Month: February 2026

That is right. You have read correctly. The long awaited tulips are here! And boy are we going to need them with tonight and tomorrows Nor’easter. A little bit of color will go a long way now that is for sure.

It is a good thing the tulips are here because I don’t know if the dirty room could hold another four crates of tulips. Now it’s crates out, crates in. The flow has begun. Yay! And now that the flow has begun I am going to start bringing in some different spring flowers to mix it up a bit, maybe some hyacinths? Certainly some narcissus. As always, I will let you know when they are ready.

One of the many things on my todo list this week is to start transplanting the cool annuals and perennials that are ready to be bumped up. For this I make two inch soil blocks for the each seedling to be planted into and where they will stay until they are planted out into the garden in the spring. I also need to get the first soaking of the ranunculus claws and anemone. These are soaked for about three hours, then they will be planted up and sprouted on until they will be far enough along to get planted out in the tulip crates that are now being emptied. See how this all works?

Many of you, if not all of you received a lovely spam invitation from me to an event here. Hopefully most of you are clued in enough to know not to open it. I have gotten two of them, both from friends and one of these infected my mailing list. This is a very popular spam, everyone wants to get invited to a party right? If you ever get another one from someone you know put it in your junk folder. Call or text the person who sent it to confirm it is legit. More than likely it isn’t. Bummer I know. If I am going to have a party I will send out real paper invitations!

Now. The most important thing. The flower shed will be open now on Fridays from 10-12. This is so the temperatures have a time to warm up so the flowers can be in the flower shed and not here in the house, and until noon because I know the tulips will go fast. If you think you will be late, text me or email me to let me know and I will put a bunch aside for you.

I leave you with a floral gift that went out last week.

I hope to see many of you on Friday from 10-12. I will also put it on instagram and hopefully a newsletter, but that is another story.

Until next week, Allie. I dream of flowers, (and no snow) do you?

It might be 32 days left until spring but do you think I will be seeing a snowless garden? That is the question. I have lots of plants starting to rock in by the middle of March….It is a good thing I have a lot of tulip soil to pot up the perennials because I don’ think I will be planting outside by then (I knew that when I ordered so I am prepared).

But spring is happening here in the dirty room. S-L-O-W-L-Y. I am harvesting the first crate of tulips, and I have others on their heels. Not as quickly as I would like, or for that matter any of my flower people would like, but nature can’t be rushed as much as I would like it to. That being said, I am hoping I will have enough tulips to offer on Friday…it’s still five days out….stay tuned.

The seedlings are looking really good. They had their first feed yesterday making the house smell a bit like low tide. Some of them are getting their true leaves so I will be able to transplant some soon and then hope to get more cool flowers seeded and the sweet peas.

When I was down in the cooler yesterday I noticed that I had shoots coming up on the Muscari that I thought were goners. Now that is exciting! I had written them off but hadn’t gotten around to dumping them. It is a good thing I didn’t, I guess.

This time every year I always worry about the season and how it is going to go. Weather is always forefront, never knowing what we will get and when but also will I have too many flowers? Not enough flowers? I am looking forward to this year’s expansion with more woodies and perennials and my collaborations with others as well as some possible design work thrown in to keep that creative energy going.

I have a couple of thoughts brewing in my brain so stay tuned to see what I am thinking of. Nothing will start until I have flowers though, and plenty of them so I have plenty of time yet.

Stay tuned to the newsletter for the flower shed details. If you don’t think you get the newsletter and want it you can sign up on my website. Also check your spam on Friday. If you haven’t received a newsletter on Friday, sign up or let me know and I will add you. This give you all the most up to date flower shed details. Check your spam folder first though. I will also post on Instagram on the night before an open flower shed, if that works better.

So, I think I have covered everything this week so I will pass you off to Steve for his entrance ditty.

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

Who ever said flower farming was easy weren’t flower farmers, or gardeners for that matter. No pacing the gardens for this flower farmer. Although… I did walk some of the gardens at the beginning of the week…

So as you can see, not much is happening here outside. I know, I know, it is only the first week of February….but with the daylight getting longer it is hard not being able to be in the gardens. All I can do is stand on the plowed verges and plan. And order more plants for the spaces I don’t have.

While there isn’t much happening outside, there are things happening inside. Again, not fast enough. God I’m impatient.

Lets start with the tulips. Not happening fast enough. But in reality they aren’t scheduled to happen for another week. Nature can’t be rushed. Patience, Kerwin, patience. (although Steve here proofreading this thinks that Patience Kerwin has a nice colonial ring to it) So this is where we stand right now in tulip world.

So you can see, things are progressing, just now fast enough. I have had many questions of when the tulips will be ready. I know, we are all ready for locally grown tulips….I am hoping for Feb 20th? I will keep you posted through the newsletter (which is separate from this blog) and instagram if I can get my act together.

The perennials that I seeded on Monday are happening. Again, patience. The seedlings that have germinated are out in the fresh air now, still on heat but that is because of the dirty room needing to be kept cool because of the tulips…you see how this goes?

I will say, although I am not a huge fan of the snow I am so totally grateful for it this year because it is protecting the plants from this brutal cold. I will stay positive that all the rodents that are living off my perennials and shrubs under the snow are frozen and I will have plants in the spring. That that is just another flower farmer’s worry, ugh.

So I will leave this on a happy note. Have you noticed how much longer the days are? Let me see if I can find a beautiful photo for you of things to come….

Until next week, stay warm, enjoy the longer days and I will have flowers as soon as I can.

Your flower farmer Allie. I dream of flowers, do you?

The big question is will the groundhog see his shadow tomorrow and when will spring come? Well, whether Mr Phil sees his shadow tomorrow or not, I know that spring will be here in a few more weeks. The tulips are looking good, more crates get pulled tomorrow along with a surprise crate of another spring flower. I can hardly wait, but you probably know that by now.

The other more exciting thing about tomorrow is the day length is now officially 10 hours and now I can start my seeds. The cool flowers will be started and all of the perennials. The dirty room is getting full. I made space today for tomorrow’s crates, and tidied up the space so I have room to move, but it’s going to be crowded and dirty now until May.

i spent three amazing days in Portland Maine for the Flowering in the North conference. My brain, along with everyone else’s brain attending was crammed full of information from growing and everything associated with that, social media, connection with other flower growers, marketing and so much more. I feel as though I am still digesting all the information I crammed in my head. I did get some really cool seeds from a flower grower in VT that has been doing some really cool seed selections and I am looking forward to seeing them in real life. Something you all you local people to look forward as well.

I don’t know what posessed me the other day to look at the temperature in the bulb room, maybe because of this never ending cold stretch but OMG, the temperature wasn’t pretty. Not that it would hurt the bulbs, but I am storing the dahlias in there as well and I don’t want them below 35f. The temp was 36.4. The heater was on, but I just don’t think it is able to keep up so I cranked it up a bit and all os fine at the moment. Then I saw this!

Ice crystals! I re-stacked, or rather stacked the dahlias to be almost under the heater, and I think all is fine. They look good and feel good and that is the important part. I need to check the remote sensor more frequently when we have such a prolonged cold I guess.

I read an interesting article this morning about imported flowers and the few people I forwarded it onto suggested I post the link so here it is.

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2026/jan/11/theres-a-dark-side-to-floristry-are-pesticides-making-workers-seriously-ill-or-worse

This makes it all the more important to know where your flowers come from. Most small to medium US flower growers are organic growers or follow organic practices but it never hurts to have a conversation with your flower grower. The same for your vegetable growers. Start a conversation with them. We will be happy to share. I, for one, am not certified organic but certainly follow the organic practices. If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to ask.

I leave you with this image of what is to come. The tulips came from Emily Von Trapp’s flower farm in VT. (she forces 200,000 a year) following organic practices.

So until next week I will continue top dream of flowers. Allie

Now, off to Steve…