Tag Archives: dahlias

Seahorses, Bunnies, Sunflowers, and Charlotte

Lucky us that Charlotte and I were able to spend the day together on primary election day, Tuesday. When asked what she wanted to do she instantly said the  Seacoast Science Center, and to visit the bunnies and pick flowers for her Mom’s birthday at my friend Paul Wegzyn’s sunflower farm, Felix’s Family Farm.

As always the Seacoast Science Center was super interesting and educational with its touch tanks, displays about local marine habitats, and highly knowledgeable staff of young biologists. The highlights were seahorse feeding time and when Raspberry, the endangered Box Turtle, was brought out of his pen to sun himself outdoors. The five seahorses currently at the aquarium are Lined Seahorses (Hippocampus erectus) and they can be found all along the Atlantic coast, from Nova Scotia to Uruguay. They are considered a slow moving fish and that is one of the reasons why seahorses are endangered. Because they are relatively easy to catch, Lined Seahorses are also easily exploited for ornamental display, the aquarium trade, and Chinese medicine.

Paul Wegzyn, Sr. and son Paul Wegzyn Felix’s Family Farm

In these last lingering days of summer and first days of autumn, don’t miss taking your family to Paul’s flower fields. The sunflowers currently blooming are a gorgeous fresh new batch and his exquisite dahlia fields are at peak. As you can see in the photos, for Charlotte, the highlight of the day is bunnies. You can never get too much bunny love and all of Paul’s rabbits are sweet, friendly, and wonderfully pet-able. The favorite of the favorites is Ryan the Rabbit, a breed called a Mini Rex, and he is the softest, sweetest creature you can imagine. He was wholly engaged with Charlotte and she was wondering if it is because of her flowered dress.

Felix’s Family Farm is located at 20 Lowes Lane, Ipswich, and is open everyday for the next two weeks, until  September 28th however, as we get closer to October, be sure to call for hours (978-229-1071).

Love, Love Felix’s Family Farm!

Unable are the loved to die, for love is immortality

Paul Wegzyn and his family have created a most magical family friendly farm event. The theme this season is LOVE and beautiful quotes are placed throughout the fields.

Every season Paul develops new and wonderful experiences for people and this year is no exception. If you do, as do we, have a bunny- and goat-loving youngster in your family, they will be utterly delighted with the very pet-able, softest bunnies and sweetest goats around!

He has created a lovely butterfly garden with Mexican Sunflowers, Zinnias, and Cleome and you can PYO all the flowers on the farm, including Paul’s beautiful dahlias.

A new crop of lavender is almost ready to pick as is a freshly opening field of orange sunflowers with dark centers, which I can not wait to see.

Felix’s Family Farm is open everyday from now until about the third week in September, or as long as the flowers last.

Felix’s Family Farm

20 Lowes Lane, Ipswich, MA

978-229-1071

The following is a list of even more activities Felix’s Family Farm has to offer. To learn more, please go here.

  • Baby Goat Yoga
  • Alpaca Yoga
  • Yoga Yurt with a variety of classes and events
  • Luxury Glamping Experience on The Farm
  • The Ability To Host Private Parties and Events
  • Honey From The Farm
  • Professional Cow Photoshoots
  • Picnics on The Farm

CALLING ALL GARDENERS – MONARCHS NEED OUR HELP!

Please don’t tidy up your garden just yet. The Monarch migration is really lagging compared to other years. The weather has not been cooperating and they have been waiting for the winds to shift from the northwest. Finally, it happened and yesterday and we saw our first signs of the migration with several small passels. The issues are that because the migration is later than normal and because of the drought, many wildflowers have passed peak. In other words, the Monarch migration is out of sync with the blooming time of the most nectar-rich native wildflowers.

Monarchs and Seaside Goldenrods back in September

How can gardeners help? If we must tidy up, please at least wait until the end of the October. Leave your sunflowers, asters, goldenrods, dahlias, verbenas, cosmos, Mexican sunflowers, zinnias, butterfly bushes, and Montauk Daisies in place. Even if they appear a bit unruly, in many instances, the butterflies are still able to extract some nectar.

Monarchs migrating in October need our garden stalwarts, such as Zinnias

Tracking the migration overnight roost population numbers from Journey North, you can see that by October 10th, 2024, so far, the Atlantic Flyway population is way, way down.

The northwest winds are predicted for the next several days. Please write and share any Monarch sightings. Thank you!

Monarch and Mexican Sunflowers – safe travels Monarca!

SCHOOL STREET SUNFLOWERS IS OPEN AND THE FIELD AND FLOWERS LOOKS MAGNIFICENT!

School Street Sunflowers will be in peak bloom over the next week or so, the field is dried out from all the rain, and there are armfuls of flowers to take home! For tickets (which include sunflower stems!) visit School Street Sunflowers here

School Street Sunflowers is located at 16 School Street in Ipswich.

 

FUN FREE FAMILY ACTIVITY AND PHOTO OP TODAY – SCHOOL STREET SUNFLOWERS AND DAHLIA FIELDS ARE OPEN TODAY BEFORE THE STORM!!

Good morning Friends!

With a broken leg unfortunately still preventing me from visiting my friend’s farm fields, Paul Wegzyn from School Street Sunflower and Dahlia Fields writes that despite the pending storm, the fields are opening today!!!

School Street Sunflower Field and Dahlia Field

Open Saturday, August 21st  – 9am until sunset.

16 School Street, Ipswich

With our sunflower field, we have lost over 50% of the field because of all the rain in July. With another 2.5 inches of rain yesterday, our sunflower field is very muddy right now. It looks like even more rain on Sunday and Monday with Tropical Storm Henri.

We still have thousands of beautiful sunflowers in bloom and there are some excellent spots for photos.

Usually we have an admission fee and don’t cut sunflowers in this field, but with the many sunflowers that were flooded, we will have no admission fee. We will be selling tickets for bunches of sunflowers.

Each ticket will get you one bunch of sunflowers (3 stems) and you can walk around and find the best spots to take photos.

You can buy tickets on: www.schoolstreetsunflowers.com

Our dahlia field is looking amazing and we will be open on Saturday. The location of the dahlia field is also on School Street. Almost across the street from the tennis courts at Ipswich High School.

There is no admission fee to the dahlia field and you can buy dahlias there.

We will have events throughout the summer and fall where Paul and award winning Dahlia grower, Bart Kellerman aka “Doc Dahlia” give talks about growing dahlias.
The hours for the dahlia field are still TBD, but you can find us there on the weekends and some weeknights.

For everyone that loves sunflowers, we have another sunflower field planted that will open up in Mid September! We are really excited to open up this field to the public for the first time and we will have more information in September.

See you Saturday!

Father and son School Street Sunflowers proprietors, Paul Wegzyn and Paul Wegzyn

Photo gallery from past years at School Street Sunflowers