Flowers Make Us Happy & Healthier

 Tulips!  They make me so happy!  Daffodils and tulips are some of the first flowers to bloom in the spring and bring much needed color to the landscape after facing the winter blues.  Tulips are joyous and come in so many colors.  They are hardy in the spring when the weather toggles between beautiful 70 degree days and winter comes back to slap us in the face.  Seriously...tulips are delightful and one of the reasons I decided to commercial farm them in Central Oregon. When you purchase local flowers, you get flowers that last longer in the vase because they didn't have to travel far to the store and then to your home.  You can extend their life even longer by following these tips. First, you will see many tricks for extending the vase life of tulips like putting a penny in the bottom of the vase or pricking a small hole at the top of the stem below the flower head.  Many swear by these methods but truly the tips that work the best are as follow...

There are days that we are all overwhelmed.  The pressures of work, school, expectations, deadlines, social pressures, the list can go on and on....It is one of the reasons that I turned to flower farming after my kids went off to college.  The ability to get out into nature, the excitement of learning something new, the possibilities of growing beautiful flowers and then sharing them with others.  It is also the main reason that I started growing lavender.  Throughout time, lavender has been the plant everyone associates with calm.  One whiff of lavender and it helps you to stop and relax.  Lavender is enjoyed in many ways including essential oil.  Here at the farm we steam distill our lavender plants into essential oil and hydrosol (lavender water) which we use to  make our products like body butter and pillow mist that help others to relax.   We love to diffuse lavender in our homes - the bathroom, the bedroom, and the living room.  I...