BETHLEHEM, Pa. — Even though “'tis the season,” soon enough the air will get warmer and color will replace the gray, and another season will take its place.
And there will be flowers.
Check out subscriptions to Community Supported Agriculture programs that offer flowers:
In the midst of battling the cold, one way to get in on the sweet anticipation of the upcoming blooms comes in the form of Community Supported Agriculture, or CSA.
Community members can support farmers by signing up and paying up front for flowers that come at intervals during spring and summer.
Buying a subscription in the dead of winter to a flower CSA brings the fragrant anticipation of the blooms to come. It’s just cheerful.
Community Supported Agriculture programs often also include vegetables, with a collection delivered regularly according to what’s in season.
Flower CSAs work the same way: Paying up front, before the flowers are delivered is the way for customers to invest in a farm, as well as reap the benefits.
Amber Lagonegro, owner of Rising Hill Farm in Springfield Township, Bucks County, started with vegetables when she began farming in 2017.
She switched to flowers for practical purposes.
“Not having to wash hundreds of pounds of vegetables is much more time efficient,” Lagonegro said.
Working from home — her farm — is a way for her to be with her children and still earn a living, she said, even though her workflow can get very busy.
Her growing season stretches from March to November, with May as her busiest month.
Rising Hill features specialty daffodils that are the stars of the first of two CSA seasons in April. Lagonegro plants 5,000 of the special blooms as part of her November prep for the next year.
“They’re not trumpet-y,” Lagonegro said, “They’re more ruffley and fragrant and come in other colors than yellow including apricot, white, bright orange, pinks and [softer] orange.”
Spring CSA bouquets also include tulips, anemones and flowering branches, including peach and forsythia.
Peonies also are very popular at Rising Hill.
The ants that crawl on them as they sprout don’t harm them, she explained. Quite the opposite: the sprouts provide food for the ants and the ants protect the sprouts from harmful insects.
In fall, dahlias dominate her CSA bouquets, she said.
In between the flower CSA seasons — one in spring and one in late summer — Lagonegro offers workshops in flower arrangement and wreath making. Bulk buckets of flowers, for people who want to build their own creations, also enhance her revenue stream.
Her workflow ebbs closer to Christmas, even though she’s still planting bulbs when possible and literally mending fences.
Not far away, Bee Well Blooms in Upper Saucon Township also offers a flower CSA that is so popular, subscriptions are closed for 2023. But there still will be plenty of bouquets for all.
Owner Sarah Smeltz studied horticulture at the Pennsylvania State University, not knowing in which direction she would grow.
But in a class that required her to identify hundreds of flowers, “I got hooked,” Smeltz said.
“Plus, I wanted to work outside.”
But a summer working at a vegetable farm didn’t feel right, she said: “There was no spark.”
She was officially in love with flowers. Cut flowers.
So in 2018 on one acre in Upper Saucon Township, with her now-husband Kevin along for the ride, Bee Well Blooms got its start.
Her husband has a degree in agronomy, the science of soil management and crop production, and helps out a lot, though his career is elsewhere.
About half of Smeltz’s business comes from selling her bouquets at the Emmausand Lansdalefarmers markets, she said, though she also does weddings in addition to the flower CSAs.
DIY buckets also are available for crafters who want to fashion their own bouquets.
Smeltz's CSA provides bouquets for delivery and pick-up from June through the end of August.
“We’re trying new things,” she said. “And you can’t oversell.”
“Not having to wash hundreds of pounds of vegetables is much more time efficient."Amber Lagonegro, owner of Rising Hill Farm in Springfield Township, Bucks County
She walked through her flower season as if she was introducing her best friends:
“In the end of March, there are the anemones and ranunculus, then tulips and daffodils in April. May is snapdragons, Canterbury bells and larkspur. In June is sweet William, more bells and rudbeckia then zinnias, sunflowers and lisianthus.
“September is dahlias, our last crop,” she said.
Then comes the clean up. To “put the farm to bed,” the Smeltzes plant a cover crop of rye radish and oats to keep the soil from eroding.
“They call it ‘green manure,’” she said.
November and December belong to them, she said. It’s when they get to travel.
“Then in January, it’s back to planting seeds,” she said.
So worry not. It’s almost time. The flowers are coming back.
