Cedar Ridge Farm

03/04/2026

Last up in our “What We Grow” series: strawflower, yarrow, and gomphrena, these fun fillers make our bouquets shine. 💐 They bring the best color, texture, and they are very generous bloomers!

Gomphrena is just plain adorable. It holds its shape and color beautifully when dried, and I’ve never had someone visit the farm and not fall in love with it. We grow a small patch and it amazes me with how many blooms it pumps out!

Strawflower is the same story, amazing texture, vibrant color, and a dream for drying. If you’ve picked up one of our dried pumpkin arrangements in the fall, you definitely saw a bright strawflower or two on top.

Yarrow is my “plant it and forget it” flower. It took me a minute to really understand the harvest window, but once I figured it out, I was hooked. It’s a perennial here, comes back strong, and looks so lovely waking up the spring garden.

We grow so much more at Cedar Ridge, this is just a little snapshot of some of our staples. I’m always trialing new varieties to see what thrives here and what’s new. Discovering new blooms and bringing them into our bouquets is one of my favorite parts of farming. ☺️

02/14/2026

Sunflowers are next up in what I grow at CRFF.

I mainly only grow ProCut sunflowers, which are bred specifically for cut flower use. They are pollen free, long lasting, and come in many different colors.

I plant around 100 to 200 seeds every single week so we have a steady harvest rolling in each week. That consistency is what keeps our market bouquets full and happy all season. 😊

Sunflowers can be a focal flower in a bouquet, but to me they actually do the job of making everything around them look better. 😂 They have the ability to make a market bouquet look effortless and well rounded.

And here is a grower tip. The size of the bloom depends on spacing. Plant them close and you get smaller heads that are perfect for our bouquet work. Give them more room and they grow into those big blooming sunflower flowers we all love to see. 🌻🌞

02/13/2026

This is to remind myself and anyone else who needs to hear it, in this very harsh winter we are in…..

The snow will melt and the cold will leave. The sun will comeback along with the flowers.

Brighter, warmer, and more flowers filled days are ahead. 😊

02/07/2026

What we grow at Cedar Ridge Flower Farm, ornamental kale. 🥬 🥬🥬🥬

The last few flowers I shared are the “usual suspects” you’ll find on most flower farms. Ornamental kale IS popular, but not everyone grows it. I absolutely love it, and grow tons each season. 😍

Ornamental kale has completely captured my heart, I can’t get enough of it! I grow a lot of kale here, both for bouquets and for landscapes. In the garden, it adds a whimsical, almost storybook touch. In bouquets, I love tucking it in for a unique pop of color and texture that you don’t see every day. It’s also great in our fall planters, they handle the colder temps great.

The colors of all the different kale get me every time. 🤩 I’m a total sucker for those jewel toned centers.

One note, ornamental kale does tend to make vase water a little smelly, so frequent water changes are key. A small trade off for something so beautiful and interesting. 😌

02/02/2026

Next up in what we grow at Cedar Ridge Flower Farm, Dahlias ✨.

These beauties are absolutely worth their drama. Dahlias are the most high maintenance flower I grow 😅 They want dry soil, warm temps, not too much sun, precise planting depth, specific fertilizer… and they take allllllll summer to bloom. To top it off, they have a shorter vase life than most flowers 😂

Here at CRFF, ball dahlias have my heart. They last a bit longer in the vase and look especially good bunched together in our signature wrap 😍 Dahlias are another one of the top flowers that made me fall in love with flower farming.

They’re also a true cut and come again flower, which I always appreciate. Harvesting buckets of dahlias in the fall and supplying our markets and wholesalers with fresh bunches is one of the best feelings there is 💐

Every fall, dahlias are dug up and stored for winter. Right now, I’m hauling out the totes of tubers I packed away last season to evaluate and divide for spring planting. It’s a big job but one with big rewards 💪🏻

Last year was a tough one for dahlia growers. Extended heat and drought led to stunted plants and weaker stems and blooms. I’ve got plans in place this season to better handle dry spells 🤞🏻 Here’s hoping for a stronger, more abundant dahlia harvest this fall!

01/30/2026

01/30/2026

Celosia is next up in what we grow at Cedar Ridge Flower Farm. 🌾

Celosia is fabulous, definitely in my top 5 flowers, if not my top 3. 😉 Along with zinnias, I have a hard time passing up a packet of celosia seeds!

This is one of those flowers that earns its place every single season at my farm. Rich color, velvety texture, and has a nonstop blooming habit right up to our first frost. I occasionally tuck them into my landscape gardens for added height and a touch of unexpected visual interest. Celosia is also an amazing dried flower, keeping it form, color and texture.

Celosia comes in a range of forms, crested, comb, and plume to name a few. Each one brings something different to a bouquet. Through seed saving, we also get some wild unexpected variations from year to year, which keeps things interesting. 🤪

Along with zinnias, celosia is a staple here. You’ll almost always find it in our CRFF bouquets, adding depth, texture and amazing colors. 💐

01/25/2026

Starting off the “What We Grow at Cedar Ridge Flower Farm series” Zinnias! 🌸

Zinnias were one of the first flowers that got me hooked on flower farming, and they’ll always have a special place in my flower heart. I can never say no to a packet of zinnia seeds! 🫣

They’re easy to grow, come in endless shapes, colors, and sizes, and they’re “cut and come again,” which means the more you cut, the more they bloom. It doesn’t get better than that!

I’m always on the hunt for specialty varieties—I’ve even sourced seeds all the way from Australia—and I love saving my own to see what fun mixes the bees dream up for the next season.

I’ll happily grow rows and rows of them in the field, but they’re just as fun in landscape beds, where they make huge, colorful statements when given the space.

01/19/2026

With winter in full force, Id like to try to do a series on some of the flowers I grow here at Cedar Ridge Flower Farm! Lots of colorful flowers and information on what we grow here to try and keep the winter blues away. 💐 😄 Stay turned!

01/08/2026

Incredibly excited to be part of Pittsburgh Flowers this 2026 season! Getting MORE flowers into the hands of more people is top of the list for 2026, and this is only the beginning! 💪🏻🥳💐.