Month: September 2021

Isn’t it interesting that the flower season here at Lottarock begins with flamboyant tulips,

and ends with flamboyant dahlias.

Flowers in with a bang, flowers out with a bang. Holy moly, the colors of the dahlias are as stunning as the fall foliage will be, but even better because there are more choices of colors and sizes of blooms. It is enough to knock one’s socks off. Keep all this in mind because there are only two more weeks of the open flower shed. Then Steve and I are off on a well needed holiday, good for us, maybe not so good for you, so hurry up and get some of these stunning flowers.

This morning I sat in front of the computer for the second half of my tulip forcing workshop. It was lucky for me that the morning was way overcast and windy because I didn’t find it quite so difficult to be inside on my laptop for 3 long hours. This portion of the class was devoted to planting up the tulips, their holding temperatures, and then growing them on for sale. I am starting slow and low with only 3000 tulips to force. My plan is to start providing stunning, locally grown, farm fresh tulips to you all by the first of March. Now, I do have a few spanners being thrown my way, but hopefully I will have a bulb cooler/flower cooler before Thanksgiving. If not, well, some good ole’ yankee ingenuity will have to happen. I also have a mere 3500 tulips that are going to be ground planted this fall. I am very excited and I hope you are all as well because I have ordered some stunners for this spring.

My other exiting news is that my new greenhouse came on Tuesday. This is very exciting because it replaces the old “erector set from hell” greenhouse that Steve got for me 10 years ago. This greenhouse is twice the size and has automatic venting which will make life so much easier on those shoulder seasons, and certainly in the spring. Check it out!

I am going to leave you with this afternoon’s harvest of flowers for tomorrow’s delivery. Just look at those stunning colors. They just make me smile and when you come by to get some they will put a smile on your face as well.

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Until next week, Allie

Here we are. September 19. Wow. I almost wrote July 19 but stopped myself just in time. I seem to be seasonally challenged this week. Maybe because I have tulips on the brain, or maybe I am just confused by how quickly the flower season has moved. It catches me off guard each year. But, we still have three more weeks of the open flower shed and that is good because the autumns flowers are now rocking in as well as the most amazing dahlias I have grown yet!

The recent heavy rain and crazy wind has ended a number of flowers and I am getting them out of the bed and composting them. I am hoping to get a cover crop on but first the entire bed has to be pulled before I can sow seed. I’m not sure how that is going to work so we will see. One bed of sunflowers is totally gone so I can get seed on that bed anyway. Maybe on Tuesday when I have a farm day.

So you ask, what do I have for flowers this week of September. The zinnias are still going strong, the second flush of lisianthus, sunflowers celosia are all happy and looking good and then we have the dahlias. OMG. I am not going to ever grow tons of them, but each bloom is a study. I love the shape and colors of the flowers, I am just sorry that their season is so short for me, but I enjoy every day of them, believe me.

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The sunflowers are still going strong. I usually don’t harvest the flowers if the bee’s are on them, but somehow this fella went for a ride into the flower shed.

I love the flower form of these celosias, The colors are unreal, and they just seem to add a punch to the flower bouquets because they just aren’t normal. Maybe that is why I love them. They are like coral from the reef.

I got a new flower book a few weeks ago by Sarah Raven, who gathers or has photos of herself harvesting flowers in a champagne bucket. Imagine. Anyway, my dear friend BJ came by last week with a champagne bucket for my flowers so here I am posing with it full of dahlia blossoms. Only problem is the silly me has my hands covering the silver bucket. So maybe if I ever have another picture of me posing with flowers in my champagne bucket I will keep my hands off to the side.

My most exciting news this week is that my long awaited new greenhouse is to be delivered and assembled on Tuesday and I can hardly wait. It will be put to full use in flower production next year. Just think, more ranunculus, anemones and hopefully freesia, fingers crossed. And tulips. Can’t forget my tulips.

Until next week and the floral diaries. Allie

PS. I am doing a flower card for the Cornucopia Project’s annual auction that is going to be held on Sept 24-26. Their website is http://cornucopiaproject.org , and the auction site is https://www.32autions.com/cornucopiaprojectauction. You can go to the online auction and get a gift card for yourself for next year, gift it to a friend, and support the worth Cornucopia Project at the same time. Just a thought.

Things in the garden are starting to slow down. The days are getting noticebly shorter, I now don’t find it imperative to be in the garden by 5:30 to get everything done that needs to be done before the heat of the day. Now I find myself lounging around until 5:30 and not really moving until 6. A lovely sleep in. The flowers are also starting to slow down. Oh they are still growing and blooming but just a a slower pace. I like that.

Clean up is beginning in some of the beds. Some of the flowers, like the asters, have just had enough of the wet and although they show beautiful color from a distance, they are shot and getting pulled. I am only pulling half though because they are still swarming with bees and butterflies who are obviously enjoying the nectar. The high winds we have had have broken many stems of the cosmos and the sunflowers so I am also cutting many of these back. At least enough so I can get down the paths to harvest the remaining flowers. Again, leaving some that have gone by for the bees and the birds. The finches just love the seed heads of the cosmos and I have waves of finches and chickadee’s raiding the sunflower heads. It is just so beautiful to see all the action happening in the garden.

The flowers that are getting cut are either getting composted, for future soil building, or better yet, making the feather and fur creatures happy. Recycling at its best I think.

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There are still lots of flowers to choose from at the flower shed. Still lots of zinnias, celosia, a beautiful second flush of lisianthus, dahlias, sunflowers and more.

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Just a reminder. i am planning to shut the flower shed on Friday Oct 8 for the season. Weather permitting. If you purchased a flower card this year you still have another year left. If you purchased your card last year and you have credit left, you have 4 weeks remaining to use it up. Just saying in case you have forgotten.

Until next week. Allie

Do I sound like I am wishing my flowers away? No siree. I am just letting you know that there are only five more weeks of flowers. Could be less, but that is weather dependent, and who knows what the weather is going to be. Two tropical storms in as many weeks, the flowers are, well, damp. The good news is at least I don’t have to water as often.

The last storm took down the cosmos, they are all looking so they are going to get the hedge shear treatment this coming week. Everything else is looking good. The twenty foot tall broom is blooming, or doing what ever it does. It is hard to see that far up although I could get out the binoculars for a close up, I will take a photo for you so we all know what they are doing. I don’t have some shorter ones, but these are so interesting. And you should see them sway in the wind. It is almost poetic, their movement so graceful. Hopefully the wind will be kind for a few more weeks so things just don’t get bowled over.

The dahlias are coming into their own as are the glads. The peacock orchids are setting flower buds and I can hardly wait until they start to flowers. Their perfume is just intoxicating. So I googled the name, and it is a Gladioli species. It is far more beautiful and sensuous than the regular gladioli It reminds me of the tropical flowers that I used to grow in Australia oh so many years ago.

Last year I grew the most interesting pumpkins and gourds that kept us all entertained with the colors and the diversity. Despite having planted about fifty plants out this summer they are, sad to say, a bust. The best ones were growing in the goat paddock, and I didn’t even know how many there were until… we got home last Sunday and not only had they trampled all of the vines, but the also ate all the pumpkins that had self sown, and beautifully at that from last year. So. If you were planning to get some really cool pumpkins again this year, it unfortunately isn’t going to happen. I am so sorry, I was hoping for some myself. Not only did I not get really cool pumpkins and gourds for you, but I have no winter squash in the garden for me. No butternut, no acorn, no nutt’n. Argh.

I just want to say that, if I haven’t told you when I see you, I can’t tell you how much I appreciate your support and love of my flowers. This is a dream that is coming to fruition from thirty years ago. I have the notebook from my years living in Australia spelling it all out. It is one of those OMG moments. Seeing what I wrote all those years ago, doing this now, and THEN finding the notebook. Way too ‘do do do do’ ( you have to hum that part). I thank you from the bottom of my heart for your support.

Until next week. Allie