Recently I was remembering back to 2009 as I was going into my second growing season as a flower farmer.  I just had a tiny community garden plot that year that totaled a grand 1,682 square feet. But from that garden, I managed to grow enough flowers to go to two farmers markets a week that year and to do my first handful of weddings. I remember how hard I worked on mapping out that garden because Every. Single. Inch. mattered.  It was there that I put in my first perennial bulbs for cut flower production.

Since space was precious, I was conflicted about adding perennials. I also wasn’t sure how long I’d be in that particular garden plot; I wanted very much to find a larger space to farm (and did the next year). But, because I’m a plant nerd who covets unusual stuff, I decided that year to take a leap of faith and place my first big order for perennials from North Creek Nurseries. I remember their minimum order requirement was $300 back then, and I was sweating bullets writing the check in their office when I picked up the plants.  I have to confess that I laugh at myself now, looking back, knowing how invaluable that purchase was for my business and how small that expense was in the grand scheme of this farm’s history.  I’ve probably spent more than $30,000 on perennials by now!

I decided to put together this quick list of my five favorite perennial bulbs for cut flower production because bulbs are usually a bit more affordable than, say, fancy peonies or big shrubs.  Bulbs are a good place to start if you’re just dipping your toes into cut flower production and you want to add some perennials.  They generally can be planted fairly close together and will produce for many seasons.

Five Favorite Perennial Bulbs for Cut Flowers

1. Narcissus

This one is probably not much of a surprise as so many of flower farmers now grow specialty narcissus. And for good reason. They are deer-proof (hallelujah!), fragrant, nostalgic harbingers of spring that let many flower farmers enter the market place earlier than they might otherwise be able. They tolerate being planted under deciduous trees so you can use otherwise marginal space for flower growing. They naturalize and multiply if you give them space and put them where foot/machine traffic is light so they can just do their thing. They store well for a long time if picked in goose-neck stage and kept in a cooler. And bulbs are typically readily available and affordable. The only downside is the sap the cut stems ooze. But just be sure to wear gloves when harvesting and don’t mix the freshly harvested bunches with any other flowers in your buckets. After 24 hours, you can mix narcissus stems into mixed bouquets or arrangements, just don’t cut the stems again so sap doesn’t start oozing again. Three of my favorite varieties of narcissus are ‘Prosecco’, ‘Acropolis’, and ‘Obdam’.

2. Muscari

I have to make a confession. I’m utterly obsessed with these dainty, diminutive darlings that come in sky blue, white, blush and navy. I also have to confess that they aren’t a good crop for all flower farmers. They’re really only useful if you are a farmer-florist such as myself or if you are selling to event designers. Topping out at 8” usually, the stems of most muscari are far too short for anything other than delicate wearables or short vase designs. But they are so very useful if you are indeed designing boutonnieres, corsages, bud vases and other littles. They come into bloom right in the heart of spring wedding season, and I’d be lost without them. Bulbs are CHEAP! And they naturalize if you make sure to put them somewhere they won’t get stomped on when they aren’t in bloom. You can also easily grow them in crates. One crate can hold about 80 bulbs if you pack them in. Try some and I’m betting you’ll join me in my obsession!

3. Leucojum

Another spring favorite that is phenomenal to have if you’re a farmer-florist or selling to designers is Leucojum aestivum, or Giant Snowdrop. Cute white bells dangle from tall, straight stems, making you think it’s an oversized lily of the valley (it’s not). They are incredibly easy to work into spring bouquets where they add a real touch of elegance. L. aestivum pair perfectly with Icelandic poppies, tulips, and hellebores. Their bloom period is pretty long for a spring bulb since they shoot up several stems per plant. Bonus: they naturalize like bunny rabbits when they are happy. At this point, I have more than I know what to do with, but I’m not complaining! They’re just as endearing left in the landscape as they are in the vase. One important note about leucojum is that they too ooze sap like narcissus so handle them the same way as I described above.

4. Fritillaria

Ah, the much sought-after Fritillaria! In particular, Fritillaria persica, has been making waves in the designer world for the past few seasons. Stems can fetch as much as $28 each in the New York City market!! Holy moly!! But the bulbs are pricey (up to $8 each depending on your supplier), can be short-lived if you don’t know how to treat them, and usually only put up one nice stem their first year in the ground. All of which makes the cost of this particular fritillaria as a cut flower high. However, if you can get them to perennialize at your farm and you have a high-end clientele, you’ll have yourself a real golden goose. The trick to keeping F. persica happy is to plant the big fat bulb on its side in very well-draining soil. The bulb is very prone to rotting and there’s a hollow spot in the tip of the bulb that catches too much moisture if you plant it straight up and down. Laying it on its side helps circumvent rot. My F. persica bulbs are five years old now and they’ve actually started to self-seed around their beds so I’ve got lots more than the 100 I started with originally.

There are two other Fritillaria species worth noting, though I don’t grow either as a perennial. F. melegaris is a diminutive cousin to F. persica, beloved by designers for the checkered pattern on its nodding bell-shaped head. Bulbs are cheap and it’s worth treating them as an annual if they don’t take hold as perennials for you.  And F. imperialis is a stately, exotic-looking bloom that may tempt you as a cut, but its skunky smell usually puts most people off.

5. Formosa Lily

My new favorite perennial, blub or otherwise!!! I have to thank Mandy and Steve at 3 Porch Farm, long-time flower friends, for introducing me and many others to the fantastic Formosa Lily (Lilium formosanum)! Super easy to grow from seed, Formosa Lily is a stately and robust perennial that blooms in late August and early September, just when a clean white bloom is most welcomed after the tiring dog-days of summer. If you can resist cutting all the flowers, you’ll be rewarded with really striking seed pods later in the fall too. If that wasn’t enough to entice you, this lily also seems adapted to grow well in part shade, which is where mine have naturalized freely over the past two years. After getting established for a season or two, plants start sending up several stems each. The fragrance is a very light perfume that does not overpower the nose like many lilies, but does frequently lure people to lean in for a sniff.

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Did you notice the list didn’t include tulips? That’s because we do not perennialize our tulips here at Love ‘n Fresh Flowers. They are grown as an annual and we plant fresh bulbs every autumn so we get the most vigorous and vibrant blooms possible.

The soil in hoop houses typically gets very depleted over many years of crop production and revitalizing hoop house soils becomes a necessary focus as a farm matures.  There are two unheated hoop houses at Love ‘n Fresh Flowers, both Gothic-style and measuring 24’ x 48’, giving us a little over 2,300 square feet under cover.  The one house has been in production for nine seasons and the other for seven. 

One of my hoop houses is dedicated to perennial foliage crops like eucalyptus and rosemary and is the prop house in spring; that house has been cranking for many years with little fuss or input. Each fall I put a layer of fresh leaves on the beds in that house, but otherwise not much goes into them since the plants are well-established with deep root systems that are able to mine their own minerals and moisture over the seasons. 

The other house is what I call my “Spring House”, with production being primarily focused on early spring blooms like ranunculus, anemones, poppies, campanula, sweet peas, stock, and snapdragons.  Getting these flowers to harvest-stage in late March means Love ‘n Fresh Flowers is primed to provide florals for the popular spring wedding season here in Philadelphia, which runs April through June.  If you haven’t already, be sure to grab a copy of Cool Flowers by flower farming guru, Lisa Mason Zeigler, to learn how to do maximize fall plantings for early spring blooms at your farm too.

It is this second hoop house that is the focus of this article.  After seven seasons in production, I noticed a decided degradation in the soil, a marked increase in disease, and a frustratingly robust pest population in this house.  Of those seven seasons in production, I had been tilling the soil for six. Because the house was such “valuable real estate”, I had neglected to give it any downtime for cover cropping or rest. Organic matter was low at 3% and the pH had creeped up.   

In the early spring of 2019, the ranunculus in particular were a tragedy with massive amounts of root rot and an infestation of aphids.  While it might be tempting to just purchase and apply formulated fungicides and pesticides to combat these issues, I realized those would be merely band-aids.  The real problem was the soil.  Without balanced and healthy soil for their foundation, the crops would continue to languish despite all the sprays I might use (for the record, we have never used any types of synthetic sprays here at Love ‘n Fresh Flowers). 

The challenge with revitalizing hoop house soils is that you must take the hoop house “offline” to make any serious progress.  A hoop house not in production would make many a farmer anxious.  It’s prime real estate and some of the best money-making square footage on most small farms.  But there comes a time when you can’t keep putting off the project of revitalizing hoop house soils.  The key is to have a really solid game plan in place and make the most of your efforts!  Many farmers will just take the “skin” (plastic) off a house and let it sit open to the elements for a summer, which does help leach out the salts.  But you can do a lot more than that to renew the life and balance in your hoop house soil!

Steps Taken at Love ‘n Fresh Flowers to Revitalize Hoop House Soils

These steps were taken over the course of the 2019 growing season.  Cash crops (ranunculus, anemones, sweet peas, stock, campanula, and snapdragons) were removed in late May and then those same cash crops were replanted in early November.  The process described below took a little over five months. 

After removing the cash crops in late May, all irrigation and other crop infrastructure was removed from the hoop house beds to create a blank slate.  Any large weeds were pulled and removed from the house.  The soil was broad-forked. 

Buckwheat seed was broadcast across the entire surface of the soil in the hoop house to be a quick-turn cover crop.  A metal rake was used to scratch the seed into the surface and it was watered in with a hose.  This was Round 1 of buckwheat.

Buckwheat is a fantastic cover crop for so many reasons. It germinates easily from broadcasting (versus some cover crops need a seeding implement such as a drill seeder).  It is cheap.  It grows very rapidly so it outcompetes any weeds.  Its rapid growth (a full stand will grow in just over 30 days during the heat of summer!) also means it can be planted when there is not much of a window for a cover crop.  It thrives in our hot summers here.  It is a tremendously beneficial plant for pollinators who are attracted to the multitude of little white buckwheat flowers.  Because it is so tender and succulent, it’s very easy to terminate with just a push mower (excellent for no-till/no-tractor farmers). And it has great root system that loosens the soil as it decays after termination (also great for no-till/no-tractor farmers).  All of this added up to buckwheat being the perfect cover crop choice for revitalizing hoop house soils during the summer months. 

If I were trying to do this process during cooler months, I would have used a mustard and daikon mix.  The added benefit of those two would be that they have biofumigant properties that would help with suppressing disease build up.  If disease becomes an issue again in my hoop house, I will cover cropped it during some cooler months to get at least one round of mustard in there.  But since revitalizing my hoop house soils during the 2019 summer, the disease issues seem to be a lot better. 

After Round 1 of buckwheat had gone to flower, but prior to it setting seed, I used my walk-behind string trimmer to chop the buckwheat down at the base.  I broadcast another round of buckwheat seed throughout the house and then gave it a good soaking with the hose.  Within a few days, Round 2 of buckwheat was germinated and pushing through the old buckwheat debris.  At this point it was late June. 

Round 3 of buckwheat was sown in late July after Round 2 was terminated.  Same process as described above.  Round 3 of buckwheat was then terminated in early September. 

After chopping down Round 3 of buckwheat, it was time to move forward in the process.  The buckwheat had helped to fight weeds in the house all summer.  The three rounds of finely-networked buckwheat root systems had created substantial biomass in the soil that was now breaking down rapidly to feed the microbiology that was (hopefully) multiplying in the soil now that The Rule of Return (more on this later) had been followed.  The buckwheat also mined a lot of minerals during its trio of growth cycles that were also being put back into the soil ecosystem. 

The next step was to get all that plant debris from “the summer of buckwheat” to break down without having to till it into the soil.  After using a hose to wet down ground for about 15 minutes, we pulled tarps across the entire interior of the hoop house, all the way to the edges.  This tarping over moist soil in the warm hoop house created a highly digestive state under the tarps, which churned up all the remaining plant material from the buckwheat in just three short weeks!  It also killed any weeds that might have managed to thread their way through the summer of buckwheat.  

At this point, it is late September. Next up was compost and amendments.  We removed the tarps and broadcast an assortment of soil amendments that were chosen based on soil testing results.  Included in these amendments were agaronite, granular humates, worm castings, sulfur, and soil mineralizer.  Your soil will likely need something different than mine so be sure to get a detailed soil test. I recommend Waypoint Analytical for that. After the amendments were broadcast on the soil surface, we brought in some high-quality, well-aged compost.  A thick layer of compost (about four inches) was spread across the entire hoop house.  We used wheelbarrows rather than a tractor as I did not want to compact the soil after working so hard to revitalize it!

The next step is optional:  Because the environment in a hoop house can be quite arid (no rain), high salinity is a potential challenge if growing intensively in a hoop house over several seasons, especially if the farm is using synthetic fertilizers or mushroom compost (notorious for high salts).  My farm has never used synthetic fertilizers or mushroom compost so the salinity level in the soil here was really pretty good (.43).  But since I know it is recommended to remove the skin from a house every so often to let the rain in, I figured now was a good time to simulate a heavy rain event by running a sprinkler in the house for 48 hours straight.  If you have a soil salinity reading of more than 1.25 (using a 1:2 testing model), you’ll want to be sure to incorporate this step during the process of revitalizing your hoop house soils. 

After letting the house dry out for about a week after running the sprinkler, it was time to layout the beds and get ready to plant.  Having learned from my mistakes over the years, we were very diligent this time about measuring out the beds precisely and marking them with permanent short corner stakes pounded securely into the ground and tomato twine run on the ground around the boundary of each bed.  This has been superbly helpful in making sure we are not stepping into beds and whenever adding amendments now we know precisely where to put them.  Wish I had been this careful the first time I laid out this house!! 

With the beds clearly defined, prior to laying drip tape, we broad-forked the beds once more.  Then we laid the drip tape: five lines per 36” bed (six inches between the lines).  The drip tape doubles as a planting guide so we know planting is straight within the rows.  The third week of October we planted flowers once again (ranunculus, campanula, snapdragons, etc) to grow through the winter and bloom in the spring.  After the beds were planted and the transplants were growing nicely, in December I spread a thin later of mulched leaves on all the beds for a little extra microbial boost.  I also thickly mulched all the walkways with leaves so no weeds will come through.  

So there you have it!  A process for revitalizing hoop house soils.  And it really worked here!  The soil in this house, previously pulverized, compacted and uninspiring, has been fluffy and full of life ever since!  Where there was a hard pan just a few inches down and planting was a real chore, now it’s easy to sink a probe 12” or more into the soil!  The crops are healthy and the pest pressure has gone way down, though some credit should likely be given to having adopted Korean Natural Farming (KNF) practices too.  Another topic for another info-packed blog post in the future!  In the meantime, be sure to listen to the No-Till Flowers Podcast if you haven’t already, particularly the episode with Tony from Bare Mountain Farm for more info on KNF.   

All photos in this post are property of Love ‘n Fresh Flowers.  Do not use without written permission. 

 #HoopHousesProduction

I have had this long-standing dream for my farm that has finally come to fruition this season: an all-native bouquet, including fillers, foliages and focal flowers. It took several seasons of curating a diverse collection of perennials and shrubs – culling some and adding others – to be able to make bouquets of only-native ingredients that are beautiful and long-lasting for our customers. And while it’s not really feasible to have a flower farm of only native plants, it is incredibly valuable for every farm to add as many native plants as possible to their crop plans to be truly regenerative.

What exactly is a native plant? It’s a plant species that has been in a place since before colonization. Essentially an indigenous plant that was not carried by humans across a sea or other great distances to be where it is now. It can be hard to determine what’s native and not native as many plants have become so common in the landscape that they do not appear “exotic” in origin any longer. A great reference database is this site for the Biota of North America Program (other countries likely have something similar for readers who are not based in North America).

So why focus on native blooms and foliages when there are sexy flower rockstars like dahlias, tulips, peonies and ranunculus that always seem to need more space in your fields? In a nutshell: ecological resiliency. Life on this planet is intrinsically interwoven in such a way that we humans can not even begin to fathom. Birds and bugs and microbes and much more all co-evolved alongside each other and alongside native plants, each becoming interdependent on the other in a cycle of reciprocity that helped them all thrive, not just survive. When we humans turn a blind eye to that interconnectedness and populate a landscape with lots of non-native plants in an effort to meet our own goals, we fail to be part of that cycle of reciprocity and thus the ecosystem as a whole (humans being a part of that) is crippled.

One oft-cited example of how powerful a native plant is in the landscape versus a non-native plant is that of the research done by Doug Tallamy at the University of Delaware. His data collection shows that a native oak tree in the mid-Atlantic region here in the United States supports on average over 500 species of caterpillars. In contrast, a ginkgo, a common landscaping tree brought in from Asia, hosts only 5 species of caterpillars. Caterpillars (and other bugs that live in trees) are vital food for the young broods of nesting songbirds so more are better. Birds and caterpillars are just one tiny link in a complex and massive food chain that keeps our world in balance. The selection of trees in a single one-mile stretch of a street or field hedgerow could have a powerful impact on how much wildlife can live and thrive there. The same is true with our flower farms!

By choosing to incorporate as many native plants into your flower fields and gardens as you can, you’ll be making a concerted effort to have a healthier environment and a more resilient growing space in the face of drastic weather changes. You’ll encourage the bird population in particular; these winged friends will repay you by hunting for pests like cucumber beetles, slugs and grasshoppers among your flowers. Your soil will improve as the native plant root systems spread and feed soil microbiology. With each season, as the ecosystem rights itself, your farm will become more sustainable and less dependent on sprays and time consuming techniques like organza bags over blooms. And the stems harvested from native plants will be among your most unique, setting your bouquets apart in the local marketplace. Native plants are truly a win all the way around!

Depending on where you are located, the list of the most likely native candidates for planting at your farm may vary. The Audubon Society has a wonderful searchable database where you enter your zipcode and they give you an exhaustive list of all the plants native to your region and the birds they support. It’s a really fun way to spend a few hours reading!

But not all native plants make for good cutting material on a commercial level. Some have short vase life. Some are slow growing so you can’t cut much from them at any one time. Some don’t hydrate well. I would recommend doing a few trial plantings before putting in dozens of any given plant. The following is a list of 15 of my favorite native plants here at my farm in Philadelphia (Zone 7), all of which have proven to be great for designing and hold up well in bouquets. This is not an exhaustive list of all the native plants grown at Love ‘n Fresh Flowers, but these are the ones I think are best to get started if you too are flower farming in North America, particularly the mid-Atlantic region. If you farm elsewhere, do a little digging and experimenting to find out what native plants in your region work best for cutting.

And guess what? The best time to plant native perennials and shrubs is in the autumn! If you take just a few hours now, you’ll be able to source plugs and liners to get these beauties going yet this year on your farm. North Creek Nurseries and Walters Gardens are two great places to start looking but there are many suppliers and I suggest shopping as locally to you as possible. 

Mountain Mint 

Pycnanthemum muticum is a fan favorite in the flower farming world. It’s abundant fragrant foliage is equally perfect for market bouquets and bridal bouquets. It gets at least 24” tall (often taller) and has stiff, slender stems that, unlike typical culinary mints, hold up really well once they’ve been hydrated properly. We begin cutting it when the small white flowers appear in mid-summer (basically, if the bees are buzzing all over it, it’s ready to cut). One criticism of mountain mint you may hear is that it spreads readily. We’ve not experienced that, likely because we cut it so much that it doesn’t have extra energy to run. Even if it did, I’d be thrilled! We never have enough!

Coneflower

Echinacea purpureais currently a darling in the flower farming world because of all the new and fun hybrids that have come to the market in recent years.  One of the few native focal flowers here in the mid-Atlantic region, it’s great that they are available in such a wide range of colors and shapes now.  The classic straight species purple is still a winner in my book and the simplest to grow from seed for your own propagation. Drought-tolerant and unfussy plants, it’s easy to love them.  But sometimes their petals get nibbled by bugs.  Rather than despairing, we pluck the petals off mature blooms and use the bare cones as textural accents in bouquets.  Super fun and long-lasting!

Baptisia

Baptisia australis is another standout native and one of the most productive plants at my farm. In spring, it puts out striking flower spikes in shades of yellow, purple, pink, cream or near-blue. I leave about half the flowers on the plants though as I love the green seed pods that come next; a great accent in June wedding designs! Then the rest of the year we’re using the abundant foliage for mixed bouquets and wedding designs alike. The flowers and foliage can be a bit tricky to initially hydrate. Harvesting should be done in the early morning and the flowers and foliage should both be stored in the cooler over night before being put to use. One criticism of baptisia is that you have to wait at least three years before starting to harvest, but it’s totally worth the wait. Once you have an established patch, you’ll never be without.

Rudbeckia

Rudbeckia trilobais a personal favorite of mine, but all rudbeckias (black-eyed susans) are notable native cut flowers.  My affinity for R. triloba lies in the fact that it’s a cheerful and highly productive filler that reseeds itself happily so once you’ve got it, you’ll never have to worry about getting more.  Towering at about 5 feet on my farm, we are able to cut steadily from it from mid-summer into the fall.  Its little clear yellow flowers go with most any color palette.  I’ve got mine in some afternoon shade without any irrigation and it’s happy as can be. 

Yarrow

There’s some debate about if Achillea millefolium can really be called a native plant to North America. According to the definitive definition, a native plant is one that was here before colonization. Yarrow, native to Europe, was brought here by colonists really early on and has since naturalized so much in the U.S. that it is now essentially considered a native wildflower by many horticulturalists since it is capable of supporting so much in our ecology here. Because it’s such a great cut flower, it’s getting a nod in this list as a perennial that can help balance your farm’s ecosystem. Many useful medicinal qualities to boot too!

Penstemon

Penstemon digitalis, also commonly known as beardtounge, is a perennial spike flower that reminds me of a more whimsical version of a snapdragon. Highly productive once established, these meadow and prairie dwellers are drought-tolerant and pest-free, blooming profusely in early summer and then sending out secondary stems sporadically through the summer. There are several new cultivars coming onto the market right now that make for an extra showy stem that is likely to fetch a premium price. Certain varieties also make interesting seed heads that dry well. This is a plant family worth looking into more for cut flowers!

Phlox

Phlox paniculatais not to be confused with the little annual phlox varieties that are so popular in flower farming at the moment.  This perennial native is often towering and productive in a way those wimpy annual types will never be. A wide array of cultivars are available in a rainbow of colors.  ‘David’ and ‘Jenna’ are two of my longest lasting favorites that come back reliably year after year.  In our hot, humid summers here, they have appreciated a touch of afternoon shade and a deep mulch to keep their roots cool.  While deer-resistant, I have found groundhogs to enjoy nibbling on them.  To avoid shedding, cut when the buds are swollen and colored but before the blooms open.  Once pollinated, the individual florets drop immediately.

Diervilla

Diervilla rivularis, also known as bush honeysuckle, is a small native shrub that deserves a lot more attention in the flower farming world.  It can be used for its small yellow flowers as a filler or, most often here at Love ‘n Fresh Flowers, its long-lasting foliage is excellent in all manner of bouquets and designs.  About thigh-high, it is constantly sending up new slender woody stems throughout the season so we keep cutting from it for months.  It is a suckering plant so it will spread if left unattended, but that quality is what makes is such a productive cut. 

Goldenrod

Solidago speciosa is such a common meadow wildflower around here that it’s gotten a bad rap as being the culprit for autumn seasonal allergies. However, goldenrod is pollinated exclusively by beneficial insects (which means no pollen up our noses), making it an incredibly valuable native plant to have on your farm. In my experience, it hates to be domesticated and won’t thrive if “cropped” in the traditional rows in a flower field. Instead, I let a patch of it run wild on the edges of the farm, where it is utterly carefree and zero maintenance. It can be harvested for greenery starting in July, but we cut the bulk of it when it reaches the chartreuse bud stage – an amazing filler for late August bouquets. It’s still wonderful to use as it ages into its mature golden yellow state, but then I find customers see it more as a “weed” and sometimes complain. It’s also a great dried flower that fades to that oh-so-popular tan/bleached shade that’s trending right now.

Monarda

Monarda punctata is my favorite of all the beebalms.  There are many monardas used for cutting, but this one is incredibly striking for wedding design work. It has an incredible vase life so it’s equally useful for consumer bouquets.  A prairie wildflower by nature, it’s a free loving spirit that can adapt to most any sunny spot and soil. It’s little yellow florets with brown spots remind me of teeny orchids. Sometimes these little florets won’t look so great in your design work, but it is easy to pluck them out and leave the soft lavender pink foliage in place.  A member of the mint family, monarda can spread, but I’ve never had any trouble with it being a thug here at my farm.  In fact, I’m always trying to get it to spread more because I love it so much.

Joe Pye Weed

Eupatorium dubium is another lesser-known native rock star for cut flower production. It has a delicate umbel of creamy pink flowers in late summer that are superb in mixed bouquets and event design work alike. The first flush of sturdy straight stems is hip-high or taller, and then it re-blooms throughout the autumn with shorter side shoots. We never seem to have enough even though the patch gently spreads each year. The variety ‘Little Joe’ is my favorite, and I like the flowers best in bud stage. And if you weren’t already convinced, Eupatorium is very drought tolerant and a major butterfly magnet.

Clethra

Clethra alnifolia, also called summersweet, is a smaller native shrub that can handled tricky spots with less-than-ideal soil or sun.  Part shade and wet soils are its favorites, but it’ll adapt to pretty much anywhere. It will spread if left unchecked, a habit I quite like personally, but one to be aware of if you are confined to a small growing space.  Small flower spikes, either in white or pink, develop in the middle of summer that have the sweetest scent.  Great filler for wedding designs as the fragrance is notable and floral, but not overpowering – one of those smells that will tickle guests’ memories for years to come.

Bleeding Hearts

Dicentra spectabilis is such a charming woodland plant and perfect for any deeply shady spot around your farm or garden. Its delicate appearance belies a surprisingly long vase life. A spring ephemeral, it is only harvestable for about one week each season, but given it can thrive in spots many other cut flowers would fail, it’s worth tucking into your crop plan. Harvest when a flower or two at the bottom of the stem has gone to seed, which signals the stem is mature enough to not wilt.

Aronia

Aronia arbutifolia, also commonly called chokeberry, is a wonderful, slender-stemmed shrub that offers up bright red foliage in the autumn and glossy green foliage in the summer. Foliage holds up well out of water! Shrubs also produce beautiful fruits in the fall that can be used in centerpiece designs. The fruit is edible if you happen to be looking for a value-added product like jams and other preserves produced by your farm. Bonus: this is another shrub that can handle part shade well and we have it planted at the edge of our woods here where not much else will grow well.

Arrowwood Viburnum

Viburnum dentatum is one of my hardest-working shrubs around the farm. Producing filler flowers, foliage and berries all on one plant over the course of the season. It gets its common name from its historical use as wood for the shafts of arrows used by indigenous peoples in its native range, which is to say it’s got the most perfect slender sturdy woody stems for arrangements! Birds adore it as shelter and a food source. It tolerates most any soil and flowers on new wood so you can cut and cut and cut from these without fear of losing potential.