Today we’d like to introduce you to Brittany.
Brittany, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
Backlot Buds launched in 2022 after we acquired a vacant city lot behind our home through a City of Dayton tax foreclosure program. The idea that we could turn an overgrown, empty lot into a beautiful, productive space captivated me. Throughout the two-year foreclosure process, my husband and I experienced infant loss, which led to the discovery of my love for growing cut flowers. Each subsequent year our tiny, mulched backyard fit a few more flowers and the concept for a small-scale cut flower farm was born—alongside two infants who are now our other backlot buds.
In 2023, our first full growing season in the Backlot, we have several floral offerings we’re thrilled to share with downtown Dayton! Our spring, summer, and fall Community Supported Agriculture (CSA)-style bouquet shares feature 4 consecutive weeks of mixed bouquets showcasing unique focal blooms and pleasing color palettes. Our mixed bouquets and straight bunches will also be available at retail locations to-be-announced. A spring design workshop is planned for May 20 at Pink Moon Goods; I’m excited to create charming compote designs with other flower enthusiasts and share what I’m learning in floral design courses. You can order or find out more about these offerings on our website: www.backlotbuds.com.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Cultivating specialty cut flowers in Ohio is not a thrifty or casual endeavor. Many beautiful varieties are grown from tubers, corms, or bulbs that are not native to our region and require special care—more than an annual zinnia—or must be replaced every year. Lovely spring blooms like ranunculus and anemones ought to be planted in the fall and protected all winter to flower alongside tulips and specialty narcissus. Dahlia tubers need painstaking winter storage or field protection to survive perennially in our climate zone
Financial obstacles aside, growing on less than an 1/8-acre city lot has its hurdles: irrigation, excessive shade, occasional crime. But we wouldn’t trade them to grow elsewhere! Rural farming enterprises can have their sunny, picturesque fields and pleasant country sounds. Give me the power-line crisscrossed horizon and the oceanic soundbath of Route 35—it means people. People make a city, and they are why Dayton is so special.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
Our aim at Backlot Buds is to bring elegant, local specialty blooms to downtown Dayton and elevate the everyday. That means carefully selecting and cultivating floral ingredients for visually compelling bouquets and designs that also have excellent vase life. In terms of creative work, I find perusing the array of cut flower seeds available and curating a harmonious selection from among them quite exciting. Yet growing and harvesting the flowers requires less artistry and more fundamental know-how. In 2023—our third year of growing—we expect to continue refining our cultivation practices and learning what works best in our setting in addition to advancing floral design knowledge through coursework and reading.
We’ve focused on mixed bouquets as the foundation of our business because unique flowers in refined palettes deserve a place at your dinner table or bedside stand—not just in bridal bouquets and social media feeds. Like many folks, I enjoy fresh flowers; but I don’t always love the bouquets I can grab at the grocery—probably due to my preference for understated, muted, and nuanced hues. Less is more (and quiet is loud?) in my book, but that’s not necessarily the approach to color most market bouquets take.
Fresh flower fans can expect Backlot Buds bouquets to stand apart from familiar market selections in color, freshness, and bloom variety. We hope you’ll become a CSA shareholder and see for yourself!
Who else deserves credit in your story?
My husband deserves oodles of credit for patiently tolerating the mess creative overflow generates…on the kitchen table, countertops, stacked in corners. But more than that, he encourages–and enables–me to spend the time I need to cultivate, harvest, and design with our flowers.
Pricing:
- Seasonal CSA Bouquet Shares $75
- Retail bouquets $20 – $30
- Design workshop $65
Contact Info:
- Website: www.backlotbuds.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/backlotbuds/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100084004681785
