5 minute read
Cultivating simple joy
A customer enjoys spending time with her sister at Rural Stems You Pick Flowers while picking out the best flowers for a special bouquet.
Story and photos by Katlyn Sanden
What started as a dream quickly blossomed into two acres of over 21 flower varieties for the Redmond family, the owners and founders of Rural Stems You Pick Flowers.
When Covid hit, Nancy Redmond and Amanda Redmond knew they had to do something to bring simple joy back to the forefront.
“It’s our tag line,” Nancy said. “Simple joy. That’s what we wanted. The cool part about it is you can see the joy from people. They enjoy walking through here, talking and laughing. We had two ladies that spent over an hour here laughing and taking pictures. That’s what we want. Simple joy.”
The Rural Stems You Pick Flowers farm is located just east of Sheffield on U.S. Highway 6 on a corner of the Redmond family homestead that used to be corn and soybeans.
“When we moved here 20 years ago, it’s always been a question in my mind, ‘What else can we do besides soybeans and corn?’ Nancy said. “We thought of everything. What can we do besides renting it (the land) out?”
Amanda thought of a Christmas Tree farm but started researching flowers and everything just came together.
“We went and visited a you-pick flower farm five hours away,” Amanda said. “We decided to try it and see what happens.”
The rest is history. The mother/daughter-in-law duo began scouring the web for everything flowers and found a bunch of good resources for growing blooms ideal for a fresh-cut flower business.
Nancy remembers spending much of her childhood outside helping her parents in the flower gardens, while Amanda laughs at her lack of a green thumb prior to beginning Rural Stems. Now, she says she’s much better with plants and knows all the secrets to creating a beautiful bouquet.
Haddie Redmond, 8, can usually be found helping her mom and grandma at the flower farm. Her jobs include weeding and tying the twine bows around the vases available for purchase.
Nancy Redmond (right) and Amanda Redmond (left), founders and owners of Rural Stems You Pick Flowers just east of Sheffield, help fill a customer’s vase with fresh-cut flowers the customer cut.
“You want an odd number of stems,” Amanda said. “Make sure there’s nice fillers like greenery. Different dimensions of the flowers make an interesting bouquet.”
“That’s what’s kind of fun too,” added Nancy. “People can use their own imagination and creativity in building their own bouquet. Different heights are important. Different colors and hues.”
While it may appear easy and dreamy to run a flower farm, there’s a lot of behindthe-scenes work. After a lot of research, the duo started their seeds inside.
“There was a time like, ‘Oh my gosh, is this going to work?’ Nancy said of the early days.
Amanda remembers questioning if it was going to work too.
“Every day, we were staring at the trays like ‘Are they going to come up?’ Finally, they did,” she said.
While the early days were spent wondering if their plants would actually grow, now their days are filled with weeding, watering, pruning, and planning for next year. The duo put in a drip system to ensure their plants get plenty of water. When they’re not tending to their rows and rows of flowers, they are finding areas they can add more flowers.
Everything is in successional planting, so there’s always something in bloom during spring, summer, and fall. And when asked how they keep the insects away, they said
they use Dawn dish soap and neem oil as they don’t want to kill off the healthy pollinators like honeybees, caterpillars, and butterflies.
Amanda’s daughter, Haddie Redmond, who helps out at the flower farm when not in school, said she enjoys catching the caterpillars and watching a beautiful butterfly emerge. She can often be found at the farm helping customers find the perfect vase for their bouquets or tending to her favorite flower -- snapdragons.
When the Redmond ladies officially opened for business, they were humbled by the outpouring of excitement from the community.
“A lot of people were excited because it’s different,” Amanda said. “A lot of people haven’t heard of a youpick flower farm. It’s been a good response.”
“It’s very humbling, too, because people are so excited about something you did,”
Whether it’s been mothers and daughters, spouses, friends, brides, or florists, the community has really shown up at the farm.
“We were at a market, and I suggested to one of the brides to pick up buckets of flowers,” Nancy said, explaining the different ways their flowers can be used. “The morning of (the wedding) have the bridesmaids make their own bouquets from the buckets of flowers. That way everyone’s is a little different, but they’re all fresh flowers.”
Looking ahead into spring 2022, the duo hopes to offer tulips and daffodils while ramping up their on-farm events.
“We’re hoping to have a date night with a food truck,” Nancy said. “We’re thinking of doing something for the kids, too. Maybe a wildflower garden that’s a maze for the kids to go through.”
No matter what the duo decides, one thing is assured for next year. And that is simple joy.
Amanda Redmond, co-founder and owner of Rural Stems You Pick Flowers, shows off the finished product of a customer’s hand-picked bouquet.
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