Chels calls it the golden hour: the stretch between dinner and bedtime when there is still enough light to go back outside.

Her children follow her into the garden with snips. The day’s family rhythm continues among the flower beds, where something Chels began for herself has become part of the life they share.

Earth Song Flower Farm began after the family moved to a property in the hills of Callignee, surrounded by large, established trees. Chels had three young children at home and wanted a piece of life that was hers to tend and develop. She planted a few beds of dahlias and zinnias.

The first flowers turned a personal project into a hobby farm and then a small-scale flower farm, with the work extending from seed to bouquet. Each new bed brought another season of learning one particular piece of ground.

Pink and white flowers growing in front of a corrugated iron farm building.

Callignee’s hills can be a few degrees cooler than surrounding areas, leaving flowers such as ranunculus later to arrive. Wind changes what needs support. Frost changes when plants can safely move outside. Slugs, snails and wildlife can undo careful work while a plant is still young.

Low tunnels create warmer pockets and protect new growth from frost, wind and animals. Sweet peas need trellising and attention as they establish. New varieties enter the beds as questions: Will this one cope with the conditions? Will its colour earn another place next summer? The answers arrive through the plants themselves.

Seeds are sown, seedlings planted, stems supported and flowers cut in daylight. Bunches are often made at night, after the household settles. One finished bunch was photographed in the bathroom because it offered the best available light. The polished bouquet emerged from an improvised corner at the end of an ordinary family day.

A woman cutting pink flowers in warm evening light.

Children, dinner, weather and tiredness remain part of the farm’s working day. Chels has grown Earth Song by finding room for the work among them.

A mixed bunch holds varieties that happened to be ready together. Its colours reflect choices made months earlier, the weather that followed and the plants that survived. Another week produces a different answer because the beds have changed.

Two mixed bouquets of pink, cream, white and burgundy flowers wrapped in white paper.

Colour starts in the choice of seed or tuber, develops through soil and care, and enters another person’s life when the flower is cut. Through Power of Colour, the bouquet carries the visible result together with the quieter story of the person who kept returning to the beds.

Evening rounds, muddy children, weather checks, bed preparation and bunches assembled after dark give the Garden City idea an intimate rural life. Flowers grown in Callignee move into homes and occasions elsewhere in the region, carrying the conditions and care of the hills with them.

As dahlias and hardy annuals slow, beds are amended and the next succession is considered or already sown. The farm keeps offering Chels a place to learn, decide and begin again.

What started as a few beds gave her something of her own. In the golden hour, her children follow her into it. The life Chels created for herself has become a place where all of them can grow.

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Power of Colour Awards 2026 artwork with colourful figures rising like a fountain of leaves.

Power of Colour

Power of Colour Awards

Earth Song's seasonal growing shows how colour begins in choices made months before a bunch is cut, then changes with the conditions of the Callignee hills. The Power of Colour Awards celebrate the wider regional relationship between gardens, growing, colour and shared place. This is Eden of the East Foundation's editorial connection, not evidence that the business participates in the Awards.

Explore the Power of Colour Awards

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