These make great gifts.  
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We've also added some balsam and balsam-lavender sachets in organza.  These sachets are smaller 3 x  4 in size.  They come in a set of 4 for $5.00;  Choose 4 balsam sachets, 4 balsam-lavender, or mix two of each kind.  Bag color choice is lavender or white.  

Next up?  Look for lavender fire starter bundles, lavender beeswax fire starters pods, and rustic woodland and rustic Christmas/winter bouquets.  Coming this week.  
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Shop updates/Holiday Shopping

11/12/2016

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Now shipping to Canada as well as the United States! Be patient, we are in the process of updating our listings.

Etsy shop:   

www.etsy.com/shop/LavenderRoseFarms/

Custom Orders:  Would you like to order more than what is in the listing? A different color? Send me a message, I may be able to make you a custom order. Please allow extra time for custom order or bulk order processing. Organza sachets listings are in lavender, white or ivory color. Larger orders (100 and 200) only have listings for lavender color. 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. We are not currently doing wholesale orders.

HOLIDAY SHOPPING!  
We have brought back some old favorites from last year and few new listings for the holidays.  We have our Christmas bulbs back - lavender filled, lavender and rose petal also. We have our laundry detergent and bath salts in a holiday packaging as well.  Our guest soaps, sachets, bath salts and gift basket also make wonderful gifts.  I can add a festive holiday ribbon to the gift basket instead of the purple ribbon. Look for bouquets in holiday themes coming soon,
as well as cedar filled sachets!  Happy Holidays!  

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Urban Lavender Farming

11/5/2016

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​We have a non-traditional lavender farm or urban lavender farm.  We started as a backyard lavender farm in 2013.  When most people of think of lavender farms, they think the vast acres of lavender fields in France or here in the United States of the large farms in the Pacific Northwest.  Michigan and the Great Lakes region are also home to quite a few larger and some smaller lavender farms, but far as I can tell there aren’t too many “urban” or “suburban” lavender farms that I have found.  

 Overall, we tend to associate lavender farming as needing a lot of acreage.  This is definitely true if you plan to distill your own oil.  It takes many lavender plants to make lavender essential oils.  However, to create lavender products you really don’t need a ton of acreage.  Also you really can get a great number of plant in the average sized backyard.  Our lot is decidedly on the larger side.  I  do have a traditional lavender bed planted in rows in one section of my yard, which started as a trial plot for different varieties of lavender.  However, I originally planted my lavender as part of my landscaping and in my flower beds.  I was able to pack quite a large number of plants on my property this way and it made for some beautiful flower beds.

I have stumbled across a few urban or residential type lavender fields in my search to see if anyone else was growing in a residential setting.  The first residential type farm I discovered was Labyrinth Lavender Farm in Washington.  When I was doing r research for starting a lavender farm this was one of the first farms I came across.  I was intrigued, of course, being it was not your typical destination farm.  This Washington State couple began planting on their larger residential property by creating a labyrinth to be more ascetically pleasing to neighbors than planting in traditional rows would be.  Overtime, they also planted in nearby fields and participated in farmer’s market.  Most of their lavender was sold as fresh cut in person and via mail rather than in bath/body products.   Today, the owners seem to focus more on lavender education and training by providing online and in person classes. 

Another farm I recently stumbled across on the internet is The North Bank Lavender Farm also in Washington, which was started in 2013.  They are truly an urban operation. They are the only urban lavender farm in Washington as stated by their website/blog.  They grow on their urban property and focus on handmade sachets and comfort pillows.  They started with just 10 or so lavender plants planted in a backyard and have expanded their planting from there.  This goes to show you don't really need acres of lavender to form some type of lavender-based business. 

Our farm started very similar to The North Bank. I also stumbled across lavender growing around that same time - 2013.  I happened to be researching lavender the spring before my wedding as I loved the look.  Ultimately, I ended up compromising for my wedding centerpieces on lilacs grown from my own yard,  as lavender was not quite in season in Michigann in mid-May that year.  Not a huge compromise as I love lilacs almost as much as lavender.  

In fall 2013, I started looking into lavender farms and thought why couldn’t I do that smaller scale.  I already had a few lavender plants and was an avid gardener.  Each spring I would add more lavender plants and was on the hunt for different varieties to try.  Then, I started experimenting with products that I could make from the lavender.  Eventually, I began selling these products online through an Etsy store after getting positive feedback from family and friends on the products.  More recently, I have expanded to doing floral design with lavender and other dried flowers and also creating wreaths.  

Eventually my husband and I would like to purchase some acreage and be able to grow on a larger scale.  While we are waiting for our son to finish high school we are continuing to grow our lavender “urban style.”   We do not use any pesticides or chemicals on our lavender.  I purchase our plants from well-known and established growers – some in Michigan and some in Washington state.  I have yet to try my hand at propagating my own lavender from our plants, but I do hope to do so relatively soon. 

While urban lavender farms might not be the norm, there are certainly many small growers near and far who are growing from right where they are. That's the beauty of growing lavender and other herbs and perennials.  You don't need acres and acres to grow and you most certainly can start a sustainable business on a small amount of land.  I am completely self-taught.  I have networked with other lavender growers over the years and simply done a ton of research on lavender growing and product development.
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I personally started gardening because it was relaxing and a stress relieving pastime, which has grown into a passion for lavender farming and a small business.  I would highly encourage people not to allow lack of acreage or even lack of education in horticulture stop them from growing lavender and other herbs and plants.  It’s definitely a labor of love for me.  

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