As we settle into the cold reality of our seasonal, winter weather, I am warmed by the beautiful memories of this past season dancing around in my head and my heart. It truly was a special year with lots of freedom and space to fully immerse myself into all things local flowers. There is so much to cover, so let me get started and break it down into a couple of sections.
Port Credit Farmer's Market
This was a huge win for the season! On Saturdays from June-October, we were at the Port Credit Farmer's Market almost every week. Weekly market goers got a real feel for local flowers and the beauty of changing varieties and colours. I take a lot of pride in creating arrangements that are colourful, memorable and different week after week. So often I would hear "Wow, what a cool colour combination" or "What is that flower? I've never seen that before!" To me, this is what local flowers is all about - offering unique varieties and colour combinations that you can't find at the grocery store. And not to mention, I'm growing lots of the flowers less than 10 minutes from where they're being sold. And when we don't have enough and want to supplement blooms, I source them from other local growers, all within 2 hours of us. It doesn't doesn't much more local than that!
2025 Outlook: Definitely look for us to return in 2025 to the Port Credit Farmer's Market with limited dates: focusing on June, September & October.
Local Pop-Up Markets
Another win was partnering with 2 awesome, local businesses (that we know and love) by bringing local blooms to sell. In the Spring, I brought our specialty tulips to Back Road Coffee and introduced the very handy and often talked about, metal flower stand and created a cute little flower shop inside. Some folks knew about it and came specifically for the flowers, while most were just there for the delicious coffee and were surprised and delighted by the fresh tulips. And wow, let me tell you, that place is so busy!
Also why we went back in December and hosted a holiday pop-up with potted plants and fresh flower bouquets and arrangements.
We also partnered with the brand new and beautiful, Bone & Biscuit in the Brightwater Complex in Port Credit. Flora, who runs it, has been a long-time Flaura Gardens supporter and is just such a lovely and generous human. We brought the stand again and the freshest blooms and loved sharing them with you and your dogs and pets. I mean, does it get much better than fresh flowers and sweet doggos? I don't think so!
Also, just want to give a special shout out to the sweet flower stand. It makes displaying 12+ bouquets of flowers so easy! Only downside is that it doesn't fit in my car - has to go on the roof lol.
2025 Outlook: Definitely look for us to return with more pop-ups this year. First up, Valentine's Day :)
2024 was a year of growth and experience and lots of lovely weddings and special events. We did everything from funerals and celebrations of life to full service weddings with bouquets, bouts, installations & arrangements to a jungle themed 2nd birthday party, to a DIY shower where we provided the blooms and the bride did the rest! I absolutely loved all of the opportunities we had this past season to bring flowers to your special days and look forward to many more this coming season.
Having weddings and events to flower really helped me to focus on my designs and hone in on my style. Being a part of 2 local flower collectives and 2 large wholesalers also gave me access to the best local flowers available. And having that access really allowed me to provide a gorgeous mix of special, local flowers. And for this coming season, for the weddings we have secured, we're growing specific flowers and colours for our brides as selected by them! I absolutely love this super custom and super special way of including the bride in the planning and growing process!
2025 Outlook: This year I have a goal to flower 10+ weddings - we've got 5 secured so far! Would love to do some weddings in late May and into June, so please let me know!
Education
2024 was also about investing in myself and the business by giving myself many different learning opportunities. Here's the highlights:
Floral & Brick Tabletop workshop
I've always admired Natasha's work and her unwavering commitment to local and sustainable flowers. So when she offered to host a tabletop workshop for fellow growers, I jumped at the opportunity! I attended with 2 of my flower pals and met another new one and we all had a great time. It was so helpful to learn tips and tricks from Natasha and gain supplier intel and knowledge.
ASCFG Conference
The Association of Specialty Cut Flower Growers is a fantastic organization that supports, educates and helps connect cut flower growers in North America. Each year, they host in-person events at different cut flower farms and this past year, I attended an event at Dahlia May Flower Farm in Trenton. Dahlia May to me, is the OG Canadian flower farmer, so to see her farm in full bloom in August was super special. I was able to meet and connect with so many other flower growers from all over and learn from some very accomplished growers and florists. A highlight was learning from Jordana Masi of White Oak Floral, whom I have admired for a long time. She hosted a bridal bouquet arranging workshop and we had access to some absolutely gorgeous and super special local flowers. I was so happy with what I created and to have the opportunity to ask for real-time feedback. Feedback is so key and humbling in these situations - there is ALWAYS something to learn!
Forever Wildfield Education: Field to Table
This was a wonderful and intimate learning opportunity that I was so happy to be a part of! Hosted by Alexandra Highet of Forever Wildfield, whose work is absolutely STUNNING. I traveled out to Westfield Flowers in Hamilton for this one and wow -what a beautiful farm! It was really cool to be learning amongst all of the beautiful flowers. So for this workshop, we worked with only local flowers (hooray!) and focused on foam-free designs. First up was a large bowl centrepiece, using chicken wire and tape for the mechanics. Lots of great learnings around colour theory, flower numbers and placement, depth and negative space. Then as a small group, we tackled a large broken arch installation. This was what I was most looking forward to, so that I can start offering it for my weddings and special events.
2025 Outlook: I will continue learning and furthering my floral education. First up on January 18, is a bridal bouquet masterclass with Blush and Bloom in Toronto. Becky, the owner, will be hosting it and is one of the coolest, local OG Toronto wedding florists. I am so excited to attend this and elevate my designs!
I will also look to freelance for 5 different designers - this will help me learn new methods and help fine tune my overall special event experience.
The Gardens
And last, but certainly not least, will be all of the dirty details of the gardens and what we had growing. This was my 5th growing season and I entered it with the following directions in mind:
1. Be hands off and let the gardens do the work
2. Grow more of less
3. You don't have to grow it all
And I can honestly say that I followed these wholeheartedly, for better or for worse! By following all of these intentions, I was able to create space to focus more on events and getting more experience with design - 2 important goals for the season. And what resulted, was mostly good, but there were definitely lots of learnings and missed opportunities along the way.
1.a) Because I was more hands off, the weeds were next level this season! This could also be because we had a very wet start of summer, so the weeds were just having a field day. And in some instances, the weeds took over and I missed out on harvesting flowers and in others, they choked the good flowers out!
2025 Outlook: So for this season, I plan on laying mulch down for new plantings in an effort to help keep the weeds at bay. I will also introduce weeding Wednesdays where I spend 1+ hour weeding and focus on different areas each week.
1. b) I was a bit too laissez faire with soil health this past season and definitely missed out on bounty in some crops because of mediocre soil health. Keeping your garden soil thriving and healthy is no small feat and requires multiple feedings and soil amendments each season.
2025 Outlook: I will get back on track this season with using sheep manure 1-3 times this season, making our own compost and applying to crops in need, organic bone meal for perennial bloomers and other heavy bloomers etc. Everything we use in the gardens is natural and no chemicals or heavy fertilizers are used.
2. The grow more of less was a great success and I absolutely love seeing flowers en masse - it is so impactful! Not only is it gorgeous to see so many of the same flower, it makes it so much easier to create cohesive colour palettes and to sell wholesale. It also allows me to specialize and become the best grower I can for a handful of crops.
2025 Outlook: Growing more of less will definitely continue to be a theme for this season as we continue to hone in on key crops and the ones that perform well and that there is high demand for. So expect to see lots of tulips, ranunculus, agrostemma, feverfew, peonies, dahlias and lisianthus.
3. This is my favourite intention and definitely will continue it for as long as I am growing flowers! Not because I don't want to try and grow everything, but because it connects me with other amazing, local growers. Easily my greatest success for the 2024 season, was expanding my flower community by getting to know so many other growers, florists and flower enthusiasts. It truly takes a village and the local flower community is so wonderful, generous and full of inspiration.
2025 Outlook: Continue growing my flower community through the following goals: Host a local flower grower gathering in February/March 2025, freelance for 5 different florists for weddings/special events, host a summer and holiday open house for the local community.
If you are still reading this, thank you so so much for powering through! I realize that this is quite the time investment, but I wanted to be thorough and include as much as I could. Not only do I hope you read and appreciate the efforts of growing a garden and maybe learn a couple of things, but it also helps me to debrief and make goals for the upcoming season.
2024 was a wonderful year, but I am so excited for 2025 and what's still to come! Thanks for following along.