Flower Therapy of a Different Kind

 Here is part of the garden in partial bloom one evening.

A visit to Terressentials in Middletown, Maryland will give you a taste of rural Frederick County. If you're coming from the direction of Washington DC or Baltimore, you'll pass through charming downtown Middletown, then travel up and down hills, past grazing cows and working farms. Just when you think you're completely lost in the middle of nowhere, you'll see the big purple mailbox (which we told you to look for, when you called us in confusion) and the Terressentials sign on the hill. You've probably come for our hand-crafted, USDA Certified Organic body care products. Maybe you're curious about where they're actually made (in the “barn” next door to the store), hand-labeled, hand-packed and shipped around the country and the world. 

 Here a team member is cutting flowers to make bouquets with.

You might notice the lovely landscaping outside the front of the store – ornamental grasses, flowering trees and shrubs, potted flowers and plants in an array of colors and shapes. But you probably won't see the extensive herb and flower gardens and fruit tree plantings beside and behind the buildings. Diana and Jim have been working on the grounds here for 17 years, and the results are stunning. 

 

This is what the table used to make the bouquets looks like when we first start.

Diana's love for flowers naturally led to her desire to adorn her stores with their beauty and share them with her customers. For several years now, the Terressentials Middletown staff has been growing flowers from seed, preparing beds and planting seedlings, weeding and watering and, finally, harvesting the bounty. Throughout August we've picked multi-colored bundles of zinnia, yellow and orange marigolds, pastel snapdragons, spiky celosia, bright orange cosmos, and sunny sunflowers, and arranged them into bouquets, accented with interesting grasses, perennial flowers and herbs such as Russian sage. Flower-picking and bouquet-making are a nice departure from the other tasks of our workday. The fresh air and expansive mountain-top views are a welcome change from the close (cozy!) quarters of the production and shipping area. And the unique shapes, colors and scents of the flowers themselves never fail to lift the spirits and bring a sense of peace.

Slowly we use up all of the flowers on the table.

I've been growing vegetables commercially (and organically, of course!) for ten years now. Currently, I work part-time at Terressentials and operate a small market garden during the rest of my waking life. Even though there are never enough hours in the day to get all the plowing, planting, weeding, watering, harvesting, etc. done to keep the vegetable production on track, I always make time to plant a section of flowers. Not for sale – just for me. I eagerly await the first blooms. I enjoy the splashes of color breaking up the lush green of the summer vegetable plants. I love watching the bees, butterflies and hummingbirds industriously visiting each one. I make bouquets every week for each room of my house. My vegetables nourish my body; my flowers are truly food for my soul.

 Here are some of the unused flowers that we make bouquets for our office out of!

You, too, can experience “flower therapy” at Terressentials! Our exquisite USDA certified organic Flower Therapy line of facial care products, made with a complex of beautifying floral and herbal extracts, will nourish your skin. And the unique and colorful flower bouquets at our East Patrick Street store in Frederick will brighten your day and nourish your soul!