In late February 2017, we drove out to visit Leah Cook and Mark Thomas at Wild Hare Farm in Cedar Grove. At the time, the tulips were just beginning to bloom. By March, they were flowering in abundance. That’s why we celebrate Tulipalooza, a week with tulip bunches on sale! (2020 update: Tulipalooza begins March 18 with bunches for $7.99.)
The farm is down a long driveway at the end of a gravel road, and adjacent to Maple Spring Gardens. Leah worked there for seven years before joining Mark to form Wild Hare Farm, 15 years ago. They used to grow both vegetables and flowers for market, and were famous for their purple cherokee tomatoes; but they exclusively grow flowers now. Although it’s a competitive market, there is great demand in our area. They’re also able to maximize the use of their small space.
First we poked our heads into a shed, where Mark was cleaning the dirt off cut tulips and bundling them in groups of ten. Normally he’d work in a greenhouse, but this year it was warm enough to work outside. Leah showed us a cooler with crates of bulbs and explained the process they use to control the tulips: the bulbs spend time in the cooler, then are planted in crates of dirt in one of the greenhouses. How long they take to grow depends on the variety, the timing of the cooling and planting process, and the weather. She and Mark stagger plantings based on the orders they have and on last year’s sales. When the flowers form but are still tightly closed, they pull the whole bulb out; only the first flower is used because it is the highest quality, and the bulb is composted.
We walked past the ten or so tunnel houses: some are enclosed greenhouses, like the ones with the crates of tulips, while others are open-sided hoophouses, like the one with anemones and ranunculus growing right in the ground. Holding a giant bunch of cut daffodils, Leah names off the flowers coming in the season ahead: lisianthus, companulus, snapdragons, stock, grown inside; dianthus, queen anne’s lace, asters, bachelor buttons, corn cockle, saponaria, grown out in the fields. Some have already been sewn, and others are tiny seedlings in trays in a greenhouse.
Though it takes work to care for the bulbs and plants, especially with the unpredictable weather, Leah and Mark love farming. Leah names several of the mentors she’d had through the years, like Ken and Libby at Maple Spring Gardens and Alex and Betsy of Peregrine Farm. She’s grateful for the Carrboro Farmers’ Market and all the customers there who support small farms, and to customers like us, who are able to place larger orders.
And we’re grateful to have local farmers like Leah and Mark, providing us with beautiful, pesticide-free flowers, not to mention the luxury of local bouquets in winter. That’s why we’re celebrating Tulipalooza this year, in honor of the tulips from Wild Hare Farm.