VESTAL, NY – (WIVT/WBGH) Today’s Food and Farm Showcase takes us to a backyard in Vestal that is filled with an abundance of beauty and fragrance.

Bees Louise Flower Farm is a micro-farm business run by Cynthia Szeliga. Beginning this year, Bees Louise has been offering flower subscriptions to customers featuring a wide variety of luxury premium flowers that she grows at her home. Her focal flowers are David Austin roses and dahlias. Her secondary blooms include sweet pea flowers, Orlaya white French lace, lavender and many types of snap dragons from curated seeds from across the country. Szeliga says she started planting roses for her own enjoyment, but then felt compelled to share with others.

“Over time, I had such an abundance of flowers that I wanted to share them because they were filling up my house and I had nowhere else to put them. So, I started giving away arrangements and bouquets. The joy that it brought people was just so amazing that I decided that I wanted to share it with my community as well,” she said.

Szeliga says she does a lot of planning over the winter for the coming growing season. This year, that meant constructing five raised garden beds to plant more annuals and fillers for her arrangements and bouquets. She says companion flowers also play an important role in attracting a diverse number of insects and allowing her to remain as organic as possible. Szeliga says the fragrance from her flowers can bring back nostalgic memories.

“Everything I’ve been offering has been really well-received and it means the world to me. People send me pictures of my flowers on their kitchen counters or said they gave it as a gift to their mother or their friend and it brought them so much joy and this is why I want to do this. I want to infuse joy into this world and just keep spreading joy through flowers,” she added.

Szeliga’s next subscription period will begin at the end of August when her dahlias come into bloom. Meanwhile, she routinely offers flash sales of bouquets over Facebook and Instagram by searching Bees Louise Flower Farm. Szeliga says she’s often at the whim of Mother Nature when it comes to availability. She says she’s currently seeking a property where she can plant a larger scale flower farm that people can visit and enjoy.