Author Archives: Heather

Seasonal DIY Flowers from Goebel Hill Farm

By 2 commentsEvents at Goebel Hill Farm, Farming and Flora

Dahlia Bouquet at Goebel Hill Farm

Do It Yourself (DIY) flowers can be as simple or complicated as you make it.  All you really need are beautiful, fresh flowers and some inspiration!  With a little planning, you can easily enjoy gorgeous, seasonal flowers on your special day without a big outlay of cash and have a lot of fun in the process!

We have about 300 dahlias growing at Goebel Hill Farm this summer.  The flowers are starting to bloom and will be available in quantity towards the end of July and lasting through our first frost.  Dahlia blooms are classy, bold and beautiful.  Seven to ten dahlia stems alone can easily fill up an average size vase or quart Mason jar. All you need is a little plan.

An excellent tool for turning your flower dreams into reality comes from Georgie Newbery of Common Flower Farm.  She is an independent farmer and florist living in the UK.  One of her books “Grow Your Own Wedding Flowers” has tips and a sample planning spreadsheet that can take away the guesswork and get you on the road to beautiful flowers without breaking the flower budget.  If you don’t have time to grow your own don’t fret, we can help you out.

Once you know your desired color palette and have an idea of the height and width of the arrangement or bouquet you have in mind, you are ready to go.  Pinterest is a wonderful resource!

Deconstructed Bouquet

The Materials

Here’s is an example.

If you are expecting 80 guests at your wedding or event and your guests will be seated eight to a table,  you will need 10 table arrangements.

Number of each flower per arrangement:

  • 10 Dahlias x 10 arrangements = 100 Dahlias 
  • 2 Dusty Miller stems x 10 arrangements = 20 stems 
  • 2 White Frills Sweet Pea stems = 20 stems

The number of stems you need in this very simple bouquet would be 14 stems or 140 total for ten arrangements.  Done!

Goebel Hill Farm Dahlias

DIY Dahlia and Dusty Miller Bouquet from Goebel Hill Farm

Do the same for bridesmaids’ bouquets, corsages, bride’s bouquet, boutineers, etc. and you’ll have a system that will turn your flower dreams into an affordable plan. We would love to help you out so click here to learn how to get your flower fix from Goebel Hill Farm this summer and thank your for your interest in our farm.

Save Time for Sweet Peas!

By 2 commentsEvents at Goebel Hill Farm, , , , , , , ,

These are Spencer Sweet Peas. I start sweet pea seeds in January for a strong show of gorgeous flowers from late June through July.  Sweet Peas are needy.  Time, space, support, a lot of  water and nutrients (this is where our chickens come in handy 😊).

Sweet Peas need to be picked often or they will flower, decide they have done their job, then go to seed on you!  I pick ours every two days and change out the flowers at our farm table on Goebel Hill Road accordingly.  I pick Sweet Peas into water with flower food (water with a little sugar helps, too) because they last a few days longer that way when kept in a cool house.  Please feel free to take the jar with you.  If you don’t need it, return it next time and we will wash and reuse it.

Our Harry, Joyce Stanton, Betty Maiden

These delicate Sweet Peas smell like heaven and have such romantic names they have captured my attention my whole life.  They appear to be THE flower of England.  There are Sweet Pea shows and competitions over there, kind of like what we Americans do with dahlias!

Sweet Peas at Goebel Hill Farm

Molly Rilston, Dynasty, Gwendoline

Awhile ago several family members and I sprang for one of those popular DNA tests.  I was surprised to find that I’m predominantly British and Irish;  so this explains my commitment to Sweet Peas! LOL!

I buy my Spencer Sweet Pea seed from the UK at either Owl’s Acres or King’s Seed.  Recently Floret Flowers up in the Skagit Valley started offering Spencer Sweet Peas seed for sale, too; buying local is always good.  You can also save your own seed with a little planning ahead.  We will have Sweet Peas for a few more weeks, so be sure to stop by the stand on Goebel Hill Road for a bouquet to enjoy this summer.