Year in Review 2020

Our Year in

Review

A time for reflection and planning

As we are closing in the final hours of this crazy year, I am snuggled up by the fire reflecting on all the highs and lows this year brought my way. I truly love the week between Christmas and New Year’s; the buzz from Christmas still lingering, loads of baked goods on my counter and feeling that the flower season is officially closed. Although the work never officially stops, rest and a slowdown is just what I need to plan out the year ahead.

2020 was by far the most challenging, rewarding, demanding, and gratifying year both personally and professionally. I started the spring, as I do most seasons, worrying about the weather and pondering how we would ever get our enormous task list completed. My focus quickly shifted to learning how to adapt to running a business during a pandemic. I was now searching for answers to questions I had never contemplated in my wildest dreams. How could I possibly sell flowers when people were losing their jobs? In a time of such uncertainty, the community silenced my fears with lines of traffic to get our flowers. We received so many emails and messages from you, thanking us for providing a small piece of joy during such a challenging time for everyone. To say I was overwhelmed with gratitude is an understatement.

Heading into summer, my calendar was filled with weddings, workshops and exciting on farm events. But as the spread of COVID continued, that booked calendar became rather empty and I could feel my fears take its place. My favorite part of owning the flower farm is hosting workshops and allowing you all to enjoy our hard work as much as we do. Making the choice to cancel our workshops for the season left me sitting in a world of uncertainty once again. On one hand, my sister and her family were in from Oregon for the summer and I was so excited to spend my now ‘free’ time with them. On the other hand, I had this nagging feeling I was disappointing people.

I was on the phone with a close friend one day in early June and was unloading my concerns for the season with her. How will I open our U-Pick? How do I handle selling out of flowers? Can I still run workshops? She said, “Lyndsay, you will never please everyone. You aren’t a jar of Nutella.” I laughed but she was right. Much of my worry was trying to find solutions that would accommodate everyone and it simply was not possible. Instead, I learned that our amazing customers were understanding and flexible to our 2020 changes.

The slow down allowed us to grow in new ways and we added a new studio space to our barn to allow us to process more flowers at one time. We installed a new high tunnel to bring you even more flowers in 2021 and our Wildroot team grew by two amazing new employees. Our U-Pick was a huge hit and we loved seeing all the smiling facing picking buckets filled with flowers. Mid-summer, we had a great opportunity to join the River City’s Farmers Market and we are so glad we did. The new downtown Marietta market location (200 Butler Street) feels right at home and we can’t wait to start selling there again this spring.

Once September hit, I am pretty sure I survived on pure adrenaline. Our early season weddings had mostly been rescheduled to fall so we now had 17 booked weddings to complete in just 9 weeks. Not to mention our fall task list of clearing the fields, digging over 2,000 dahlias and planting 8,000 tulips for the spring 2021 production. I knew I was asking a lot of myself and my team. I am proud to say we crushed it but I did not feel good that it left us all feeling drained.

For the last 12 years (before my Wildroot days), I have always run a Christmas business making wreaths, centerpieces and all things greenery. I will be honest, there have been years I have wanted to take a break from it but I didn’t feel like I could. This year, I paused and took stock of our previous ten months of wins and how I was feeling moving into the final months of the year. I decided to do the unthinkable (in my mind) and I ended our season in November without offering our Christmas greens.

We have spent the last five years working endless long days to grow Wildroot into what it is today and I cannot believe how far we have come. I realized this year that hard work and determination are key components of success but so is rest, reflection and having fun.

I am entering 2021 feeling rested and grateful for the lessons last year brought me. There is something motivating about a new calendar and empty fields that will continue to push me to grow and learn how to balance hard work and rest. I am so excited to see what this year holds and to create more beauty with you. I am also excited to start planning our 2021 workshop schedule.

Wishing you and your family a healthy and wonderful New Year. And don’t forget - you aren’t a jar of Nutella.

With gratitude,

Lyndsay