By Susanna
Hi I’m Susanna, delighted!
I am in love with books and nature. Luckily in my life I have never lacked one or the other. It’s true that I haven’t always had a garden, my childhood in an apartment in Barcelona where I could only see a small strip of sky only increased my desire to learn and experience everything related to plants, flowers, animals… Nothing was beyond my curiosity.
So, as soon as I could, I left the city behind and, as I had dreamed so many times, I got a garden in each of my houses, a little bigger and bigger, where I always feel safe and where I usually find myself and try to put my thoughts in order.
My Garden
I like to think that every garden tells us a story, if we know how to interpret it. And the story of our home garden, which we have been enjoying for almost two decades, began on a day in March when we all had to stay at home and overcome the anxiety, fear and uncertainty that surrounded us, in the best possible way. And as I’ve said before, when I’m lost, I usually find… in my garden. Although this time not only did our garden help me, in this story that I share with you, there was also a book, which has accompanied me in my best moments and to which I go irremediably every time I need sweetness. It is the book that my life partner gave me when I was pregnant and that she read to me, patiently, in the hospital, while she was coming into the world. The title, “La Flox dels colors”.
Our project
So, while I didn’t know how or where to channel my energy, anxiety, and nerves, I started gardening. Years ago I started my collection of English rose bushes and seeds of different flowers, but never before have I been able to devote so much time and care to the garden. Nor had I been able to appreciate the results… And what a marvel! We picked so many flowers that we didn’t even know where to put them. We started giving them away to neighbors and acquaintances… And here, exactly here, I realized the powerful and special connection that was created thanks to flowers.
And once again, books, in which stories are intertwined, had a surprise in store for me… When I was able to start asking for books in our library, I got my hands on one that talked about flower farms in the USA… I had no idea there was such a thing… and with unbridled curiosity, I found Erin Benzakein… And the world around me was filled with flowers, illusion, admiration, learning and color.
That’s how we decided that our garden would be our new project, Flox, and I’m happy and proud to have made it this far.
What do we do
Here at Flox we are flower growers-artisans, that is, we do not plant large quantities of a single flower variety. Our garden-field-farm in l’Ametlla del Vallès, is designed and planted with a wide variety of flowers, shrubs, greens and fruits to collect (organic floriculture), along with a meadow of wild flowers, forest and spaces that serve as a refuge for local fauna, which, in turn, encourage pollination and enrich the ecosystem that surrounds us.
In this privileged environment, we take care of our flowers from the seeds, obtaining flowers that have been carefully chosen for their properties, colors, fragrances or specific needs. We grow them without chemicals, respecting the seasons and in balance with the local flora and fauna.
At Flox we offer seasonal flowers, and we follow 5 different seasons. The first begins in mid–February to mid–May, it is surely the most desired after winter, with apparently delicate flowers, such as anemones, tulips, mimosa, daffodils, buttercups and lilacs. The second runs from mid–May to mid–July, it is the season with the most variety of flowers by far. The earth awakens and all the most delicate flowers arrive, roses, peonies, gladiolus, the first dahlias and an infinite number of wild flowers surround us. The third runs from mid–July to mid–September, with the flowers most resistant to high temperatures, sunflowers, hydrangeas, roses, zinnias, dahlias, lots of colour and many decorative herbs to accompany the Mediterranean summer. The fourth from mid–September to mid–November where we are already preparing to enjoy the last, although no less spectacular, flowers that nature offers us. Dahlias, zinnias, hydrangeas, amaranths, celosias, chrysanthemums all with rich and velvety colors, which invite us to start enjoying our interiors. The last, the fifth, from mid–November to mid–February is when everything is prepared, the planning, the planting… There are also fresh flowers, although in smaller quantities, but it is when our greens are at their best, the flowers that we have dried since summer are already prepared and also, little by little, we are introducing other flowers that are acclimatizing very well in our environment such as helleborus, forced bulbs or amaryllis, which give us some super beautiful and different flowers.
