FLOWERS BY THE SIDE OF THE ROAD

I love driving along back roads here in Maine and discovering a wooden stand loaded with home-made blueberry jam or pickled beets. My personal favorite, however, is a flower stand that hugs the shoulder of Wildes District Road between Kennebunkport and Cape Porpoise. 

A red-trimmed sign announcing “Fresh Bouquets” hangs from a table topped with vases overflowing with orange calendula and purple phlox, pink dahlias and creamy Queen Anne’s lace. The setting is nostalgic, iconic and pure Maine summer. 

The owner of this flower stand, a petite woman named Regan who favors faded ripped jeans and loose braids, greets customers with a welcoming smile. Her daily harvest of black-eyed Susans, bells of Ireland and colorful zinnias taps childhood roots. “As a kid growing up in North Berwick, I watched my mom create bouquets out of milkweed pods and gnarled tree branches,” she says. “Later I worked for my brother at Pierson Nurseries in Dayton, and then Snug Harbor Farm here in Kennebunk. When you spend that much time around flowers and shrubs, you get to know the names and how to arrange them.” 

Regan also honed her undeniable talent while living on Mouse Island in Boothbay Harbor for 16 years with partner Fez. “We were year-round caretakers for three large houses,” she says. “Every summer I filled our cottage window boxes with cascading flowers and used old wooden chairs to make flower boxes for the dock. They were pretty cute!” 

One July day, the president of Boothbay’s Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens (quite an august person, I might add) was cruising past Mouse Island on his boat when he spotted Regan’s floral artistry. He immediately zipped over to their dock. “I’ve never seen anything like these!” he declared, pointing to her window boxes and gardens, and then asked if she would consider being part of that summer’s prestigious garden tour. She did, and was.

Regan starts planting a vast variety early Spring in a greenhouse on the back edge of her property. After the seedlings exhibit enough muscle and stamina to survive May in Maine, she transplants them to her various gardens. She says, “I weed almost every day, sometimes for an hour, other times all day.”

Her roadside posies are bought on the honor system. Customers slip $10 per bouquet into a metal box on the wooden table, then drive off, often without even catching a glimpse of the owner. An article in a 2012 edition of THE SALT noted, “Though the trusting business model certainly isn’t crime-proof, honor boxes remain a point of nostalgic pride and practicality for a number of small farmers who think their time is better spent tending the crops than manning a roadside stand…Most customers leave more money than they owe.” 

The rewards have little to do with dollars and cents, however. Regan says, “The stand makes me slow down, not rush, take time to enjoy summer and make pretty bouquets. I care how they look and it’s a pleasure to poke through my gardens and find different flowers for unique arrangements.”

Customer appreciation also helps soothe a back that aches from bending over to till the soil. Last year a couple on scooters stopped and watched Regan weed her ample vegetable garden for about an hour. She says, “I didn’t know them but we had a fun conversation about gardening, so I gave them zucchinis and cucumbers. The next day I found a sweet ‘thank you’ note on my stand.” 

“This week, a girl and a guy on bikes bought purple and pink dahlias for his mother because they are living with her during COVID restrictions in Boston,” she says. “Later that same day a lady bought flowers for the altar at St. David’s. That’s pretty special.”

Many days Regan adds home-grown vegetables to the stand, including cucumbers and peppers. But she admits that she and Fez donate most of their veggies to local food pantries. 

Because of COVID, she encouraged employees at Alisson’s Restaurant in Kennebunkport, where she works several days each week, to plant gardens — and then presented starter plants to her co-workers. She says, “I loved doing that because gardening is all about relationships.”

Garden photos by the talented Ken Janes. Photo of deck flower box by Regan.