3 minute read
Blooming Hill Offers Lavender Growing Delight
Blooming Hill Offers Lavender Growing Delight
By Linda Roberts
Peter and Cyndie Rinek are most certainly the king and queen of Blooming Hill Lavender Farm and Gift Shop, nestled on a hillside off Telegraph Springs Road near Purcellville.
The Rineks refer to their carefully managed fouracre spot as a “farmlet,” where the couple lovingly tends their cultivated 1,000 lavender plants. For years, lavender lovers and garden enthusiasts have been flocking to Blooming Hill to marvel at the collection of almost 100 different varieties of this popular plant. Fortunately for visitors, the Rineks sell what they grow.
Cyndie, whose background includes journalism and retail management, and Peter, a landscape architect and planner, sought more space as Cyndie’s love of gardening continued to bloom over the years. Together they melded their talents and affection for growing things.
Blooming Hill became home over 30 years ago, and Peter designed and helped create their colonialstyle house and surrounding gardens. Cyndie brought along six plants from their Silver Spring, Maryland property to the newly purchased site that would become Blooming Hill.
The Rineks love sharing their knowledge of plants, especially lavender, and welcome visitors Fridays and Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. to tour the gardens and marvel at the different colors of plants growing happily on Blooming Hill’s slopes. Cyndie said the gardens sport a “rainbow of colors from dark and light purples to pink and white buds as the plants bloom each spring.”
Cyndie tells guests that lavender plants are like “little soldiers, they just march on, not succumbing to bugs, especially the spotted lantern fly, nor do they need much in the way of fertilizers.”
Teatime reservations in the gardens are a special treat at Blooming Hill. Here visitors are offered an opportunity to “fill their senses and soothe their souls” with the calming aromas of lavender while enjoying homemade delicacies.
“After 30 years of working with lavender,” Cyndie said, “I realized I was a ‘lavender collector.’” She came by the habit of collecting plants quite naturally—her mother had loved to collect beautiful things. And Cyndie considers lavender beautiful.
She’s a member of the United States Lavender Association, is in frequent demand from clubs and organizations as a speaker, and happily answers the many questions about lavender that visitors ask.
In recorded use for more than 2,500 years ago, she explained that the origins of lavender remain somewhat a mystery. Some varieties were thought to be grown in Arabia, then later in Greece and followed by France, Italy and Spain. Lavender was introduced to England and then later to North America by the English pilgrims in the 1600s.
An early 20th century lavender brochure reads, “Ladies fair, I bring to you, lavender with spikes of blue; a sweeter plant was never found growing in our English ground.”
Fifteen years ago Peter designed and built an English-style garden house, destined to be a gift shop, where merchandise features all things lavender— plants, garden décor, wreaths and American-made statuary amid much more. The charming cottage is a popular stop after spending time perusing the gardens.
A visit to Blooming Hill cleary delights the senses and provides a welcome opportunity to stop for a few hours—and quite literally smell the flowers.
Details: For more information, visit bloominghillva.com or e-mail bloominghillva@gmail.com.
