Month: May 2024

As much as I love them, and as good as they have been to me, this week will be the last week for tulips until February 2025. Even though they are still looking good and holding up, I am ready for a floral change and I will assume you all are as well. That being said, Friday we will all say thank you for your beauty, getting us through the winter and early spring and for bringing us joy.

Don’t worry though, there is no shortage of flowers. The long awaited ranunculus are here, or they should be. I don’t know what they are waiting for. They are joining the anemones, and the very first of the peonies are here. The orlaya is just about ready to harvest and some of the cool flowers are showing bud. The bouquets may still not be big and bodacious, but they will be colorful.

To date, I have planted 275 peonies, 35? different varieties, and am nearly done with the that planting. That will be a huge project off my list. The last of the summer annuals will also go in the ground this week. The big irrigation system is hooked up and ready to used once the seedlings get big enough. Sunflowers, that I wasn’t going to grow, will be planted every two weeks for a filler, and bits and pieces need to get gone. When I take a deep breath, I will then mulch all the pathways to try to keep the lovely weeds under some control. Hopefully the rain gutters will be put up so I don’t have to go so far to fill my flower buckets or to wash them for that matter. It is sooo nice to have two working arms again. I can shovel, hoe, push a wheelbarrow, drag hoses and all that really fun stuff which is why we garden.

I have been invited to join a PopUp at DubHub on Saturday June 8 so put it on your calendar. Lots of really cool artists will be there and I will be there with amazing floral bouquets. I am going to be creative! So please pass the word around. I will also remind you leading up to the event.

I guess that is about all for now, the gardens are calling me. I leave you with images of the flowers I did for a celebration of life on Saturday.

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

Personally I have been enjoying the cooler temps of May. It makes working in the gardens so much more enjoyable than when the temperature are in the 70’s and above. The black flies have been doable, or maybe I should say tolerable, and it has been really pleasant. The spring flowers have been taking their time coming along which isn’t quite so good, but with this coming week’s temperature in the 80’s they will come on really fast. Maybe too fast. It is hard to keep the tulips from blowing open quickly when it is that warm, so Tuesday, the flower shed will be in my floral cave where it is cooler.

It has been a busy week here at the farm. Lots of seed sowing and transplanting. More flowers have gone out into the garden and more beds have been prepped and are waiting for planting. The garden is starting to look like a garden again rather than just long rows of dirt, I mean soil. The anemones are really starting to put on blossoms. Last week I moved them out of the greenhouse to keep them cooler along with the very slow to come ranunculus. I wonder if the ranunculus are ever going to bloom this year. Humph, maybe I added too much fertilizer when I planted them. Lots of lush green foliage but nary a flower bud in sight. At least the anemones are going strong. The plants in the tunnel are looking good, lots of self sown seedling that I am keeping some of, I look at it as the second succession. The first are the seedlings that I planted out, and second succession are the self sown ones. As long as things don’t get too crowded in there I will let it go.

The peonies are full of fat flower buds and some are even starting to show color. If it is true that it is going to be as warm as they are saying this week, I might have peonies before June this year. Won’t that be exciting?

This past Saturday was an event for Music on Norway Pond, and I was asked to do the flowers. Fifteen jam jar posies for the tables, two larger arrangements and a floral crown for the bust outside the door. This is what was created.

I think that they came out pretty well if I must say so.

There will still be tulips until the end of May, or until the peonies really kick in, then that will be the end of that season until next February. I will continue to run the tulip special until the end of the tulip season. I understand that many flower people are buying the two, and then the third they are giving as gifts, or paying it forward. I think that is very generous and let’s see if something special won’t happen on the tulips last days. Stay tuned.

I have a big crazy week coming up, so I will leave you here, with a handful of posies.

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

Here it is nearly mid May, and the weather has been cool most of the month so for the most part spring is taking it’s sweet time which is good because the flowers are coming on slowly so I am able to keep up.

The last of the tulips for 2024 have been harvested. Dare I say YAY? don’t worry, there are plenty to be had yet, so I will continue to run the buy two get one bunch free for a bit longer. I love them, but I am glad to have other flowers to be harvesting. Not in the abundance of of the tulips yet, but just something different. The anemones are starting and are looking good. The ranunculus? They seem to be taking their time slowly, but the feverfew is budding and the plants in the high tunnel are starting to really put on some growth. The perennials are all looking good and OMG you should se the buds on some of the peonies. It looks like Red Charm will be first out of the gate, but I could be wrong. A flower grower should never make predictions on what or for that matter when something is going to bloom. That leads to trouble.

Slowly more things are getting planted out into the garden. I have more seedlings to go out this week and another batch of seeds to get planted. Memorial Day is quickly approaching and that is my deadline to get just about everything in the garden planted out. All of the dahlias are now out of storage and in the dirty room feeling the warmth and hopefully having the buds swell so I know where to do the dividing before they get planted. I just need a bit more time, but don’t we always say that about everything?

Things in the gardens are looking good and I am happy about that. Fingers crossed it will continue to go well.

Since there isn’t much to say, that I can remember I will leave you with two arrangements that I made last week. I am no designer, but a flower grower that likes to have fun and if the odd commission occurs, I will give it a go.

Pardon the typos and grammatical issues. My proofreader is still away…argh.

So until next week, Allie. I dream of flowers

Welcome May and all the flowers that come with it! We are getting a good rain today, and the next two days are to be really warm so I suspect that we are going to start having more flowers than the lovely tulips. Yes, we will still have the lovely tulips, but now to add to that we have frittilaria, leucojum, (which is like giant lily of the valley), the alliums are budding up, I still have some hellebores to harvest, still lots of heirloom narcissus. I mean look at the offerings from last week! And it will only get better from here out. YAY

I will also have the very first anemone to offer this week. There aren’t many and they will be incorporated into the posies, but this is exciting and the ranunculus shouldn’t be far behind in the offerings. I hope.

Mothers Day is nearly upon us and I will be offering something special at the flower shed on Friday to celebrate. Haven’t quite decided yet, but it will be exciting for sure.

The first batch of cool flowers has been planted out into the garden and the perennials and the self seeders from last year are all looking good. The rodents really liked the perennial anemone over the winter or early spring, but I planted them, or what was left of them back in the ground, gave them a pep talk and am keeping my fingers crossed. Seeding and transplanting are still taking place and I am happily busy.

I am having a blast doing my #windowframethursdays I lets me really be creative. This was last weeks creation and I really like it if I must say so.

An offering of what I am harvesting at the moment, put into an arrangement.

I will close here. Steve is away, so there will be no proofreading, except for me, so please excuse the grammar, punctuation, spelling and everything else. Also, I will be sending this out so if you get this, yay! I remembered how to do it.

Allie. I dream of flowers.