The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
Five places to pick flowers in Connecticut
Most people know about pick-your-own strawberry and pumpkin patches and apple and peach orchards. What they may not realize is that Connecticut is home to a bunch of pick-your-own flower farms.
Time it right and you can have flower bouquets all season long, starting with tulips in May and ending with sunflowers as summer begins to fade. And you can make a day trip of it and explore other things to do nearby.
Buttonwood Farm
Buttonwood Farm may offer the perfect combination of an afternoon in the fresh summer air: homemade ice cream and PYO sunflowers.
Each year the farm plants more than 14 acres of sunflowers, which, according to the website, equals about 300,000 flowers. People can come pick their own blooms, usually starting at the end of July into August. All proceeds are donated to the Make-aWish Foundation in Connecticut, which grants wishes to children with serious illnesses.
In 2022, the price for sunflowers was $3 per bloom. For information on this year’s PYO sunflowers, see the website. 473 Shetucket Tpke., 860-3764081
In the area: Make an outdoor day of it with hiking and swimming at Hopeville Pond State Park.
Wicked Tulips
Wicked Tulips is owned by Keriann and Jeroen Koeman, who hails from a Dutch family of tulip growers. After cultivating a tulip business in Virginia, the couple moved to New England a few years ago, where the slightly colder weather is more conducive to tulip growing.
Now touted as the largest pick-your-own tulip farm in New England — they have farms in Exeter and Johnston, R.I., as well as the Preston location — Wicked Tulips is the first PYO farm to have flowers ready to pick in spring. The Preston farm offers 5 acres with about 700,000 tulip bulbs, according to manager Leah Hill.
“Luckily they’re not planted by hand,” she says. Between the three farms, they plant 1.5 million bulbs annually.
Tulip picking begins at the end of April — assuming Mother Nature cooperates — and continues until the end of May, when the weather begins to warm. Picking begins when about 30 percent of the fields are in bloom.
Varieties are staggered so there is always something blooming and ready to pick. “We want the fields for the first visitors to be just as pretty” as for later visitors, Hill says.
Tickets are timed and available for purchase on the website. Adult prices range from $20 on weekdays, which includes entrance and 10 PYO tulips, to $23 on weekends, with some variations for premium picking times.
See the website for an up-to-date bloom report and to purchase tickets. 382 Route 164, 401-297-3700
In the area: Preston Ridge Vineyard’s tasting room is open to the public on Fridays and weekends. At Village Pizza, you can build your own pie and more at this popular spot.
Brown’s Harvest
Originally a tobacco farm in the late 1800s, Brown’s Harvest today sells vegetables grown on site. The farm opens for the season on the weekend of May 13 with Spring Fest, a weekend of rides, vendors and food, as well as asparagus and PYO flowers such as cosmos and zinnias.
The main picking event is the annual sunflower festival the first three weekends in August. In addition to being able to pick your own sunflowers, people can enjoy hayrides, live music, a jump pad, barrel train rides and food vendors.
Tickets are required for the sunflower festival. The charge for picked sunflowers is per bloom. For 2023 prices, see the website. 1911 Poquonock Ave., 860-6830266
In the area: The New England Air Museum in Windsor Locks soars with all things aviation, with a particular focus on local history.
Petersen Flower Farm
While farming has been in the Petersen family for generations, Susan Petersen says it was her thought to start a PYO flower operation. “It was my crazy idea,” she says. “We took a portion of the land and I said, ‘Why don’t we try growing flowers for a pickyour-own?’ ”
That was about 12 years ago. Today the farm, which operates on the honor system, offers everything from celosia in different varieties and colors to rudbeckia (aka coneflower), amaracus, cosmos and salvias, and later in the summer, sunflowers. All told, the farm grows about 20 different varieties of flowers for picking each summer on 4 acres.
Each morning Susan and her husband, Russ, pick vegetables for the farmstand before they go to their day jobs. They leave water, snippers for cutting flowers and small buckets at the stand for customers to grab before they pick their flowers. (Vegetables are not pickyour-own.)
“It’s weigh and pay,” Petersen says, noting that the $8 per pound of flowers hasn’t changed since they started their enterprise. 125 Burgess Road, 860-6083921
In the area: In addition to frozen treats and puttputt fun, Fairway Dairy Cream and Mini Golf allows you to smash away in batting cages — what’s not to like?
Scott’s Farm and Greenhouses
A longtime family farm, Scott’s Farm and Greenhouses has two different locations: an orchard in Deep River and the vegetable and flower farm and greenhouse in Essex. It’s the Essex location that offers PYO flowers from late July until frost, according to the website.
Visitors can bring their own clippers and buckets for gathering, and clippers are available on site as well. Cost is per pound. See the website for 2023 pricing and information. 81 Plains Road, 860-7677059
In the area: One-hour rides on the Essex Steam Train start at the historic Essex Station. The narrated ride is 12 miles through the Connecticut River Valley.