This is the sixth “Land Lovers” profile, complied by local Guelph artist, writer and Ignatius land lover, Dawn Matheson, with photography by flower grower Teresa Blanking. Please reach out to us If you are a lover of our fields and forests, flora and fauna and want to share in the wonder. We’d like to profile you.
Tish has grown organic cut flowers here at Ignatius for the past 8 years. Her business, “May Moon Flowers,” is a nod to the first full moon in May known as the flower moon, and May is her birth month. Each day at dawn during growing season, you can hear Tish’s clunky pick-up truck pulling up to her 1/4 acre bed of beauty. Find her @maymoonflowers on Instagram.
Who are you? What do you want us to know about you?
I have always worked in creative fields but came to flowers in the last decade. One funny irony, as a flower grower, I have seasonal allergies as well as anaphylaxis to bee and wasp stings, but, I’m happiest in the garden, so it’s something I deal with.
How do you spend your time out on the land?
I spend most of my time tending the flowers. Lots of weeding! Ha! I come out first thing each morning, rain or shine, and do my walkthrough. I take photos every day, and then I get to work.
Why do you come? What does this land offer you?
Working close to nature is healing for me. This land offers me peace, joy, and the opportunity to test my grit. The beauty amazes me, especially now, in peak bloom. It can be a hard job. I start some of the seeds in January under lights in my basement and they don’t bloom until now. They are slow growers and definitely worth the wait. When the work feels hard, I keep focussing on this moment: peak bloom. And, here it is. It’s so special to stand in a field full of flowers.
How do you do to give back to the land?
I grow everything organically, which is gentle on the earth. I plant specific plants to encourage pollinators (bees, wasps, moths, hummingbirds…) and, of course, the flowers enhance habitat and provide food, like the milkweed plant does for monarch caterpillars. I love to witness their metamorphosis into butterflies.
