A NEW Ranunculus ( a PINCH ME Moment) : Flower Hill Farm

Hi flower friends, it's Nicole from Flower Hill Farm and I've been keeping a little bit of a secret and it involves a brand new never before seen ranunculus variety here in the United States. Let's go back to the beginning of the story which takes us back to March. March is when I trekked across the pond and visited some ranunculus breeders in both France and Holland and made some beautiful memories, met some beautiful people and walked away with a pinch me moment. I still can't believe this happened. Okay let me tell you about it. You may remember way back in March I did post one video from the trip. I have a lot more ready to go over the winter but this one video that I had already posted about my visits to the ranunculus breeders there was one particular ranunculus that caught our eye, everyone's eye. We were like you know that look, the bugs out, the cartoon look. We were like who is she? What is it? This is amazing. This is unlike any ranunculus we've ever seen before and Bernard, this was at Comtois Palinois and Bernard who is one of the breeders there, third generation breeders, he went on to tell us that that was a variety that was not named yet and that he was only currently sharing it with a couple of his neighbors and it had not been a full release and so we were just admiring it. Everyone was taking pictures, everyone's doing videos, everyone's saying check this out, not available and at the time we were told maybe it would be available in six or seven years, cross your fingers, not known. Anyway so we finished our tour and we ended up going on a we just happened to get there and then you sit down and there's a lot of us, there's like 20 of us at this lunch and where you sat was just the luck of the draw and I ended up because I was down taking some pictures, I ended up getting a little bit late to the table, I was kind of one of the last ones to come around. There was a seat open next to Dave Dowling who's one of my mentors who organized this trip right so I'm like sweet I'm gonna sit next to Dave. So I sat next to Dave and across from us was Bernard and his brother. Those are the brewers of the Ranunculus that we were just visiting. So I was excited because then we get to talk more and over the course of that two-hour lunch Dave and I were talking to Bernard about how special that Ranunculus was and how I even have a little bit of a video clip of me saying does it have a name yet? Does he say it has a name yet? I don't know who said it has a name. Well we should know. That needs a beautiful name and I can't exactly remember. I think Dave might have started the story. I mean the process I think Dave said something like you should let Nicole release it in the United States and I was like stop it you're being ridiculous Dave and I was like you need to come up with a good name for it and he tells me that the name of this variety is JW79 because that's how they tally things the letter J the letter W79 and that is the way that it was written down and how they cataloged its process whatever whatever whatever. Anyway we ended up just developing this beautiful rapport back and forth and I had talked to him earlier while we were at his facility because I did say this in that video Bernard named his Ranunculus variety the varieties that he bred after his daughter. You may recognize the name because a lot of us grow this variety it's called the Amandine variety. You'll have Amandine Pink, Amandine White, Amandine Orange, Amandine Black. So he had named all of these varieties after his daughter and over the course of that two hour lunch not only did he give me naming rights to this amazing new never-before-seen Ranunculus variety he also gave me exclusive selling rights to these corms in the United States and there isn't even a catch the only catch is there are a very limited number of corms I'm talking less than 2,000 corms available of this variety therefore it's extremely limited but guess what after he gave me the right to name this variety I almost immediately knew I'm gonna get like I almost immediately knew that I wanted to name it after my daughter not only does that pay homage to Bernard's decision to name his line Amandine after his daughter it allows me to take what I believe to be the most beautiful name in the world my daughter's name and my daughter's middle name is my mom's name so not only am I able to pay homage to my daughter I'm able to pay homage to my mother by naming this Ranunculus Veda Renee the queen mother speaks anyway it's just um it was one of those moments where it was a pinch me moment and we were still with Bernard when I decided to tell him what I chose for a name of the Ranunculus and he was like I love it Veda Renee it sounds French doesn't it it worked out perfectly anyway Veda Renee is one of several Ranunculus that I have available right now on my website you'll remember maybe that I was also showing you some brush mark series or the beautiful striped Ranunculus that we've also never seen before it's just now be being available in the United States and then there are some others that are like the romance series guys these were so incredible that I knew I had to get my hands on some to offer them to to you guys right now so here are some varieties that you'll see on my website three different varieties from the brush mark series three different colors and then we've got this romance cn we've got this purple romance here are a few other varieties that you'll see and then we've got a couple of beautiful anemones and I know you guys love the pastel mixes of the anemones and that's why we have the rarity anemone it's the mistral rarity anemone and it is absolutely stunning we have these available in quantities of 10 20 or 50 corms the more you buy the cheaper it is unfortunately because Veda Renee is so limited I am only allowed to sell those in five corm bunches and you have a limit of buying two because I want as many people as possible to experience growing and seeing this absolutely one of a kind I mean literally this is a U.S. introduction with my daughter's name it's just absolutely incredible and I am so excited to share this with you guys I had posted this on my private Facebook page because I was so excited shortly after we got back from from Europe but this is my first time sharing it on on this form on YouTube anyway I wanted to let you guys know the redonkulous sale is open not only that but check out the tulips that I'm bringing in new varieties of tulips we've never seen before these are incredible varieties now this is a pre-order I'm not going to be shipping until October and it takes me two to three weeks to get through all of the orders that are placed so you're not going to be seeing this ship right away this is a pre-order shipping in October and we also brought in some daffodils because you guys are constantly asking me where I get my daffodils so I'm also offering daffodils on my website as well as some peony varieties that are in high demand including the much sought after Colonel Owens cousins it is so stunning and I have them available in limited quantities on my website again shipping in October but I couldn't wait to tell you guys about the and I didn't want to really come out here in the springtime and say guess what I can't wait because I wanted to just make sure that this was a thing I actually emailed Bernard a couple days later and just said are you being serious like are we are we sure are you seriously giving me both the the right to name this variety and to offer it in the U.S. to customers and he said absolutely so um we we hit it off we got along pretty well and it was an amazing lunch it was probably the best most relaxing five course lunch on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea that I've ever had it was just the food kept coming out and we thought like pizzas came out right pizzas and we were like oh this is lunch cool it was delicious pizza it was like basil fresh we were like oh and they're like oh no this is just the appetizer we're like okay we did slow down because there were charcuterie boards there was then steak started coming out anyway it was an absolutely incredible experience and the fact that I was able to leave Europe with um with the right to name and introduce a never-before-seen ranunculus into the United States was something that I will never forget so thank you Bernard and your family for just being amazing to us while we were there like I'm getting emotional again about it it was just it was a beautiful experience and um it's something I will never forget sales for vader venetian ranunculus are open now along with all of the other varieties that I have on the website check it out guys I am so excited I'm keeping obviously I'm keeping an amount for me and um to grow here at the farm um but the vast majority of them I am allowing to spread around the country and that's the thing too guys I am not able to ship to Canada or to anywhere else I'm only able to ship in the United States that's what my license allows and when you are a small business such as myself and you attempt to go that next step and ship internationally the fees are absolutely higher than the sales that I would ever make so it's it's not something that I'm able to not ruling it out for the future but right now that's all I can do so okay I am gonna go get ready to open the shop we open up tomorrow for mom's season so I'm gonna go uh get prepared for that thanks for sticking around guys we'll see you soon so this is one that's not been released yet oh my how far away is this one from being released did he say it's not he can explain to like a good neighbor bernard is there no it doesn't it looks like almost like a um okay so um see it here folks and nowhere else sorry well friends this flower here as gorgeous as it is we probably will not see this in the states