Friday, 05 May 2017 12:53

Painting with Plants

By Megin Potter | Home & Garden

BALLSTON SPA — There’s a real art to putting together a beautiful garden. 

A gardener is an artist who uses dirt as their canvas and living plants as their palette. 

“Every time I create a design, it’s fun, different, and unique,” said Suzanne Balet Haight of Balet Flowers & Design. Her floral arrangements have become a staple at the Saratoga Farmers’ Market, have been on display at weddings and events, and thrive in private backyards around the region. 

“We focus on creating texture and getting color in the garden all the time, based on what each individual wants. Sometimes it’s with new plants, rearranging, digging, and dividing existing plants, or just help with weeding,” she said. 

Grown to Garden

Acquainted early-on to growing things on her family’s farm, she was introduced to floral design in college. She graduated with a degree in horticulture in 1993 and by 1995 renamed the farm Balet Flowers & Design and erected a small greenhouse for growing flowers on the property. 

Balet Haight and her team of approximately a dozen people, including her parents and husband, produce a vibrant selection of flowering shrubs, from 200 to 250 varieties of perennials, 150 kinds of annuals, herbs, and more than 80 types of vegetables for sale at their nursery. 

Amazing Selection

“The selection is so great that it creates interest – there’s always a new one to try,” said Balet Haight. New this year is the Indigo Cherry Drop tomatoes, which have a purple tint and are bursting with sweet flavor.

The combination planters available, including the “pizza garden”, the “salad garden”, and the “Thai herb garden” make it easy to harvest a whole meal from just one pot. 

“I like to try to create ideas by thinking, ‘What would I like on my deck, and why would I want it there?’” said Balet Haight. 

Pick-Your-Own Flowers

For the first time this year, Balet Flowers and Design will also be offering pick-your-own flowers. 

“Come out, walk through the garden, enjoy, and choose your own flowers,” said Balet Haight. 

Select a stem or buy a bunch from the field of flowers carefully chosen for their heartiness and rejuvenation abilities. Build your bouquet from among the familiar zinnias, sunflowers, and statice, striking celosia, gomphrena, and amaranth, the elegant lisianthus, cool blue salvia, tall and fragrant cleomes, dianthus, and more. 

You can also bring home your bouquet in Balet Haight’s useful hand-thrown pottery.

“Here, it’s food, flowers, and pottery,” she said.

Learn how to make your own hypertufa  pot at Balet Haight’s next workshop, happening on May 21, 2017, at 2:30 p.m. in their greenhouse. This popular hands-on class is $35/person, space is limited. 

Balet Flowers & Design is located at 5041 Nelson Ave. Ext., Ballston Spa. Call 584-8555 or go to http://www.baletflowers.com/ for more information. Open every day 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. until July. Pick-Your-Own Flowers and summer hours are July 5th-Oct. 1st, 10 a.m.-3 p.m.

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