What is with this weather? Now winter seems to be here. Hopefully by the end of next week the nights will moderate. I don’t mind nights in the 20’s, the plants get covered with what I refer to as their pajamas, but getting down into the single digits and below gets this flower farmer worried. Now my big plan of getting the high tunnel planted on March 1 will have to wait till the end of the week. It’s gotta happen fast because I am really running out of places to put the new seedlings….This time of year, until everything gets planted out is always a growers shuffle. I should write a song, the gardener’s shuffle…
The tulips are going gang busters. This last week’s and next week’s offerings are Columbus, that is the double one, Jumbo Pink, and Tom Puce. All stunning
Columbus, Tom Puce
The long awaited parrot that was supposed to be in last week’s mix will be in this coming batch and though his stems are skinny, (so just a warning), there might be some artistic movement going on is…Prof. Rontgartn.
Prof. Rontgartn
The second batch of ranunculus are starting to sprout and and anemones are just starting to show life. These flats will get hauled out on Wednesday to harden off before the big planting, then the last batch will get soaked and directly planted sometime mid March? We will see.
I have been busily catching up on creating crop spreadsheets. YUCK! That and catching up on the flower conference I didn’t get to in August. So I am deep in the throes of winter learning while I can because come April 1 this flower farmer plans to be so busy. Steve will have to take up cooking. (An early April Fools joke, Steve cooking).
Until next week, my flower friends. Think tulips. Allie
It is hard to believe but here it is only Feb. 19 and the available space in the dirty room is non existent. The seed rack is full of ranunculus that I am waiting to sprout, transplanted seedlings, seedlings waiting to be transplanted, anemones waiting to sprout, then 12 crates of tulips at various stages to growing on, and tomorrow, another 4 crates come in so you, my flower lovers will have a constant supply of Hancock grown tulips. I guess stacking the trays of ranunculus will have to get stacked somewhere….
It’s a full rack
The seeding is going really well and I am on schedule, amazingly enough. All the cool flowers seeds have germinated, or most of them have and as soon as the second batch of ranunculus sprout, everything will be planted out into the high tunnel, my target date is March 1. Hopefully on that date, all the cool flower seedlings, the ranunculus and the few anemone will be planted out. At night everything gets covered with frost cloth, and during the days, especially if the sun is out, everything gets uncovered, only to be covered up again at night. And if the weather is going to be really ornery, then two layers of frost protection goes on at night. Gotta protect those babies. At the moment, in the greenhouse, there are only 100 ranunculus planted out in crates, and they too get winter pajamas on every evening. None of the outdoor structures are heated, so they are just being used as season extenders so I can have flowers earlier than many. There is plenty of stress involved with this process, but oh so worth it.
And of all goes well, in three months these will be flowering.
Thank you to everyone who is coming out to Flag Leaf bakery to pick up flowers. I know it is all about the goodies that Melanie creates, but I am glad you are also picking up tulips and I thank them profusely for letting me use them as an outlet. Just to clarify, they are running those tulips through their sales, so if you are a flower club member, your card won’t work. Cranberry Meadow seems to be working for people as well. If you have a card balance just write your name on a Post it Note that are in the cash box letting me know what you took and I will deduct it accordingly. Then, the majority of the most amazing tulips will be here at the farm. Yay, and I must say, it is so nice to see you all again. For all of you new people the farm is at 76 Stoddard Rd Hancock. There will be a sign out at the end of the driveway when we are open.
The tulips on offer this Friday will be the next batch. Week 15 if you really want to know, so they are going to be totally different than the last two weeks. One of the varieties is Columbus which is one that I had last year. It is a stunner.
Columbus in bud. It will be totally different in bloom, believe me.
This is enough of me rabbiting on for tonight. I look forward to seeing you on Fridays. Stay tuned to the newsletter that will be posted on Thursday for details. You guys are the best and I can’t say how much I appreciate your support.
Wow, here we are at week seven and mid February. If this year’s flowers season flies by a quickly as these first few weeks I will need to fasten my seat belt. Between moving tulip crates hither and yon, harvesting and bunching tulips for sale, seeding, transplanting seedlings, transplanting sprouted ranunculus into crates, then today hauling them out into the greenhouse I am getting an upper body work out as well as my 10,000 steps in. No problem. All of this is good. No complaining here, just letting you know what is happening at the farm.
The first Friday of open flower shed with tulips just knocked me out of the park and over the moon. I can’t say enough how much I appreciate your support. Tulips were sent off to Flag Leaf bakery in Antrim, and if you haven’t been there let me just say that their bread and pasties are right up there with the best in the world. Dropping off tulips at Cranberry Meadow Farm (CMF) in Peterborough was also a success, making pick up easier for those flower lovers not in Hancock. That being said, I will still have the majority of tulips available here at the farm. If you really want to pick up tulips at CMF, you will need to let me know so I have an appropriate number of bunches available there. All I ask is that you write on the post-it note (that are in the tea box) your name and how many bunches you took so I can adjust your balance. This is a learning curve for us all so thank you for working with me to work out the kinks.
So onto the best side of being a flower farmer, for me anyway is what is happening at the farm. I have tulips. I am harvesting about 200 a week, yay, and if I must say so, they are pretty damn sweet.
Just two varieties that will be available on Friday
Unlike last year when we had the same old forced tulips until the in ground tulips came in, this year every two weeks will be another four varieties on offer. Not that the tulips on offer last year were bad, it is just that I got bored with the offerings, so I have mixed things up. Each week will be a surprise, even I don’t know what they will look like until I harvest. I can’t wait. Let me know what your favorites are because in another two months I will be having to put my bulb order in for next year. I know, crazy, but that is how the industry works. So far my favorites are the Exotic Emperor, and Lalibela, which is this apricot, yellow, orange OMG single.
The ranunculus that were soaked a few weeks back have all sprouted and are being planted in crates as soon as I can get the tulips out of them. The first three crates were hauled into the greenhouse this morning and I have many more to go. Tomorrow’s soaking will all be destined to go into the high tunnel once they have sprouted. Oh yeah. Things are ramping up. The perennial seedlings have been transplanted into the next size soil block and I am hoping that by the end of next week they too will be able to go into the greenhouse ’cause I am starting to run out of space. Hence the dance of the Greenhouse Shuffle.
Oh right. The blog is going to be coming out of this server, but the newsletter that tells you our open hours and what will be available will still be sent by Google. If you are just happy with the blog and don’t want the newsletter let me know. If you are getting the newsletter and not the blog, check your junk mail. Google. Let me just leave it at that.
If you know of any flower lovers that don’t know about Flowers at Lottarock, bring them along, and if they become addicted, there will be a special treat for you. There can never, ever be too many flower lovers. Now, Steve will fix this for you to read.
Until next week. Allie
Sarah Raven has it right. Tulips look best in a champagne bucket
It is beginning, the tulips are showing color! I can not even begin to tell you how relieved I am. I tried a new method, did the math, then worried and worried that I had messed something up, but, the first crates of tulips are just about ready for full harvest. The first two bunches go to birthday ladies this week, lucky them, then the rest will then be available for everyone. How exciting is that?!?
Happy flower farmerThe first official bunch. More to come!
I am going to try something new this spring. Please email me and let me know what you think. Cranberry Meadow Farm (CMF) will let me put a bucket or two, depending on the interest, of tulip bunches in their hall. This would make the flowers more available to you, so you don’t have to drive to Hancock. I will still have bunches here, but I would have a set number at CMF available for pick up. Details haven’t been worked out yet, but please let me know what you think of this idea. Send the email to flowersatlotarock@gmail.com or alliekerwin@gmail.com. I generally don’t look at the comments posted on the blog so this is the better way.
What a wild weather weekend this past weekend was. I don’t need a repeat of it for a long time. We raised the temperature in the bulb room to protect the growing tulips and then after taking the temperature of the dahlias, which were reading a temp of 29.9, we lugged all the boxes of dahlia tubers up into the dirty room to protect them from the cold. If anything I couldn’t let those tubers freeze. This afternoon, when the warmer temperatures returned, we lugged all the boxes back down again. While I was down there I gave all the tulips a good drink which should see them through until they all come up to the dirty room to grow on. The good news is that everything looks good, and I hadn’t planted anything outside yet into the greenhouse or the tunnel.
But soon, the greenhouse and tunnel will be planted. The first batch of ranunculus are sprouting, the perennial seeds are sprouting and hopefully will be transplanted into larger soil blocks this week. The growing space shuffle is ramping up for sure and I am going to need upper arm strength to move everything around from now until June. Whoa.
Valentines Day is next Saturday, or wait, this coming Saturday. Ask your dearest for a flower card to get the flower season off to a good start instead of a box of chocolates. I mean I have nothing against a box of chocolates, but don’t you think flowers would be so much nicer, and the flower card will last longer than a box of chocolates. Remember the old Whitman’s Select box that would come in a red ribbon? Ah yes. Those were the days.
Because it is so white out, and we are all longing for some color, I will leave you with some of this week’s floral color. The forsythia I cut about two weeks ago, and the tulips, I cut today. Enjoy, and see you next week.
