Grower Profile: Jennie Love, Love 'n Fresh Flowers Farm

(photos curtesy of Jennie Love, except last image copyright Flora-Flow LLC)

I dropped off a 200-foot roll of white plastic for Jennie Love of Love n’ Fresh Flowers last week-- her third order this season--and she let me know it would likely be her last of the season. She runs an organically-managed, urban flower farm and event floral design studio in Philadelphia working with locally grown elements.  She said:

“Sam, Flora-Flow really lasts!  You may not want to hear it, but I have a mat that I put in in the fall of 2016 and I plan on leaving it until this Fall.”

Well, I am happy to hear it; and happy to see the results in her fields.

Jennie Love transforms everything she touches into a fabulous spectacle with an enviable ease, or invisible effort, I am not sure which.  Jennie was the very first field tester for our mat products, and, therefore, is the first grower-focused blog subject. And, Flora-Flow mats play a big part in her success--efficient growing of about 150 varieties of flowers and greenery for her almost always sold out workshops and wedding events.  She pulls off wedding after wedding from April to November, and 15+ one and two day events each year. And she manages to show up in places like the New York Times with some frequency for her work.  

So what does a flower grower such as Jennie Love like about Flora-Flow mats? Mostly she likes the drastic reduction of weed pressure and the freedom from cutting holes in plastic.  She also likes the mats durability and prefers them to biodegradable mulch films that break down too quickly and are hard to remove from the field. Most of her plantings are covered with white Flora-Flow mats in 200 or 250-foot lengths. The aerial photo that serves as our website cover image (also below) is of the Love n’ Fresh Flowers farm that gives a sense of the Flora-Flow mats in place--and also how much she relies on our mats!

Yesterday, Jennie told me that they typically weed their initial planting just once until the plants are large enough to cover the planting hole and shade out other plants. A while back I caught her on film describing her favorite aspect of planting with the mats.

You can see in the photos that Jennie uses both white and black mats. In addition to the white and black mats that Jennie uses, we also sell red and silver mats that each have their own super powers  (err--I mean red seems to grow fruits better, and silver scares bugs and promotes growth through greater reflected light).

From my perspective, I would say Jennie has an unusual preference for white mats since we seem to sell about 5 times as many black mats as white.  The photos also show how the small plants fit into the planting holes and how the even spacing of the hole pattern results in a very orderly field.  Hooray for order, in at least one part of a farm! What else can we hooray for? In honor of Jennie Love, we are offering free shipping for any mat or kit order over $40.

Use the coupon code LOVEFREESHIPPING at checkout.*

Shop Now

You can learn more about Jennie Love and her flowers through her website and blog and learn more about using Flora-Flow mats in your farm or garden by contacting me, Sam.

*Offer good until 6/15/18. Limit once per customer.  Must include a mat, and cases are not included. Orders placed that do not include a mat or kit cannot be honored.

Thanks!