ROCKINGHAM — There will be a Pansy Tea Party and Photo Op on Saturday, April 28, from 4 to 6 p.m., at Singing River Farm in Rockingham. Bring your camera and your love of color to visit the pansy field in full bloom.
A guided tour, the chance for participants to snap photos to their hearts' content, the elusive scent of a field of flowers, and a cup of herbal tea made with dried pansy blossoms will be included.
“We love pansies!” grower Laurel Green explained in a news release. “Pansies are hearty, generous, and represent both diversity and unity. Our plants grow through the winter in the fields with only a thin blanket of pine needle mulch. The blooms come in a rainbow of colors with variation in size and form, but they are all in the viola tricolor hortensis family.
“In the early spring, when people are all hungry for new growth and striking colors, we find them irresistible. Pansies are generous too, because they flourish by having the blooms harvested and they respond by growing more buds for a cycle of love.”
Their name comes from the French word pensée, meaning a thought or remembrance. Pansies remind Green of her grandmother, who loved pansies because each one is unique and adorable.
The event is a fundraiser to finish paying for the renovation of a living space for a family seeking asylum.
The “Safe Haven” at Singing River Farm is now the home of a family who has fled persecution in Mexico. To date about 90 percent of the construction costs have been raised through direct donations, a Go Fund Me website, and proceeds from cowboy concerts performed by Green and Steve Crofter. The suggested donation for the Pansy Tea Party and Photo Op is $10.
The pansy fields will be open for photography only at this event. A few days after the Pansy Tea Party and Photo Op, the pansy plants will be harvested prior to Singing River Farm's annual Pansy Festival on May 5. This year the festival is synchronized with Cinco de Mayo and will feature the Community Asylum Seekers Project.