2025: Staying, Simplifying, & Designing with Heart

I haven’t written a Petals & Prose reflection in months — life, work, the seasons, and the weight of this year all seemed to pull me in different directions. But as this year closes, I want to sit with you for a moment and honestly look both backward and forward.

The beautiful and the broken. The blooms and the bare stems.

2025 was not easy.
There were seasons of deep exhaustion, tears I didn’t expect, and moments where the grit it took to keep going surprised even me. There were days I questioned whether I could — or should — keep doing this. I almost quit.

But something meaningful came from the rest, the reflection, the tears, and the hard work. Stepping back gave me clarity. The hard moments softened my perspective. And choosing to stay — even when it felt heavy — reminded me why I started Bede’s Blooms + Co. in the first place.

What emerged wasn’t a desire to do more.
It was a desire to do what matters, with intention.

A Year of Honoring Love Stories

One of the greatest joys of 2025 was working with my brides. Each wedding felt deeply personal, and I don’t take that lightly. I become invested — in your story, your vision, and creating florals that feel like you.

My wedding season began in May with a wedding that will forever hold a special place in my heart — designing for my best friend, who is also my helping-hand assistant and such a big part of the future of Bede’s Blooms + Co. Starting the season that way felt full-circle and grounding, especially in a year that asked so much.

I was so honored to bring each bride’s vision to life, thoughtfully and intentionally. From color palettes to flower choices, every detail mattered — because your day matters. Designing florals for weddings is more than arranging flowers for me; it’s about telling a story through texture, movement, and seasonality.

We closed our wedding season early this year in September, flowering for The Cookes. Their wedding was filled with so much pure love and joy. It was such a blessing to work with them throughout the year — even growing specific varieties of flowers just for their day. That kind of trust is something I hold close, always.

Designing with Care, Always

If there’s one thing 2025 reinforced, it’s this: quality and care will always come first in my work.

When you work with me as your floral designer, you’re not just choosing flowers — you’re choosing intention, craftsmanship, and a designer who truly cares. I believe flowers should feel thoughtful, personal, and well-loved. Every stem is chosen with purpose. Every arrangement is designed with care.

This year also brought opportunities to collaborate creatively through styled photo shoots and collaborations with incredibly talented Michigan photographers. These moments of creativity reminded me how much I love pushing design, playing with color, and telling visual stories. I look forward to doing more styled shoots in the future — creating, experimenting, and collaborating with other local creatives.

Sustainability Looks Like Balance

Another lesson 2025 taught me is that sustainability isn’t just about how we grow flowers — it’s about how we care for the people growing them.

Bede’s Blooms + Co. is a small, intentional micro flower farm. We grow on just over a quarter of an acre, and every stem requires hands-on care — planting, weeding, harvesting, conditioning, designing. Flower farming is deeply rewarding, but it is also incredibly labor intensive, even at a small scale.

Balancing this work alongside a corporate career I truly love has required honesty about capacity. My corporate role is something I’m proud of and invested in growing, and honoring both paths means being thoughtful about what I take on — and what I don’t.

This is where simplification becomes essential. Not because the work isn’t meaningful — but because I want to continue doing it well, without burnout, resentment, or depletion. Sustainability, for me, means creating flowers with joy and intention, while also protecting the energy that allows this business to thrive long-term.

Community, Connection & Gratitude

Beyond weddings, 2025 was a year of deep community connection.

We partnered with more local businesses to bring fresh flowers into their shops weekly, expanded our CSA flower subscriptions, and delivered more blooms into homes and hearts throughout our community. Our custom orders grew exponentially — from remembrance events and celebrations of life, to baby showers, wedding showers, birthdays, and everything in between.

I am beyond grateful to every person who chose our floral work with intention. Being trusted with your meaningful moments — joyful and tender — is something I never take for granted. Thank you for supporting local, seasonal flowers and allowing me to create for you.

A Milestone Moment: Michigan State University

One of the most memorable moments of 2025 was the opportunity to design and install a large-scale corporate stage installation for Michigan State University in August. The project took place in the Breslin Center and was a true labor of love — and logistics.

From planning and sourcing to installation day, it was a big production filled with stunning local flowers and thoughtful design on a much larger scale than my typical work. Standing back and seeing the stage come together inside such an iconic space was both humbling and affirming.

That installation reminded me of what’s possible when creativity, trust, and collaboration come together — and it will forever be a highlight of this year.

Looking Ahead: Simplifying with Purpose

As I look toward 2026, my word for the year is simplify.

That means focusing on the areas of this work that bring me the most joy and alignment:
CSA flower subscriptions, weddings and events, and meaningful custom orders. Late fall and winter will hold very limited availability for private wreath workshops. It means letting go of excess — even when it’s tempting — and choosing balance over burnout.

It also means not expanding our growing space, except where it truly aligns with our long-term vision — specifically peonies and perennials that strengthen the foundation of what we already love.

Simplifying doesn’t mean dreaming smaller.
It means building something sustainable, intentional, and rooted in joy.

To My 2026 Brides

I am so excited for my 2026 brides. I already have the most beautiful color palettes and design visions in mind, and I cannot wait to bring your special days to life. Designing with intention, care, and heart will always be at the center of what I do.

Thank you for being here — for supporting Bede’s Blooms + Co. through the blooms and the bare stems. Here’s to a slower, steadier, more meaningful season ahead.

With gratitude,
Alex

Grateful for imagery by: Details & Daydreams Photography, Elle & Co Photography, and Liv Schafer Photography.

🌾 When the Garden Feels Heavy

There’s a rhythm to flower farming that most people never see. It’s easy to imagine the armloads of blooms — the bright dahlias, fragrant stock, and the overflowing buckets that make their way to weddings and markets. But beneath all that beauty lies the part of the work that no one posts about — the quiet, gritty, heavy part that comes at the end of the season.

We’re here now. The dahlias have browned, the nights dip below freezing, and the flower field is slowly being put to rest. Every day is a list of “lasts” — the last of the harvesting, the last of the compost turning, the last of the warm sun on your back. We’ve been cutting down rows, clearing beds, spreading compost, and tucking peony roots and bulbs into the soil for their long winter sleep. The roses are next — each one trimmed, covered, and whispered a little promise: “see you in spring.”

“frost-mas” 25’ - 10/25/2025

It’s a season of letting go, but it’s also a season that asks for more than I sometimes have to give. The work is slower but heavier. The mental load too. Between job searching, planning ahead for next year, and trying to balance motherhood, business, and life — it’s a lot. This time of year always asks for faith in the unseen. You’re planting for beauty you won’t see for months, investing in a dream that only lives in the quiet corners of your imagination right now.

And honestly? That’s hard. It’s hard to live one or two seasons ahead when you’re already running on empty. Flower farming has a way of doing that — forcing you to always think of what’s next, what needs ordering, what needs changing, what needs rest. And sometimes, I wish I could just pause — just stand in the field as it is, without rushing toward what will be.

But that’s the quiet lesson fall keeps teaching me: not everything beautiful happens in full bloom. Growth happens underground, in the stillness, in the letting go. The peonies don’t question whether they’ll bloom again. They rest. They trust the process.

So maybe this season is about that — about trusting what’s happening beneath the surface. About learning that heaviness isn’t a sign of failure; it’s a sign of transition. It’s the body and the heart catching up to the pace of change.

Lately, I’ve been reminding myself that even in the fading and the quiet, there’s purpose. The composting, the pruning, the clearing — it’s all preparation for what’s next. The same way rest prepares the soul for new growth.

So I’m leaning into slower rhythms. Early sunsets, muddy boots, cozy evenings with tea and notebooks. Dreaming in small ways again, without forcing the big picture. Letting the field and my heart rest together.

Because maybe this is what the garden has been trying to teach me all along:
Even when it feels heavy, even when it looks bare — this, too, is part of the bloom. 🌾

Written from the fields at Bede’s Blooms + Co., as we tuck another season to rest.

— Alex

My field helper these days

Fall on the Farm: Beauty, Work, and the Countdown to Rest 🧡🍂

As I sit here in my office writing this, rain is pouring outside the window—and the forecast shows more for the rest of the week. It feels fitting for these first days of fall: the sky heavy with clouds, the fields soaked, and the farm shifting into a new rhythm.

Fall is always a season of contrasts. The flowers are still bursting with color, yet the air carries a quiet reminder that the end is near. The garden is vibrant, but it’s also beginning its slow journey toward rest. I feel that in myself, too. After a whirlwind summer and a busy September wedding season, I’ve been intentionally trying to slow down—even amidst the chaos—to notice the beauty and honor the rhythm of the seasons.

What’s Blooming Now

Even though fall marks the countdown to the end of the season, we’re still soaking up every last bloom. Our second flush of lisianthus is coming in beautifully, and after such a strange, difficult growing year, the dahlias are finally thriving. Don’t worry—we’re still squeezing in as many weeks of flowers as possible before frost arrives.

And it’s not just the lisianthus and dahlias—our fields are still colorful with:

• Zinnias, though they’re finally starting to slow down after a long, generous run.

• Marigolds, just now hitting their stride, glowing in classic golden tones.

• Celosia, all velvety texture and saturated color.

• Cosmos, still thriving and dancing in the breeze.

• Sunflowers, standing tall and strong, always a crowd favorite.

• Scabiosa, airy and delicate.

• Hyacinth beans, climbing wild, dripping with jewel-toned pods.

• Globe amaranthus (gomphrena), pumping out its cheerful, everlasting buttons.

• Statice, with papery clusters perfect for fresh or dried designs.

• …and others, each adding to the vibrant patchwork of fall.

It’s a mix that feels both abundant and fleeting—proof that even as the days shorten and the nights cool, the garden isn’t done giving just yet.

A monarch moment in the marigolds. Fall always reminds me that beauty lingers, even as the season shifts. 🍂🦋

The Work of Autumn

This is the season where the farm demands both gratitude and grit. There’s so much beauty still blooming, but fall is also when we begin the hard work of tucking the garden in for winter. Here’s just a portion of the work ahead:

• Clear out all beds and rows of spent flowers

• Amend soil with fertilizer

• Clear the peony field from overgrowth

• Prep land, lay plastic, and burn holes for peony planting (curious about peony planting? Check out this post)

• Plant 100 new peony roots this year

• Plant cool-season hardy annuals (my favorite resource: Cool Flowers book — absolutely priceless)

• Pre-sprout half of our ranunculus corms to overwinter

• Install low tunnels for protection

• Plant around 3,300 tulips for spring

• Release nematodes + beneficial insects from Nature’s Good Guys

  • Exciting news!! We have an affiliate link for you — receive 20% off your order with the code BEDESBLOOMS or click this link here: https://www.naturesgoodguys.com/BEDESBLOOMS

• Catalog dahlias, relabel and take notes (a few losses to rot this year were especially hard)

• After first frost: dig and store all dahlia tuber clumps

And beyond that list: weed one last time, mulch perennials, cut back selectively, drain hoses, clean and oil tools, sanitize trays, compost what we can, test soil pH, and tuck away seeds with notes for next year.

It’s no wonder fall feels like both an ending and a beginning. The work is heavy, but the hope for spring is already taking root.

Why Rest Matters

The seasons teach me so much about rhythm and renewal. Just as the soil needs a reset, and many flowers thrive only because of the cool, quiet months ahead, I find myself needing that rest, too. Farming is a constant cycle of tending, tearing out, and tucking in. There’s no true pause, but there is a deepening—a reminder that rest is part of growth.

This week feels especially meaningful. Tomorrow, my husband and I will celebrate our third wedding anniversary. Just like the farm, love and life have their seasons of growth, change, and rest. Both require tending, patience, and faith to flourish.

What’s Ahead

Dried Floral Pumpkins: Now Open for Pre-Order

They’re back! Our dried floral pumpkins are now open for pre-order. Each one is handcrafted with our own dried blooms, designed to bring fall’s beauty indoors and last through the season. These go quickly every year, so don’t wait if you’d like one for your home or as a gift.

—> Check them out here: Fall Floral Pumpkins

2026 CSA Subscriptions: Early Access for Subscribers

We’re also opening 2026 CSA subscriptions to our newsletter subscribers first—before they’re released publicly on Black Friday. This will be our only discount of the year, and spots are limited to maintain the utmost quality.

If you’re new here and wondering, what’s a CSA? It stands for Community Supported Agriculture—a model that connects you directly to your local farmer. By purchasing a CSA share, you’re essentially reserving a season’s worth of flowers up front, which provides us with the resources to plant, grow, and harvest with confidence. In return, you receive a curated bouquet every week during your subscription. It’s one of the best ways to support small farms like ours while ensuring you get the freshest, most local blooms possible.

Learn more about our flower subscriptions here.

Closing Thoughts

As we lean into fall, my heart is grateful—for the flowers, for the hard work ahead, for the love that steadies me, and for every person who continues to support this little farm dream. Fall is more than just an ending; it’s an invitation: to embrace the work, savor the beauty, and trust the rhythm of the seasons.

As we lean into fall, my heart is grateful—for the flowers, for the hard work ahead, for the love that steadies me, and for every person who continues to support this little farm dream. Fall is more than just an ending; it’s an invitation: to embrace the work, savor the beauty, and trust the rhythm of the seasons.

I am also looking forward to the “shorter” days and slower rhythm (even though the behind-the-scenes to-do list is soooo long, with some amazing things on the horizon). I’m hoping to complete a handful of puzzles, create a new vision board for 2026, read more books than I listen to, and sip more cups of tea that I actually have time to enjoy.

What do you look forward to most in the colder months? I’m never quite ready for the cold or the snow—but I welcome the rest.

With love and gratitude,
Alex 🌸

P.S. If you’d like to follow along with daily farm life, behind-the-scenes stories, and fresh flower updates, come join us on Instagram and Facebook. Better yet, sign up for our newsletter for even more inside tea! We’d love to have you there. xo