Stephanie specializes in the creative, chic, & unusual. Floral designs range from classic elegance to funky & over the top! Stephanie incorporates herbs, berries, fruits, feathers & ribbons. Containers are frequently vintage finds, teapots, & crystal compotes.
Weddings are a speciality, and no affair is too large or too small. Weddings can be done in the entire Mid-Atlantic area. Delivery in the Poolesville area, including Barnesville, Dickerson and Beallsville is free, and for a small charge delivery can be made to all parts of Montgomery and Frederick Counties, MD and most of Northern Virginia and Washington DC.
Do you love sipping crisp , delicious, & locally sourced wine surrounded by the fragrance of freshly cut flowers as you gaze out into the open fields watching the sun set?
Some old-fashioned things like fresh air and sunshine are hard to beat.
Laura Ingalls Wilder
“The beautiful spring came, and when nature resumes her loveliness, the human soul is apt to revive also.”
Harriet Ann Jacobs
Take a peek @windridge_vineyards Instagram to check out their amazing sunsets & tasty wines and food they have to offer!
Psst… Check out the ‘Flower Workshop’ tab to see future workshops held at the Vineyard or Stephanie’s Flower Shop!
“Flowers have spoken to me more than I can tell in written words. They are the hieroglyphics of angels, loved by all men for the beauty of their character, though few can decipher even fragments of their meaning.”
Lydia M. Child
…spring is approaching â STAY TUNED for all exciting things to come!
THANK YOU, MY FELLOW FLOWER PEOPLE!
Stephanie is still thriving with business all due to you! We’re a small local business that could not be where we are today if it wasn’t for our faithful following – we cannot express how thankful we are.
Delivery in the Poolesville area, including Barnesville, Dickerson and Beallsville is free, and for a small charge delivery can be made to all parts of Montgomery and Frederick Counties, MD and most of Northern Virginia and Washington DC.
“Behold, my friends, the spring is come; the earth has gladly received the embraces of the sun, and we shall soon see the results of their love.”
Sitting Bull
As always, we want to thank all of our fellow flower people and beautiful brides nominating Stephanie for Wedding Wire’s ‘Couple’s Choice Award’ for so many years! Cheers to another yearđĽ
Read all of Stephanie’s wonderful Wedding Wire Reviews⣠Here
The first real day of spring is like the first time a boy holds your hand. A flood of skin-tingling warmth consumes you, and everything shines with a fresh, colorful glow, making you forget that anything as cold and harsh as winter ever existed.
Richelle E. Goodrich
Let Stephanie add some brightness & wonderful smelling flowers to any of your special events or milestones!
corsages & boutonnieres
âMy path has not been determined. I shall have more experiences and pass many more milestones.â
Agnetha Faltskog
âShe sprouted love like flowers, grew a garden in her mind, and even on the darkest days, from her smile sun still shined.â
Erin Hanson
âLife isnât about milestones, itâs about momentâ
He walked past the couch to the open window and held up the drooping stalk of a moss-rose, looking down at the dainty blend of crimson and green. It was a new phase of his character to me, for I had never before seen him show any keen interest in natural objects.
“There is nothing in which deduction is so necessary as religion,” said he, leaning with his back against the shutters. “It can be built up as an exact science by the reasoner. Our highest assurance of the goodness of Providence seems to me to rest in the flowers. All other things, our powers, our desires, our food, are all really necessary for our existence in the first instance. But this rose is an extra. Its smell and its color are an embellishment of life, not a condition of it. It is only goodness which gives extras, and so I say again that we have much to hope from the flowers.â
Arthur Conan Doyle, The Naval Treaty – a Sherlock Holmes Short Story
â Hours: Wednesday-Saturday, 10:30am-5:30pm – but, someone at the Egly household will usually be home & available to help out on the days we are closed
⨠Email: Stephaniessecretgarden@gmail.com
â Phone Number: (301) 349-4050 – please leave a voicemail if Stephanie is unavailable to answer your call
âAddress: Willow Pond Farm at 15115 Mount Nebo Road, Poolesville, MD 20837
If you would love to see more of Stephanie’s wonderfully unique work, please follow her on â
I’d like to leave but daffodils to mark my little way, To leave but tulips red and white behind me as I stray; I’d like to pass away from earth and feel I’d left behind But roses and forget-me-nots for all who come to find.
I’d like to sow the barren spots with all the flowers of earth, To leave a path where those who come should find but gentle mirth; And when at last I’m called upon to join the heavenly throng I’d like to feel along my way I’d left no sign of wrong.
And yet the cares are many and the hours of toil are few; There is not time enough on earth for all I’d like to do; But, having lived and having toiled, I’d like the world to find Some little touch of beauty that my soul had left behind.
âStudy nature, love nature, stay close to nature. It will never fail you.”
Frank Lloyd Wright
âThe wild woman has a deep love of nature, a love for the ancient mother. Though possibly misunderstood, it has always been in her. When she goes into the wilderness a part of her soul is going home.â Shikoba
Flowers might as well be the blood that runs through our veins â Stephanie’s talented son, Sidney, operates his own ‘Certified Naturally Grown’ Flower Farm conveniently located right here at Willow Pond Farm (greenhouse and flower fields located right by Stephanie’s shop) He specializes in growing uniquely beautiful flowers.
I love spring anywhere, but if I could choose I would always greet it in a garden.
Ruth Stout
Jessica, Stephanie’s (one of three) daughters, is an amazingly talented pastry chef! She graduated from L’Academie de Cuisine with her Pastry of Arts Certificate and specializes in custom made cakes of all occasions, cupcakes, cake pops or anything else your heart (or stomach) desire.
âWe need to teach people to go into their backyards, that real healing is all around us.â â Margi Flint
“…I just try to live every day as if I’ve deliberately come back to this one day, to enjoy it, as if it was the full final day of my extraordinary, ordinary life.”
Tim, About Time
In springtime, love is carried on the breeze. Watch out for flying passion and kisses whizzing by your head.
Emma Racine Defleur
âYouâre only here for a short visit. Donât hurry, donât worry. And be sure to smell the flowers along the way.â
Walter Hagan
âWhen admiring other people’s gardens, don’t forget to tend to your own flowers.â
Sanober Khan
Spring: a lovely reminder of how beautiful change can truly be.
“Always itâs Spring and everyoneâs in love and flowers pick themselves.”
E.E. Cummings
Weddings are a speciality, and no affair is too large or small.
Weddings can be done in the entire Mid Atlantic area: Our wedding flowers have adorned weddings from Baltimore’s Inner Harbor ⤠to farms & vineyards in Virginia.
âIf I had a single flower for every time I think about you, I could walk forever in my garden.â
Claudia Adrienne Grandi
Bridal consultations are done at no charge with appointments made at the bride’s convenience. For brides who have chosen to use Stephanie’s flowers, samples of the bridal and bridesmaid’s bouquets, as well as centerpieces are provided at no cost.
â
âYou are my fantasy on a cold dark night, my muse during the light of day and the one wish my soul would makeâ
Grace Willow
â
P.S.Stephanie loves to spend her Valentine’s Day & Mother’s Day with her family, so she does NOTbook any weddings during those weekends.
We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and we hope you can understandâĽ
âHe said that we belonged together because he was born with a flower, and I was born with a butterfly and that flowers and butterflies need each other for survival.â
Spring unlocks the flowers to paint the laughing soil.
Bishop Reginald Heber
STAY TUNED FOR FUTURE FâOWER WORKSHOPS to come!
“Come with me into the woods. Where spring is advancing, as it does, no matter what, not being singular or particular, but one of the forever gifts, and certainly visible.” – Mary Oliver
Please call the shop to register or sign up via Stephanie’s Facebook. Canât wait to see yâall!
PSST… want to stay extra informed with the latest news & information on our future events & workshops?Check Out: Our Website, Facebook and/or Instagram
WORKSHOPS PAST
âIn joy or sadness, flowers are our constant friends.â
Okakura Kakuzo, The Book Tea
âTo plant a garden is to believe in tomorrow.â
“Is the spring coming?” he said. “What is it like?”… “It is the sun shining on the rain and the rain falling on the sunshine…â
Frances Hodgson Burnett, The Secret Garden
Here captured, is one of several special & original Willow Pond Farm members, who we miss terribly, taking advantage of a sunny day by taking a wee snooze in one of the Secret gardens. Whatever season it may be, naps in the sun are always appropriate.
“It was one of those March days when the sun shines hot and the wind blows cold: when it is summer in the light, and winter in the shade.”
Charles Dickens
nature gives to every time and season some beauties of its own. charles dickens
âIt is spring again. The earth is like a child that knows poems by heart.â
Rainer Maria Rilke
spring will come & so will happiness. hold on. life will get warmer. ~anita krizzan
To be interested in the changing seasons is a happier state of mind than to be hopelessly in love with spring. -George Santayana
I feel lucky to be a Marylander. Weâre fortunate to see the seasons bleed into one another while our landscape gradually shifts around us. As swift and grand an entrance Autumn makes, coaxing the annual crowds of “leaf peepers”, we double take as she coyly dissipates after a mere few weeks. As if she stole the stars above, she marks our rural roads with glints of crystalized trails, an invisible map only managed by the richness of the moon. The days grow longer, the fissures of ice have no choice but to surrender into puddles of mud. Spring saunters in, teasing us with bouts of warmth scattered among the loitering winter days. A familiar seasonal tale, that we all know too well. Our eyes flutter open to a sight for sore eyes. Trees grow obese with succulent emerald leaves that burst from countless buds. Tasseled sleeves fashion the arms of elder pines, bowing down as they touch the earth. Families of serpentine ivy crash and collide, choking neighboring geriatric trunks, suffocating any traces of dun and scorched flora; their chaotic embrace which leaves only the sweetest viridescent shades of summer behind.
The tonic twilight yawns, casting droplets of dew that sheen like a myriad of aquamarine pearls. Breaches in the clouds spill a deep blue; an iridescence which nurses the sear-spotted grounds, healing wounds from the dry days of Winter. She eventually succumbs, melting into the deep bloodstone glow of a horizon renewed. As nature things, we inherently form cocoons around these algid days, wrapping the season around us like a childhood blanket. Triggered, we lounge and mask in the familiar warmth of nostalgia, soaking up the seasonâs diffusing aura like a trite kitchen sponge. She rises now a wee bit earlier with every passing morning, roused by the irenic songs and heavyhearted hymns that drown out thwarted apologies: shewhispers remorse of season’s past and the lack of her expected days that were never had. She stretches and spreads her tepid rays that zigzag and seep into the cracks of black-out curtains. She casts warm, threadbare-like shapes that creep up bedroom walls, beckoning us to rise and shine.
Canopies of archaic trees oscillate and kiss the ancient sky. Below, cliques of bare naked limbs gyrate to the requiem of nature. The sincerity of light stalks the woods edge, precipitating a reflection of regal hues. With arms wide open, we welcome the season change as the zephyr’s notes embrace us like an old friend. The migrating winds shift and collide, electrifying the mellisonant air, stimulating the deep, weary cells that lie dormant within us. The atmosphereâs modifying presence summons an abstruse awakening that cloaks the ocean sky which cradles the full Worm Moon. Itâs always the time of the season.đ´
For decades, the Almanac has referenced the monthly full Moons with names tied to early Native American, Colonial American, and European folklore. Traditionally, each full Moon name was applied to the entire lunar month in which it occurred and through all of the Moonâs phasesânot only the full Moon.
the worm moon.
the many faces of the worm moonâž
Marchâs full Moon goes by the name Worm Moon. For many years, we thought this name referred to the earthworms that appear as the soil warms in spring. This invites robins and other birds to feedâa true sign of spring!
However, more research revealed another explanation. In the 1760s, Captain Jonathan Carver visited the Naudowessie (Dakota) and other Native American tribes and wrote that the name Worm Moon refers to a different sort of âwormââbeetle larvaeâwhich begin to emerge from the thawing bark of trees and other winter hideouts at this time.
There are quite a few names for the March Moon that speak to the transition from winter to spring. Some refer to the appearance (or reappearance) of certain animals, such as the Eagle Moon, Goose Moon (Algonquin, Cree), or Crow Comes Back Moon (Northern Ojibwe), while others refer to signs of the season:
The Sugar Moon (Ojibwe) marks the time of year when the sap of sugar maples starts to flow.
The Wind Strong Moon (Pueblo) refers to the strong, windy days that come at this time of year.Â
The Sore Eyes Moon (Dakota, Lakota, Assiniboine) highlights the blinding rays of sunlight that reflect off the melting snow of late winter.Â
This year, Marchâs full Moon (March 25, 2024) occurs after the spring equinox (March 19, 2024), making it the Paschal Moon. Marchâs full Moon will be the first full Moon of the spring season and, therefore, will determine the date of Easter this year.
sweet, spring equinox
Traditionally, we celebrate the first day of spring on March 21, but astronomers and calendar manufacturers alike now say that the spring season starts on March 20th, in all time zones in North America. In 2020, spring fell on March 19th, the earliest first day of spring in 124 years!
The first day of spring is Tuesday, March 19, 2024, at 11:06 p.m. EDT. For those of us in the Northern Hemisphere, this was marked by the arrival of the Vernal Equinox (otherwise known as the âFirst Point of Aries”)
Regardless of what the weather is doing outside, spring equinox marks the official start of the spring season
the next full moon
The first full moon of the spring season will appear on the nights of Sunday, March 24, and Monday, March 25. Specifically, Marchâs full Worm Moon reaches peak illumination at 3:00 A.M. ET on Monday, March 25, 2024.
Of course, you donât have to wait until the middle of the night to see the Moon! Look for the spectacularly bright Moon as it rises above the horizon on Sunday evening. If your weather is poor on Sunday night, try again on Monday!
This March Moon will look especially large to us when itâs near the horizon because of the âMoon Illusionâ which is when it looks bigger when near comparative objects than it does when itâs high in the sky without any references.
If you have just a bit of rain on either of these nights, you may even get to spot a rare phenomenon called a moonbow. A moonbow is just like a solar rainbow but is created by moonlight (rather than sunlight) when it is refracted through water droplets in the air. Moonbows only happen when the full Moon is fairly low in the sky, so look for one in the hours after sunset when the sky is dark.
birth flower of march
daffodil & jonquil
march Folklore
AÂ wet spring, a dry harvest.
On St. Patrickâs Day, the warm side of a stone turns up, and the broad-back goose begins to lay.Â
March comes in with addersâ heads and goes out with peacocksâ tails.
Thunder in spring, Cold will bring.
So many mists in March you see, So many frosts in May will be.
In beginning or in end, March its gifts will send.
Bleak winds assault us all around; Dances aloft, or skims the ground: See the school-boyâhis hat in hand, While on the path he scarce can stand
“The brown buds thicken on the trees, Unbound, the free streams sing, As March leads forth across the leas The wild and windy spring.” âElizabeth Akers Allen (1832â1911)
Stephanie is here to enhance & revivify these early spring days of our extraordinary, ordinary lives with fresh cuttings of the most magnificent flora Mother Nature has to offer us this season.