“It’s a very sappy, sad story,” prefaces Cayla Morris as she begins to recount the origins of Polly’s Petal Patch, her you-pick flower farm located in Fuquay-Varina.
“Polly” references Cayla’s grandmother, with whom she enjoyed a very close relationsip all her life. Polly loved flowers, so Cayla and her father, Philip Morris, sent her a bouquet every Friday for several years.
“We sent her so many to the point that she would actually have to start giving the vases back to the florist because she had so many,” Cayla says.
At the time, Cayla didn’t realize that Polly photographed every bouquet she received. Cayla’s grandfather preserved those photographs in scrapbooks after Polly died.
“It was very sentimental,” Cayla says.
Cayla maintained her own small “chaos garden” as “a reminder of my grandmother, that she was still there with me, in a way, through the flowers.”
“I found a lot of therapy in it and solitude,” she says.
Cayla Morris with her father, Phillip Morris, holds a photograph of her grandparents. Working in the garden helps her feel connected to them.
“Last year I ended up getting really, really sick. We did not think that I was going to be here much longer. It was a very scary situation,” Cayla recalls. A large cyst in her pancreas pointed to signs of cancer.
“So, as my last wish, my dad built me a beautiful garden. So he was like, ‘I know this is what you love. I really want you to be able to have what you love. You know, just in case.’”
“I found a lot of healing growing flowers and having them for myself. The cyst came back benign and ended up shrinking over two-thirds of its size within a couple of months. Nobody knows how. The surgeons have no idea. I wasn’t given any medication. It was really just, I think, a lot of prayer and also a lot of gardening.”
With much of her health restored, Cayla took in her blossoming surroundings.
“I realized I had a problem because I have this massive garden. There’s absolutely no way I can cut all these flowers by myself. It was huge. … It would be really cool if people could come out and pick their own flowers.”
And so Polly’s Petal Patch opened in the summer of 2024 for pick-your-own flower bouquets, special events, and photography sessions.
“It was also a kind of therapy for me still to have a community where people could come and pick their own flowers and be a part of nature, because I found so much healing in it,” Cayla says.
Hundreds of people came through the farm during the first season, including more than 500 visitors who attended a charity event that benefited Western North Carolina after Hurricane Helene.
“It exceeded all my expectations,” Cayla says.
“I specialize in cut wildflowers, and I like more whimsical flowers. I have a lot of zinnias, cosmos, marigolds. We’re growing dahlias, sunflowers, statice, forget-me-nots, and snapdragons,” Cayla lists off. “We have a lot at the garden.”
“A lot of my stuff reseeded from last year because they are perennials, but the majority of the garden is grown from seeds. I start in the wintertime — this is a yearlong project.
“I practice what’s called succession planting, meaning I’ll start them a couple months out, and then I’ll plant two weeks later, then plant the next round two weeks after that, so I constantly have blooms throughout the whole season.”
For a $20 ticket, guests receive gardening snips and a mason jar to fill with as many flowers as they’d like.
“Afterwards, I have a little decorating station so you can decorate (the jar) with a bow, put a little tag on it, or a card if you want to gift it,” says Cayla.
Visitors to the patch may also glimpse resident pig Betty Boop, and her animal companions, including goats, a horse, and a donkey.
“I do have a station for people who don’t want to or can’t physically cut their own. They can do a DIY bouquet bar so they can make their own.”
“It’s a very hands-on experience for each customer that comes in.”
The garden typically closes during the middle of the day, with picking sessions in the morning (8 to 11 a.m.) and evening hours (4 to 8 p.m.) Thursday through Sunday.
“It’s not great to pick flowers during the heat because they will droop,” Cayla advises.
Beds of wildflowers aren’t the only attractions at the patch.
“It’s just a whole homestead at this point,” she laughs. “We have three pigs. We have two goats. I have a horse that I rodeo on. … I have a mini donkey and a Great Dane.”
You-pick guests do have the opportunity to see the animals — “Everybody seems to love the pigs more than the flowers most of the time” — but petting is not recommended.
Cayla works as a realtor full time and runs the flower farm with her father and Tommy Gilbert, the resident handyman.
Her work in real estate provides a front-row view of the growth and development in Southern Wake County, to which Polly’s Petal Patch offers a small respite.
“I really want to preserve our agriculture. … I wanted to create a space where people could come and do their own thing, be a part of nature, and really get back in touch with it.”
Nature, though, is a tricky beast, sending an array of challenges for any grower to combat.
“Mother Nature can turn on you so quickly,” Cayla says, citing last year’s hurricanes and this year’s cool spring.
“You have all the bugs that want to eat your plants, the deer — just dealing with things that you can’t control and learning how to be okay with it,” Cayla says of the lessons she’s learned through flower farming.
Her favorite lesson?
“Everybody has a story. … When people come out to the garden, they say, ‘I’ve had a really bad day, and this just made my day better.’ Or, ‘This is for my mom who’s dealing with breast cancer.’ Or, ‘My wife and I just got pregnant.’ It’s just so nice to hear, whether it’s something that’s sad or something celebratory.”
“The other reason I absolutely love (the petal patch) is I’m able to honor my grandparents, who were the most loving people, my best friends. I just feel so connected when I’m out there.”
