HAMILTON COUNTY — March 1 is the start of meteorological spring, and the spring rain outlook has been released.
The Climate Prediction Center shows Indiana has a 40 to 50% chance of above-normal precipitation for the spring.
In a normal spring season, we still could see a bit of snowfall. March will typically see 3.69" of rain, April 4.34" of rain, and May 4.75", bringing a total of nearly 13" of rain each spring.
In 2025, we could see a bit more than this.
"We have to plant around the rain," said Emily Frye. "If we plant seeds and then it rains really heavily, they wash away, and then we've lost seed, and time, and money."
Blair and Emily Frye operate Dave's Tree Farm in Hamilton County. They planted their first Christmas trees in 2021. The first trees will be ready to go in 2028.
While waiting for trees, the family opened "All That's Fair," a u-pick flower experience on their farm.
Right now, they are focused on getting flower seeds started.
"Dahlias, zinnias, cosmos, sunflowers, strawflower, marigolds," Emily Frye listed a few of the flowers.
She will also plant basil, as it helps give a scent to the bouquets.
Right now, the seeds are being planted, one by one, in a shed. Seeds in their trays are transported to the greenhouse, where they will be warm and watered.
"We just mimic the rain," Emily Frye said, with a watering can in hand. "Real soft and careful because we don't want to disturb the soil or the seeds."
Soon enough, the seeds will be transported outdoors. They hope to have five to six thousand seeds this season. Here, they won't need to mimic the rain if the outlook holds true.
"Too much rain will give us root rot," Emily Frye shared.
Both Blair and Emily agreed that they would rather have a season with too much rain instead of a season with not enough rain.
The family relies on nature to provide water, and they do not get into irrigating their flower fields.
"The spring season, while we love it, is a lot of prep work," Emily explained. "It's a lot of work that no one ever sees."
It's this spring's work that makes fields full of flowers possible by summer.
"There's a lot of times we have to do hard, dirty work to prep ourselves and develop our character," Emily Frye described. "Right now, we're doing the hard work of developing this land and what will be the character of the farm in the summertime."
The 2019 Census of Agriculture estimates that floriculture brought $415,201 to Indiana.
You can find more information about the flowers and trees at Dave's Tree Farm here.
For a list of other U-pick flower farms across Indiana, check out this map on the Indiana Grown website.
