Month: March 2026

The Last Sunday of March

To be honest, I won’t miss March. It has been crazy weather wise, beautiful days to melt the snow, and then the next day a few days of winter returning where the winter coat comes back out for barn chores and garden walks. Not that the beginning of April will be much nicer but it is a lovely thought to have. And yes, I still have snow piles, but nothing like what they were last week.

The snow is finally gone out of the cutting garden so I made my official foray into the garden on Friday. It is still far to early to see much growth, but it has been good to be able to get in and sorta check on the spring process. The voles were very active and dined very well over the winter. I don’t think I have lost complete crops, yet, but they were certainly active. One just has to breath deeply and look at it as a way to change it up. Again.

Speaking of changing it up…Garth is in with his digger and in two days has done major work in the twiggery, also known as where the donkeys were. Stumps have been pulled, rocks discovered, some serious grading and this picture doesn’t say it all but holy moly, what a difference. I have tons of room now for more shrubs and trees!

I can’t believe that I won’t have any full bulb crates to haul in tomorrow. It will be a shock to my system. Now I am just taking out empty crates and stacking them up for the meantime, and the flowers are getting pulled and put into the cooler. Slowly the dirty room will empty of bulb crates and I can think about taking chrysanthemum cuttings, which won’t be nearly a space hog but will still keep the room dirty. That and I have a lot more seeding to do as well, the summer annuals will needed to be started this week or next.

With our bitter cold temperatures the last few nights I have double frost clothed the seedlings and ranuncs and anemones. Yes, I know that they are cold hardy, but not that cold hardy. Looking at the forecast it looks as though I can put away the protection for a week. With the double layers they seem to have come through well, but when it gets down to 18-20 degrees overnight they need protection.

My first hellebore bloomed for me on Friday.

Just cause I can I am taking a Zoom floral design class with a designer in Belgium, Emily of Fleuropean. It is am interesting group; a few Canadians, a Swiss, German, and a number of us from the US, but we are from all over. We are to design along with everyone on Zoom, which is weird, but anyway, it is interesting. This is what I made. I used everything that I am growing here so I was far more limited than the Europeans, but it works.

All done in a small bowl and held together with a hairpin frog. Next week’s creation will be also using chickenwire taped down for more stability. I still have limitations in flowers but i really don’t think this is all that bad.

Next Sunday is Easter! I am going to be creating mixed bouquets for the shed and Flag Leaf Bakery. Everything will be from the farm so it will include tulips, willow, branches, narcissus and hyacinths. I just want to mix it up for the holiday, and to see if I could get the timing right for easter. Then we will be back to tulip bunches until I have narcissus and more.

One last photo before I send this over to Steve for his editing and ditty.

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

I am Ready for March to Go!

March is never the easiest month to go through. The weather flucuations; the sleet, snow and rain mixed in with wind and possible chance of sun are taking its toll on my psyche. I just want sun, temps in the mid 40’s (don’t want to rush spring) rain at night, less gale force winds…you know, weather perfection. I know, this is March, and in reality, much of April as well. At least I have flowers to share.

This last week has been the first week that I have been able to totally circumnavigate the flower garden. I told myself I am not allowed in the garden until the snow is gone from that space. As you can see…

This promise to myself is driving me crazy. I am peering over the fence as much as possible, but in reality, not much is happening wether I am in the garden or not. Soon I hope, but until then, I just hang over the fence and look as hard as I can for signs of green. I do have shoots of narcissus showing up outside the garden though… and that helps. Sorta.

What I don’t have outside though I have happening inside. In the greenhouse I have cool flower seedlings, perennial seedlings, narcissus and the first round of ranunculus and anemone happening. It is getting a bit full in there at the moment.

Many of the seedlings will go into the tunnel in two? weeks, the crates of narcissus are ones that I wintered over between the tulip beds and have brought in to fill the floral gap,(that experiment seems to be working so far), and the first of the ranunculus and anemones have been planted out into the used tulip crates. I don’t have room for much else at the moment.

Tomorrow is the last batch of tulips to leave the cooler. If that isn’t a big yay I don’t know what is. That means that I have hauled 45 crates of forced bulbs in since the end of January. Thirty eight of them being tulips. The remaining have been dutch iris which I won’t do again, hyacinths and narcissus. The flower bunches for Easter will be stunning that is for sure.

What ever you do, don’t fret about not having tulips. The cooler is full of tulips ready to greet you each week well into May, and probably June when the peonies flower.

So I continue to seed, circumnavigate the garden multiple times during the day, harvest tulips, hyacinths and narcissus in small amounts, circumnavigate the gardens a few more time cause something might have happened in the last two hours when I was out there last and impatiently wait… and wait… and wait.

Meanwhile, next Friday and Saturday Garth will be here with his digger making more garden space for me for all the the plants I ordrered during the winter and that is very exciting. Also the chrysanthemum plugs should be sent next week…so I will soon be starting to get the fall crops ready…And, I have already gotten the tulips order forms for next year! Life of a flower grower is never boring.

So until next week, Allie. May this weeks dreams about flowers be less dramatic than last weeks flower dreams!

I heard an interesting quote this morning….

“Keep sowing seeds. It is a declaration of Hope.” Georgie Newbery.

I think it is entirely appropiate for our times. Growing flowers is looking towards to future and peacefuller times.

Allie

Typical March, every day is different weather wise. Not a bad thing because it keeps us on our toes, and April seems so far away, but the first day of spring is at the end of the week. Wonder what that will be like? Sunny, windy, rainy, snowy, could be all the above in one fine March day.

My most exciting news is that today I was able to take my first walk around the garden. Not that I was able to see much but stems and plant label stakes, but for the first time in months I was able to circumnavigate the gardens. Oh I was still walking in snow, but it was doable. Oh, and the path leading to the flower shed is completely open so unless we get more snow or it is really raining, snow boots won’t be necessary.

This week’s to do list? Besides hauling tulip crates and harvesting flowers, it will be to get the sprouting ranunculus and anemone planted in the empty bulb crates in the greenhouse. That is a biggie. I also need to get the snapdragons seeded and check what else I need to get seeded for this time of year. I also need to get the tunnel prepped for the transplants that I would like to get out sometime next week. I am waiting until the night time temps this week are a bit higher than 18. The frost covering helps but not quite as well when the temps are that low.

I am pathetic for tossing flowers when they go by. Mostly because many times the fading flower is so beautiful. Now Steve would say it’s laziness, but I love the senescene of the flowers.

This is one of my earliest tulips to bloom and I have to say many flower peoples’ favorite because it is just so stink’n beautiful any stage of bloom. The only reason I have them is because the bucket fell on the floor last Friday and they got damaged. Lucky me I guess.

The tulips last week were…Balroyal Pink, Delta Storm, Red Impression and Amazing Grace. Next week they will be slightly different.

Steve has returned so you will get his proofreading and entry ditty. Yay! So until next week,

Allie. I dream of flowers (and sometimes have nightmares about flowers), do you?

What a turn of weather! But that is March for you. Wintery crap on Wednesday and Thursday to today mostly sunny and temperatures in the mid 50’s. Talk about a radical change in just a few days. The driveway is mostly open again, the roof is clear of snow and rocks are appearing. Slowly.

The tulips harvest is going well. After tomorrows tulip pull into the dirty room I will have two more weeks of crates to go! Don’t worry, this is not the end of tulip season. From the time I pull the crates in it takes about four weeks to get them to bloom. This means that there will be tulips at least until the end of April if not longer, and those are just the forced tulips. Then we have the 2200? in ground tulips that usually bloom around mothers day, weather cooperating. So not to worry, there will be plenty of tulips through June and probably until the peonies bloom.

I have run out of places to put my seedlings. The rack is full but I am hoping that tomorrow, with the fine weather to lasting until Thursday when the nights begin to go below freezing again I can get some of the cool flower and perennial babies out into the greenhouse. They will have to have protection at night, but I am running out of options. Once the ranunculus and anemones sprout they will get planted into the used tulip crates and out into the greenhouse. Flower tetris at it’s best.

Soon I hope I can begin my multiple circuits around the gardens watching the evolution of spring but I don’t think that will happen for a week or two, but who knows. I am certainly ready to smell the damp earth and get my hands into the soil.

So I can’t pass you off to Steve tonight cause he’s in Austin TX, so you will have to put up with my proofreading and possible entry ditty.

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

And knowing March, who knows what we are going to get thrown at us weather wise. Today was beautiful even if it didn’t get above freezing, tonight down to 0f, tomorrow well below freezing, but then looking at the week ahead, temps don’t look too bad. We will see. Maybe all the snow will be gone by the end of the month so Garth will be able to stay on schedule to get the next expansion phase done. After that, no more expansion. No comment from you all who know me so well.

The snow has been melting slowly here though. Rocks still haven’t appeared but I can tell it’s melting. This is what I had at the beginning of the week.

After a week of getting my WP Mail SMPT sorted out by their technical staff, who couldn’t be more helpful by the way, even though it took a week, I believe we are up and running. I didn’t get the newsletter sent out the night before the first flower shed of the year, but I did manage to get something mailed out on Friday morning. It has been such a long time since I mailed out a newsletter I have that learning curve again, but just saying, the flower shed will be open on Fridays now from 10:00-2:00. I will try to get the newsletter out as a reminder. The tulips are looking beautiful and seriously needed for not just their beauty and needed color at this time of year, but because we all need joy.

The dirty room is maxed out space wise and I still have baby seedlings to transplant and the ranunculus and anemones to soak and sprout. I am already using the top of the dog crates for tulips…this is going to be a challenge for me this month.

It is too cold to put these babies in the greenhouse right now…I will figure something out I am sure. Might have to use the basement for sprouting the ranuncs and anemones…

I can say one thing for sure, from Mid January on it is never boring here being a flower farmer.

Until next week may our snow begin to melt gently so it goes into the ground to fill the water table, may we enjoy the much longer days, and may we enjoy fresh locally grown flowers.

Allie. I dream of flowers, do you?