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

All images © Lavender Rose Farms LLCWe are already in full swing (earlier this year than usual) for floral design/wedding parties.  I have put an announcement on our Etsy shop that we will need 4-6 weeks lead time to create wedding parties.  If the order is for only 1-2 bouquets, we likely will be able to produce those faster.  However, PLEASE write a note with your orders if you need the bouquets before 4-6 weeks and we can try to accommodate (but not guaranteed).  We actually appreciate when brides or wedding planners provide the wedding date at time of order.  I tend to note this on each order so I can make sure I am meeting your deadline. 

We have all our listing for floral design auto-set to 4-6 weeks currently.  So unless I hear from you specifically in a note with your order that you need it before that time frame, it will be slated to go out in 4-6 weeks. 

 I've had a few busy brides not check listing times when ordering and found out their orders would not make it out in time for their  wedding! Gratefully, thus far I have been able to accommodate each order in a rush capacity.  However, we cannot always guaranty that will be the case.  It really depends how busy we are at a particular given time if I can push a rush order through.  So... to avoid missing your special date PLEASE keep track of our production times. 

I periodically post this to our social media and our blog, but it's ALWAYS listed clearly what our floral design timframe is on our Etsy shop page under the Description - Announcement on the home Page.  Also frequently asked questions are in this section.  Additionally, when you place your order you will receive a shipping date.  If this is later than you would like reach out to us.  As I said, I will try my best to accommodate but not always guaranteed.  

Here is our current notice on the Etsy Page.  

"IMPORTANT NOTICE:  FLORAL DESIGN is running at 4-6 weeks.  Please allow this amount of time before our event at a minimum.  If you are just ordering a single bouquet and need it before this time frame please drop me a note.  Also, if your order is for a wedding or some other kind of event PLEASE write a us a note with the date of event so we can make sure to meet your deadline.   We cannot guaranty rush orders.  FLOWERS ARE DRIED, not fresh. "

Each bouquet is handcrafted at the time of your order.  No PRE-MADE bouquets sitting around getting dusty or faded.  I want your designs to be freshly made.   Because our bouquets are not mass produced in advance, we do need the extra time to hand create.  Thank you so much for understanding!  

​Here are some of our latest creations.  ​All images © Lavender Rose Farms LLC

Hi There! Please vote for Lavender Rose Farms LLC to win a grant from FedEx. Just click on the link above or go to our home page to click.  

We will be using this grant to help grow our farm.  We plan to use the funds to build a greenhouse.  With a greenhouse we would be able to propagate our own lavender (after obtaining our nursery license).  We also plan to do a spruce up on our barn.  Our property is part of historic Knapp Farm that was established in 1860.  The barn was built later and was used for grain storage.  Today we use the barn to dry our lavender.  We'd love to give the barn a fresh coat of paint.  We are thinking barn red and possibly a barn quilt. We also would like to install a pulley system for our drying racks.  We would be able to pull the racks up to the ceiling height for better drying due to the fact we have dirt/gravel floor.  We need the pulley system due to the barn's height which is 22 feet tall!  

Other projects we would like to do are expanding our Monarch Waystation- which is nationally registered.  We are adding a bunch of new plants including milkweed this year. Costs would include paying a gentlemen who brings his tractor by to till our field and also costs for seeds and plants (native plants). We would also like to start growing some other flowers we use in our floral designs such as larkspur, yarrow and others, which requires funds for tilling/seeds/plants. We also plan to create raised beds for more herbs and flowers.  Costs are for lumber and dirt to fill plus seeds/plants.  

We are hoping to use our gardens in the future for horticultural therapy workshops.  I am looking into training and certification for horticulture therapy, which helps disabled people, vets, elderly etc.  

CONTEST GUIDELINES:  
"From FedEx: Your vote is one of the many factors we'll consider when choosing the Top 10 finalists and winners. Please continue your support during the entire voting period from February 27 to April 1. You can vote once per 24-hour period.

​ Therefore, I will repost the link to voting in the evening everyday on our Facebook page 

Here is link to our profile for the contest and you can also vote from there if the badge above doesn't work for you.  Fedex Grant Profile Lavender Rose Farms

I also created avideo for the contest that unfortunately didn't display correctly on our entry.  Click on the link above to view it.  Thanks so much everyone!  

Wow we are nearing the end of January!  We escaped most of the snow and cold this year until this past week.  We had quite the winter storm this weekend with nearly 8 inches or more in our area.  It's also very very cold.  

Usually January is our downtime.  I had planned to use this slower period to get our promised e-commerce store up and running. This takes some time to get all the products listed.  I am working on it slowly but surely.  We have been busy this January.  Floral Designs orders do not usually start in abundance until March and continually get more busy throughout spring, summer, and fall, then tapering down for the holidays - although we do have some holiday weddings.  Well, this year we have already taken multiple wedding party orders due out this month!  Not one to look a gift horse in the mouth, I have had to put the e-commerce on the back burner.  Of course, we still have our online shop through Etsy.  Our direct e-commerce store will not necessarily replace Etsy. However adding our own store via this website in addition Etsy gives us more reach for our customer base and makes easier process to check out.  I promise to keep working at it!  

I have been concentrating on restocking the stores we are vendors at since Christmas passed !  They were pretty low on stock after the holidays so I did use a few after Christmas weeks to really get stocked up.  I was making all kinds of bath and body products, added a few new ones like Pink Himalayan bath salts, shower gel, castille hand soaps, and more.    Here are some pics of some of the products! They are available online Etsy store and the retail locations.   ​All images © Lavender Rose Farms LLC

​I also put together a  little slideshow of the displays at our Retail Displays at The Vintage Home Market in Wyandotte and Honeycomb Creative in Monroe.  I hope you enjoy and stop and visit these stores. Check out our retail page for their locations/addresses.   We enjoy working with them both and both locations have a lot creative vendors.   

Wow we are down to the wire!  It's only a week until Christmas Eve!  We are still working and shipping for Christmas.  I wanted to share our mailing notice/schedule for the holidays straight away for those interested in last minute gifts. 

​HOLIDAY NOTICE:   Our Deadline for mailing PRIORITY MAIL SHIPPING will be 20th of December for Christmas delivery. Our store will be closed Saturday Dec 22nd through December 26th for the holidays!  Any orders previously taken will go out according to the time frame on your order.  We make sure our packages are delivered to the post office in the recommended time for delivery.   However, there can be delays at this time of year on the post office end so please keep this in mind with last minute orders. 

Also please remember our products are at Honeycomb Creative in Monroe (415 N. Monroe Street, Monroe Mi).  They are a new local business.  I love this store!.  It is super cute and so many nice things.  The owners are so friendly and helpful and easy to work with.  They take great care in displaying our products, and as a vendor I deeply appreciate that they care for the products that are displayed keeping them neat and tidy  between my visits to the store for refreshing products.   Honeycomb has our line of bath and body products, candles, sachets, gifts and more. 

FARM NEWS:  The weather was definitely more fall like this past week.  I enjoyed my babysitting days with my granddaughter.  She had me get up and out and take her and our pal, Murphy,  into the lavender field to enjoy the warm up!  She loves to run the rows and it was something we did daily in the summertime. She also loved to pick the wildflowers, watch the bees and butterflies, and see the rabbits that love to take shelter in the zinnias.  Dear granddaughter was, however, disappointed when she ran to the Monarch field and saw all brown flowers and grass this past week.  She said "Hey!" and produced a pout.  I captured the moment via picture (see slideshow below).  She is only 3 years old so she didn't understand where all the flowers had gone.  I explained to her that the flowers go to sleep during the winter and they will return next spring and summer when they "wake up."  She seemed to accept this and move on to playing with a soccer ball.  

I hope everyone has a truly Merry Christmas . I know it's a joyous time of the year for many and a busy time too.  I also know many people struggle with holiday blues and depression.  My prayers go out to you.  It's a difficult time of year to those who have lost a loved one, who have financial problems, or for a variety of other reasons.  I remember as a single Mom years  ago when my sons were small it was a very hard time for me.  I am a Christian and love Jesus, but still struggled with holidays due to lack of funds, stress,  and another reasons.  I can offer my sympathy and lift you up in prayer for those who are struggling 

I do think it's important to share a resource I wish I had 20 years ago.  Most communities have a food pantries but my church offers a wonderful blessing of a generous food pantry.  They treat you with respect and you honestly get to "shop" for what you need from the pantry.  You are welcome even if not a member.  They serve the Downriver communities.  Just show your id (license or state ID), but they don't turn anyone away.  They will help you load your food into the car.  They give much more than can goods.  They have eggs, milk, frozen foods and even some meat etc.  You are welcome to visit once a month.  If you are member to the church once a week.  I have recently had someone near and dear to my heart use their services and it was a good experience for them even though they felt a bit sheepish. That is understandable.  Most people feel a bit awkward reaching out for this kind of help.  However, the staff treat you with dignity and respect and truly understand hard working people can fall upon hard times.  I have had others friends use their services as well.  I know back in my struggling days if such a pantry experience had existed I would have utilized it gratefully.  

For Those In need "The Open Arms Food Pantry" is open Wednesdays, 5:30-7:30 pm, at our Trenton campus (5699 Fort Street). We serve not only church attendees, but also people who meet the federal low-income guidelines that live east of I-275, between I-94/Outer Drive and Ready Road/South Huron River Drive. We provide some perishable items in addition to a standard assortment of non-perishables.

To Donate See the list of requested donations below. Drop non-perishable donations in the designated bins at any Southpoint campus. We do not accept outdated food items, or glass jars. Thank you for checking!  Any questions, email foodpantry@southpointccc.com.

CHRISTMAS SERVICES:   We'd love to have you come to one of our campus! Three locations Trenton, Huron, and Allen Park.  
southpointccc.com/vip

Christmas Service Times:
Sunday, December 23 @ 9:30 & 11:15am
Monday, December 24 @ 2:30 & 4:00pm (No Saturday service on December 22.)

​Let's not forget the reason for the season.  I pray the Lord blesses and keeps you all this Holiday Season and throughout the coming New Year.  

We will be taking Christmas Products and some new products to our retail locations this week!  They are already listed online through Etsy.   We have some old standbys from previous years such as our botanical filled Christmas bulbs but we've added some new products too.  We have Christmas birdseed ornaments and wreaths pictured above.  We also have wood slice ornaments that can be used on your Christmas tree or year round for rustic decor or for decor on gifts or as favors. We have new Christmas potpourri  - Lavender Citrus Spice.  It includes lavender, juniper berries, citrus (orange) and cinnamon sticks.  We have large 4x6 Christmas themed lavender sachets.  Christmas bouquets/winter bouquets include Celtic Meadow and Winterberry bouquets. 

Gift Baskets:  We carry these year round and they are particularly popular at Christmas and Mother's Day.  We have updated our baskets to give you more products for your money!  Our gift baskets now includes 4 oz linen water, 4 oz organic hand and body lotion, 1 bath bomb or 4 oz bath salt (your choice), an embroidered sachet filled with lavender, a bar of lavender goat's milk soap, and a 4 oz aromatherapy grade botanical soy candle in a mason jar. 

Finally our new products:  Lavender Eye pillows filled with lavender and flaxseed.  They can be used as is, warmed in microwave, or cooled in freezer. Great for yoga/mediating, migraine/headache relief, or just for relaxation.  Also new is our organic hand and body lotion - lavender scented and our lavender bath bombs  also lavender scented - two colors lavender/yellow and lavender/white.