Budding farmers work year-round to provide pretty peonies
A bouquet, artfully wrapped in paper or gently displayed in a vase, requires far more work than one might imagine.
It may be easy enough to pick out said bouquet, but an unbelievable amount of effort goes on behind the scenes to create these pieces of living art.
Two floriculturists behind locally grown flowers are working hard, practically year-round, to grow their blossoms. Hedy Flanders of Seashore Flower Farm, located in Cold Spring, and Shayla Woolfort of Bad Cat Farm in Goshen are brightening up the community with their blooms.
Seashore Flower Farm
While driving down Seashore Road, one may catch a glimpse of the farm stand right outside Flanders’ home at 810 Seashore Road. The self-serve stand is open from sunup to sunset.
“We feel lucky to grow flowers here in Cape May and the community has been so supportive,” Flanders said. “We love seeing how much joy a bunch of fresh, seasonal flowers can bring.”
“Just look for the sign,” Flanders said. “We grow everything right here, 100% farm-grown, [with] no imported flowers or wholesale annual plugs.”
Flanders said she has always been a gardener, mainly focusing on vegetables. She grew up with parents who kept a big backyard vegetable patch.
A few years before the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, she began experimenting with growing flowers.
“Once the 2020 lockdown hit and our former business, a learning center my husband, Steve, and I owned, had to close, I found myself leaning heavily into flowers,” she said. “It was a comfort and a source of joy during a difficult time.”
The pandemic forced the Flanders to make a change, and Seashore Flower Farm grew from that change.
With just more than an acre of space, Seashore Flower Farm is divided into areas designated for annual cut flowers and another for woodsy flowering shrubs, berry bushes, fruit trees and perennials.
“We start all of our annual crops from seeds in our seed-starting room inside our shed,” Flanders said. “We grow using organic practices — no pesticides, no synthetic fertilizers. Instead, we build soil health using compost and cover crops.”
She took a Floret Online workshop early on, which gave her a solid foundation and confidence to grow flowers on a larger scale.
“After decades of veggie gardening, I had a decent green thumb, but scaling up flower production was something new,” Flanders said.
Her growing season starts in March and ends with the first hard frost, which has been about late October.
“As for the offseason, well, there really isn’t one,” she said. “Starting in November, I’m sowing seeds for slow-growing plants like eucalyptus and lisianthus first,” she said. “While also caring for the hardy seedlings already out in the field that bloom in early spring.”
By December and January, Flanders is in the second wave of sowing. She tries to take a break around the holidays, but the farm is a lot of planning, planting and preparing for the next bloom.
This year, Flanders is growing a wide variety of flowers, including ranunculus, anemones, roses, peonies, dahlias, lisianthus, carnations, celosia, china asters, heirloom mums, iris, eucalyptus, feverfew, baby’s breath, herbs and even tropicals such as curcuma (also known as Siamese tulip.
“Of course, we also grow lots of summer favorites — zinnias, rudbeckia and sunflowers,” she added.
Picking a single favorite flower is impossible for Flanders.
“My favorites tend to change with the seasons,” she said. “In spring, I love ranunculus, anemones, peonies and feverfew,” she said. “In the summer, it’s the scent and color of roses, lisianthus, iris and curcuma.”
By fall, Flanders said she swoons over the heirloom mums, dahlias and eucalyptus.
Being surrounded by the beauty of the flower farm is her favorite part of her job.
“I love watching flowers go from tiny seeds to lush bouquets,” she said. “Each season I get to try something new and this year I’m experimenting with curcuma, which has been a showstopper.”
Being outside is another advantage of the life of a flower farmer. Flanders loves working with her hands and seeing the farm evolve year by year.
“The hard part [is that] flower farming is physically demanding,” she said, adding that it is a lot of lifting, bending and repetitive motion.
Flanders has had to make adjustments and work with her husband to help the farm flourish.
“As an older farmer, I’ve had to learn to work smarter, not harder,” she said.
In addition to the self-service stand at Seashore Flower Farm, Flanders offers several programs that allow people to experience the farm in more depth.
She offers a monthly flower subscription during spring, summer and fall, private U-pick sessions for small groups and celebrations, and workshops on flower arranging and wreath-making. Flanders will also create custom bouquets for special occasions.
“It all feels incredibly meaningful, whether it’s someone stopping by the stand on a rough day, a couple celebrating their wedding with a U-Pick, or kids on a field trip marveling at sunflowers taller than their heads,” Flanders said.
To learn more, visit seashoreflowerfarm.com and follow on Facebook/Instagram @seashoreflowerfarm, where viewers can find farm life updates, behind-the-scenes and flower photos.
Bad Cat Farm
Starting a flower farm is not simply the process of finding a piece of land and planting seeds. The third time was a charm for Bad Cat Farm, which started in 2017 and is currently located at 432 Route 47 North in Cape May Court House.
“I had $300 saved for seeds and a lease agreement that traded growing space for cleaning up and tending an abandoned hops farm,” Woolfort said. “The next year I moved to a new growing space where I again traded labor for rent.”
In 2020, her family purchased a home with enough space to grow and she started in that location in 2021.
The farm has two high tunnels, which are unheated greenhouses. The larger of the two is used to extend the growing season and houses the “eucalyptus jungle,” as Woolfort dubs it. The smaller high tunnel is used primarily as an event space.
“I’ve started the farm three times and it’s much better living and growing in the same spot,” she said, adding that the biggest pro is making the farm work around her life and not the other way around.
The Bad Cat Farm stand is open 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays until the end of August. Flower bouquets are available on Fridays at Ostara’s Coffee House in West Cape May.
“Right now, I have two small fields, one mostly dedicated to peonies and dahlias, and one for mostly annuals like zinnias, cosmos and marigolds,” Woolfort said.
This year, Bad Cat Farm is growing a little bit of everything. Dahlia season is just starting, and the summer annuals — zinnias, marigolds, lisianthus, gomphrena, and cosmos — are going strong.
Woolfort’s favorite flower changes frequently, but right now she said cosmos fit the bill.
“They’re so delicate and ethereal,” she said. “Feverfew is also whimsical; I wish I could live in a feverfew cloud.”
Her newest favorite is an old variety of rudbeckia called “Henry Eilers.” It has a mini quilled flower that Woolfort said adds a bit of whimsy to bouquets.
Growing up, Woolfort had no interest in gardening, despite her mom having a large garden and occasionally selling at markets.
“After college I worked a lot of different jobs,” she said. “As far as growing and arranging flowers, my motto has always been ‘Fake it till you make it,’ but I really just jumped in and figured it out as I went.”
Before starting Bad Cat Farm, Woolfort knew she wanted to be a mom and create a life that would allow her to stay home while also doing work that she found meaningful.
“Of course, my naïve visions of a baby napping in a basket while I planted were immediately dashed,” she said. “Overall, we’ve made it work. My son worked his first wedding at six weeks old in a baby carrier.”
Woolfort’s son is now four years old and loves being outside in the dirt and fresh air, finding bugs and checking in on the flowers.
For now, the only offseason for Woolfort is January and February. She starts seeds in March and begins planning in April and May. She jokes that weeding is “for the rest of her life.”
Beyond farming, all the elements of running a small business are included.
“One thing that I gave zero thought to when starting the farm is emails, invoices and tax forms,” Woolfort said. “All the boring paperwork side of running a business [that takes] more and more of my time now in year eight.”
Farming is not an easy task, with Woolfort adding that there is always a flower that she forgot to grow or a crop totally decimated by bugs. She said she reaches a point every season when she thinks, “maybe next year.”
“I also do a lot of weddings, so the spring wedding season is May to June, and the fall season is September to October,” Woolfort said. “It gets a bit hectic, and that moves us right into wreath season from mid-November through mid-December.”
Her wreath classes sell out every year, and Woolfort said they are a lot of fun. Attendees can make custom wreaths from all-natural materials, both grown and foraged. All materials, tools and snacks are included.
To keep up to date on bouquet availability, classes and more, follow on Facebook @badcatfarm and on Instagram @badcatfarmcmc.
By RACHEL SHUBIN/Special to the Star and Wave
