U-pick flower farms blossoming in Chatham-Kent

U-pick flowers are a growing trend in southwestern Ontario as farmers open up their operations to tourists looking for novel experiences and stunning photo opportunities.

Farms in Chatham-Kent offer visitors the opportunity to stroll among rows of peonies, sunflowers and tulips, taking photographs and cutting flowers to purchase.

"We just thought, 'We don't see the joy that the peonies bring when we sell it wholesale,'" said Valérie Chort, one of the owners of Fleur de Roy near Mitchell's Bay, Ont.

Fleur de Roy grows 17 varieties of peonies over 10 acres, making for about 150,000 stems.

But until now, it had been shipping them off to market in Toronto. 

Now, after four years of commercial operations, the owners have partnered with local vendors and florists to display art and offer workshops in an effort to create an annual peony bloom festival, Chort said.

The Puddleford Tree Farm in Kent Bridge, meanwhile, will be awash in sunflowers in about five weeks' time, according to co-owner Matthew Whitney.

The farm grows about 20,000 of the flowers each year on about two acres of land and raises money for the Alzheimer's Society by charging visitors per car and per cut flower.

"We decided to do this because people love to go to see sunflowers," Whitney said.

"They're a great thing to take photos of. And we wanted to give people an opportunity to do that and not interfere with the commercial growers who don't want people walking through their fields. … People can come out and have a nice day and take some nice photos and just enjoy the sunshine."

The sunflowers at Puddleford are only around two inches high right now, said co-owner Gail Whitney.

But tulip season is already at Hat Trick Farms in Blenheim, Ont., and they also offered people a chance to pick their own tulips.

The three-year-old operation got into tulip-growing because the three siblings who own it only have a small land-base to work with — so they had to focus on niche crops, said co-owner Lynne Warriner.

They started growing winterberries late in the season, then followed up with tulips as a spring crop.

"The response from the visitors has been quite rewarding," Warriner said.

"They come and visit the field, for taking pictures, the majority of them — but they can also pick their own while they're here."

The owners have taken to planting some fields in a multitude of colours, and Warriner said she loves watching the colours change as different varieties bloom at different times.

"Usually the orange and pink tulips are the first ones to bloom," she said. 

"But two to three weeks later, depending on how long our season is, it's more purple and white in colour. So for us … it's different to see how the field changes through the season."