The specific terrain, season, community of surrounding vegetation, micro climate as well as the bio-region where a Flower grows affect a Flower and its Flower Essence.

Plants grown under similar conditions in similar micro climates often have Flower Essences that share common strengths.

I hope to eventually write about many different micro climates and the Flower Essences from these places. First, I thought I would look to some Green Hope Farm early spring bloomers for examples of these two principles.

People, myself included, often ask why Green Hope Farm is rooted in this chilly spot. This blog is going to suggest at least one reason: Our harsh climate results in Flower Essences with strong healing vibrations because the Flowers themselves have to be strong to survive our extreme weather. This is a general principle about Flower Essences made here.

Winters here typically include temperatures to 30 below zero. There is virtually no geographic barriers between us and the north pole. The winds that blow across our gardens in the winter literally bring us arctic cold. Snow insulates the plants but during winters when there is little snow and the usual cold, the plants have to survive without the protection of the snow. Our Flowering plants have to be very tough to survive. These survival skills are part of their vibrational gifts to us.

Flowering plants in our climate also must accommodate radical shifts in temperature as well as extreme cold. Lows of 30 below and highs in the 100’s mean plants must adapt to a temperature swing of over 130 degrees in order to survive. Consider how different this is than a Caribbean climate where the temperature swing is about 40 degrees. Consequently, the Flowers from Green Hope Farm and their Essences embody an incredible flexibility and adaptability. This is a second general principle about Flower Essences made here.

Let’s consider in particular the Flowers that bloom here during the coldest months of late fall, winter, and early, early spring and see what specific gifts they offer as Flower Essences.

Onto a winter landscape, certain Flowers break forth into vibrant, bold blossom when everything else appears dead. Some of the Flower Essences that we make from these early blooming dynamos include Daffodil, Magnolia, Maple, Bloodroot, Forsythia, Wild Ginger, Hepatica, February Daphne, Witch Hazel, and Snowdrop.

When a Flower blooms while other plants are dormant, it reveals different strengths than Flowers that bloom when everyone else blooms. Those community bloomers offer gifts about harmony and compatibility but the first Flowers of the season are all about courage, will power, independent thinking, and a determination to express themselves no matter the circumstances.

These early bloomers also have enormous faith in life and its onward flow. We can know this because they bloom in defiance of winter, confident that seasons of new life will follow their lead. They willingly break new ground and believe in life’s irrepressible force even when everything appears dead. They put their money where their mouths are and are not afraid to have their Flowers seen or their acts of faith accounted. They are willing to celebrate when other Flowers might say there is nothing much happening to celebrate. They are some of the most cheerful and optimistic of Flowers. Their quality of unapologetic self expression makes them the one’s that would start the toasts at a wedding or funeral, if they could but step up to the mike.

Take for example a Flowering shrub that likes to be both seen and heard, Witch Hazel. This lovely Flower is part of our New Beginnings Flower Essence combination and is available as an individual Essence from our research list. Witch Hazel blooms in late, late fall when nothing else is blooming and the leaves are off the trees. Its Flowers are wild streamer curls of bright yellow. When its seed pods ripen in the dead of winter, these pods explode with a loud pop and the seeds go flying across a snowy landscape. When I was a small girl, my grandfather took me into the woods to listen for the noise of the Witch Hazels’ popping. Combined with its magical name and mysterious presence as a strong smelling potion in the cupboard behind bathroom mirror, Witch Hazel became an unforgettable presence in my life. And well it should be, because it helps remind us to never give up!

Witch Hazel Flower Essence embodies the courage of its blossoming. It encourages us to believe in new life and new beginnings even when things look their most dead. It encourages us to make new plans, sing a new song, and create a new life right there on the ashes of the old.

This is what the early bloomers and their Flower Essences are all about. Our Red Maples light up the hedgerows with their fiery red blossoms set against a leafless woodland. Daffodils rise out of near frozen terrain to sing their bright yellow song. Our Magnolia tree bursts into pearly pink blossoms with a sea of Bloodroot flowering beneath. Wild Ginger uses its inner juice to put on a mesmerizing display of Flower power on a near dormant woodland floor. All of these Flowers call us into the flow of life even when our life has been a wintry landscape and things have been pruned back. They sing ‘Let’s Get this Party Started” and in their Flowering and Flower Essence, they show us the way.

These Flowers know they can do anything. They don’t need moral support or company to express themselves. They don’t believe the party is over or not going to happen just because everything looks dead. They know they have something worth saying and they say it. Because of the wintry landscape, their self expression may be difficult and require much effort, but it also lifts up the landscape more too. These Flowers bloom when their micro climate needs their colorful self expression most.

In every way, their Essences help us do likewise.

Why? It is their destiny to bloom in a harsh wintry landscape when no one else is showing signs of life. Their electrical patterns are their songs in the world and when these patterns become Flower Essences, they give us the music so we can sing too.

PS Bloodroot blooms when the woods are almost entirely dormant. Its white Flowers are a startling contrast to the brown woodland floor. Interestingly enough, Bloodroot Flower is the cover of our new guidebook. I love how this Flower wanted to be the one to get the party of this Guidebook started!