Every person has a flower story, this is mine.
I can't be sure which came first, my predisposition for all things magical and mystical OR my fascination with flowers, but I do know I've been falling deeply in love with both all of my life.
The first time I felt the magic in this world was in the presence of flowers.
It happened on a hiking trip with my parents when I was so young I shouldn't remember but do. Just small clips - my father carrying my younger sister on his back in a pack - not much older than my youngest son is now,
winding my way through clumps of flowers,
looking down at my hands reaching to touch the yellow petals,
and my mama's voice saying, "they’re called Mule ears".
Someone else looking at those very same flowers could have seen simply sunflowers, but with whimsical heart, I didn’t see a flower, I saw the Sun! A star on Earth! And it lit me up with Joy and delight, filled me with wonder…what I FELT was Magic.
And I wanted more, so I found it every single thing that I could - people, places, in architecture and art, the wonders in science, philosophies and spiritualities, folklore, astrology, and witchery.
Yet no matter where I went seeking, I always felt the most enchanted in the presence of flowers.
Regardless of whether I was watching sunflowers waving from the side of the Idaho highways or the geraniums blooming in the middle of winter in my grandparents' hot-tub room - Flowers were always just MAGIC.
So we started growing them - me and my mama.
We began with growing Four O' Clocks, Marigolds, and Nasturtiums. (AND we grew Strawberries - my mama was a Strawberry + Cow kitchen mom).
As we watched them grow under our care, we fell in love with them, Each had their own charm, their own beauty, and magic.
Each had their own story. And we shared time in the garden, we began sharing our own flower stories with each other -that's how I learned that Sego Lily's are my grandma's favorite,
that my grandpa loved canna lilies and had poppies growing in his yard as a kid, and Calendula will take over your yard, just like it did to their yard up on Jane Street.
Our own stories lead us to discovering the stories of how our ancestors worked with flowers and with other plants, and the stories of the flowers themselves - how foxgloves were said to follow the faeries and how snapdragons were planted to protect homes.
Again, just MAGIC.
By the time I was ready to graduate, the dream I held most deeply in my heart - to be a mom, to be happily married, to live in a cute little house with a white picket fence and I wanted to own a greenhouse so that I could grow flowers.
At the age of 18, I leapt into the world, ready at the chance to make that dream a reality.
Well….you know how it's said that there are your plans, and then there's the Universe's plans?
Over the next decade, the Universe gave me plenty of opportunities to grow and bloom in ways that I could never imagined or have planned.
At times, I was closer to my dreams that I had ever been - the birth of my eldest son, working jobs within the green industry, and forged a deep bond with my family.
And at other times, I was pulled away.
In the Fall of 2016, I met the person, THE person, that would shift those dreams back into my reality permanently - My Stardust, Andy.
We fell in love quickly, people thought we were impulsive and borderline crazy when we decided to move in together just 6 weeks after meeting.
OUR flower stories began with the flowers gifted to us by our real estate agents when they gifted us a small yellow pot and a Ranunculus to welcome us to our new home. That's right! That following Spring, We bought our first home complete with a white picket fence, flower beds that ran along half of the exterior, and plenty of yard to turn into gardens later.
A dream come true.
Since then we've grown many dreams - a home, a family, a life we are enchanted by - and we've written many flower stories along the way.
And the next dream we are growing?
The next chapter in our flower stories to be written?
The story of our flower farm - Gothic Gardens.
