Cosmos are annuals, grown for their showy flowers. The flower heads may be bowl– or open cup–shaped and are atop of long stems. Cosmos are easy to grow and make good border or container plants. They make for good decorations in flower arrangements and also attract birds, bees, and butterflies to your garden.

As seen at Secret Language of Flowers.

Longing for a quiet, simpler life, Erin Benzakein and her family moved out of Seattle 14 years ago and relocated to a farm 60 miles north of the city. A few years later, with two small children in tow, she wanted to start a business that allowed her to work from home. She had been a gardener all her life, so she began by growing vegetables, then heirloom apple trees, and she eventually even tried raising chickens. Nothing, sadly, was quite right. It wasn’t until she planted a double row of sweet peas to honor her great-grandmother that she found her calling.

She had been a gardener all her life, so she began by growing vegetables, then heirloom apple trees, and she eventually even tried raising chickens. Nothing, sadly, was quite right. It wasn’t until she planted a double row of sweet peas to honor her great-grandmother that she found her calling.

She began documenting her experience on her website, floretflowers.com. “We discussed the blog as a family, since the kids are so intimately involved with the farm. We had to make sure they were comfortable being a part of the blog, too,” she says. Photographs of Benzakein; her husband, Chris; and their kids working in the fields fill the blog, as do pictures of gorgeous arrangements and rows of blooms in the evening sun.

To read more about this thriving family business please see

Martha Stewart April 2015.

May 1 is an ancient Northern Hemisphere Spring Festival.  It is also a traditional spring holiday in many cultures. Dances, singing, and cake are usually part of the celebrations that the day includes.

Image borrowed from Bathtub Gardens, BC.

The flower market at 28th Street is the historic heart of America’s $18 billion flower industry. Its traditional structure was simple: local florists bought from wholesalers in the markets, who in turn sourced flowers from growers or their agents.  There are two ways into the flower business: by birth or by accident. Alongside a dozen or so family firms, 28th Street employs ex-pint-pullers from Ulster, oil riggers, Punjabi toughs and a Serbian former Marlboro Man, who have all found a happy home in a place that sells dead plants with names such as “Hot Eskimo” and “Charming Babe Spray”.

Yet for all its gritty sophistication, 28th Street is a shadow of its former self. It was set up in the 1890s and dominated by Greeks, mainly from a town called Nafpaktos, according to Louie Theofanis who runs Major Wholesale Florist, a second-generation firm founded by his father who, legend has it, started out sleeping in a flower box on 6th Avenue. Steven Rosenberg of Superior Flowers, a third generation florist, says his grandfather spoke Yiddish when he arrived in New York and learned Greek to work on 28th Street.

Transient, superfluous and beautiful, flowers decorate the pinnacle of New York society. The city’s wealthiest, whose Upper East Side penthouses can be spied from the Met’s roof, might spend $10,000 a week on them…

Read the full article in The Economist,  Dec 20, 2014

Hudson Valley Seed Library is featured significantly in the New York Times!!

The “Art of the Heirloom,” as the title goes, is ecological, historical, commercial and participatory.  The collection of  59 seed-pack designs are featured in an exhibition at the New York Botanical Garden thru July 19, before going on a yearlong tour, with stops at the Philadelphia Flower Show; the Tower Hill Botanic Garden, outside Worcester, Mass.; and the National Heirloom Exposition in Santa Rosa, Calif.)

From right to left, top to bottom:  Chives by Sarah Jacoby; Common-milkweed by Nancy Blum; Midnight Garden Flower Mix by Tonja Sell; Snapdragon Mix by Olivia Mew

Stupendous beauty from G. Page wholesale market, NYC!!

BBrooks member Dragonfly Farms in Healdsburg, CA is the place to be on Oct 25!  The farm will host a pop-up dinner with Chef Matteo from Chalk Hill Cookery. 

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Thyme-scented Cashew Cheese Ravioli

Tierra Vegetables Flageolet Bean Pistou

Escarole Salad w/Persimmon, Pomegranate, Toasted Walnuts & Vinaigrette

Crepinette of Roasted Pumpkin

Pear and Hazelnut Torte

The Association of Specialty Cut Flower Growers (ASCFG) is putting on an amazing program October 19-22, in Newark, DE, for designers interested in using locally grown materials to elevate their creations.

“Growing Growers”
Growers’ School – Oct 19, 2014
National Conference – Oct 20-22

ASCFG Vice President Mike Hutchison of Robin Hollow Farm, Saunderstown, RI and feature speaker Sullivan Owen of Sullivan Owen Floral & Event Design, Philadelphia, PA are both BBrooks member florists!  They will be joined by dozens of other talented designers and farmer florists from around the country for an intensive of design demonstrations and frank round-table discussions on the art and science of working in the floral and wedding worlds with a focus on seasonal, local flowers.

Registration is nearly full!  www.ascfg.org

As seen on Botanical Brouhaha.

Leslie Bennett and Stefani Bittner share their combined knowledge of landscape design at Star Apple Edible & Fine Gardening in the San Francisco Bay area.  Together they utilize ecologically sound landscape design principles and small-scale urban agriculture by working with both ornamental and edible plants to create integrated ornamental and edible landscapes.

For more information, look for their book “The Beautiful Edible Garden” with noted input from BBrooks member florist Studio Choo partners Jill Rizzo and Aletha Harampolis.