The place: Yountville, California…where my husband and I came across this sensational and ample garden along the main road as we were walking around town after dinner one night. My guess is that this garden is an acre or maybe more and is made up of gorgeous vegetables that have been planned and cared for beautifully, along with some adorable chickens and buzzing beehives. What is also amazing about these gardens is that anyone can wander in them. I found that quite surprising and thoughtful, especially once I learned that it was Thomas Keller’s garden for his three restaurants in town: The French Laundry, Bouchon and Ad hoc.

As we walked by that evening, myself always on the lookout for the next Wednesday’s Flower, I was searching to see if there was anything that I could photograph. Sure enough I found a flower I’ve been wanting to shoot since last September. It’s unique to say the least, and I was psyched to come back to these gardens again in two days time to photograph it.

As I have learned over time, not every flower shoot is easy. This one, though, really caught me by surprise, as I arrived two days later to find that all of the flowers I had planned to shoot had been cut down. Yep, cut down. No longer there. Now that’s a bummer! I started walking around the garden trying to find something else that was blooming and really hoping in the back of my mind that maybe, just maybe I could find this flower somewhere else in the garden.

After walking from one end to the other, I found one blooming plant left! Delighted to find it, I then went to find someone who was working in the garden to see if they would mind if I photographed it. I met Kate who works this beautiful garden, and she kindly said ‘yes’. I was relieved and excited to get to work.

At times like this I’m reminded to stop and enjoy things in the moment, because you never know when they might disappear. And I feel so grateful to have been able to find that one plant left untouched…it seems it was meant to be!

I’ll be sharing this flower from Thomas Keller’s garden next week, August 5th, as Wednesday’s Flower. Please take a guess below as to what kind of flower it could be…think vegetables.

Featured Images: Thomas Keller’s Garden, Yountville, CA

my cutting garden update as of july 28th | Two more flowers have reseeded from last year: Borage and a couple of Cosmos. So looking forward to the first planted seeds of this year to bloom, and definitely getting close as the Bachelor Buttons since yesterday now have buds on them.

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