Dear Friends of Redbud Farms, Family, Favorite Vendors &
Contractors, Colleagues, and Past Fond Acquaintances:
Take at good look at this red cactus zinnia because it's
famous! I hope you will forgive my exuberance, but we were very proud
to learn that this Zinnia from Redbud Farms grows at Tufton Farm, run by
the Monticello Foundation, associated with the great
garden of Thomas Jefferson, one of my favorite American presidents. Gip & I
are still a million dollars shy of being a millionaire from our work at the
Farm, but this kind of news is sometimes better than the actual sale itself.
Please see below! Blessings be, -Sharon
Customer
E-Mail:
Subject: looking for just one zinnia
Hi -
On a visit to the Thomas Jefferson Center for Historic Plants at Monticello
recently I saw one gorgeous red cactus-flowered zinnia. The folks there said
they had gotten it from the Eudora Welty house. Susan, garden restoration
consultant for the Eudora Welty house, tells me she got it from you. Looking at
your website, I don't see any option for buying just one variety - is that
possible. Without a name, I don't know if you would know which variety she had -
or perhaps there's only one red cactus type in your collections. This was not a
pinkish or orangey red, nor particularly dark, but really RED.
Thanks for your help.
The Thomas Jefferson Center for Historic
Plants is a separate site, called Tufton Farm, run by the Monticello
foundation, but not open for public tours as Monticello is. It's the farm
where the Monticello foundation gardeners maintain a collection of plants with
historic significance, many from Jefferson's period but many from later on as
well. There were no zinnias anything like that in Jefferson's day [big red
cactus zinnia.] The zinnias he know would have been the same ones I grow
at Bartram's Garden, the historic site where I work here in Philadelphia - the
little species zinnias [most probably the Bonita series or z.angustifolia.]
The Center has a web site through which they sell seeds - which are the ones
sold in the Monticello gift shop. Go to
www.monticello.org to see the little
species zinnias they sell, which are the ones actually planted in Thomas
Jefferson's flower gardens at Monticello.
Discussion Topics, Grower Articles, and News Releases
Recent Media Coverage of
Van Dyke
Zinnias @ Redbud Farms or Just Zinnias
Feature article about Van Dyke Zinnias in Country
Gardens Magazine, Summer 2002, by Marty Ross, photos by Pete
Krumhardt! See 8 pages of information on zinnias and many fine
photographs taken at Redbud Farms by the magazine, starting on page 23. July 2001, Interview and photo shoot with the Editor and Photographer from
Country Gardens magazine on Zinnias -- all varieties, sourced
by Redbud Farms.
Sunset Magazine, March 2002,
"Cutting
Flowers," Garden Page, Southern California.
September 2, 2001, Richmond Times Dispatch article "Homespun
Zinnias", by Nancy Ross Hugo, with quotes and source information
from Redbud Farms telephone interview.
September 2001, "Silver Bells, Cockle Shells...", by Sara Gerald
Fludd, Sumter, South Carolina Sunday Panorama, interview with
Meta Van Dyke with information on the history of the business and latest
activities of the Van Dyke family
July 2001, Ann Arbor Lifestyle Magazine, Issue 4, Vol.2, p. 17, "An
Old Fashioned Harvest," by Cynthia Furlong Reynolds.
July 2000, Midwest Online Newsletter Vol. 3 Issue 5 July 16, 2000, All About Zinnias - Zen on a Stem - Midwestern Style
12/99 -- "Zinnias - Colorful, Butterfly-Approved"Read one of the most comprehensive, entertaining, and educational
articles on zinnias, with great coverage of why butterflies love them so: Butterfly
Gardeners' Quarterly, edited and published by Claire Hagen Dole. Redbud Farms
contributed information to and is mentioned favorably in the article. For
butterfly garden order information, please see our
Products Page. A reprint of this article comes with each order you place to Van Dyke
Zinnias.
Horticulture Magazine, July/August issue, pp.28, 68, VDZ
is named as a source for zinnias featured in the article.
For Zesty Color That Zings, Conzider Zinnias!, Birds & Blooms,
by Ann Wied, August/September'98, pp. 10-11.
5/1/99 -- see the article "Rediscovering Zinnias"by Susan McClure in the
May/June issue of National Gardening Magazine, pp.49-52,
82. Wonderful distinctions between flower types, colors, and sizes - very thorough!
"In this wondrous life, there are champions of
hope whose very existence brings light into the world." --
Flavia Weedn
Be a Champion.
Articles by the Growers
November 2000,
Do Something You
Love -- Start A Small Business - Interview with the Ballers
1/22/00 -- Van Dyke Zinnias to Present at the
Northeast
Regional 2000 Master Gardener Conference in October 2000 - the
topic will be "Van Dyke Zinnias @ Redbud Farms - A
Horticultural/E-Commerce Experiment."
7/1/99 -- see the article "Zinnias" by Wayne
Winterrowd in the July/August issue of Horticulture, pp.28-9 and
the Van Dyke Zinnias listed as a source of plants pictured in the article on p.68! For
information on which zinnia varieties are included in our Supreme and Mini mixes, see
"Here's
What Makes a Van Dyke Zinnia "Supreme" or "Mini"
Peter Loewer, Seeds - The Definitive Guide to Growing, History &
Lore,1995.
R.K. Horst, "Powdery and Downy Mildews"; National Gardening
May/June '92, pp.18-21.
We
take our Inspiration, understanding, and hope from the following:
James Redfield, The Celestine Vision, 1997, also
inspiration from his other fine books: The Celestine Prophecy, The
Tenth Insight, and The Celestine Prophecy: an Experiential Guide:
Holding the Vision.
Clarissa Pincola Estes, Ph.D. - Women Who Run with the
Wolves and The Faithful Gardener.
Thomas Moore - Care of the Soul, Soul Mates, The
Re-Enchantment of Everyday Life, Original Self.
Carolyn Myss, Ph.D.- The Anatomy of the Spirit,
Why People Don't Heal (And How They Can)
Subscribe or Unsubscribe HERE to our
*News Beams
* from
the Farm!
From time to time, we will offer web-only specials and publish
short stories about the Farm Dogs or the grandkids, and inspirations from life on the Farm in mid-Michigan, the
American heartland. Seasonally, we will write to help Gardeners grow beautiful Zinnias,
learn how to make a stunning
bouquet, or how to collect precious seed when harvest is here. Let us know
if you would like to receive them.
We have moved our web to a new server and resized all photos for faster load
times. As we approach another winter, I hope
you visit us often to see our pretty pictures and read about the simple things
we love most here. Thanks for being a
customer! -Sharon Baller, President
"To see life's
passages through the eyes of your heart is to know that all is happening exactly
as it was meant to." -- Flavia Weedn
See the