the lore of longview cottage
the cottage’s lore is rooted in “the secret garden” of longview cottage — the enchanted world behind my flower farm in birmingham (homewood), alabama. here, you can wander the secret garden, meet the keeper, and discover the stories that shape each season’s rhythms.
THEsecret garden
LONGVIEW COTTAGEThere’s a little flower farm just inside Birmingham, Alabama, hidden in plain sight in the town of Homewood. Here, the air around the 105-year-old cottage farm seems to shimmer with possibility. This is where the Secret Garden of Longview Cottage lives.
I’m the keeper of that cottage and its flower-farm gardens, though I swear the place has a mind of its own. Some mornings it greets me with honeysuckle-scented drafts sweeping through the doorway. Other days, it hums like a kettle warming itself up for company, as if it already knows someone’s coming up the path.
on this land, the old barred owls keep watch, the ancient oak trees recount their long history, and the secret flower fields… well, that’s where the real magic happens.
Everything I grow here carries a touch of the uncanny: tulips that flare in impossible colors at dusk, dahlias that seem to dance, and roses that look as though they were spun out of old spells whispered beneath the soil. Visitors often tell me Longview Cottage feels familiar, even if they’ve never set foot here before, like stepping into a memory you didn’t realize you had.
I tend this place the way you might tend a secret: lovingly, reverently, with both hands open. And every bouquet, every workshop, every offering I share, is a small invitation into this ephemeral, enchanted world. It’s my way of saying, “Look closer. Let me show you the beauty hidden between ordinary moments.”
Because magic isn’t loud here. It’s quiet, and it lingers.
and if you linger long enough, the magic will find you too.
THEslender thread
LONGVIEW COTTAGEEvery flower farm has its rows and tasks and chores. But Longview Cottage has a second life. A hidden one, woven between petals and shadows.
the secret garden is the slender thread that ties these two worlds together: the real clover beneath our feet, and the enchanted soil just under the surface.
It’s not a tale with a beginning or end. It’s a way of seeing, and remembering, that every bloom carries a little magic. Every season writes a new chapter in the story of Longview Cottage, a rhythm you can witness in the Seasonal Bloom Guide.
THEkeeper
OF THE COTTAGEThey say every old cottage keeps a witch somewhere in its garden; someone who knows how to listen to the whispers of wood & root, who can coax blooms from the soil with nothing more than a steady hand and a patient heart. At Longview Cottage, that someone is me. They call me the Keeper.
The cottage chose me long before I understood what it meant. I arrived on an afternoon thick with summer humidity and the thrumming song of cicadas. The moment I crossed the threshold, the whole place seemed to exhale: soft, relieved, like it had been waiting. The floorboards sighed beneath my feet. Dust motes rose in a spiral of warm golden light. The honeysuckle along the eaves leaned in, curious.
i’m not a witch of cauldrons or thunder. my magic is older and subtler, the kind that seeps into your bones rather than flashing across the sky.
I read omens in unfurling petals, in the strange hues of dusk-kissed tulips, in the way cosmos sways in the wind. I brew mountain mint tonics in old cast iron kettles, and steep meaning into my bouquets the way others steep tea. And when I walk the fields at twilight, the fireflies often trail behind me like sparks coaxed from a spell.
To strangers, I may seem mysterious. I speak quietly. I listen a great deal. I’ve learned the land’s moods the way you’d learn an old friend’s; some say it makes me feel older than my years. But those who attend my gatherings or sit quietly in the Secret Garden soon understand my mystery.
i’m here to reveal the wonder that’s already around you.
THEmagic
AT LONGVIEWMy workshops are small and intentional, a bit like a ritual. I invite guests to slow their breathing, to let the birdsong serenade them, to let their hands learn the soft-spoken language of stems and blossoms. I call it “crafting arrangements,” but anyone who’s been here knows better.
it’s a kind of spellwork, shared among strangers that leave as friends.
I don’t claim to own Longview Cottage. I am its steward, its storyteller, its translator. I tend to its charms, mend what storms unsettle, and offer its enchantment lovingly, generously, to anyone curious enough to linger.
Because here, in this place where the barred owls keep watch, and ancient oaks remember, magic is not something you hunt for.
It’s something that finds you, if you let it.
And me?
i’m simply the one who opens the gate.
A LITTLE NOTEfrom the real world
these stories bloom from imagination, but longview cottage is a real flower farm
The flower farm is nestled in Birmingham (Homewood), Alabama: a place where soil is turned, seasonal flowers are cut, and garden-inspired bouquets are woven.
the lore is simply the way I honor what grows here. “the keeper” is the voice that carries my wonder, and “the secret garden” is the lens through which I view each stem’s hidden magic.
Whether you came here for seasonal bouquets or a moment of enchantment, I hope you feel the subtle charms woven throughout my little patch of earth.
CLASSESAttend one of my flower workshops or learn about design in one of my classes.
WHOLESALEBrowse wholesale options for floral designers, local businesses, and events.
FARMView real world info about Longview Cottage Flower Farm & Design Studio.
DIARYFind stories & seasonal glimpses of the Secret Garden in the Keeper’s Diary.