Month: April 2025

Whoa! Last Sunday of April!

Well this quarter of 2025 zipped right by. How does this happen? Is it because the flower season starts in January with hauling in crates of tulips? Is it because by mid February tulip harvest has begun? Is because by March we are in the thick of tulips, seeding and getting ready for the next season? Is it because the end of April has seen the last of the forced tulips and yes, the first in-ground tulips will be harvested tomorrow? I don’t know, but time needs to move down just a titch please.

It has been another busy week on the farm, but no news there I guess. The willows that were planted out are showing new growth which is exciting and even more exciting is the new shrubs are looking really good so the plan for this week is to get the cardboard down in the rows and the wood chips on top. I fed everything on Thursday in anticipation of the weekend’s rain, which we did get a good amount of, so now mulching. After that gets done it will essentially be hands off for quite a while, which will be good because there are plenty of other things to attend to.

It appears as though the bird attempting to build a nest in the greenhouse thought better of its chosen location which is great, but now I have a bird building a nest in the flower shed. Not quite as bad because it can come an go at its pleasure and I am only really in there once or twice a day every few days.

In the dirty room (which we can now spin around in there is so much space) the seeding is going right along. I have a lot of transplanting to do this week and another big batch of sowing, this time the zinnias and cosmos and other things that I missed. The chrysanthemum cuttings are looking good so far which is very exciting, and the next batch of seedling transplants can go out into the greenhouse to harden off.

The greenhouse is looking mighty full with the bench filling up again. The narcissus will all have to go under the bench this week because I have buds on the anemone and soon I will have to be able to get to the crates to harvest some flowers! Whoo hoo. I don’t see much happening on the ranunculus yet, but hopefully those flower buds won’t be far behind. The tunnel is looking good, and it seems as though the ranunculus that I planted without soaking have decided to show signs of life after all, with the back up plants ready to get planted now. Nothing like a little bit of competition to spur growth on. After this week things will be getting really tight in there.

For the past few years I have been asked to do the flowers for the Music on Norway Pond benefit which I really enjoy doing, lets me stretch my creativity. So this is what I created yesterday.

After today it looks as though we are going to be in for a stretch of nice weather so I will be pulling tulips, I suspect so, by Friday. Fingers crossed there will be a selection of varieties, but other flowers are rocking in as well so things are looking good on the floral side.

I will leave you with last week’s #windowframe. It is essentially the prototype of what I created yesterday. Enjoy.

Have a great week, Allie. I dream of flowers, do you?

Welcome to another crazy week on the flower farm. Every day is something new and different, and exciting. The most exciting is that spring is actually happening. The witch hazels are done blooming, making way for the forsythia and the magnolias. The hellebores are are blooming their socks off and the narcissus buds are swelling with promise.

On Monday I got all of the perennial seedlings planted out into the garden, perfect weather for transplanting. Mostly overcast with no wind to speak of and the nights were above freezing. The peonies have been cleaned up and fed, and half of the irrigation has been laid out in the cutting garden. Even bigger news is that the last crate of forced tulips has been harvested so now we are dependent on the ground tulips.

So you all know that I have been a bit worried that there will be a lull in the tulip production but hurrah! White Emperor will be be first one on deck. It will still be a week before harvest, but no delay. Good news all around I would say.

I am having a bit of a problem in the greenhouse. As I was rounding the corner yesterday I noticed a little wren with bits in its bill sitting on the ledge going into the greenhouse. My fears are correct. She is building a nest on the ledge of the greenhouse. Argh. Not a great place because if it gets cold, I have to shut the doors, her entrance, and I can’t keep the doors shut to keep her out because it will become far too hot in there for the crops. Hopefully she will become discouraged with all of my activity and find somewhere else safer to build her nest.

I am not going to remove her nest because if this is where she wants to be she will just build another one. Sigh. If she continues I will chronicle it for all to see.

I did create a #windowframethursday on Friday last week but never got around to posting it. It was one of those days, so you all get to see it now, with the same arrangement four days later when the tulips have opened up a bit.

I hope everyone has a beautiful spring week coming, and I will be back to regale you with more next week.

Allie, I dream of flowers, do you?

We are Nearing the Middle of March

Oh sorry, we are nearing the middle of April but it sure feels like March. Ugh. Cold, raw days…some days with snow…then we have one and a half nice days then back to cold, raw and cloudy. The worst was yesterday, though.

That snow was forecasted to be one to three inches, and by the time we went out to do morning chores it was five inches. By the time it had more or less finished it was plus five. The majority of it is gone, but there is enough to remind me that it was here.

We did have a dusting of snow on Flower Shed Friday, that was also beautiful and it didn’t last long. It had to make way for the next day’s snow.

Early in the week I did that tetris thing between the willow garden and the twiggery, moving things hither and yon. Almost all of the flowering shrubs are now in the twiggery, getting well watered and all the willow sticks are now planted in the willowery. Steve was able to till the rows where they were going to be planted and in a couple of hours I had them all in. Yay? Did I feel my body parts that evening? I think a total of 40 willow sticks went in. Let’s just hope they take. They should.

I have one lonely crate of tulips remaining in the dirty room and I think if we see sunshine this week they will be going out with the others in the bulb room. What a season that has been. The first half harvested, the second half, the ones in the ground are just needing some sun and warmer temps to get them really going. They are looking good, they just seem to be slow. Hopefully with some sun and warmer temps they will catch up and there won’t be a lull between the two crops. Fingers crossed.

Speaking of tulips, since it was snowing outside I thought I would finally sit down at the computer and get next year’s tulips ordered. That is quite the job but both orders are out. I have ordered some really beautiful ones, I hope, and there will be twenty two varieties of forced ones and nineteen? of the in ground ones so there will be plenty of variety for all of us.

I also started the last ranunculus I have. I decided that the last batch I did isn’t doing anything. Lesson learned. No matter what, after soaking them put them in trays and sprout them before they go into the ground so they will have roots and a bit of green to get them going. Planting them in the ground right after soaking them just hasn’t worked, hence the third planting.

This coming week is another busy one, the next batch of seeding, ranunculus planting by Thursday, yup, they should be ready to go into the ground by then, they are already starting to show green bits. I have a bunch of perennial seedlings that have to get into the ground… you know, all that cool flower farming stuff.

Here are the photos from last week’s #windowframethursday. Even today it still looks beautiful, even more so because the tulips have opened up.

I will turn you over to Steve. Have a great week, hopefully a sunny and slightly warmer one than we have been having.

Allie. I dream of flowers, do you?

It is Defiantly April

You know that saying for March, out like a lion? Well April so far is just like March. Taunting us with nice days, followed by days of pure @#$%%. It is certainly a month to keep us on our toes.

We have had some really nice days. The twiggery is full. The last 36 shrub liners arrived Friday afternoon and they all got in the ground. They were tiny, tinier than I thought they would be, but planting was easy so I am not complaining. Then we had enough rain last night and this morning to get them really well watered in, so while they are getting established I am appreciating the cooler damp weather. Go roots! Once they leaf out water will have to be kept up to the at least twice a week, I will give them a feed for a boost then the mulch spread. It looks really amazing when you drive in the driveway. It will be even more amazing next year. I also moved everything in the willow garden into the twiggery because this week the willow sticks will be planted out.

Saturday the chrysanthemum cuttings came and I got those potted up and under the grow lights to get them started. Once they are rooted in I will take cutting and increase my stock.

Yesterday I did the flowers for a dear friend’s celebration of life. I am sorry I didn’t get a good photo of the large arrangement but the tablescapes turned out well. They are in the Orangeina bottles were requested because it was her favorite drink and because that was her password. Very appropriate I would say.

The in-ground tulips are are looking good. I haven’t had to water them yet, which is nice but I am sure those days will be coming. And no, I haven’t placed the tulip order for next year. I am a bit worried about the cost. The tulips have already gone up 25%, then we have the new tariffs, then I am sure the potting medium will go up because of the tariffs, but then I say I will only be forcing tulips for another two or three years anyway…What do you think?

I didn’t do a #windowframethursday last week. I am waiting for flowers or flowering branches that aren’t tulips to play with. I know. I am spoiled for sure, but I do have a stairway of tulips that were for last week.

I leave you with this photo. Hopefully it will make you smile.

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