Currently Here at the Farm

During times like these, we must all adapt to new thinking, and ways of doing things.

Our caring staff have all been at home caring for their own families since March 11th.  We have been isolating ourselves here on the farm since March 12th. All of our extended Stems Flower Farm family, we are happy to report, are in great health.   This means however, we are operating with less than 50% of our normal staff compliment.  This will mean delays in shipping and responding to inquiries. Please be patient!  We are steadily reinventing the way we are doing things to increase our speed and efficiencies, but nothing comes close to our valued employees.

We have adopted the prescribed cleanliness protocols offered by Public Health Canada when handling and processing your order.  

For our Canada Post shipped services, we have already worked out contactless pick up with our Letter Carrier at CP.  Canada Post has assured us that, “The World Health Organization (WHO) and Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) have assured us it is safe to handle mail…”.  “According to the PHAC, there is no known risk of coronaviruses entering Canada on parcels or packages. In general, because of poor survivability of coronaviruses on surfaces, there is a low risk of spread from products or packaging shipped over a period of days or weeks. Currently, there is no evidence of COVID-19 being transmitted by imported goods or packages.”  

We follow the PHAC and WHO daily for any changes and updates.  The safety of our family and yours is of utmost importance to us at this time.  

At this time we are receiving an equally unprecedented number of emails, phone calls, and website inquiries, for clarification and to save you some time, listed below are the answers to the majority of the questions:   

What does Currently Sold Out mean?

We are restocking our store on a weekly basis starting the last week of August, 2020. Due to Covid restrictions in our home based business, we are running at less than 50% of our normal staffing levels. This has put a strain on timely responses to shipping, responding to emails, and social media responses. We have stock of flower seed and vegetable seed still in our inventory, in order to retain our shipping schedule we are trying to balance building inventory and packing orders for delivery during this time of unprecedented demand. Any single item may show out of stock but if you have signed up for email notifications on an out of stock item, you will be the first to know when we have it available in the store.

Is There a Schedule for Restocking Items Not Available?

We are re-stocking items weekly for the fall.  We begin with items that are more cold hardy in Canadian regions for both Flowers and Vegetables. Signing up for email notifications when an item is back in stock is the best way to follow our inventory updates.

EDIT: Our tuber production this year on over an acre of plants was terrific.  Unfortunately, this has forced us to use a new storage facility again this year due to the volume of tubers. We feel at this time, it makes more sense to ensure that we have healthy, viable tubers in the spring before we place them up for sale.  Our Fall Dahlia Sale will be postponed. We will offer an earlier date in the spring than last year based on this.  We will post the new date shortly. (cancelled: Of note, our Dahlia Tuber Shop will open Monday November 9th, 2020).  

The full seed shop restock of vegetables and flower seed will be completed for our 2021 launch on December 6th, 2020.  The store will be open the entire time leading up to that date but our full inventory will go live then.

What are Shipping Costs & Times?

We have re-jigged our shipping over the last while as a result of the increased volume that Canada Post is handling. As of August 1st, 2020, we have been experiencing 1 to 2 weeks for untracked lettermail to arrive within the province of Ontario, and even longer for all other parts of Canada. Although it appears to be completely dependent on local distribution facility conditions.  We have eliminated this option for all but the purchase of a couple of packs, due to the amount of emails and phone calls pertaining to order location. We now offer a discounted rate for tracked expedited service for orders up to $89, and of course orders over $89 are free shipping. Even this service is taking a little longer than normal, but still within a few days coast to coast. When your order ships you receive a shipping confirmation with your tracking info on it, so you can track your own order with Canada Post. We trust this transparency will make it easier for everyone.

Our “number of days from order placement to fulfillment” is updated every 24 to 48 hours. With just our family packing orders here at the farm, the number of days is a best guesstimate based on the volume of orders we can normally process in a 24 hour period. Please keep in mind that it is an outlook based on the average size of orders we expect over the time period and the total number of orders received during that period which can vary.

As a reminder that due to Covid restrictions and the fact we are a home based business, our shipping times have been fluctuating with the volume of orders. We are close to solution involving a return of our employees. 

Although we are experiencing an embarrassingly long shipping time currently we expect to catch up to "normal" turnaround by the last week of August 2020. Your patience and understanding have been greatly appreciated. 

 

Do you Sell Live Plants?

We have been taking pre-orders for our ready-to-plant flower and veggie gardens which are selling out fast. If you are looking for the easiest way to have a garden of either flowers or vegetables this year, this is for you. 

We had a great time delivering these gardens in the spring and plan on doing it again in an even bigger way for 2021.

These live plants include selected flowers and vegetables ready to plant in your own garden.