November 6, 2023
Spokane, WA
Our first couple of years flower farming, we didn't grow tulips. At the time, I just didn't feel like there was time--still working an essentially part-time job at the hospital and having small children. Flower farming was newer and we were just trying to ease in to everything. I mean, starting a flower farm in general was sort of a crazy adventure! We also believed tulips to be a large upfront cost that this flower farm just couldn't afford to invest in. We had ALL the excuses. Then came 2020. You got a dog...I got tulips, okay?!
Enter 2021. We hit May Day strong and had a May Day event that helped us see the tulip light. People wanted the blooms in 2021! People needed tulips in 2021. It was a thing of beauty...the event...the flowers...the supportive humans!
2022 was a different story. May 9th, 2022. You know what day that was? I'll tell you. It was the day our tulips began to bloom! It also just happened to be THE DAY AFTER MOTHER'S DAY. Now, as you may have guessed, this was not SUPER convenient and if you hear a touch of sarcasm in my typing here...I mean it with every ounce of saltiness one could muster. No one wants flowers the day after Mother's Day. Would you buy flowers the day after Mother's Day?! Let me tell you who buys flowers AFTER Mother's Day...not you...not me...no one. So we put our tulips in the fridge and sold what we could. We were calling it quits on tulips.
2023. Here's the thing...the tulips were happening whether we wanted them to or not. It was too late to go back. In order to get the tulips you want for the next year, you are best off to place tulip orders in May the year prior. That's right, the tulips off our farm are carefully planned a year in advance. So no matter how the year before went, we had tulips being delivered in the fall of 2022 for the following year. Great. Well, fortunately, in 2023 Mother's Day tulips were a thing again!
We have found tulips, on a whole, to be a flower that sort of reignites people. They pull individuals out of their winter slump, bring color to still somewhat dreary days, and give a little hope for days to come. Fortunately, whether a good tulip season or bad tulip season, it tends to ignite a fire for Simply Picked Flowers. We either hustle to make up for that product loss like we had in 2022 OR we hustle because people are telling us they need more flowers! In some cultures, it is said that tulips represent "resurrection and new beginnings".
Flowers from Simply Picked say so many things, and we can't help but think that "resurrection and new beginnings" is such an awesome thing to celebrate. So, cheers to tulips and new beginnings!
~M
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