Flower Farming in Baltimore City with Hillen Homestead

A few Sundays ago, when we had no weddings on the schedule, Eric and I spent some time over at Hillen Homestead helping our friend Maya do some planting. The phrase “many hands make light work” was so true on this beautiful afternoon in Baltimore.

Here's Eric planting dusty miller! 

New friends and neighbors came out to lend a hand! 

Gardener and past LoCoFlo bride Jen came to plant and water the new perennials.

It was great to chat about all the new offerings Hillen Homestead is going to have this year! 

We're so lucky to be able to work with Maya and Max and their little ones. Since the farm is just 1 mile from our studio, we get to see them often. We're grateful for their hard work, dedication to Baltimore, beautiful flowers and friends. 

Earth Day at Butterbee Farm

Last Wednesday, Team LoCoFlo spent the morning volunteering at Butterbee Farm for Earth Day.

 

Laura Beth and Jascha, the wonderful farmers and Butterbee, made it super fun by planning “Farm Olympics”. Teams competed in three competitive rounds: precision planting, speed weeding and feats of brawn.

Carling and Irene were “Team Age Advantaged” since they are MUCH younger and more able bodied than their old, decrepit bosses.

Eric and I competed together and frankly didn’t do as we could have due to Eric’s laying around on the job.

Jascha worked with our new friend Lydia, a brand new flower farmer out in Chestertown.

We were judged by Laura Beth, Jascha and Maya Kosok, farmer extraordinaire from Hillen Homestead (and mom to our two littlest farm helpers).

It was a sunny day for planting chamomile, weeding beds and moving rocks. More than that, it was time well spent with our team and our friends. Working in the dirt, sharing a meal, taking pictures, laughing a lot…the most fun! It’s exciting to think that we’ll be using that chamomile in bouquets in just a few short months!

Everything we do at LoCoFlo depends on our amazing growers. Volunteering at the farm is just a small way for us to let them know that we are super grateful to them for all they do! Thank you Butterbee Farm and Hillen Homestead! You make Buying Local so much fun!

Thanks to Jascha Owens at Butterbee for some of the sweet pics!

Go Local this Mother’s Day

Mother’s Day is fast approaching and Local Color Flowers is so excited! We’re gearing up for loads of fun here at the shop and out in the community.

We’ll be offering beautiful arrangements made with locally grown flowers  for delivery in Baltimore City or for pick up at our studio Saturday morning from 9am-12 during our Mother’s Day Pop Up Shop! Order early! You don’t want to end up at the grocery store on Mother’s Day morning with the other late comers!

Did I mention we’re having a Mother’s Day Pop Up Shop at the studio on Saturday, May 9 from 9am-noon? We are! We’ll have the doors open and we’ll be selling wrapped bouquets, flower themed gifts, shares to our local flower CSA and gift certificates! Best to order your flowers in advance and pick them up during the pop-up to make sure you get what you want. We’ll likely sell out! We’ve also invited some of our fave Baltimore vendors to come by and sell their goodies as well! You’ll definitely want to pick up treats from our friends at Kinderhook Snacks, plants from Butterbee Farm, pots made by Irene and beautiful artwork by Bmore Papercuts. Stay tuned for more vendor announcements soon!

Think all that sounds fun? There’s more! Irene will be out at Becket Hitch in Greenspring Station for their Mother’s Day pop-up. She’ll be selling wrapped bouquets filled with locally grown flowers that you can grab on the go. Joining her at Becket Hitch is our good friend Charm City Cook selling the BEST brownies ever made! Go check them out!

 

Whew! It’s going to be a busy, fun, Mother’s Day week! We can’t wait to see you!

Spring is Here!

When I think of Spring flowers, I think of ranunculus and anemones and poppies and eventually peonies. There are so many showy favorites that bloom in the Spring that it’s easy to over look on the poster child of spring…the daffodil.

These double daffodils from John at Locust Point are so perfect for the start of Spring.  They are big, bright, ruffely and they make people so happy! .Happy Spring everyone! If you want to celebrate with locally grown flowers email us today!

Open Studio Session at Local Color Flowers

By Carling A. W. Elder
Learning a new skill can be intimidating, time-consuming, and expensive – all things we don’t want floral design to be! We love local flowers (all the flowers at Local Color Flowers are sourced within 100 miles of Baltimore), and want everyone to have access to them! A few months ago, as our team at LoCoFlo was brainstorming about new ways to give more people more access to local flowers, and we came up with the idea of Open Studio.

The concept/dream/ end goal of Open Studio is to facilitate a space where people can come together and experiment with floral design at their own pace. As a supplement to our formal design classes, which are perfect for the beginner student , Open Studio is aimed at the intermediate floral designer who wants to hone their skills and practice ‘til they make perfect.

We will instruct you individually as needed. It’s kind of like a yoga class where you can either ask the teacher to adjust your poses, or tell them to keep their hands off! Chose out your favorite flowers from our selection of locally grown flowers and your favorite vase from our collection. Make a floral design you actually like (instead of buying a premade one from the grocery store) and take it home or give as a gift!

We know you like to kick back at the end of a long day. We do too! However, we can only go to the bar so many nights a week… That’s why it’s great to try an activity like Open Studio! It’s laidback, educational and FUN! Bring a friend, bring vino, bring snacks – we’ll pump up the jams and maybe even show you a few dance moves. Since there’s no formal instruction at Open Studio, it’s the perfect place to chat, chill, or just zone out while designing. It’s a happy place. You make it what you want.

Fun With Local Color Flowers at Butterbee Farm this Season

We’re so excited to be partnering with our friends at Butterbee Farm again this season to offer some really cool, unique classes for families, farmers and designers alike.

Our first class at the farm will be a Family Floral Crown Class on Monday, June 29th from 11-12:30. This class is perfect for teams of one adult and one child working together.  Adults and kids will have an opportunity to tour the farm, cut their own flowers, make beautiful floral crowns with their cuttings and have their photos taken in their creations.  How fun to spend the morning with your favorite young person at a beautiful flower farm just minutes from the city.

Our next class is going to be a highlight of our summer for sure! Butterbee Farm and Local Color Flowers are teaming up to offer Blooms and Bouquets on Monday, July 13th.  This is a perfect, one-day class for farmer florists and folks that are interested learning more about flower farming and design. Students will start the day at Butterbee Farm learning all about cultivation, favorite varieties and harvesting. The amazing Dave Dowling will be on hand for a Q and A about all things flowers! After lunch, students will travel to Local Color Flowers studio to learn to make a hand tied bridal bouquet as well as see demonstrations by Team LoCoFlo making boutonnieres, corsages, head crowns and more. The day will end with a discussion of marketing and sales of locally grown flowers.

On Saturday, July 25th we’ll be offering an Adult version of our floral head crown class at the farm. Last year’s class was so much fun we can’t wait to do it again!

Our final class of the season at the farm will be our hugely popular Pressed Flower class on Saturday, September 19th. Students will tour the farm, pick flowers for pressing, make their own flower press and learn how to use their pressed flowers for arts and crafts projects.

Space in all of these classes are limited, so if you’re interested in joining, please sign up soon. We can’t wait to see you!

For questions about any of our classes, please email Ellen at ellen@locoflo.com

When Winter Won’t Be Stopped

Don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of winter days that our growers spend wrapped up in quilts in front of the fire (or space heater) pouring over seed catalogs and crop plans and farm video games. (sorry, I had to out you Butterbee Farm!).

But not this week. In order to have early Spring flowers, growers have been working around the clock in SUB ZERO temps to keep their tender plants warm. Ranunculus, stock, tulips, anemones and more are some of the many early Spring flowers we depend on for weddings and events now through peony season in mid-May.

Extreme wind and bitter cold temps are wreaking havoc on hoop houses and greenhouses across our region.

Here’s a look at one of the end walls of one of Wollam Gardens hoop houses yesterday.

Here’s a shot of tiny ranunculus plants getting a little extra warmth from these twinkle lights at Greenstone Fields.

Our growers have been hard at work to ensure all of our Spring clients have beautiful, locally sourced flowers. Keeping all the cracks filled is key! Our friend Barb Lamborne, Flower Farmer at Greenstone Fields, is seen below working in negative double digit wind chills trying to reinforce the hoop house.

Using locally grown flowers is a super personal, extremely special way of doing business. Each flower is grown with so much love and care. There are no more dedicated folks than our flower farmers! THANK YOU to all of the hard working farmers in our region. We’re so grateful for you!