Last Harvest of the Season

As the warm embrace of summer gives way to the crisp, golden hues of autumn, there's something undeniably magical about the transition. It's a time when nature sheds its vibrant greens for a more subdued palette of reds, oranges, and yellows, and the world seems to transform before our very eyes. It's also the perfect season for one of our favorite traditions: the last harvest of the year. On this particular autumn day, we gather to celebrate the final bounty of the season, including dahlias, celosia, and several varieties of other dry-able flowers, which will be hung up in the barn to dry for our upcoming wreath-making classes.

A Perfect Fall Day

The scene is set on a perfect fall day – the sun casts a warm, golden glow over the landscape, and the leaves are changing, painting a breathtaking picture of nature's artwork. The air carries a distinct crispness that only autumn can provide, and there's a gentle breeze rustling the leaves. It's a day when time seems to slow down, allowing us to fully immerse ourselves in the beauty of the season.

The Last Harvest

In the fields that stretch before us, the last of the summer blooms are mingling with the vibrant colors of autumn. Dahlias, with their intricate petals and vivid hues, are among the stars of the show. They come in a variety of shapes and sizes, from the classic round forms to the spiky, cactus-like varieties. With hues ranging from deep burgundy to golden yellow, they are a true testament to nature's artistry. Shown below are several of our varieties, with the main ones being dahlia, Chewy.

Celosia, with its distinctive flame-like appearance, adds a unique touch to the harvest. These plumes of red, orange, and yellow resemble the flickering flames of a bonfire, making them an ideal addition to our fall collection.

Celebrating the Season

As we gather for this last harvest, we're not just collecting flowers; we're celebrating the season. We're savoring the changing leaves, the pumpkin decorations, and the unmistakable atmosphere of fall. We're finding joy in the act of creating and in the company of friends and fellow nature enthusiasts.

In a world that often rushes by, it's moments like these that remind us of the beauty in slowing down, connecting with the world around us, and using our creativity to transform nature's bounty into art. It's a reminder that each season has its unique charm, and by embracing it fully, we can find inspiration and fulfillment.

XX Jenn and Adam

Using Flowers to Create Botanical Based Dyes

The Charms of Botanical Dyeing

Botanical dyeing takes us back to simpler times, using the colors nature provides. It's like a plant-based paint palette that can turn ordinary tea towels into works of art. By using flowers, we can create a rainbow of shades that are both unique and eco-friendly.

Picking the Right Flowers

One of the exciting parts of botanical dyeing is selecting the flowers to work with. Different flowers yield different colors, offering a playful twist to the process.

Marigold: These sunny blooms create warm yellows and oranges, reminiscent of a golden sunrise.

Lavender: If calming pastels are your preference, lavender flowers are perfect for gentle purples and grays.

Coreopsis: With their vibrant petals, coreopsis flowers bring about shades of cheerful yellows and deep oranges.

Cosmos: Bright Lights or Sulphur cosmos as the best for dyeing, but we’ve found that we love the colors created by some of the darker cosmos. They make a lovely purple or blue color.

Dahlias: Provide a variation of shades, but the darker colors make the prettiest colors.

Indigo: For rich blues, indigo leaves hold the secret, providing a touch of deep ocean hues.

The Color Journey

Before diving into the dyeing process, the fabric needs a bit of prep. This involves cleaning and treating them to make sure they absorb the colors well. Once fabric has been prepped, you leave it damp, but not wet and add your flowers for dyeing. We use the bundle dyeing process for making our prints, which involved scattering flowers on the fabric, rolling the fabric up, then using a steam process to release the dye from the flowers.

After the fabrics have steamed for an hour, remove and open the fabric. The colors from the dye process are immediately visible. Gently remove all flowers from the fabric, then give your fabric a little rinse and hang to dry.

Botanical dyeing isn't just about changing colors; it's about connecting with nature and embracing its diversity. Each fabric created with botanical dye carries a piece of the flower farm's charm, telling a story of petals, leaves, and the colors they gift us. So, next time you use one of these tea towels, remember the journey it has taken – from the flower farm to your kitchen, with a touch of nature's magic in between.

XX Jenn and Adam

The GREAT Tulip Harvest of 2023

The Great Tulip Harvest of 2023 at PepperHarrow Flower Farm is sure to go down in history as a remarkable achievement for our team. This year's harvest has been outstanding, with a bountiful crop of vibrant tulips that have delighted the senses and brought joy to all who have had the pleasure of experiencing them.

Growing in our indoor growing space, forcing our tulips through the coldest months, we took our first harvest of tulips for a special pop-up at Des Moines Mercantile at the beginning of April. It was amazing, and we were so humbled, to see the amount of local support for our local flower farm and small business! People came out in force to grab a tulip bouquet to add a sprinkle of joy to their day!

Below is a photo of how the bouquets turned out. We added a few sprigs of willow, which gave them an even prettier look. They sold out the quickest!

tulip Bouquets for pop-up at DSM Mercantile

Right behind out indoor grown tulips, the field grown tulips were ready about two weeks later. They ended up blooming about a week and a half earlier than we expected, because we had a few days in the 80’s (F). Way too warm for this time of year and it made them grow a little more quickly than they normally would have

Once we saw that a few of them were starting to show what we call ‘color crack’, we knew it was time to open our you-cut tulip bouquet experience to the public. It’s a popular on farm experience we get to offer in the spring for people to come out and pick their own tulip bouquet. As an extra benefit, we give them the option to take the bulbs home with them to plant as well. Everyone has an absolute blast!

We welcomed each guest and gave them the run down of how they can harvest tulips. Everyone loved idea of simply pulling them from the ground bulb and all, a fan favorite! There’s something pretty enjoyable about pulling tulips from the lose ground bulb and all!

Field grown tulips at pepperharrow flower farm for you-cut tulip bouquet experience

Once the you-cut tulip bouquet experience was over, we knew it was time to get ALL of the tulips out of the flower field as quickly as possible. The deer pressure is so incredible, we knew we couldn’t leave an ‘all you can eat skittle buffet’ for them. Lol!

When we were within an hour of our last guest arriving, we started pulling all of the tulips from the ground as quickly as possible. Two people = 2,000+ bulbs = 5 tractor loads of tulips into our cooler to give them nice chill time until we sell them in bouquets, which should happen over the next 2-3 weeks. It. Was. Incredible.

We stopped for a few minutes for Adam to capture this remarkable sight of one of our many tractor bucket harvests of tulips. It was a pretty cold night, but the sun was out and the sky looked incredible as the picture was being taken.

Tractor full of tulips harvested over the weekend

You can find these cheery, bold colors over the next few weeks at small retail shops of Des Moines Mercantile, Gateway Market, and for our appearance at the Des Moines’ Downtown Farmer’s Market over the next few weeks.

Reflecting on the Great Tulip Harvest of 2023, we’re left with a sense of pride and accomplishment. We’ve worked tirelessly to bring these beautiful flowers to life, and their hard work had paid off in spades.

For us, the success of this year's harvest was a testament to our love of tulips and our commitment to growing them. We are grateful to our customers for their support and appreciation of the farm's efforts.

Looking ahead to next year's harvest, the team at Pepperharrow Flower Farm is already planning and preparing for what promises to be another spectacular season. We are committed to continuing our tradition of excellence and to bringing the beauty and joy of tulips to as many people as possible.

Happy Growing!

XX Jenn and Adam

New Dahlia Varieties We're Growing at PepperHarrow in 2022: Round 1

If y’all have been following along with our flower farming journey thus far, you know we’ve grown our selection of dahlias into a collection of really great varieties and have are known as some of the best dahlia growers in the us. This wasn’t intentional, but more the product of being a 100% plant addict and dahlia lover. Self control goes out the window when I see a gorgeous new dahlia variety I need to get my hands on. BUT it all works out in the end, because it means that all of our new varieties will be available for purchase to all of YOU!

We’ll be offering our dahlia varieties online coming soon, first to our Big Dreams Family on Patreon, which can be accessed here if you haven’t already. General availability for dahlia tubers for the public will go online on 1/1/23.

Here’s a look at some of our first round of our BEST new dahlia varieties we’re growing! We’ll share more soon, because they’re all starting to show off out in the garden!

XX Jenn

Bloomquist

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A beautiful new addition to our collection from Triple Wren Farms. It serves as a nice blush color for weddings and local florists. It grows about 5’ tall and has nice long, tall, sturdy stems for bouquets.

Observations: A prolific bloomer, perfect for specialty cut flower growers. Susceptible to powdery mildew.

KAs Mocha Jo

Who are we kidding?! We love ALL of the KAs varieties, but especially this one. It’s the ‘blendy pen’ of the dahlia world and because of this, it’s is a great dahlia to use for design work, because it bridges many colors.

Observations: Small, bushy growth habit. Doesn’t appear to produce a ton of tubers

Irish Ruffles

Never have we grown such a beautiful white dahlia. It has a large bloom with petals that look soft and fluffy, giving this beauty its name. It’s definitely a favorite of ours.

Observations: Needs to be staked due to the heavy bloom and tall stems the plant produces. Not a prolific tuber producer.

Aitara Diadem

Wow! I’m usually not really a fan of bi-color dahlias, but this bloom has stood out as one of the best in the garden. The 6’ blooms are some of the first to be cut to include in bouquets, because they’re so remarkable.

Observations: Tall, bushy growth habit with large leaves. Very healthy, vigorous plant.

KAs Bella Luna

Sourced from StoneHouse Dahlias as a rooted cutting and wow, has it exploded with growth. The bloom starts off as white and finishes with an unexpected burst of blush in the center. Just gorgeous!

Observations: Hardy, vigorous growing plant and blooms. 4’ tall with nice sturdy stems.

Quiet Splendor

This bloom was totally unassuming until it really started to open and I was struck by the blush variegation in the leaves. Must day, it’s a keeper! It’s taken lack of rain and terribly hot conditions and has thrived.

Observations: Tall, workable stems perfect as a specialty cut flower.

Normandie Wedding Day

Who doesn’t love dahlia cultivars from the UK? The unique, blush bloom on this beauty is just incredible. We’re not known for growing cactus varieties, which this one is, but this one was too pretty NOT to grow.

Observations: Prone to powdery mildew. Tall, sturdy stems.

Clearview Jennae

Wine or magenta? Either way, we’re obsessed with this gorgeous, prolific dahlia and will be adding more to our growing stock.

Observations: Incredible, tall growth habit, 5’ tall. Strong, sturdy stems perfect for specialty cut flowers.

PepperHarrow's 10 Year Anniversary!

IT’S BEEN A WONDERFUL 10 YEARS ON THE FLOWER FARM.

We’ve had so many success and failures over the last 10 years. It’s been full of learning and growing - of our land, flowers, and most importantly, in ourselves and our relationship. At times it hasn’t been an easy endeavor, but the reward of owning our own business, creating success, and growing the most gorgeous local flowers in Central Iowa has been worth all of it 1000X over.

Cute Celebratory Boards by @CakeDSM

Celebrating 10 years of owning a small business is pretty surreal. We high-fived, and celebrated this huge milestone, but we also found ourselves completely taken aback that it had been 10 years. It’s funny how the years seem to blend together and how 10 years ago almost feels like a yesterday.

We celebrated our special night with over 125 of our most favorite customers, they are the folks that have supported us and enabled us to hit this huge milestone. It’s with their support, encouragement, and love of our small business that has helped us build our dream into a reality! Okay, totally gushing over our customers, but y’all get the point. They’re the most wonderful peeps and have treated us so well over the years. Because of this, we treated everyone who came out to complimentary food, beverages, ice cream, and of course FLOWER BOUQUETS!

Yep, that’s right! We sent them out into our flower fields to cut their own bouquets to take home as a small token of our appreciation for them. It was the absolute BEST to see everyone enjoy themselves so much and to also see the beautiful bouquets they created. It was a hit with our Friends of PepperHarrow and something we’d like to treat our best customers to every few years.

Photo Courtesy of CakeDSM

Our 10 year anniversary celebration was not only to celebrate the farm, but we also held it in support of our local Madison County Conservation, who is building a new conservation center at Pammel Park. If you missed out on the opportunity to contribute, you can do so by scanning the PayPal QR code, below to make a donation. Or, you can send payments on PayPal via email address to: naturalist@madisoncountyparks.org

All proceeds will go directly to the conservation center as well as other nature enrichment activities for an outdoor classroom space. Next time you visit Madison County, check out some our treasured parks. You can get a list of them here.

Thank you so much for helping us celebrate 10 years and here’s to another wonderful 10 years of success to come! We can’t wait to share more of our flower farming journey with all of you, as well as more exciting announcements to come.

XX Jenn and Adam