Stepping onto Honeybee Flower Farm in Cordova, MD you are immediately transported into a sea of varying shades of yarrow that flow from pink to white intermingling with green mountain mint, pink cone flowers, blue bachelor’s button, asiatic lilies, and black and yellow black-eyed susans as far as the eye can see. As rows and rows of flowers, shrubs, and trees intertwine, owner Carrie Jennings describes how each plant has a purpose on the farm and their purpose when designing arrangements for her clients or for the Easton Farmers Market.
Along the way, bees buzz from flower to flower, birdschirp happily, and you begin to realize how transforming a landscape can create a habitat that not only you enjoy but one that can service a greater purpose. Slowly the farm transforms from a cottage garden to neat and tidy rows of flowers that are destined for bridal bouquets, rehearsal dinners, and anniversary parties.
Photo taken by Rachel Rhodes
Long before the start of Honeybee Flower Farm, owner and operator Carrie Jennings was in the landscape industry. During this time, Carrie developed a passion for creating garden landscapes and habitats. While working full time for the Maryland Department of Agriculture at the Soil Conservation District in Queen Anne’s County for the last 17 years, Carrie’s dream of running a cut flower farm came to fruition in 2012, when Carrie and her husband Chris built a home and developed the 5 acre property into what is now Honeybee Flower Farm. Throughout this six year period, Carrie has been working full-time and running her part-time business, which caters to several full service events every year offering cut flowers for weddings, dinner parties, and special events. As the years have gone by, the farm has evolved with the addition of a hoop house which helps Carrie get an early start to the season and a walk in refrigerator which helps preserve flowers until they can get to the market.
Like any small business owner knows, taking the leap from a dream into reality can be a bit unnerving. Carrie says “her passion to create her own vision of beauty” helped drive her, whether that includes designing her landscape or bouquets for the Easton Farmers Market, she does it all. As Carrie transitions into the next part of her career she says she’s “focused on spending more time creating beautiful arrangements for her clients.”
The Queen Anne’s & Talbot County Master Gardeners visited Honeybee Flower Farm on June 22, 2018.
For further information about Queen Anne’s County Master Gardner programs please call or email the University of Maryland Extension Queen Anne’s County Master Gardener Coordinator, Rachel Rhodes, at 410-758-0166 or [email protected] or see us on Facebook @https://www.facebook.com/QueenAnnesCountyMasterGardeners
University of Maryland Extension programs are open to all people and will not discriminate against anyone because of race, age, sex, color, sexual orientation, physical or mental disability, religion, ancestry, or national origin, marital status, genetic information, or political affiliation, or gender identity and expression.
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