Firefly Hill Farm

11/01/2026

Still here, still making beautiful flowers! And yes, we’ve still got marigolds blooming for the Day of the Dead!

We’ve been a little quiet on Facebook lately, but there’s been no shortage of flowers, experimenting, or beautiful moments here at Firefly Hill.

One of our favorite combinations has always been the soft, silvery foliage of dusty miller paired with eucalyptus. There’s just something about the contrast in their shapes and textures that makes an arrangement come alive. I always try not to use up all our eucalyptus during wedding season. I love saving some for this time of year, when those cool greens and silvers look especially beautiful alongside the rich colors of fall.

This season, we’ve also been trialing hardy mums and several different varieties of salvia. It’s all part of our ongoing effort at Firefly Hill to experiment, grow, and bring exciting new colors and textures into your home.

Of course, the flowers aren’t just for us! We love watching the bees and butterflies explore what we’re growing, from bees reaching deep into blossoms for nectar to butterflies unfurling their delicate proboscises for a drink. Every new variety is another opportunity to discover something beautiful, both in a bouquet and out in the garden.

And you’ve got to appreciate those brilliant orange marigolds still putting on a show for the Day of the Dead. There’s something special about having that much color hanging on as November arrives.

We’ve got quite a bit of catching up to do! A photo dump should be coming soon with highlights from the rest of our summer. Lots of beautiful flowers, new discoveries, a few experiments, and plenty of moments we never got around to sharing.

The growing season may be winding down, but we’re still finding beauty in what’s left.

07/31/2026

Fresh from the field and ready for an event. Every bucket is filled with the best of what’s blooming that week, bringing together seasonal color, natural texture, and plenty of fragrance.

07/23/2026

I thought the wild bergamot had already peaked, but after our last rain, it erupted into an even fuller flush of flowers.

The prairie is buzzing with life right now—monarchs, swallowtails, dragonflies, native bees, and many of the smaller pollinating flies that are easy to overlook. The big bluestem is also beginning to show its distinctive “turkey feet.”

The haze in a few of these photographs is smoke from distant wildfires. It makes me worry about the wildlife and livestock breathing it in, but it also gave the prairie a quiet, almost dreamlike appearance that I wanted to capture.

The prairie never looks quite the same twice.

07/19/2026

It was wonderful seeing how much Camp Kenwood has meant to generations of Farmers Union campers and staff as it celebrated its 75th anniversary, along with Friday’s Summer Conference.

I’ve really enjoyed being part of Wisconsin Farmers Union. Their focus on education, cooperation, and supporting rural communities is something I’ve come to appreciate. It’s also a great community for anyone who cares about local growers, good food, and stronger communities.

Firefly Hill was happy to bring an Event Flower Combo to such a beautiful setting along Lake Wissota.

07/17/2026

Welcome to all the new followers who found Firefly Hill through the Volume One article!

I’ve especially appreciated hearing from those of you who explored the wildlife stories on my blog and found connections to animals, places, and memories from your own lives.

Here’s one of our resident gray tree frogs hanging out in the hops. Hops have become one of my favorite bouquet greens because they add such a wild, whimsical shape.

Email is still the best way to reach me about flowers, but I truly appreciate all the comments, messages, and engagement here too.

07/08/2026

A little sneak peek of two bouquets I made to share at the Northern Wisconsin State Fair.

Summer Glow Cottage Garden is full of rudbeckia — some of my favorite flowers for all their different colors and forms.

Black Bear’s Bounty is made entirely with native plants, including elderberries, raspberries, hazelnuts, and other wildflowers.

Hopefully they hold up in the warm weather, but it’s fun to have a place for people to see and enjoy pretty flowers.

06/25/2026

A flower farm should probably grow more than flowers.

That’s been on my mind lately, and it’s part of what I was grateful to talk about when Firefly Hill was included in the new print issue of Volume One.

We do grow bouquets, of course. But we’re also trying to grow them in a way that leaves room for the rest of the farm: fawns in the white clover, crane colts in the field, caterpillars on the leaves, young ravens in the tree line, fireflies in the grass, and all the small signs that this place is alive.

That’s the part of Firefly Hill that doesn’t always fit neatly on a price sheet, but it’s a big part of why we farm the way we do.

I shared a new blog post with more photos and stories from that side of the farm:

What the Farm Grows Besides Flowers: Value Added, But Not for Sale

C**t our for a stroll with mom and dad

06/21/2026

This is one of my birdiest bouquets of the season — elderflower, raspberry greens, yarrow, feverfew, and prairie grass layered like little cumulus clouds on a summer day.

A lot of how we manage for birds here comes down to the edges. I’ve been planting more elderberries, hazelnuts, highbush cranberry viburnum, serviceberry, dwarf cherries, plums, and crabapples — a shrub-and-small-tree layer that brings flowers first, insects and caterpillars with them, then fruit, seed, cover, and nesting structure later in the season.

The raspberry greens are part of that edge too: useful in wilder floral design, good for tea, and good for birds as brambly cover, insect habitat, and berries along the way.

This particular shrub row sits on top of our hill, where I often look west and watch the big fluffy clouds make their way toward the farm, hoping for a good summer shower.

A little cloudbank in a vase, from the same edge of the farm where I watch the real ones roll in.

06/19/2026

This one barely needed arranging — just sweet peas, apple mint, and those wandering little tendrils doing their thing.

The best part is the smell: soft sweet peas with bright apple mint, fresh and cool and a little nostalgic. It’s been a good year so far for the cool-season crops, and this tiny bouquet that can smell up a room feels like a reward for that.

06/13/2026

I can’t wait to see and smell all these peonies! Avalon’s FREE Peony Show is this weekend.