Month: January 2026

There is nothing like starting the first of the season’s blog with a massive Nor’easter in our midst. Well if nothing else it might whet our appetites for spring even more.

That being said, the first four crates of tulips were pulled on Monday and tomorrow’s crates were pulled today. I honestly don’t think a day will make that big a difference and it was a lot easier moving them without all the snow that is predicted to tomorrow. For those of you not in the Monadnock region, we are to get 18-24 mere inches of very fluffy snow. We are also having arctic chill this week so with no sun in the dirty room and the temps are hovering around 58 degrees. Not bad for tulips, not great for us who are battling the added cold in the house. When the sun reappears the open shut door game will resume. The tulips need to be kept at no higher than 65 degrees so even if it is 20 outside and the sun is out, the dirty room needs to be vented. The joys and challenges of forcing tulips.

I am off on Tuesday for two days of flower learning. This program is put on my the University of Maine and is called Flowering in the North. I went seven years ago and was blown away by the amount of info. I am going with a fellow flower farmer so Steve gets to stay home and manage the tulips and not listen to me going on for hours about all the possibilities I could do. (Not that I need any more possibilities).

February first I begin seeding all the perennials, bi-annuals and many of the cool flower crops. Ah yes, now the pace picks up. Not as fast as March, April and May, but still…it picks up. I for one am so excited.

I think, I am done ordering for the 2026 year. I think. It is a good thing I tentatively have Garth (one of the best with a backhoe) booked in for the end of March cause I have a lot of bare-root material ordered. Plus the perennials I have ordered, which I do have space for, but it will be nice to have the twiggery finished.

Finished. I wonder if that word is truly in my vocabulary/lexicon. Hmmm, I use that word quite frequently but never seem to get the true meaning of finished. What do you think? Yup, that is what I thought.

Critters are in the barn, dinner is about to be started so I will pass this off to Steve for his edits and comments.

I will be back next week so brace yourself.

Just in case you are wondering, we should have flowers by Feb 20! if all goes to plan.

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

Well here it is January first and I am getting itchy to start having flowers again.

Lots of new and exciting for projects for the farm will be happening this year. I am having the last of the space cleared this spring to accommodate more shrubs for cutting and creating a diversified hedgerow along the edges. New seeds are going to be tried for the annuals and I am going to expanding the perennials all of this in the current space, some additions, some deletions.

I am getting the rest of my seed and plant orders in this first week of January, and in another two weeks the perennial seeds will be started. On the 19th the first of the tulips crates will be pulled into the dirty room and before you know it flowers will be back with us again.

I know it is going to be an exciting year here at Lottarock and and I can hardly wait to see you all again.

Stay tuned to this and the newsletter filling you in with everything that happens here. The good the bad and the ugly in my flower world. I will return here in three weeks.

Till next time, your happy flower farmer, Allie

and yes, I do dream of flowers.