Month: January 2024

That Friday is Groundhog day? And we will be halfway through winter? Of course as I say this it is snowing outside, but the days will be noticeably getting longer and there will be flowers. Yay!!!

I am only doing minimal flower growing at the minute. Every two days I water the tulip crates, about every hour I check on the seedling to see if they are germinating, such busy work. No, what I am really spending my time on for Flowers at Lottarock is getting my act together. I’m trying to figure out how to improve my newsletter, which is different from the blog, learning how to do reels for Instagram because that is where the viewers are, so they say, getting my Quickbooks organized, new LLC, have to be even more serious….the rest of my time is spent going to physical therapy, which is making a huge difference in my range of motion and hopefully strength, doing my physical therapy exercises, and wearing my bone stimulator that will hopefully get the stink’n clavicle to start to heal. That, takes up to three hours a day. Boring I know but it is good that I have so many ‘Office’ projects.

I always question my flower growing, especially the tulips. I wonder did I get the number of weeks right for the chilling before I pulled the crates? Are they doing anything? Are there any flower buds? The first tulip crate pull is always the most excruciating, the wait! I must fondle those Apricot Beauty stems daily to see if I can feel flower buds, being careful not to crush them, and I think, I really think, that by the time I write this next Sunday, I might, fingers crossed, be able to show you the first tulips of the season. I am on pins and needles with anxiety…I should know better but still.

The flower farm is still quiet, nestled under snow…inside the lavender has germinated, as has the dianthus, phlox, the start of the delphinium and echinacea and quite possibly the columbine. The next big sowing is coming up soon, but for now it is office work and healing.

Since I have no flowers that I have grown yet, I will share the Witch Hazel ‘primavera’ pictures that I took yesterday. I thought my eyes were deceiving me, but I have color in the garden. She (our old cat Fidgit is buried underneath), is blooming about three weeks early, but I will take the color for sure. Enjoy the color. I certainly am.

So, until next week. I dream of flowers, do you? Allie

Don’t worry, we are all fine. I was referring to the bitter cold. Luckily, when I started this tulip growing gig we stuck a temperature alarm in the cooler so from my phone, I can tell the temps in the cooler. Too hot, my phone sounds an alarm. Too cold, my phone sounds an alarm. Luckily, my phone has not set off any alarms. Phew. I have the temperature in the cooler set at 41F, which is fine for the tulips and all of the dahlia tubers I am storing in there. The alarm is set to go off at 36F, which is fine for the tulips but getting into the danger zone for the dahlias. Steve and I scoured Keene on Friday looking for an electric blanket that, if I had to, I could cover the dahlias and turn it on low. No luck. I am keeping my fingers crossed that we get through tonight, the last of the super cold, and if the alarm goes off, I run down with another heater and plug it in for a few hours. Right now the temp is 38.3, and we should be OK.

I have set up the next row in the dirty room for the next batch of tulips to get hauled in.

Tomorrow at some point week 14-2 will be hauled in and placed on the crates, and I will hook up the light overhead. I want to thank everyone for their offers last week of lugging crates for me. I stubbornly wanted to try it myself and I had no problems. Probably because I had them at my waist. On the other hand, Steve had to move a simple seed tray for me because I couldn’t lift it. But yay for being able to do the tulips!

As you can see, progress is being made. I am thinking two more weeks before I have tulips!

I almost bought flowers at the supermarket on Friday. But then I said no. I will have fresh local flowers available hopefully in two weeks, which are much more superior to the imported flowers that have been sprayed with every chemical cocktail under the sun, that shouldn’t even go into the compost because the are so laced. Yes, they are cheap, far less than what I can grow them for, but you know what? Local flowers will always trump,(bad word) imported flowers if one follows the season and truly cares. Enough of that diatribe.

So, soon, very soon, I will have tulips, then the ranunculus and anemones will be started, the cool flowers will be seeded, and we will be on our way.

The dogs are impatient to do chores, so they can have dinner, so I will leave you here. Hope to see you all soon.

Thank you for your support, Allie. I dream of flowers, do you?

Last week’s arrangement, a winter wonderland, while I wait for Lottarock Flowers.

There are many reasons to say wow about this week. One, tomorrow we are half way through the month of January. How does time fly so quickly? Wow number two, this time last year, to the day tomorrow, I was hauling in the first four crates of tulips, which is on my agenda tomorrow, and the biggest WOW is by Feb. 6, I was harvesting tulips. So fasten your seatbelts all. Farm fresh flowers are only weeks away! I always keep my fingers crossed, but soon, three weeks soon, we will hopefully have tulips.

So after I tidy up and organize the dirty room space, I will start hauling crates. Luckily I only have to do four, and I am keeping my fingers crossed that I will be able to do it. I will see. The last thing I need to do is drop a crate because in my bull headdedness, but I also don’t want to make my shoulder worse. I will be happy if I can even haul one crate before I ask for help. but…if I can do all of them I would be a happy camper.

Meanwhile, while I wait impatiently for flowers, I am studying marketing, growing, how to do instagram reels, really? updating mailing lists, doing my PT and subsequent exercises, taking the dogs for walks and walking the gardens. I have transferred the business from a DBA to a LCC so I really have to make this work, hence all the marketing homework. Growing flowers is just so much easier and certainly more fun. For me, anyway.

So that is about all the news I have this week from Lottarock. The days are getting longer which makes me happy.

Until next week my flower friends. I dream of flowers. Do you? Allie

You probably thought I had faded off into the void, but here I am, another year of flower growing for you, my flower lovers.

I will say I am not sad to see the end of 2023. That last quarter was a struggle to say the least, but the calendar has turned the page and we are looking towards a fantastic floral year. I have started PT for the left wing and fingers crossed I will be back to fine fettle by the time flowers begin.

Speaking of flowers, seeding begins this week for the perennials, next week the first three crates of tulips get hauled into the dirty room, which means I must do a deep clean before now and next week. If all goes to plan, I should have tulips available for you all by the middle of February.

Meanwhile, both Steve and I are suffering from head colds, so have had a total down day watching the snow come down. Now the garden is safely covered for the rest of the season. That is if the snow stays. I have been walking the gardens once or twice each day just to check on things, checking that I have enough space to put everything when the big plant out begins. I am also digging deep into becoming a better business person…not fun but necessary, as well as flower learning which is far more fun than the business side of things. At least in my opinion.

Happy January everyone. It is good to be back and growing flowers again.

I dream of flowers, do you? These dahlia tubers are dreaming flowers. At least I hope they are.

Until next week. Allie