Today we’d like to introduce you to Paula Olivares.
Hi Paula, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
As a stay-at-home mom, I was looking for a creative outlet that I could do along with my girls from home. It was the summer of 2018 when I was sitting at my mother’s kitchen table reading through the Magnolia Journal when I came across the article about Floret Farms which is a cut flower farm out in Washington state. Her story resonated with me and I knew that it was the perfect fit as I grew up loving to garden. That fall we planted our first bulbs into the ground and that following spring was our very first season of Basket of Flowers Farm. We started out doing a roadside flower stand and Farmers Market and have graduated to doing on the farm U-Picks and Workshops along with offering our flowers for events and CSA subscriptions. This year was our first year offering dahlia tubers through our website as well which was amazing!
Up to this point, my most favorite part of flower farming is interacting with the people who come for our workshops and on the farm U-Picks. One of our very first U-Pickers was a husband and wife coming to pick their own anniversary bouquet together. The joy of seeing them going through our gardens while the husband was holding the vase and the wife was gathering the flowers, it was so precious to me! I want our farm to be a place where people can come to refresh themselves and enjoy God’s beauty. Another highlight for me is, of course, having my girls by my side I am always amazed at how well they can identify the flowers right along with me and my two oldest have blown me away with their arranging skills.
As an organically grown cut-flower farmer, my hope is that the unique and beautiful cut flower varieties that we grow here bring back memories of maybe your grandmother’s garden where you were able to bury your face into the flowers without the worry of pesticides or chemicals. I want people to know that they do not have to get their flowers through box stores where they have been shipped thousands of miles but rather they can support their local Farmers and receive the most unique and beautiful flowers!
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
One of my first struggles was finding out that you could not plant tulip bulbs just once and be done but rather they need to be replanted every fall because as a cut flower farmer when you take the flower off of the bulb you are therefore taking the energy away that it needs to produce another flower the following year. Hence the following year they produced mainly leaves.
As a farmer we definitely struggle with nature sometimes, such as this year, after planting out most of our annuals, we had the worst hailstorm that I had ever witnessed which whipped out a lot of our flowers along with our faithful killdeer mother bird.
Last year in June we had 100-degree weather followed by about 2 months with basically no rain. I couldn’t keep up with all of the watering and neither could our pump.
These are just a few examples
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
We are an organic cut flower farm where we specialize in cultivating unique and stunning blooms for our local community through events, CSA bouquet subscriptions & on-the-farm U-Picks & Workshops. We also offer dahlia tubers in the spring and Ranunculus and Anemone corms in the fall all through our website.
Is there a quality that you most attribute to your success?
Quality over quantity by far. If we cannot offer an outstanding product and experience, then who would want to come back!
Contact Info:
- Website: Www.basketofflowersfarm.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/s/aGlnaGxpZ2h0OjE3OTQzNTc2NjE5NzU1MDQ4?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=
Image Credits
Johanna Grace Photography
