((PKG)) WILFLOWERS BLOOMING
((TRT: 06:52))
((Topic Banner: Wildflowers))
((Reporter: Faiza ElMasry))
((Camera/Editor: Mike Burke))
((Map:??Leesburg, Virginia))
((Main characters: 1 female))
((Sub characters: 1 male))
((NATS: Kaitlin))
You think the plant’s like cinnamon? Yeah. I like cinnamon
too.
((Kaitlin Armijo, Owner, Wild for Wildflowers))
The farm talks to you and it, kind of, just tells you what it
needs.
Sometimes you don't think that you need to weed and then
you walk out and there's just millions of weeds that need to
be pulled.
((Kaitlin Armijo, Owner, Wild for Wildflowers))
My name is Kaitlin Armijo and I own Wild for Wildflowers. We
are a boutique flower farm here in Leesburg, Virginia.
((NATS: Kaitlin))
Today it's beautiful out. We are getting our last round of
hardy annuals in.
My husband and I were actually high school sweethearts
and we moved out here from California.
((NATS))
((NATS: Kaitlin))
We bought the farm in 2014 and then it quickly escalated
into how can we turn this into something else, something
more than just a property for us?
((Kaitlin Armijo, Owner, Wild for Wildflowers))
And so in 2015 the idea was born and in 2016 we actually
started.
((NATS: Kaitlin))
My husband Justin, he is a full-time firefighter but he is the
muscle here on the farm.
((NATS))
((NATS/Kaitlin))
He also takes care of all of our equipment and tractor work
that needs to be done. He can build or fix anything. So, we
started this farm. We weren't handed a farm. We don't have
the infrastructure. We don't have buildings. We didn't start
with a tractor.
So, we've had to work up to all this. So, it's been amazing
because anything that I've needed, he's built.
((NATS))
((Justin Armijo, Co-owner, Wild for Wildflowers))
When we bought it, we didn't have the flower business in
mind until we decided to have children and we had our first
kid. And she didn't want to be working in the kind of
corporate world, if you want to call it that. We decided to
come up with something that she could do at home to
involve the kids.
((NATS: Kaitlin))
Mom, the jungle gym.
((Kaitlin Armijo, Owner, Wild for Wildflowers))
This is Nolan and he's three. You say hi, say hi.
And this is Paisley and she's five.
((NATS: Paisley))
Yeah.
((NATS: Kaitlin))
And we're expecting our third.
((NATS))
((Justin Armijo, Co-owner, Wild for Wildflowers))
When we first started, my only goal for her was that I was
just happy if she was enjoying what she was doing, and the
kids could do it with her. Even if we didn't make any money
at the end of the year but we just broke even, I would be
happy with that.
((NATS: Kaitlin))
You want to put them in? Find a row.
((Justin Armijo, Co-owner, Wild for Wildflowers))
As long as it was something that they enjoyed doing. So, she
came up with flowers. The kind of idea of flowers bloomed.
And we just started little and kept growing it as we went.
((NATS))
((Kaitlin Armijo, Owner, Wild for Wildflowers))
We were following up with the slow food and now it's the
slow flower movement. About 80 percent of the flowers that
are sold here in the US are actually imported from distant
lands, like South America, where they can grow flowers
year-round. But because of that, they are cut, you know,
weeks, days to weeks before getting into customers’ hands.
They're shipped out of water. They're shipped in cardboard
and plastic, and they're dehydrated, and they're actually only
able to be picked really closed. I call our business seed-to-
sale. So, everything that we grow on the farm, I have started
here from seed or bulb or corm, but it's all done here. We
don't bring in any flowers we don't grow.
((NATS: Kaitlin))
Ready P? Want to strip the foliage?
Spring is definitely our main season. We grow about, I'd say,
between three and four hundred different varieties of flowers
here.
((NATS: Kaitlin))
Go put them in.
There's no pesticides, no herbicides, nothing.
((NATS: Kaitlin))
The harvest, I think, is their favorite time because we're
outside and they get special little jobs. So, they strip the
leaves and they take turns walking the flowers to the
buckets.
((NATS: Kaitlin))
This is gomphrena, which is a pretty cool flower because it's
multiuse. They're an everlasting flower. So, come wintertime,
when we do dried flower wreaths as our winter income, they
are great.
((NATS: Kaitlin))
This is a dahlia. We use them fresh only. They're not a
flower that most people are familiar with because you can't
get them imported. They're very delicate. They don't have
the longest vase life. So, these are a flower that you can
really only get locally.
((NATS: Kaitlin))
So, this is eucalyptus and it's another one that is an
awesome foliage but it's multiuse because we can dry it and
sell dried bundles of this. And it's actually not a perennial
here but we can get it to overwinter, which is awesome
because we get a much earlier harvest.
((NATS: Kaitlin and Paisley))
It’s my favorite flower.
You love this? You want to hold it?
It’s been going in my face.
Smell how good it smells.
Mmm.
Rub your finger on the leaf. It's the oil in there.
Mmm.
Doesn’t it smell good?
((NATS: Kaitlin))
This will hold like three or four of them.
((Kaitlin Armijo, Owner, Wild for Wildflowers))
Chelsea is another flower farmer in the area and she owns
Bee’s Wing Farm out in Bluemont, Virginia. And her and I
are working on founding a flower collective or a flower co-op
where we will sell wholesale flowers to local flower
professionals and florists to support the wedding industry out
here in Loudon County and the surrounding areas.
((NATS))
((Kaitlin Armijo, Owner, Wild for Wildflowers))
This is amaranth, birchleaf spirea, sea oats, lemon mint
monarda or beebalm, zinnias, vitex, some celosia, nicotiana
which is flowering tobacco. We have scabiosa, some more
varieties of zinnias, apple mint here. It's a fun variety. It's got
lots of texture.
((NATS))
((Kaitlin Armijo, Owner, Wild for Wildflowers))
Wild for Wildflowers is the name of the farm but it speaks
more to the style of the flowers that we do. When I first
named this business and started it, I thought I was going to
be doing more wedding work. So, I was speaking to more
whimsical, nature inspired type of arrangements, not so
much the type of flowers that we grow.
((NATS: Kaitlin))
We are going to go deliver the flowers right now to
Willowsford Farm in Aldie and we have a couple of different
locations that have partnered with us to be pick-up locations
for our own spring share.
((NATS: Kaitlin & a store salesman))
Hi guys. How are you?
We’re good.
You want these in the cooler again?
((Kaitlin Armijo, Owner, Wild for Wildflowers))
It's an exhaustion that's fueled by a pure passion. So, even
though I'm tired, I, you know, giving up is never a problem.
And when I see the joy that these flowers bring our clients
and our community, it's just, it's worth every ounce of effort.
((NATS: Kaitlin & Paisley))
Hang on, hang on P. You're going to cut right here, just that
stem. Go ahead. Good job!
((Kaitlin Armijo, Owner, Wild for Wildflowers))
And then, of course, seeing how much my family enjoys
doing this, you know. We get quality time out here together.
((NATS: Kaitlin & Kids))
Yeah.
We're out every day, rain or shine, all working together
towards like a common goal. So, it's a lot of fun.
((NATS: Both kids))
I want to watch you go underneath.
((NATS))
((TRT: 06:52))
((Topic Banner: Wildflowers))
((Reporter: Faiza ElMasry))
((Camera/Editor: Mike Burke))
((Map:??Leesburg, Virginia))
((Main characters: 1 female))
((Sub characters: 1 male))
((NATS: Kaitlin))
You think the plant’s like cinnamon? Yeah. I like cinnamon
too.
((Kaitlin Armijo, Owner, Wild for Wildflowers))
The farm talks to you and it, kind of, just tells you what it
needs.
Sometimes you don't think that you need to weed and then
you walk out and there's just millions of weeds that need to
be pulled.
((Kaitlin Armijo, Owner, Wild for Wildflowers))
My name is Kaitlin Armijo and I own Wild for Wildflowers. We
are a boutique flower farm here in Leesburg, Virginia.
((NATS: Kaitlin))
Today it's beautiful out. We are getting our last round of
hardy annuals in.
My husband and I were actually high school sweethearts
and we moved out here from California.
((NATS))
((NATS: Kaitlin))
We bought the farm in 2014 and then it quickly escalated
into how can we turn this into something else, something
more than just a property for us?
((Kaitlin Armijo, Owner, Wild for Wildflowers))
And so in 2015 the idea was born and in 2016 we actually
started.
((NATS: Kaitlin))
My husband Justin, he is a full-time firefighter but he is the
muscle here on the farm.
((NATS))
((NATS/Kaitlin))
He also takes care of all of our equipment and tractor work
that needs to be done. He can build or fix anything. So, we
started this farm. We weren't handed a farm. We don't have
the infrastructure. We don't have buildings. We didn't start
with a tractor.
So, we've had to work up to all this. So, it's been amazing
because anything that I've needed, he's built.
((NATS))
((Justin Armijo, Co-owner, Wild for Wildflowers))
When we bought it, we didn't have the flower business in
mind until we decided to have children and we had our first
kid. And she didn't want to be working in the kind of
corporate world, if you want to call it that. We decided to
come up with something that she could do at home to
involve the kids.
((NATS: Kaitlin))
Mom, the jungle gym.
((Kaitlin Armijo, Owner, Wild for Wildflowers))
This is Nolan and he's three. You say hi, say hi.
And this is Paisley and she's five.
((NATS: Paisley))
Yeah.
((NATS: Kaitlin))
And we're expecting our third.
((NATS))
((Justin Armijo, Co-owner, Wild for Wildflowers))
When we first started, my only goal for her was that I was
just happy if she was enjoying what she was doing, and the
kids could do it with her. Even if we didn't make any money
at the end of the year but we just broke even, I would be
happy with that.
((NATS: Kaitlin))
You want to put them in? Find a row.
((Justin Armijo, Co-owner, Wild for Wildflowers))
As long as it was something that they enjoyed doing. So, she
came up with flowers. The kind of idea of flowers bloomed.
And we just started little and kept growing it as we went.
((NATS))
((Kaitlin Armijo, Owner, Wild for Wildflowers))
We were following up with the slow food and now it's the
slow flower movement. About 80 percent of the flowers that
are sold here in the US are actually imported from distant
lands, like South America, where they can grow flowers
year-round. But because of that, they are cut, you know,
weeks, days to weeks before getting into customers’ hands.
They're shipped out of water. They're shipped in cardboard
and plastic, and they're dehydrated, and they're actually only
able to be picked really closed. I call our business seed-to-
sale. So, everything that we grow on the farm, I have started
here from seed or bulb or corm, but it's all done here. We
don't bring in any flowers we don't grow.
((NATS: Kaitlin))
Ready P? Want to strip the foliage?
Spring is definitely our main season. We grow about, I'd say,
between three and four hundred different varieties of flowers
here.
((NATS: Kaitlin))
Go put them in.
There's no pesticides, no herbicides, nothing.
((NATS: Kaitlin))
The harvest, I think, is their favorite time because we're
outside and they get special little jobs. So, they strip the
leaves and they take turns walking the flowers to the
buckets.
((NATS: Kaitlin))
This is gomphrena, which is a pretty cool flower because it's
multiuse. They're an everlasting flower. So, come wintertime,
when we do dried flower wreaths as our winter income, they
are great.
((NATS: Kaitlin))
This is a dahlia. We use them fresh only. They're not a
flower that most people are familiar with because you can't
get them imported. They're very delicate. They don't have
the longest vase life. So, these are a flower that you can
really only get locally.
((NATS: Kaitlin))
So, this is eucalyptus and it's another one that is an
awesome foliage but it's multiuse because we can dry it and
sell dried bundles of this. And it's actually not a perennial
here but we can get it to overwinter, which is awesome
because we get a much earlier harvest.
((NATS: Kaitlin and Paisley))
It’s my favorite flower.
You love this? You want to hold it?
It’s been going in my face.
Smell how good it smells.
Mmm.
Rub your finger on the leaf. It's the oil in there.
Mmm.
Doesn’t it smell good?
((NATS: Kaitlin))
This will hold like three or four of them.
((Kaitlin Armijo, Owner, Wild for Wildflowers))
Chelsea is another flower farmer in the area and she owns
Bee’s Wing Farm out in Bluemont, Virginia. And her and I
are working on founding a flower collective or a flower co-op
where we will sell wholesale flowers to local flower
professionals and florists to support the wedding industry out
here in Loudon County and the surrounding areas.
((NATS))
((Kaitlin Armijo, Owner, Wild for Wildflowers))
This is amaranth, birchleaf spirea, sea oats, lemon mint
monarda or beebalm, zinnias, vitex, some celosia, nicotiana
which is flowering tobacco. We have scabiosa, some more
varieties of zinnias, apple mint here. It's a fun variety. It's got
lots of texture.
((NATS))
((Kaitlin Armijo, Owner, Wild for Wildflowers))
Wild for Wildflowers is the name of the farm but it speaks
more to the style of the flowers that we do. When I first
named this business and started it, I thought I was going to
be doing more wedding work. So, I was speaking to more
whimsical, nature inspired type of arrangements, not so
much the type of flowers that we grow.
((NATS: Kaitlin))
We are going to go deliver the flowers right now to
Willowsford Farm in Aldie and we have a couple of different
locations that have partnered with us to be pick-up locations
for our own spring share.
((NATS: Kaitlin & a store salesman))
Hi guys. How are you?
We’re good.
You want these in the cooler again?
((Kaitlin Armijo, Owner, Wild for Wildflowers))
It's an exhaustion that's fueled by a pure passion. So, even
though I'm tired, I, you know, giving up is never a problem.
And when I see the joy that these flowers bring our clients
and our community, it's just, it's worth every ounce of effort.
((NATS: Kaitlin & Paisley))
Hang on, hang on P. You're going to cut right here, just that
stem. Go ahead. Good job!
((Kaitlin Armijo, Owner, Wild for Wildflowers))
And then, of course, seeing how much my family enjoys
doing this, you know. We get quality time out here together.
((NATS: Kaitlin & Kids))
Yeah.
We're out every day, rain or shine, all working together
towards like a common goal. So, it's a lot of fun.
((NATS: Both kids))
I want to watch you go underneath.
((NATS))
