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.
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
