Happy Friday y’all!

The pace is picking up out here. It’s that time of year when you feel the tide rise around you pretty quickly and realize you gotta get swimming a little faster. Spirits are still high, but you can feel that nipping sensation at your heels and an awareness that the stakes have just gone up. Though it's never awesome to feel your stress levels increase, it does mean that you’re invested in the outcome.

Mandy and I have lived like that 7 days a week as long as I can remember. We desperately care. We’re a little on the fanatical end of the scale in our life approach. We are compelled to try and do everything as good as we possibly can, because ultimately we know that what we do effects thousands of people each year in some small way. If we don’t do our best, then we’re missing an opportunity to do something positive and thereby letting people down. If we put beautiful things out into this world… it will impact other people’s day and mood… effecting how they treat the people they encounter later that day… thereby effecting… in some small butterfly effect way… the level of positivity in the world.

I know we’re not the red cross, and that this is just flowers, but I also know that these flowers are a gesture of love going to the person who just lost a loved one, or just lost a job, or just had a child. These flowers are more than flowers, and they are more than us and what we are doing. These flowers are proxies for feelings of goodwill, love and kindness spreading all over the country. We are just the conduit for those gestures, but we take that responsibility very seriously. Every interaction has reverberations into the future and spreads outward. So, we’ve always felt compelled to do right by our customers by doing our very best at our jobs, because we know the outcome is about way more than the bottom line.

It’s something different when you see that look in your employees’ eyes though. Seeing our team legitimately care about all that too is incredibly heartwarming. Our crew is awesome! They put themselves into the work. They’ll lose some sleep with concern for your orders if weather is questionable. They are eager to make things right when a delivery gets delayed. They fret over pests and plant health. They gush over the beauty of the flowers they work with daily. They’re invested in our little ecosystem on 9 acres and our bigger social system in 47 states. Mandy and I feel very fortunate for that.

Changing gears from philosophical emoting to random barn updates: the minute we finished siding the barn last weekend, Mandy was painting the interior.  Kind of a 1975 pea green linoleum vibe.  She had me install shelving, then she immediately put down an area rug, a velour lounge chair, a chandelier, and a huge painting of an earnest kitten, pensively looking through some lattice, contemplating the deeper mysteries.   We also put in a toaster oven, 2 microwaves and a tea pot.  For the kitten of course.  Chillin.  Nuking a hot pocket and just figuring it out.  It feels like a great location for a Tupperware party.  For now, it’ll serve as a very vibey snack shack for our crew.  Our Hellebore sale is now live to folks on the waitlist!  For folks not on the list, the sale goes live on Sunday to the general public.  I’ve sang their praises already, so I’ll spare you all but Clifford’s notes: Easy keepers, disease resistant, deer resistant, neglect resistant. Great Cut Flowers: Beautiful, Quick Growers, High Yielders, Tall Stems, Strong Stems, Outward facing blooms (not nodding heads).  Dahlia lovers and farmer/gardeners, we’ve added bulk purchasing discounts to our Dahlia tuber sale! 25% off for 10 or more of any one variety, so bulk up on your favorites for your spring planting. We had sold out of March flower subscriptions, but just added a few more if you are looking for that special gift for that special someone, even if that special someone is yourself.

And for this week’s recommendation of something cool to add to your life is Floret’s Flower Arranging Workshop.  Floret is a wonder in all fields and Erin is an incredible instructor who put together this unbelievably comprehensive course for anyone trying to make a living with flowers, or just trying to explore creativity and beauty with their garden and has an interest in arranging flowers.  There’s over 70 instructional videos on every facet of floral design, from flower harvest, to color theory, to vase selection, to all the techniques you’ll need to create huge beautiful arrangements, delightful corsages, and whimsical flower crowns.  They provide sample contracts, business advice, and even give instructions on photographing your arrangements.  Mandy took Floret’s first flower workshop ever about 13 years ago and it completely changed our lives.  This online workshop is much more evolved and comprehensive than what Mandy took and is something you can keep revisiting and continuing support is provided.  I can’t recommend this course enough to anyone looking to add design work to their flower farm or cutting garden.  There is no better option out there.  Erin and her team do everything to the max.  They push the limits of excellence well beyond what the rest of us deem possible.  This course is no exception to that.  Here’s a glimpse at what the workshop entails.  Oh…case in point about how Floret does everything better.   We sent them a bunch of our poppies and Erin did an unboxing on IG… then she did a time lapse of hundreds of poppies opening up.  I was in the house writing this newsletter, when I  heard 3 women scream.  I ran out to see what happened and Karmen, Kali and Rachel were pouring out of the office… all safe thank god!  Nobody was hurt.  Instead,  they held up a phone showing me the time lapsed bloom. It’s stunning. If you don’t follow Floret on Instagram, go take a peak. Why didn’t we ever think of that? We’re swimming in poppies for almost a decade and we’ve never done that.  She has our flowers for just 24 hours and creates something beautiful to share with the world.  Magical.

Anyways, if you love flowers, do yourself a favor and follow Floret.  Everything they do is next level magic.  The books, the t.v. series, the workshops, the seed breeding, the growing of flowers and of flower farmers and gardeners…..it’s mind boggling and wonderful.  They are an incredible team doing amazing work in this world and are very responsible for encouraging and shaping a large part of the proliferation of domestically grown flower operations.  Quite an impact.  If you have questions about any of our sales programs I mentioned, feel free to reach out to Karmen and Rachel at info@3porchfarm.com and they’ll be happy to help.I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

Steve