On our adventures and meandering this summer I had the great pleasure and opportunity to spend time in the fields of a couple of very special spots where flowers are planted, irrigated, coaxed into beauty and harvested. I am a bit enamored with the romantic notion of a flower farm, the gritty, often painful labor of trial, error and loss, the bone tired, dirt under the fingernails, not particularly lucrative nature of it all, for the love and beauty of flowers. I suspect this is related to some of the deeply enchanted moments I experienced in the fields when the work of the day was done, but bees were buzzing and swallows diving as the sun skulked slowly lower in the sky. I spent three evenings wandering different fields at this hour of day and it was nothing short of nirvana.
Such beauty provoked a curiosity as to why it is that we humans are drawn toward cultivation? What are we growing when we push a seed into the earth? Sure as regards food, we are cultivating our own vitality, but is there something deeper especially when it comes to the ornamental? Is it that we reap happiness when we plunge our hands into fertile soil or that the act of growing something from seed is an act of hope, believing in the future? Apparently there are soil bacterium that we absorb through our skin when our hands are in the dirt that spurs the release of seratonin. And, historically in times of war people have cultivated victory gardens as a means of food independence, but there are also stories of flowers being grown on the front lines. Even in times of great distress we need beauty to ease our stress, we need the hope that when we plant a seed we will see it through to bloom. Over the past decade or so there has been a rise in organic farmers cultivating small plots of land. We are in a general state of climate distress and change that is both terrifying and often crop obliterating, yet some, possibly many of us are eager to move back toward the land, to be in sync with the rhythms of the seasons. Hope and happiness seem like vital reasons to invest in our local ecosystems.
So with this longing toward the hope and happiness of flower cultivation, I have nosed around and glimpsed the work of others with similar aesthetics and dreams. Perhaps their are apprenticeships at World's End or Tea Lane farms in my future, perhaps I can lease an acre or two at Tryon Farm to grow flowers or maybe I should turn our yard into a flower field. There is this journey of growing, making and sharing beauty in the world through the wonder of fresh flowers that deeply moves me, but there is also this dream of using the cultivation and language of flowers to experiment with their preservation and usage beyond arrangement (even though this compels me to the core.)
Alexander McQueen used fresh flowers to adorn dresses in his 2007 show, Sarabande, stating, "Things rot. It was all about decay. I used flowers because they die." To pour one self into the complicated making of something with a brief existence is something we humans do over and over again. People commit their lives to making a mark, leaving something behind, but after a time most of us leave nothing behind. Glory fades quickly in a time of abundance. The world echoes with the intangible. There are flower festivals all over the world that showcase this. Extravagant decorations are made, years, months, days are involved in the planning and actualization of a vision that is briefly reveled in and then disappears. I often wonder about what happens to the floats from the rose bowl parade after the festivities are over. I think they are unceremoniously dismantled, slipping back toward the earth. Maybe it is all a metaphor for our own lives.
Any which way it is a glorious opportunity to be here amongst the flowers. To behold the abundant beauty, to create, share and celebrate it with all the many creatures on the planet. I am filled with gratitude and an armload of flowers extended your way.