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Ep. 2: Blooming into Joy: How Cut Flowers Can Heal and Inspire with Kara Jamison
2.8k Plays2 years ago
In this episode of The Backyard Bouquet, we're joined by the delightful Kara Jamison of Blooming Joy Flower Company. Dive into Kara's journey of going from backyard gardener to a leading voice in the cut flower industry, and discover how she honors her mother's legacy through the beauty of blooms.
Kara shares her expertise on soil blocking, seed sowing, and the therapeutic power of gardening. Whether you're a seasoned flower farmer or dreaming of starting your own cut flower garden, this episode is packed with inspiration and practical advice to help your garden flourish.
Grab your gardening gloves, garden snips, or your favorite vase because it’s time to grow your own backyard bouquet.
Be sure to click to listen!
For Show Notes, Please Visit: https://thefloweringfarmhouse.com/2024/01/01/episode-2-blooming-into-joy-with-kara-jamison-blooming-joy-flower-company/
Learn more about Blooming Joy Flower Company:
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Transcript
Introduction to Backyard Bouquet Podcast
00:00:02
Speaker
Welcome to the Backyard Bouquet podcast, where stories bloom from local flower fields and home gardens.
Jennifer's Journey to Flower Farming
00:00:08
Speaker
I'm your host, Jennifer Galitzia of the Flowering Farmhouse. I'm a backyard gardener turned flower farmer located in Hood River, Oregon. Join us for heartfelt journeys shared by flower farmers and backyard gardeners. Each episode is like a vibrant garden, cultivating wisdom and joy through flowers. From growing your own backyard garden to supporting your local flower farmer,
00:00:32
Speaker
The backyard bouquet is your fertile ground for heartwarming tales and expert cut flower growing advice. All right flower friends, grab your gardening gloves, garden snips, or your favorite vase because it's time to let your backyard bloom.
Guest Introduction: Kara Jamison
00:00:58
Speaker
Welcome flower friends to another episode of the Backyard Bouquet. Today's guest is my friend Kara Jamison of Blooming Joy Flower Company in Christiana, Tennessee.
00:01:10
Speaker
Kara is a mom of four kids, a farmer florist, a cut flower educator, a creator on the Bloom TV network, and an expert at soil blocking and seed sowing. I met Kara through Bloom TV several years ago and had the pleasure of meeting her in person this past summer in Denver, Colorado
00:01:31
Speaker
while filming for PBS and Bloom TV. Kara is a pure delight, always joyful, a leader in the cut flower industry. She's a wealth of knowledge from everything from soil blocking to sewing cool flowers to cut flower education. I'm honored to welcome Kara to today's episode of the Backyard Bouquet. Hello, Kara.
00:01:53
Speaker
Thank you so much, Jen. I'm so excited to be here and talk about flowers and just kind of talk about my journey of growing cut flowers, which has been pretty fun if I do say so myself. Well, I'm so excited to have you here. And I know that our guests are going to love learning more about you and hearing your stories. So do you mind giving our guests a little introduction to yourself and how you got started with cut flowers?
Inspiration Behind Blooming Joy Flower Co.
00:02:18
Speaker
Absolutely. I am Kira Jamison. And like Jen said, I live in Christiana, Tennessee, which is not very far outside of the Nashville, Tennessee area. I grow in a zone seven, which is important for us cut flower growers to know. My story is, it actually started off a bit of a sad way when I got into the cut flower world. I lost my mom Joy to breast cancer in 2015.
00:02:46
Speaker
And a seed was planted in my heart, not long after that, that I wanted to grow cut flowers to bring others joy. And you may hear me say the word joy multiple times, uh, as we are talking, because it's just such an important word and name because it was my mom's name. And so I started my business called Blooming Joy Flower Co in 2018.
00:03:10
Speaker
And that was my very first experience with learning how to grow, cut flowers, but not necessarily gardening. My husband and I had had vegetable gardens years before that.
00:03:22
Speaker
because we had started our family and we were like, let's grow a vegetable garden so we can grow vegetables and make our own baby food for our son. And that's how I started growing a garden many years ago, but it wasn't until 2018 that I dove headfirst into the cut flower growing world.
00:03:43
Speaker
And when I first started, I had never stuck my phone in my face and talked to it and shared my journey online, but something just told me I really needed to do that. So I've really been documenting my journey since day one, all the successes, but of course all the failures too. And it's really fun, all of the flower friends and opportunities that I've gotten to meet and I've gotten to do along the way.
00:04:12
Speaker
Well, I'm so sorry for the loss of your mom. And what a beautiful way to honor her legacy and her life by naming your farm after her. And what a beautiful name she had to Joy. I know that she's smiling down on you. When you were telling that story, I was thinking of one of your Instagram stories or reels that you recently shared. And you have this little garden chair. Can you share that story with us?
Sentimental Stories and Legacies
00:04:37
Speaker
Oh, yes.
00:04:39
Speaker
So my mom had breast cancer and unfortunately we had to sell her house and move her in with us as we took care of her through the end stages. And she and my dad had built that house years and years ago. So she had 20 years worth of memories in there.
00:04:55
Speaker
And my husband and I were cleaning out her garage one day and I saw this little tykes chair. And it was pretty gross. It had been outside for a while. And I thought to myself, she doesn't need this chair anymore. This was mine when I was a little girl. So I threw it in the dumpster, which happened to be in her driveway, which was very convenient.
00:05:17
Speaker
And, uh, I didn't think anything else seven until a few days later, I got a call from her and she was very upset. She was like, Kara, where's my gardening chair? And I was like, mom, I don't know what you're talking about. She was like that little text here. That was my garden chair. It's the perfect garden chair. And I was like, Oh no.
00:05:35
Speaker
We threw it in the dumpster. She's like you're gonna get in there. You're gonna get it out And so we did we went dumpster diving We got out the gardening chair and I still had it to this day many years later and she was right It was the perfect Gardening chair and I still use it all the time in my garden and it's it's really one of my most treasured things that I have because it was my mom's and I just learned how much she loved it and it was her gardening chair and
00:06:04
Speaker
I love that you have something that keeps you connected to your mom while you're out in the garden doing something that she loved so much as well. It's really special. And I think so many people can relate. I think that our gardens, not only do they grow joy, but they can be a place of healing for us. Have you felt that at all through the garden?
Therapeutic Gardening Benefits
00:06:25
Speaker
You know, I had no idea like when I first started growing cut flowers, my, my, my only thought was really I want to bring others joy, you know through flowers, and I had no idea how much a cut flower garden would bring me joy.
00:06:40
Speaker
and how it would really help me work through and heal through all the trauma that I've really been through. I've lost my whole first family, my mom, my dad, and my brother, all in a pretty short timeframe. I had no idea how getting your hands in the earth and starting seeds, watching them grow into little seedlings would be so therapeutic.
00:07:04
Speaker
And as I share my journey online, even to this day, I have people that tell me, I want to start a cut flower garden because I've lost my mom too. And I would really love to start healing from that. And then someone else the other day, she probably had no idea when she told me this.
00:07:23
Speaker
but she told me she wanted to start a cut flower garden because she had beaten breast cancer and it was going to be like a happy memorial thing for her to do each year was grow one. And I was like, you don't even know how much that comment means to me. And she was happy to have found my social media pages because I teach all about growing cut flowers.
00:07:43
Speaker
And she can relate to that healing story that you have already healed. And now you're sharing your story as other people are healing, which is really amazing. I know there's just something that you really can't describe when you go outside, especially on a day where you're like, I don't want to even go outside. And the second you go out there and you start putting your hands in the soil and it's like everything releases and
00:08:05
Speaker
You grow a garden, you really always have hope in your heart and you were always looking forward to the future too. Here we are, we are actually talking in December and I am already looking forward to the seeds I'm going to start in January and knowing that they're going to start blooming in June. I
Seed Starting Techniques
00:08:27
Speaker
have so much hope and excitement for the future and that's really what a garden does for you.
00:08:33
Speaker
Oh, I love that. Yes. I am so hopeful for this next season. Let's talk about that. Can you tell us what are you growing and what are you looking forward to in 2024?
00:08:45
Speaker
Yeah. Well, you know, it's December. A lot of people, and me included, when I first started growing cut flowers, I thought that I would have the winners off. I wouldn't be doing anything. And I was totally wrong on that. I discovered that there's this whole group of flowers called, most people know it as cool flowers. It's also known as hardy annuals. And it's this group of flowers that love to grow during cooler weather.
00:09:13
Speaker
because they produce a better plant and a better bloom in the springtime. And here in Tennessee, I plant many of these flowers in the fall and they grow slowly all winter through all kinds of weather. Many of the plants going below freezing doesn't hurt them at all.
00:09:31
Speaker
Uh, but there are certain group of those hearty annuals that I start in January. I'll be doing a lot of seed starting of like straw flower, which is just an amazing fresh and dried flower. Um, status as well. Definitely a great dried and fresh. I'm going to be starting my second round of snap dragons in January. I do your second round. Yeah. Yeah. I do a round in the fall.
00:09:59
Speaker
And then I do around in January as well. I just, I don't know, I like to start seeds. And I found that I can do both of those. My set, Snapdragon, start in the fall, start in the, in January for really pretty blooms in May and June. Amazing. So if you start them in the fall, you have blooms in May.
00:10:22
Speaker
Is that one time for Mother's Day? Well, even if you start them in January, because I started actually most all my snapdragons in January of this year and I had a huge abundant crop about mid-May and I used several of them in a wedding that I designed and grew flowers for. So yeah, you can start seeds in January and they will be blooming by mid-May here in the middle Tennessee area.
00:10:48
Speaker
That's incredible. So when you say you're starting them in January, are you starting them outside? Where are you starting them? I am starting them indoors because it's still pretty cold outside and it's not quite warm enough for them to germinate. So in January, I start all my seeds by the soil blocking method, which I love. Whenever I show videos of soil blocks online, people think that they're brownies because they're little bitty square chunks that we plant seeds into.
00:11:17
Speaker
and we grow our seeds in. And I am just using a simple metal rack, shop lights, and my soul blocks on a tray to grow really, I mean, hundreds if not thousands of seeds in January indoors to plant outside about mid February in my cut flower garden. That's amazing. So Art,
00:11:41
Speaker
Let's see here. So for those listening that have not soil blocked before, how is soil blocking different than traditional seed starting?
00:11:50
Speaker
One of the best things about soil blocking is how space saving it is. Because I use what they call a mini blocker. It's the smallest soil blocker that you can get. And you can fit a lot more plants in a smaller space than you could versus trays. And so the first year that I used the soil blocking method, this was five years ago now. I wanted to start all my seeds in my house
00:12:18
Speaker
because my kids were, well, five years younger than my youngest was two at the time and I wanted a way to take care of all my ceilings either before they got up or after they went to bed at night. And so I found out about soil blocking.
00:12:33
Speaker
because I didn't have a greenhouse or a special designated area at that point. It was just me starting seeds on my kitchen table. And then I cleaned out a closet and I put my grow lights in my closet. And in a four foot space, I was able to grow 800 cut flower transplants for my garden and 800
00:12:56
Speaker
cut flower transplants will truly produce a whole lot of stems for your garden. And so because of the space saving aspect, I was really hooked. But also, soil blocks don't get root bound like they typically would in trays because the soil is exposed to air
00:13:16
Speaker
So it does something called air pruning your seedling and therefore your soul blocks actually do not get root bound. So it kind of makes for a better plant in my opinion.
00:13:30
Speaker
So when you are soil blocking, you mentioned you use the small size of soil blocks, which I don't have my soil blocks in front of me. Is that the 20 cell? Yes, that is the 20 cell. Yeah. Like the 20 square cells. It's the three fourths of an inch mini soil blocker. Perfect. And when you use that, do you find that you have to bump them up to another size or do you plant them from that size out into the garden?
00:13:57
Speaker
I plant them from that size out in the garden. Here in Middle Tennessee, zone seven, we really can plant most all year. And so what I do is I know that soul blocks actually grow a bit faster than trays. You know, when a seed packet says it takes about six weeks from the time you plant the seed to the time it's big enough to transplant out, soul blocks actually shave about a third of the time off. Amazing.
00:14:24
Speaker
They're just getting like so much air circulation. So a plant that should take about six weeks to grow in a tray is really ready at four weeks. And so I just, I would like to say that I'll read the seed packets and it tells me, but that's not the case. A lot, a lot of seed packets, uh, air on the side of caution and have you plant a lot of things after your last danger of frost. But I'm planting things in January.
00:14:49
Speaker
And so I just know that things like straw flowers, it's ready to be a transplant in four weeks. And so I know that if I want to plant out mid February, I just start it mid January.
00:15:03
Speaker
Amazing. So if you are starting now in January and then transplanting out in February, this is a two-part question. One, do you harden them off before taking them outside? And in the process, for me, we can get a lot of snow in that time of year. Do you have to worry about snow and weather when you are transplanting them out?
00:15:28
Speaker
No, in fact, we might get a dusting of snow this Friday and Nashville is so excited because we never get snow yet. So that's the thing about growing cut flowers. It's not a one size fits all kind of thing. It's really a lot of trial and error with your specific area that you're growing. And so for me,
00:15:46
Speaker
knowing that I'm going to plant straw flower out, say, mid-February. Now, I can plant it out a little later, like mid-March, too. I kind of do a few different successions. But say I'm planting something out mid-February, okay? I do harden them off. Yes, all plants get hardened off for about a week. I just look at the temperatures, and I make sure the temperatures are above freezing. Like, I'm not going to stick my tray of soil blocks outside when they're 28 degrees. I'm not going to do that to them because their roots aren't established.
00:16:16
Speaker
So I harden them off for about a week. I plant them in the ground. And if we drop below 32 degrees,
Lessons from Gardening Failures
00:16:22
Speaker
I automatically apply frost cloth over my new transplants out in the garden because their roots aren't established yet. And I just don't really want to shock them with a whole lot of frost. And so I find that just using some frost cloth really helps snuggle them in and carry them through to the warmer weather in March.
00:16:44
Speaker
It's so interesting how both of us are in zone seven. However, our climates are so different this year. We're very mild right now. I'm looking outside and it's 36 degrees and raining, but last year we were buried in snow at this time.
00:17:00
Speaker
And so for me, it's a lot harder to start some of the cool flowers as early as you. And so I think it's important that if you're listening to this, just because Kara can plant out in January, you really need to know your growing zone and what your weather is doing.
00:17:17
Speaker
as Kara mentioned, the hardening and covering them. If you are going to start them early, make sure you do have some sort of protection if you are expecting snow or ice or below freezing conditions.
00:17:31
Speaker
Yeah, and I think it's really important for people to know that I have killed thousands of plants to get to this point in knowing what can survive and what cannot. And that is just part of growing cut flowers. A comment that I hear a lot is, oh, I'm so afraid that I'm going to kill the plant or it's going to die like you will. And that's OK. And that's how you learn these things.
00:17:54
Speaker
I don't gamble. There are certain plants that I don't put all my eggs in one basket, so to say, in the fall, and I reserve and save some of the seeds to start in January. For example, snapdragons is one of those. We just talked about that. I can definitely fall plant them in my zone. They are very cold party, but
00:18:15
Speaker
what I found, I've really got to make sure that they're covered with frost cloth if we drop below 32 degrees, otherwise they get too damaged from my experience. So I always start another round in January just kind of for insurance because I know that my January started seeds will be just as beautiful as my fall planted ones too.
00:18:36
Speaker
That's great advice. So you mentioned that you've killed a lot of plants. Yes. For me, that has been probably the best teacher of
00:18:46
Speaker
being a flower farmer is learning from trial and error of what works and what doesn't. With that being said, can you think of a time when you learned a lesson in growing from your field, something that didn't go as you expected, but was one of your greatest teachers as being a flower farmer? Let's see, that didn't go as expected. I mean,
00:19:16
Speaker
Well, I can tell you a positive one that I thought that was going to be really negative. Growing ridiculous last year. We had a historic winter storm here. It got down to zero degrees, negative 20 wind chill. And we had snow. Oh my goodness. Yes. Like it was a truly historic winter storm that we never get here in Tennessee. We actually lost a lot of evergreen trees because of it.
00:19:43
Speaker
because we had dropped like 60 degrees in a matter of hours, hours. Wow. And so the plants were in shock. And I fall planted my ridiculous half of them. They're one of the crops that I have for insurance. I plant some in the fall and some in January.
00:20:01
Speaker
And I thought for sure I was going to lose them because if we drop below 25 degrees, typically the ridiculous corms and foliage don't love it. And so I was like, oh no. So I knew the storm was coming and I already had green foliage in my ridiculous. So I just went out to our livestock area because we grow and we raise a lot of livestock.
00:20:23
Speaker
and I got a bunch of straw and I just covered all the ridiculous all the plants with straw and then I double frost cloth it and just prayed for the for the best and after a few days after everything had thawed out I thought for sure okay they probably didn't make it because
00:20:42
Speaker
It was a harsh storm. The animal water troughs here, like I would break the ice up and 15 minutes later, it was like an ice skating rink. I couldn't believe it. We just don't deal with that here. I thought I lost a Renunculus, but come to find out, I did not. Like my little straw method worked. My frost cloth method worked and it survived zero degrees and I really couldn't believe it because they weren't supposed to survive that in my mind.
00:21:09
Speaker
So that was just a really good lesson on, you know, the weather pushing the envelope with me and just experimenting and trying. And it worked out, thankfully. But I would say one of the plants I can think of that I lost a lot of, I plant a lot of perennials.
00:21:27
Speaker
And I lost a whole bunch of sedum one year. Sedums are ones that are pretty easy to grow, but I think it all had to do with my soil. If the sedum was a light green sedum, they all lived. But if the sedum was a dark purple foliage, they all died.
00:21:45
Speaker
Interesting. It's very interesting and I think it just has something to do with my soil that I planted it in and just our hot humid summers that particular plant didn't like it. So I know now I steer away from the dark purple sedums for now and I stick to the light green ones.
00:22:06
Speaker
I just started growing sedum and a friend taught me that they're really easy to propagate. And so I propagated a ton this last year. I couldn't believe how many plants I was able to get out of just buying one for my nursery. Yes. Yes. They are very, very easy to propagate. They're, they're fun. I love sedum because they're one of the first plants to show their green foliage in the garden. Um, even late winter and early spring.
00:22:32
Speaker
I will actually cut some of the very short stems in May. They're pretty short. But if I'm making like a short base arrangement, I will cut some of those sedum stems to use as my foliage. And now, of course, that's taking some of the blooms that you would normally have late summer in the fall. But when you have a bunch of plants, it's okay. It all works out. Do you find they grow multiple stems throughout the season if you start harvesting from them early?
00:23:01
Speaker
Not that I've noticed. I don't have much experience with them yet, but I had, I think 20 plants this last year and I was so grateful come fall at the beautiful foliage for filler. Well, one bush has multiple stems on it anyway. So me taking, I try not to take all the foliage from one single plant. I just take a few from, you know, each plant and I just don't even notice it in the fall, what I've even done.
00:23:29
Speaker
So you mentioned you like perennials and sedum is obviously one. What are some other perennials that you would recommend to our listeners that are joining us today that want to grow flowers for cut bouquets? What is some good or what are some good perennial foliage that they should consider adding to their garden?
00:23:51
Speaker
Well, my absolute favorite is penstemon. And whenever I talk about it online, people are like, what? And it's actually not one that I really see talked about in the cut flower garden. It's not, no. No, it is not. It is such a gold mine when it comes to dried flower material. And I'm just surprised it's not talked about. So I love to grow penstemon, the specific varieties, onyx and pearls.
00:24:17
Speaker
And another one called Blackbeard. And I started growing them a few years ago. And it's a beautiful purple foliage plant in the wintertime. And then as spring starts to come, the stems start to shoot up. And when they're in bloom, they're like these white or purple flowers, and they're great to use.
00:24:39
Speaker
and cut flower bouquets. They actually remind me a lot of snapdragons in a way. And the stems can get so tall, like a good three feet tall. They're just a beautiful garden plant for one thing, but they're a excellent cut flower. But perhaps my favorite use for penstemon is actually not cutting the flower in bloom. Because if you don't, that flower will eventually turn into these beautiful pods.
00:25:08
Speaker
Kind of like, you know, Nigella, the flower, love and a mist. If you do not cut Nigella, the flower eventually turns in this cute round pod. But Penstemon, I have it right here, turns into these linear pods. Very cute, huh? Penstemon turns into these linear pods and it is just perfect to use for dried flower material in like Christmas wreaths.
00:25:37
Speaker
And another way that I actually use them is you know how florist picks are normally plastic and you insert the card. I use penstemon and what I do is these are my florist picks. I just tie my little card right here and that's my florist pick.
00:25:57
Speaker
So Kara and I are chatting via video chat right now. And so I think what you're describing is when you order a bouquet of flowers from the florist and they insert the plastic stick with the card. What you're saying is you can use that instead of the plastic stick to hold your card inside of it. I do. Yeah. I use the penstemon, the penstemon stick, and then I just tie my card on there. You know, put a little hole in your card.
00:26:23
Speaker
get some cute little twine, tie it on there. And yeah, it's a eco-friendly alternative way to the plastic florist picks. And I find that my customers just think that is so cute because you don't see it anywhere else.
00:26:42
Speaker
I love that. Yeah. It's a great way to eliminate the plastic in the delivery or the arrangement and adds a very unique conversational piece too, that I'm sure people look at it and say, what is this? Because most people are not familiar. I don't grow it, but now you have me curious and now I want to grow it. It is one of my favorite
00:27:04
Speaker
plants to grow and I live on a farm I have a whole bunch of farm animals and even though they are fenced in certain areas several of them like to get out and walk through my gardens which can be hard and I will say penstemon is a tough as nails plant that they don't seem to hurt at all and the plant grows very rapidly meaning I planted it the first year I planted it it came as like a bare root that I get from a plant supplier or a
00:27:32
Speaker
if you're getting, you can get them at the garden center. You plant it in the ground and within like three years, it has tripled in size and you can actually dig it up and divide it again and replant it all throughout your garden. It's so prolific. I love it. Oh, amazing. I love when you can divide a plant and get more free plants out of the first one. Yeah. So I love, so as far as like a list of perennials, I love
00:27:58
Speaker
I love flocks, beautiful white flocks. And it has about 50 stems on one plant. It is just amazing. And I'll harvest those for my cut flower bouquets as well. And it just comes back without fail every year. And those are perennial flocks, not the annual flocks.
00:28:22
Speaker
Correct, yes. I don't even grow annual flocks anymore because I have all these different perennial flocks. They work for me. So tell our listeners this. You mentioned you live on a farm. How big is your farm?
00:28:37
Speaker
We are just under seven acres, about six and a half or so. Do you grow on six and a half acres or how big is your cut flower garden? No, I need to spend a day and measure all my gardens because I don't even know. I have gardens everywhere. So my husband loves to raise livestock for different reasons. So we have everything from multiple cows. We have goats, turkeys, chickens, ducks,
00:29:06
Speaker
dogs and cats, partridge and a pear tree that I always say. That is his thing is raising all the farm animals and I plant all the gardens. And I really just, I have big perennial gardens all over my property. And then I have one specific cut flower garden that is, there's no quote unquote perennials per se. I mean, Yara was a perennial that is in there, but like I don't, it's more of an annual cut flower field.
00:29:34
Speaker
Um, and I want to say it's not that big, like maybe an eighth of an acre. It's really not that big, but you really can produce thousands of stems in a very small space. I love that because I think a lot of our listeners are growing on a small space. And so hearing from you is very relatable because it shows and tells that you don't have to have acres upon acres to make beautiful bouquets. What do you do with your flowers?
00:30:04
Speaker
I have done so many things over the years. I started out, my very first year I started out, I was just making arrangements and I would post them on Facebook and people would see and eventually a lot of people started contacting me wanting them to deliver arrangements. So I started doing that.
00:30:23
Speaker
And then the next year I worked my way into bouquet subscriptions and I worked with a local home decor store where they were my pickup place for all of my bouquet subscribers. And then I just kind of saw, I really love to design with flowers. And so I eventually got into growing flowers for weddings and that is very stressful.
00:30:48
Speaker
Yes, it is. I did that for a couple of years. I've decided to stop doing it right now just because I want to focus on other things, but I did that for a bit. Then honestly, the world of content creation and flowers is really a big thing, and I think maybe a lot of people are missing on.
00:31:11
Speaker
I will actually grow several plants for certain garden related plant businesses and create content around those plants and you get paid for it, which is pretty fun. Can you give us an example of what you mean by content creation?
00:31:28
Speaker
Content creation. So for example, a couple of years ago, I was sent a bunch of amaryllis bulbs to make a video showing customers what does it look like when it comes out of the box? How do you plant these amaryllis? What do you need to do with them after they grow? That kind of thing. And so like I made a video for a company doing that. And so now they can use that video doing
00:31:59
Speaker
you know, showing people how to plant amaryllis.
00:32:02
Speaker
How fun, and then I assume you got to enjoy the blooms in your house. Oh yes, I get to keep the plants. That's a really fun part. That's the best part. Yeah, that's a fun part. And also, I have gotten into the digital product space, which has started to become, I feel like, pretty big in 2023, where if there is something that you're knowledgeable about and you can help solve a problem for others, creating a digital guide.
00:32:32
Speaker
for someone and it's really just a downloadable PDF that goes directly to someone's email and they can learn about whatever it is that you are knowledgeable about. It's kind of like a mini course in a way. Can you share with us some of your digital guides that you have? Yeah, the one that I have right now is how to grow ridiculous and I started that one because I was just getting so many questions of how to grow ridiculous.
00:33:01
Speaker
So I have that one and then my next one that should be coming out soon is a seed starting schedule for me because that is another question I am asked so often is when do you start these seeds?
00:33:17
Speaker
When do you start these seeds? And of course, this schedule is specific to me in what I'm growing. But what I have found is several of my followers actually live around me in the Tennessee area. And they just want to know, what do you mean you start seeds in January? What are you starting in January? And so I'm going to be coming out with that to be of help to others that want to start these seeds too.
00:33:43
Speaker
I love that. I think what you just said about having followers that live near you that are interested in growing some of them is a great reminder for all of us. If you are a backyard gardener and wanting to grow something, a great way to know when to start or what to grow is to look for your local flower farmer and see what they are starting and what they're growing. And most flower farmers are
00:34:09
Speaker
pretty eager or happy to share their knowledge, especially if they're on social media, they're probably sharing their process and what they're doing or what they're planting. And so if you look to your local flower farmer, that'll give you really great guidance of what you can also grow in your own garden, which is part of why I started this podcast, The Backyard Bouquet, is to encourage people to either grow their own or to look to their local flower farmer
00:34:38
Speaker
and find flowers locally. So thank you for sharing that.
Mission to Spread Joy Through Flowers
00:34:43
Speaker
That's what I'm finding really is my mission with cut flower growing now. I truly just want to help others learn how to grow their own cut flower gardens to bring them joy. And now that I'm five years into this and I've grown a whole lot of these cut flower
00:35:00
Speaker
plants. I just I feel like it's my mission to help others grow these cut flower gardens to bring them joy. You know, for whatever reason that is, whether it's their own joy, whether they want to have a flower garden so they can cut flowers to give bouquets to their friend, whatever it is, like I just want to be that help for someone.
00:35:22
Speaker
I love that and it definitely radiates out of you. You have this great joy in all of your videos. You're always so willing to help share your knowledge and you do it in such a way that's relatable and easy to follow along. So for those listening that are thinking maybe 2024 is going to be the year that they start a cut flower garden, what is one piece of advice that you would give them? Oh, I always say start small.
00:35:52
Speaker
It is so easy to end up ordering 20 seed packets of different flowers, but that can start that can get you very overwhelmed very quickly. And honestly, if all those flowers require different growing
00:36:09
Speaker
variables and say several of them might die that could really discourage someone and I don't want you to discourage and so I always say actually start a cut flower garden going into the summer months because I feel like that's a little bit easier and the top three that I always say and a lot of other people do too are the zinnias cosmos and sunflowers and the reason that I say those three is because all of them
00:36:37
Speaker
you plant after your last danger of frost. That just means when are you not going to go below freezing anymore?
00:36:45
Speaker
And here in the Nashville, Tennessee area, that's about later April-ish. And I always say plant the zinnias, cosmos, and sunflowers, because those three can be direct sown right in your ground. You do not have to worry about seed starting indoors and all the setup that that entails, because that's a whole other education skill set on its own. I want to make this as easy as possible for you.
00:37:13
Speaker
you direct sow the zinnias sunflowers and cosmos right in the ground and typically they germinate pretty easily and typically they they're not too fussy with your soil type they can actually grow in poorer soil um
00:37:28
Speaker
And I just think that there are some really good first cut flowers to grow because the zenny as, you know, you really learn the art of pinching a plant. And that's so hard to do. I remember the first time someone told me I had to cut my beautiful baby plant in half to pinch it. And I was like, what? No. And, but you just learn over time that it's great for your plant and produces more stems.
00:37:54
Speaker
And yeah, that's what I always say. Start simple. And once you master the basics, build your knowledge from there. Because now I grow over 75 types of flowers, like not varieties, but different types of flowers on my farm. And I just started this five years ago. But I started with the basic ones. I started with zinnias, cosmos, sunflowers.
00:38:21
Speaker
dahlias and I had gumfrena. I didn't know what I was doing at all in 2018 when I planted all of those, but I planted them all and they all grew and it was just a great like first cut flower garden to have to give me confidence to move on to harder flowers and more flowers.
00:38:41
Speaker
We started very similarly. Those are some of the same flowers that I started with in 2018 as well. And I'll never forget when I had to pinch my cosmos. And there were these little buds on top of each one and I'm thinking, but I'm cutting off the flower.
00:38:57
Speaker
Yeah, and I actually had a pin. They didn't get very tall after pinching them and they started to butt again. And I was told, we'll cut them at the node again and pinch them. And I was thinking, what on earth am I doing? Well, next thing I knew I had four foot tall Cosmo bushes that were pumping out blooms all summer long. And it was such a great lesson that
00:39:17
Speaker
certain plants do need to be pinched to produce more flowers. And I was rewarded with so many flowers. You mentioned zinnias. When I started growing, I started with a few zinnias, but I kind of turned my nose up to them because I was like, Oh, there's zinnias there. They've been around forever. They're, they're not exciting, but actually I love them now. And I grow a lot of them because they are so great. Do you have a favorite or a couple of favorites that you would recommend to someone starting their cutting garden?
00:39:47
Speaker
I'll tell you with zinnias, when I was getting more into the design world, zinnias were a hard one to use because they're very bright colors. But the reason why I suggest zinnias is one of the first cut flowers for someone to grow is because they typically are very easy to germinate from seed.
00:40:07
Speaker
and I just think that's such a confidence booster for someone. I personally love, like the giant salmon, zenia, the carmine, rose, zenia. I am not a fan.
00:40:23
Speaker
of the cactus as any is. I'm not either. I think I can say that very loud and clearly. I don't grow the cactus. That's okay if someone out there likes them. I just personally don't like them. I grew them my second year as a cut flower grower and I would put them in bouquets and my customers would say, these look like they're wilting. And I'm like, you know what? I think you're right. So I don't grow them anymore. Our customers are always right.
00:40:52
Speaker
I really like the Oklahoma salmon zinnia. And I grow about 20 feet of that in a 48 inch row. And I pretty much sell every stem that I can harvest to my local florists because it really works well with weddings. And I am going to predict, I'm going to go out there and say that with the Pantone color of the year this year,
00:41:16
Speaker
I think that Oklahoma salmon is going to be a home run for filling with your dahlias and putting in bouquets. It's a smaller zinnia, so it's not really a focal flower, but it's a great disc that adds a wonderful element to the bouquet. So I grow that one, and I also really love the Queen Lime series.
00:41:38
Speaker
Oh yeah, those are definitely beautiful. I do grow those too. They are very beautiful and I personally love little accent flowers. You know, the showstopper flowers are always the focal flowers but when I am like honing in on a bridal bouquet that someone has made
00:41:57
Speaker
It's always the accent flowers that really draw me in because I'm like, oh wow, what did they put there? What is that little airy thing? I personally love all the little dainty accent flowers. Can you give us maybe three of those little dainty flowers that you like? The dainty little accent flowers. I love, I'm trying to think of a perennial that I
00:42:22
Speaker
You know, I have grown Peter Cottontail achilia, or Peter, it's a yarrow. It's this little white button flower that's really cute. That's a really cute one. And then I, let's see here. I'm thinking of my flower field here and what I have put.
00:42:44
Speaker
and things, I would have to go, I can't think off the top of my head right now what it is. Like, I don't know, I can't think. Do you ever use fever a few?
00:42:58
Speaker
I just started growing feverfew for the first time last year, surprisingly. And it's a really cute flower to grow also in dry. I used that in wedding bouquets and I loved it. And I know our listeners can't see, but right behind me on my shoulder, you see the little white bouquet. That is a bouquet of dried feverfew that I actually forgot about. I had brought it in to put in some arrangements.
00:43:21
Speaker
This last summer and I put it in a vase with no water and kind of forgot about it for about two weeks and found it dried and I said Oh, this is really cute. I now have a dried bouquet of fever a few
00:43:33
Speaker
You know, a flower that I dried for the first time this year, it's more of a foliage. It's mountain mint. I started drying that and I love the green, the light green that it provides, especially like in Christmas arrangements and Christmas wreaths. I think it looks really pretty with fresh evergreen. Oh, I love that. I have not grown mountain mint yet. Do you like that one?
00:43:57
Speaker
I, oh yes, it's very prolific, very prolific. The stems get very tall too. Like they're about a good three feet tall or so. And I think it is such a bouquet filler because the, there is a little flower on there. The heads are just so big. It's a great bouquet filler. Do you have to do anything special with it? Like I know when I harvest basil, if I don't condition it right, it will wilt. Is mountain mint the same?
00:44:24
Speaker
I try to harvest it really early in the morning at sunrise and just immediately get it indoors and water. And that seems to do the trick. Okay. Do you put anything in your water or you just put it in fresh water?
00:44:35
Speaker
You know, I used to use the CVBN tabs all the time. And then I just started using fresh water and I just really, the flowers seem to do okay with just using fresh water. You know, I would say I have a certain process. There are some times where I have to have roses shipped in when I would do certain weddings, because I didn't have enough garden roses here.
00:44:59
Speaker
And I do dip those in certain chemicals to help open up the stem. But as far as fresh flowers from my cut flower garden, I really just use plain water now and it seems to be fine. I mostly do that too, except for a few of the dirty flowers with yarrow and sunflowers, even zinnias and rutabecia. I still use the tablets, but otherwise pretty much just water.
00:45:26
Speaker
So the joy of growing fresh flowers that haven't been held for two weeks is that they are happy and they're eager to drink that water because they're freshly cut, especially when, like you said, you cut them in the morning time or late in the evening, avoiding the
Favorite Accent Flowers Discussion
00:45:40
Speaker
heat of the day. And they're really happy to just drink some water.
00:45:44
Speaker
Yes, they are. They are. I love Yaro. It's definitely one of my favorite accent flowers as well. And it's just amazing perennial here too that thrives and does well. Yaro is one of those flowers that I have sold just as bouquets on its own because
00:46:02
Speaker
especially if you grow certain mixes, they're all different colors and customers are usually like, wow, I've never seen anything like this before because the yarrow at the garden centers is not the same color or really the same yarrow that we're growing as cut flower growers.
00:46:18
Speaker
I agree. Someone asked me just this morning if I buy my yarrow from the nursery or if I prefer to start it from seed and I said 100% from seed because you get so many more color varieties and it's fairly easy to germinate. And for many of us it's native so it grows really well. I would love one day when I have more time to start my own cut flower nursery because I feel like there's such a disconnect between
00:46:46
Speaker
the garden nurseries that most people visit and the cut flower plants that we all grow as flower farmers. And I would just love to have a dedicated cut flower nursery. When you walk into garden centers, there are displays that say, great for cut flowers, but that's all it says. I would love for there to be more information like, how do you cut this flower? That kind of thing.
00:47:14
Speaker
One day for the future. Yes. Well, we're talking about the future because this will air at the beginning of January. What do you have in store for 2024? I would love to dive more into my digital products and creating them and helping educate others on all these different areas and things that you can do with cut flower gardens.
00:47:41
Speaker
You know, there are some people that just want to grow the cut flower gardens for fresh flowers. And then there's other people that love the world of dried flowers. And I would love to help navigate people know well which flowers do actually dry well and do actually look good once they are.
00:47:58
Speaker
Dried and what can you do with them? What do you do with dried flowers once you have them dried? I would just love to dive more into the education side of cut flower growing Well, I hope you do because you are an excellent teacher Can you share with us? What are you most excited to grow this year? Ooh What am I most excited to grow? I
00:48:28
Speaker
I got a couple new Renekulous varieties. I can't even tell you the name, so I just remember I have not grown them yet. I'm excited to see those bloom because Renekulous are just always such a showstopper and are gorgeous. What colors do you like of them? I love the whites and the pinks is what I like.
00:48:50
Speaker
And I really actually want to take my cut flower garden to a more garden that I grow for dried flowers. And it's so funny. I used to not like dried flowers at all, but now I've really come to know which varieties do well. And I kind of want to, I've had thoughts in my head of creating dried flower bouquets and maybe shipping them.
00:49:13
Speaker
to different places. We'll see if that actually comes to fruition, but I just see huge straw flower areas, huge status areas, and we'll see where I go with that. Well, we're excited to see what you do decide. I love, I'm thinking back to one of your videos that you shared on social media.
00:49:37
Speaker
And it might have been even a picture, but you took for the holidays, you're potted up paper whites and amaryllis and you decorated them with dried flowers. Yes. I started doing that a couple of years ago because I love to grow amaryllis in the winter, like November, December.
00:49:57
Speaker
There's different varieties of amaryllis that come from different parts of the world. Some grow a lot faster than others. And certain varieties can take weeks to even show signs of growth even. And I thought that it would be fun to take some of the flowers that I dried from my garden and make a little dried flower garden in the planter.
00:50:20
Speaker
And that's exactly what I did. And I just loved it. I thought it was so cute to look at while I was waiting for my amaryllis blooms to emerge. And I've noticed some other people have started doing it too because I'd actually never seen anyone do that before with their amaryllis specifically.
00:50:42
Speaker
And people always ask me, well, doesn't watering the amaryllis hurt the dried flowers? And it doesn't at all. You really have to water amaryllis so infrequently, like I only water them every couple of weeks that really the dried flowers just dry again, like quickly.
00:51:00
Speaker
I always think about that. It was just so beautiful seeing that on social media and one of these years when life maybe slows down or maybe this year, maybe I need to commit to 2024 being the year that I take some of my dried flowers and start some amaryllis.
00:51:17
Speaker
I think it would be fun. This is another idea for the future. I would love to sell amaryllis boxes at Christmas that have the amaryllis and have a packet of dried flowers you can decorate with and some moss. That's just a fun little activity for someone to do. That's on my radar as well. So many things on my radar that I could do with flowers. You could do a grow along. You could sell them and give us all a grow along.
00:51:45
Speaker
Yes, that would be fun. Encourage people along the way. Yes. Okay, I know that I've taken a lot of your time. I would love to ask you one more question here. And that is how do you see your flower farm contributing to your local community?
Community Contributions Through Flowers
00:52:04
Speaker
How do I see it contributing to my local community? Well, I'll tell you one of the things that I have done that has been a benefit to my community is I grew a sunflower field for my church one year. And that was really fun because I used my social media. There's a lot of people that follow me that's within my
00:52:25
Speaker
my city and the big city that surrounds me. I was like, Hey, I grew the sunflower field at my church, please come take photos, enjoy the beauty of it. And it was very successful. And it just, it warmed my heart to see all the photos come in of people, you know, taking photos with their family and making these beautiful memories with these beautiful sunflowers in the background. And so,
00:52:50
Speaker
I just, I'm happy to share my knowledge with my community and I helped, we have a prayer garden at our church and
00:53:04
Speaker
Nothing has really been planted in it for a few years. And so I actually designed that garden this year and brought it to life and had it flower and people would go there and pray in the peace and be surrounded with flowers. And that was just a joyous moment to be able to have my knowledge, help bring others joy in that way too.
00:53:31
Speaker
Oh, what a beautiful gift for your community. I love that. Did you share pictures on your social media of that? I did. I think I mostly shared the prayer garden one in my stories, but I know I have a lot of photos of the sunflower field. I did it last year, so you'd have to scroll back a little bit.
00:53:48
Speaker
I remember seeing the sunflower field and that was really amazing. That actually, I have to share with you, that inspired me to relocate where I grow my dahlias on our field because part of our field had a low fence. And so by moving my dahlia seedlings
00:54:05
Speaker
to another spot on the field, everyone that walked by could stop and enjoy the flowers. And a lot of that came from seeing how you shared your joy of growing flowers with your community. So you inspired me. So thank you for doing that. Oh, I love it. Thank you. And I'm sure our listeners are now going to want to go and look you up on social media and see pictures of some of these things that we've talked about today. How can our listeners find you?
00:54:31
Speaker
I am at Blooming Joy Flower Co., CO., almost everywhere. Instagram is kind of my favorite platform and where I started five years ago, and I post just a ton of stuff there. You can also find my links to my different storefronts that I have through my Instagram. And I also have a TikTok page. I'm at Blooming Joy Flower Co., and I try to post different things there as well.
00:55:00
Speaker
uh i'm on facebook too at bloom and joy flower co come see me say hello perfect well thank you cara i would love to have you back on at a later date perhaps when you launch one of your online guides or if you do a girl along this winter yeah i would love to um share about what you have going on in the future because i think people would be very interested in hearing more from you so
00:55:30
Speaker
If you're interested, we'd love to have you back in the future. I'd love to. Thank you. Thank you, Kara. And so before we end today, is there anything that you would like to leave our listeners with? I just want everyone that is growing a garden just to keep on going and keep on growing. It's all about the process and the joy that it gives you and make those memories in your garden.
00:56:00
Speaker
Oh, I love that. What a great way to wrap this up today. Kara, thank you so much for taking time out of your day to share with us. You are an inspiration and you bring so much joy and knowledge to the Cut Flower community. So thank you so much for being here with us today. Thank you so much for having me. Thank you. Look forward to chatting with you again soon.
00:56:28
Speaker
Thank you Flower Friends for joining us on another episode of the Backyard Bouquet. I hope you've enjoyed the inspiring stories and valuable gardening insights we've shared today, whether you're cultivating your own backyard blooms or supporting your local flower farmer.
00:56:44
Speaker
You're contributing to the local flower movement, and we're so happy to have you growing with us. If you'd like to stay connected and continue this blossoming journey with local flowers, don't forget to subscribe to the Backyard Bouquet podcast. I'd be so grateful if you would take a moment to leave us a review of this episode. And finally, please share this episode with your garden friends.
00:57:07
Speaker
Until next time, keep growing, keep blooming, and remember that every bouquet starts right here in the backyard.