Way back when, eight years (8!!!) now, when we first arrived in Germany, I was delighted to discover that self-serve is a thing here. Farmers set-up wagons with veggies (potatoes, onions, pumpkins) or fruits (mostly apples & pears) and you help yourself and drop some coins into the can. A big, heavy, solid can, but a can nonetheless. In late Spring, through Fall, farmers with roadside fields plant a flower patch. Tulips. Lilies. Gladiolas. Sunflowers. You cut your own and drop some coins into the big, heavy, sold can.
When we finally got our house, after three months in a hotel, I raced out to the patch near us and cut up half the field. I had to have all the flowers! In every room! I’d brought my own scissors that first time, only to discover that the farmer had left clippers available for his customers. I also discovered that his clippers were much better than my scissors, especially for sunflowers.
By the way, did you know that sunflowers are always all facing the same way? Their (flower)heads follow the sun as it moves across the sky. My sister, my baby sister, taught me that on one of our first visits to her house in France. I never knew this, and now I love driving by sunflower fields and seeing all their heads, turned in unison, towards the summer sky.
Sadly it turns out that my family, well, half of them, are allergic to fresh flowers in the house. Poor Dave & Cole had massive sneezing fits and red-rimmed eyes after my first adventure in self-flower cutting. Now I don’t cut flowers anymore for our house. Luckily wooden tulips are also a thing, and I’ve got a beautiful vase filled with ever-lasting wooden tulips on my window sill.
Still, I couldn’t resist this week. I’ve been out and about a little extra, caring for a friend in the hospital (and his beautiful kitties) while his wife is away. Between his house, mine, and the hospital there are 7 or 8 different fields filled with colorful gladiola’s and happy sunflowers. I couldn’t cut them down and bring them home, but I could stop and take pictures. Pictures last longer anyways. How beautiful are these?
A little booth. A sign. Flowers. Blumen selbst schneiden.
Flowers cut your own.
Knives, and sometimes, scissors are provided.
The gladiola’s are my favorite. The colors are breath-taking!
This flower patch has wonderful easy-to-walk paths in between the flowers. Usually it’s a bumpy farmers field.
Right now it’s gladiola’s & sunflowers.
Price per flower… only paid flowers bring happiness (or friends).
I love this! Beautiful! Fields of flowers…wish we had more of those in the US.
This is amazing. I also wish we had sites like this in the U.S. We do occasionally have wonderful fields of flowers but they are so few and far between and NEVER where you are welcome to pick your own.
Oh how I would love having flowers to cut nearby! I would have flowers in my house every few days. And the Germans are trustful of their neighbors. Very uncommon in the US, however I did have a neighbor who did a similar thing. He raised bees and would put jars of honey on his front porch with a sign for the price and a jar to put your money in. Unfortunately, he passed away a couple of years ago and his son did not continue this practice.