(Illustration by Joe Dworetzky/Bay City News)
Casey O’Neill is a farmer and owner of Happy Day Farms in Laytonville, Calif. The opinions expressed in this column are not those expressed by The Mendocino Voice.
I have awakened in a friend’s cottage in Sebastopol after a late-ish night for a farmer. We finished loading flowers from a wedding last night at ten and then drove the short ride from Bodega Bay back to the cottage, grateful for such a sweet place to lay our heads down. The experience was a culmination of almost a year of work by Amber, from early conversations to planning to producing the flowers and creating the arrangements for the wedding.
I get to come along on these excursions as a helper, and it’s one of the highlights of my year. I love seeing Amber in her element, exercising her art form, creating such beauty with her work. Flowers make the soul sing, and I love that my partner sends so much joy out into the world with her efforts.
It takes a lot of work to grow all the flowers and then turn them into arrangements, boutonnieres, corsages, bridal bouquets and the other myriad wedding paraphernalia. It’s so beautiful to see Amber realize her vision, one step at a time from the planning stage, figuring out the bride’s desired colors and flower choices, to planning the farming aspects of sowing and planting for the correct timing on blooms to hit a date on the calendar.
Marbry taught Amber about flowers in the days before we met, and when Amber moved in with me, and our farming journey began, she brought her interest in flowers with her. Marbry gifted her a chunk of Alstroemeria (Peruvian Lily) tubers, and the patch that she planted still thrives now almost 15 years later.
The magic of plants is often that they are the gift that keeps on giving, producing more abundantly each year with care and love. Each season our gardens grow more vibrant and beautiful because of Amber’s tending, and I am delighted to be in a support position trundling wheelbarrows of compost and helping with irrigation or post-pounding for trellises. Seeing her thrive in her art form is one of the great joys of my life.
Flowers cultivated at HappyDay Farms in Laytonville, California, were arranged into table centerpieces for a wedding in Bodega Bay. (HappyDay Farms via Bay City News)
This was a big week on the farm, with huge harvests of produce and flowers, with Amber sequestered making all of the components for the wedding. As I sit, drinking coffee and watching the early rays of the sun enter the cottage window, it feels good to take stock, a moment of reflection after a new plateau for our lives. Producing flowers for a wedding in Bodega Bay is a big new step that feels exciting, everything was beautiful, the process was smooth, timing on point.
I’m impressed with the planning and effort that Amber put in to time everything just right so that flowers she planted in November bloomed perfectly for the week of the wedding. She has gotten so good at flower farming that our space is redolent in blossoms, delighting my senses as I go about my daily efforts. Watching myriad pollinators zip and dive amongst the blossoms, I am reminded of how important flowers are to life, to the chain of production and its resultant fruits that nourish and sustain us.
Flowers are even more precious because of the ephemeral nature of their art, here but for a brief moment, delightful yet doomed. The transience of their time with us makes me appreciate them even more, and the knowledge that with careful tending they will return anew next year is a balm for my psyche and a driver for my intentions in this life. After a few years of not-quite-grasping their potential, I am finally coming to understand peonies, to see a glimmer of what they may be capable of with more care and time.
My favorite thing about the big push of wedding flower production is seeing Amber in her element, cool and collected and making magic happen. It is a deep joy to get to tag along, to be a helpful boy where I can and to get to watch her work. Seeing the culmination of her efforts in this instance makes me excited for the future, for her next steps and for the beauty she will create. Weddings are special occasions, never forgotten by those who attend them, and the flowers add splashes of beauty in a way that doesn’t happen in normal life. Their abundance signals a depth, a tactile experience that stimulates the senses and accents the day, highlighting the specialness of love and family.
I love that our lives are built around growing plants that go out into the world for a short time to sustain and delight. I love the impermanence, the fleeting nature of their experience. Food and herb and flowers are all consumed by the senses, and it is our work to continue making them appear. It is a deep driver, a powerful impetus that governs my life, and I am glad for it. As always, much love and great success to you on your journey!
Casey O’Neill owns and runs HappyDay Farms, a small vegetable and cannabis farm north of Laytonville. He is a long time cannabis policy advocate, and was born and raised in the Bell Springs area. The preceding has been an editorial column. The Mendocino Voice has not necessarily fact-checked or copyedited this work, and it should be interpreted as the words of the author, not necessarily reflecting the opinions of The Mendocino Voice.
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