Tulips Flower Power at Burnside Farms

With our powers combined, my spouse and I prevented our daughter from uprooting every tulip at Burnside Farms. Captain Planet would be proud. And in thinking that my daughter would treat flowers like, well, flowers, she reminded me that I truly don't know what she's capable of as she proceeded to pop the colorful petals off each stem instead of picking them at the base for putting in a vase. I suppose they are the prettiest part. Needless to say, none made it home. We did pick one for her that made it back to the parking lot before the flower was unceremoniously dissected and petals sprinkled the gravel. Another one bites the dust.

My daughter's sabotage aside, going at 7:30 in the morning to take sunrise photos at a farm dedicated to growing flowers instead of food was decidedly worth it. Tulips in many shapes and shades stretched at length at Burnside Farms. I am much too big to play hide and seek, but my gallant efforts to hide behind flowers and take pictures was met with enthusiasm by our toddler. “Where's Mommy hiding?” paired well with giggles and well timed shots. 

Burnside Farms has photographers, flower enthusiasts, families and more who flock to its grounds for a shot of either gorgeous pictures or the flowers themselves. The farm provides everything from lendable wicker baskets to flower buckets and paper for bouquets - perhaps when my little girl is a big girl. There are benches, a picturesque wooden swing, a moped, a bicycle, and other props strewn throughout the grounds. Burnside Farms grows sunflowers in the fall as well, although I've heard whispers of there being a larger dedicated sunflower field in Maryland - sunflowers out to the horizon. It's certainly on my list to check out in the next couple years. 

Virginia and Maryland both have beautiful farm lands of all kinds. Vegetable farms, fruit farms, flower farms, dairy and animal farms, wheat fields…. Their rock formations and mountains aren't as prominent as perhaps the midwest and west coast, but the beauty is still there in other ways.

Our daughter can't smile on demand yet, so her expressions are always so genuine. It's a blessing and a curse with young children. They're naturally themselves and don't think too hard about the camera - may be a generational thing. However, telling them to sit or stand in a certain spot is sometimes met with confusion and assumptions that it must be a trap. So, as a mom, I must outwit my toddler by going “Ooohhh, what's that over there? That's pretty cool. Wanna check it out?” All while adjusting the camera and hovering over the shutter release, ready to capture the first impressions. Sometimes her expression changes so fast that I spray and pray, taking a constant stream of shots in hopes that 1 of them nailed the shot. 

Toddlers are an interesting bunch. My daughter was into the flowers for a bit before looking admittedly bored. We tried sitting on the swing at Burnside Farms but that too only lasted a few minutes. The decorative moped on the farm was a huge hit, though. We sang songs, pretended to drive it, and took turns playing around on it. I think my little woman would have taken it home if she could have and if a little boy hadn't come up looking wantingly at the moped.

After our trip to Burnside Farms, our toddler is under the firm belief that all flowers are free for the picking. She'll pick flowers from our neighbor’s garden when we're not watching. We've created a flower monster. Lovely.