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Little Blue Barn Flowers, Barnhartvale, Kamloops, BC (2025)

04/22/2025

Let's goooo! The 2025 field season is underway with the first Spring Subscription Bouquets in the cooler and ready to head out to subscribers tomorrow morning!

The first part of the season always seems to move in fits and starts as the flowers slowly get going but it won't be long until there is a regular flow of them from the field to the cooler!

With a rare quieter week of sports, it will be an extra busy week in the garden getting the last bed prepped, dahlia tubers planted, some direct seeding, another hoophouse up and the irrigation on (yay!!!!). There should also be more tulips to harvest later in the week for the next subscription bouquet.

The kids and I spent a lot of time in the vegetable garden today getting potatoes, celery and onions in the ground, seeding more carrots, beets and greens and then seeding cucumbers, squash and pumpkins in the greenhouse to give them a jump. Once the last hoophouse is up I will share it between heat loving flowers and our tomatoes and peppers. I love my flowers but I need a strong veggie garden and the kids are always keen to help with veggies and fruit!

Hope you all have a good week!

In this bouquet:
Amazing Grace Tulip
Hellebores
Double Flowering Almond
Maple

04/19/2025

Happy Easter from our table to yours! 🐰🐣🌷

It may not be an abundant time for flowers right now but every day there is something new popping up in the perennial beds and the blossoms on the trees all about to burst. Had fun decorating our table with contrasting hellebores and specialty narcissus along with some eggs from the coop, a nest the kids found and some of our pysanky eggs from previous years. They accompanied my great grandmother's floral plates beautifully along with some super cute Peter Cottontail napkins!

Thankyou so much to those who reached out asking about Easter Bouquets, I really appreciate you thinking of us for your flowers. I don't have Easter Bouquets this year but I am excited to send the first subscription bouquets out to subscribers on Tuesday 😊

We went for a beautiful hike yesterday and today we are doing our traditional pysanky eggs and we are very lucky to be enjoying a few Easter dinners with family this weekend. I will also be getting my dahlia tubers into the ground under a tunnel, cleaning the chicken coop (🙄) and planting more seeds.

Hope you all have a wonderful long weekend!

04/14/2025

Little Blue Barn was buzzing with activity this weekend - we saw the first wild bumble bees of the season, there were honeybees on the pussywillows and early blossoms, the ducks were busy on pest control and the people were scurrying to do accomplish as much as we could on the never ending to do list!
A rather exciting event for me was harvesting the first field tulips of the season. We have many trees about to burst into blossom so it's just a matter of days until I am back in the studio making bouquets.
Spring always feels a little rushed with everything to do with the flowers along with yard work and the veggie garden etc and its a busy time of year for sports activities with the kids, so prioritizing is key and also learning to let some stuff go.
I have always meal planned and made some freezer meals ahead but I have never been a regular meal prepper. I had decided that in 2025 I was going to become a meal prep person and I started at the beginning of the year and now it's a Sunday ritual. I won't lie it takes a bit of time and sometimes I struggle with that because there are so many other things to do on the weekend but I am finding its saving me soooooo much precious time during the week so that is definitely worth it! Does anyone else have any time saving habits or things they do to make busy weeks easier? I am always looking at how to simplify and somehow make more hours in a day!!

04/05/2025

"Some old fashioned things like fresh air and sunshine are hard to beat" - Laura Ingalls Wilder
Spring work doesn't make for pretty pictures but it's really the foundation of the season and one of the most important jobs. There is something about working with the dirt that I really enjoy and while I love to see the flowers in bloom there is something very satisfying about looking at newly shaped beds and dreaming of the season to come.
People must be getting spring flower fever as I have had a few messages this week inquiring about the Spring Subscription. The Subscription is sold out and it will start in late April, I will send out an email with all the info subscribers need as we get closer to the start 😊. If you missed out on a Subscription there will be some opportunities to buy spring bouquets as the season moves along as well.
Well my son and I are wrapping up a great ski season this weekend with a ski marathon (he's in the competitive category and I am in the "finishing is winning" category!) and then it will be onto spring sports activities and many more hours spent in the gardens!
Have a great weekend in the sun everyone and if you are prepping your own gardens, the Kamloops Track & Field club is selling composted manure all weekend as a fundraiser for the club so please consider supporting this club while supporting your garden soil!

03/31/2025

Spring Break coming to a close...well tbh I worked most of it and tried to catch up on life around the house but the kids had a great time with lots of family, got in a couple of road trips and had a bit of down time too and I got a few days for some fun with them as well. Spring Break always seems to be our shift from winter to spring and looking ahead to summer.
All of my cool flowers are now planted in the tunnels and we planted some cool veggies in the kitchen tunnels too. So now it's a matter of temperature control and keeping everybody watered. It's always interesting keeping everyone happy while temps fluctuate between freezing at night and t-shirt weather during the day!
I find April-July absolutely flies by - busy with kid sports a ton happening in the gardens and just the general yard work and house maintenance that always comes in Spring so I have been mentally gearing myself up for that shift in pace too.
One thing is for sure though, garden season is well underway and it won't be long until all of this green turns into colour!

🌸

03/18/2025

Thankyou for the tulip input everyone! In case you missed it in my stories yesterday, I did a poll asking for input on favourite colours for winter grown tulips and the verdict is in - Dark Purple wins by a lot. White/Cream and Pink are a tie for second.
I also announced in my stories that due to a significant increase in bulb prices, I won't be offering a winter subscription in 2026 but I will do a Valentine's sale and maybe one other in the winter. It means I won't be growing as many tulips so want to make sure I get the colours you all love, so as I make my choices in the next couple of weeks (yup I order them now!) I will keep these colours in mind but I already know a couple that will top the list based on these results 😉

03/15/2025

Well March came in like a lamb but this week the lioness reared her head a bit! My original plan had been to have most of my cool flowers in the ground last weekend but I held off when I saw that the weather was going to be so unsettled this past week and I am glad I did. I have decided to hold off a little longer as it looks we have a few really chilly nights ahead. While the cool flowers can manage some cold, I typically like to get them in the ground when we have a few days of milder temps to allow them to settle in before they get hit with temps below -2.
So, I got my outdoor greenhouse going and moved most seedlings in there where they can start to harden off but still have some supplemental heat at night.
I did however plant my second round of ranunculus corms into the tunnels yesterday as they will be just fine and the first round in there planted a few weeks ago are looking good.
It can be hard to be patient this time of year and there is always some gambling with the weather to be had but sometimes playing it a bit on the safer side is the right choice.
So, I will spend my weekend getting the house ready for a busy spring, cleaning up perrenial beds, planting more seeds and maybe even get a ski in with all the new snow!
Hope you all have a great weekend!

03/09/2025

Tulips For Sale!! (SOLD OUT - THANKYOU!)

The last of the winter tulips have bloomed so I am offering some tulip and pussywillow bunches this week.

Each bunch is 12 incredibly long stemmed double pink tulips combined with some freshly cut black cat pussywillows.

Pickup will be available at Amplified Cafe on Tuesday March 11th 8am-6pm. We may also be able to arrange pick up at LBB for Tuesday afternoon. If you would like to pick up at LBB please msg me after purchasing. All purchases will be online at littlebluebarn.ca. you can also click on this post.

This will be it for flowers until things start blooming in the field which is still a ways off!

📸: my 8 year old 😊

03/05/2025

A bucket of sunshine to finish off the winter tulip subscription! Not going to lie, the tulips gave me a bit of a run for my money this winter but I am glad I got to offer them through some of the coldest weeks of winter. It felt fitting that yesterday was the final day of the winter subscription when spring was so much in the air.
With a rising cost of tulip bulbs and supply shortages, I don't know that it will be viable to run a winter subscription next winter, but I will plan to grow in some capacity over the winter and it may just be a Valentine sale or a couple of pop up sales through the winter next year.
I will probably have a few tulip bunches available in the next couple of weeks as the last crates of winter bulbs bloom. Yesterday I noticed the first field tulips and daffodils popping up, so it won't be too long until there are flowers outside and the spring subscription starts!

03/03/2025

I turned 39 this past week...it was honestly a birthday in the background because family life was busy and work is busy and there is lots of flower stuff happening too! But I had many family and friends who made sure the day was special ❤️. I did take a few moments to reflect though as I head into the final year of my 30's. This decade has most definitely been my "mama era" and I wouldn't trade that for anything. I started this decade with a toddler, morning sickness and a dream of selling a few bouquets at the farmer's market on my maternity leave!
9 years later and I no longer have babies, I have big kids and a thriving little flower farm alongside my career as an occupational therapist. Life changes so rapidly - I never knew so much could happen in 9 years!!!
While I loved those little kid stages I am also loving being the mom of bigger kids and it's brought sports firmly back to my life as well as the most full calendar and to do list I could ever imagine.
My flowers bring a sense of balance to my life and I am being very careful in how I plan my year as I don't want to miss all the great stuff with my kids but also want to make sure I am providing a superior product to my customers. So, this year in the flower world, my primary focus is my subscriptions, with a few weddings and events but less than in previous years. I will pushing myself a bit more physically as I try to keep up with the kids and looking to enjoy a few of my other hobbies a bit more too.
However, as I spent the majority of the afternoon in my tunnel planting transplants I couldn't help but feel a bit of excitement for all the blooms I have planned for this year. I am going to go out on a limb and predict that that 2025 is going to produce the most beautiful flowers yet - let's hope I am right 😉

02/25/2025

Feb 23/25 and the first plants were popped into the ground under the tunnels. The outdoor growing season has officially begun. It also means that now I REALLY care about the weather and will be checking thermometers, long term forecasts and cursing the wind for the next few months!!
It is the time where I try to take calculated risks for the earliest blooms I can get while not losing all my plants! It's the time where I run around adding and removing frost cloth and reinforcing tunnels in wind storms. It can be stressful however, it's also one of my favourite times because it's really the heart of growing and it sets everything up for the whole season.
This week, I am really hoping the snow sticks around for BC Cross Country Provincials this weekend and then it will be time for spring, hands in the dirt and rainbows 🌈

02/23/2025

DAHLIA TUBERS

I have been receiving some messages recently asking if I have dahlia tubers for sale this year and the answer is not this year. Over the past few years I have been growing less dahlias than I used to so I don't have as many tubers. This year I am planning to increase my dahlias again so I am planning to plant all my tubers this year. If I have any left over after planting in late April I will let people know.
More dahlias planted mean more beautiful fall flowers though and more tubers (to dig and split 🙄😬🫣) so I may have some tubers again next winter 😊.

02/22/2025

2025 Fresh Flower Subscriptions are SOLD OUT. Thank you so much to everyone who purchased a subscription for themselves or gifted it to someone else, I am looking forward to sharing a season of flowers with you all.

There is a chance I may open up a few more spots in the late summer subscription - we will see how abundant the blooms are closer to the start of that subscription.

I am also planning on offering a holiday subscription this year and sign up for that will be in the fall.

If you missed out on subscriptions, I will still have Grab n Go Bouquets available throughout the season 😊

For now, it's all about finishing off ski season and the tulip subscription and soon I will slowly start to move seedlings into the tunnels to grow an abundance of colour in the months to come!

02/17/2025

Fresh snow and fresh flowers - a little winter reset! Like many, we have had a bug in the house the past couple weeks and that coupled with the cold, routines have been thrown off and I think this week for the first time this year I had a bit of the winter doldrums (especially when my cooler went down!). So this weekend has been a bit of a reset - enjoying winter, some rest and recovery and getting ready to take on the last of winter.

It appears the temperatures are supposed to warm a lot by the end of the week so I will be watching those closely and some things will be moving from the seedling room outside into the tunnels very soon which is exciting.

But for now, I am happy to have an armful of fresh flowers again and the focus of next couple of weeks will be the final ski races of the season.

Hope everyone is having a good long weekend!

02/12/2025

Well I had my first ever tulip catastrophe 🤦‍♀️. Last night the breaker for my cooler tripped and my cooler froze and this morning I woke up to a cooler full of frozen solid tulips 😭. In 7 years of having my cooler this has never happened. My guess is it is just the cold weather putting stress on all systems. I check the temp a few times of day but I keep it at about 3 above so if anything goes wrong it freezes in just a matter of hours. I do have checks and balances to try and prevent this but unfortunately last night it was a perfect storm of things not working!

So that being said, I will not have tulips for Valentine's Day and there won't be a subscription bouquet next week. Subscriber's I will send an update later this week.

On the flip side everything in my grow room looks great and the forecast is looking favorable for things to be going into tunnels in late Feb/early March. So doing my best to look towards a spring filled with flowers and there will be more tulips, just not this week.

02/11/2025

Another chilly Monday and another fresh subscription this morning. Hope everyone has a good week leading up to the long weekend 😊

02/07/2025

Brrrr it's been a cold week but the tulips have continued to bloom. I did a big harvest yesterday and picked my first round of hydroponically grown tulips which was pretty exciting!

Due to the tulip bulb shortages, I wasn't able to get all the bulbs I had ordered last year so I am not growing specifically for Valentine's this year as the majority of the tulips are going to subscribers. However, it looks like I will probably have a few bunches ready next week so if you are hoping to gift some locally grown flowers or just want a burst of freshness yourself, stay tuned and I will let you know what I have available early next week 😊

We will be out cheering on the kids in biathlon this weekend so I am glad the temperature is going to warm at least a bit for that - hope you all have a great weekend and stay warm!!

02/03/2025

I dropped off the first bouquets of the year this morning! Excited to be able to share some freshness and colour on such a cold winter morning. Hope all of my subscribers enjoy their bouquets this week ❤️

Little Blue Barn Flowers