Category: Flowers

Lost in flowers

We spent a day at The Butchart Gardens while we were in Victoria B.C. last month. It’s one of my favorite beauty baths — total immersion in flowers, color, and a landscape perfected over more than 100 years.

The first time I went to Butchart, over 30 years ago, was in summer. This was the first time I’ve visited again in summer and the gardens were vibrant and filled with masses of seasonal favorites.

I’ve tried to pare down my photos to several days of favorites. Not easy. The place is a feast at every turn.

All that lavender

Here’s another way that the lavender in Sequim gets processed: it’s dried. We were invited into the drying barn at Kitty B’s Lavender where workers were busy processing bundles of lavender to be hung and dried.

Bundles are hung like string bound vines with fans running to keep down mildew.

Dried lavender is sold as aromatic bouquets and sachets, woven into wreaths and flower arrangements, and some strains have culinary uses as in herbs de Provence. It can be mixed into baking soda and used as a carpet freshener or mixed into sugar as a flavoring.

Oily business

Lavender essential oils are used in products such as soaps and lotions. Undiluted essential oils are also sold. We were pleased to find an expert to answer our questions staffing the distillery at Lavender Connection during the Lavender Festival.

Distillation essentially steams the oil from a lavender plant. At Lavender Connection the blossoms and stems from 19 plants are used to produce the equivalent of about 7 ounces of essential oil. This is the equipment that Lavender Connection uses.

Jardin du Soleil distills in this equipment. Click here to learn more about the distilling process at Jardin du Soleil.

Harvest time

While Sequim’s lavender farms sell u-pick and pre-picked bouquets of fresh lavender, there’s plenty left over for popular lavender products.

This summer’s weather cooperated with sunny, dry conditions and some crops were harvested before and during the Lavender Festival.

I’ll show you what happens with bouquets like these over the next couple of days.

Kitty B’s Lavender

My favorite lavender operations have a dreamy setting with nice views. Kitty B’s is one of those operations.

The farm is beautifully manicured and has the requisite gazebo that adds just the right touch.

Like most of our lavender farms, Kitty B’s has a residence on site. Its garden is a knockout.

Lavender lookback

There is a three day street fair as part of the Sequim Lavender Festival. Several blocks downtown become a pedestrian thoroughfare, lined with vendor booths. Lavender in every form is sold. And dozens of vendors also sell arts and crafts, jewelry, clothing, candles, you name it. The fair is always a big draw and last Friday, the first day, was no exception.

This was one of the more clever tee shirts for sale.

And this was the day’s winner in the “my sentiments exactly!” category.