Month: April 2026

Mid April and Not A Good Forecast

Actually, it’s not even the middle of April but the third week of April. I say, with a week of rain, .1″ here, .2″ there, another .1″ it does slowly add up and with the not normal temperatures things have really begun to spring. All is looking good…

Tonight’s temperatures doesn’t really worry me. They say (the very accurate weatherpeople) our low is going to be 29 degrees at 6am. Ok, everything I have planted out so far (and it’s a lot) is cold hardy so should be fine. Fingers crossed. My big concern is Tuesday morning were it is to be 23 degrees. We will have a problem. Flowers, and flower buds are very susceptible to be killed at these temperatures. See all those beautiful tulips? I am going to have to try to protect them. I am sure I will not get much sleep the next two nights worrying. l have hoops that I can put over the tulips with frost cloth, and Christmas lights for a bit more heat. I am and will be harvesting everything tomorrow that is even close to harvesting. I can always store it in the cooler.

This afternoon I went out in the rain and harvested the flowering nectarine branches that would defently be black by the morning, the forsythia and the spirea that is just breaking bud. I also harvested every narcissus that was a goose neck stage to put in storage.

All of the bare root plants that got planted last week…I might cover them…the hellebores that are just now blooming their hearts out, they will all be covered with something….I have a little bit of stress going on right now. In many ways snow would be so much easier. It would protect the plants from the cold…

Anyway, onwards and upwards. Just about everything that was ordered in the cold dark winter days has been planted out, except the roses that have already leafed out and the hydrangeas that came fully leafed out. They have been pulled into the dirty room for the next few nights. It is a good thing all the tulips crates are out now.

The summer annuals have been seeded for the most part and they have all germinated since Tuesday’s sowing. Once they get their true leaves, they will be transplanted, and eventually go into the greenhouse ready to grow on until they are planted out.

The tunnel is completely full now. All the cool annuals are in, the ranunculus are in as are the anemone, and yes they will be covered Monday night for a bit of added protection.

On to brighter things. i have started my #windowframethrusday now that I have enough flowers to play with so here you go.

All held together with a hairpin holder and chicken wire. I just love how those Caro tulips open up and change color.

Well, as I look out the window as I am typing this missive I see snow. Great.

So I leave you with a photo of last week’s tulips offerings… enjoy

Until next week, Allie. I have nightmares about flowers, do you? Just let me worry, you enjoy.

So far in April we have had snow, days in the 60’s, beautiful sunny days with incredible wind that makes it feel like its 30 degrees out, warm days with little sun, and days with no rain. Which we need, especially this time of year when everything needs that boost to emerge out of the ground and flowers .

Despite the lack of rain, spring is slowly happening. I have one full crate of tulips left in the dirty room and two partial crates so we could almost have a party in the dirty room now there is so much space to move around in. The dogs are wondering what has happened to their obstacle course to get to their crates. The seed rack has been cleared out to make room for this week’s sowing of the summer flowers, the greenhouse has been emptied (sorta) to make room for the seedlings that came out of the dirty room, and the tunnel planting has begun and that will get finished up tomorrow.

Tomorrow the ranunculus and anemones go into the tunnel.

The last of the bareroot stock went into the garden so besides the six crabapples, the woody garden otherwise known as the twiggery now has 16 lilacs. I still have six hydrangeas to be planted but they arrived fully leafed out so I am hauling them in at night when it gets below freezing along with the five roses. They are keeping each other company in a bulb crate for the time being. Unless I am crazy, I do believe the twiggery is about planted to capacity. If I succumb to buying more woodies, they will have to go somewhere else.

Drone shot of the twiggery. The grey stripes are the plants that got planted last spring. Where you see brown earth is what Garth did, and this was removing tree roots, rocks and regrading. At the top on the right are the crabapples and the 16 lilacs, two rows worth plus two. Out of view on the left is the regraded bank of the pond to the east and south. It is amazing. The first bed on the left is for two perennials that really like to run so they will contained in their box, and the next bed was tilled today and that is for the hydrangeas that will go in when the rest of the farm leafs out. That is the major project of this year in a nutshell.

Besides all of the hard yakka, I did have some fun playing with flowers. I didn’t sell out on Saturday at FlagLeaf so I had some flowers to play with.

This is called a mash up of colors and flowers. I used what I had. Tulips on the left from Friday, the hyacinths from the week before as well as the tulips on the right. A few of the flowers I forced just cause, and the greenery is all at least a week old. Not my best, but still, color.

Yesterday I created this with the first of the outside flowers.

I think that is about it for last week. This coming week is more of the same, just different. The weather is supposed to be good, I hear rain is in the forecast, fingers crossed.

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

And the Boxes Keep Coming

‘Tis spring, and what happens in the early spring? All the plants that I have ordered through the long cold winter are starting to rock in. On Wednesday two boxes of roses arrived and are waiting planting. Thursday 2 boxes from FEDCO arrived holding 35 bare root trees and shrubs, that I managed to get into the ground yesterday. It is a good thing Garth finished up when he did on my last? clearing project. On Friday the box with the chrysanthemum cuttings arrived and they got potted up Saturday morning. This week coming the 16? lilacs I ordered are arriving and another order of shrubs has been shipped. Oh, and all the perennials that I have ordered have also been shipped. It will be a busy week planting. Hopefully the weather will cooperate. Oh, and snow is in the forecast for Tuesday to make it more fun to be outside.

Every flower that was harvested last Thursday sold, and if I had more to harvest they probably would have sold as well. I think everyone is needing color and happiness right now. Don’t worry, there are still tulips to be had in the coming weeks, just no more hyacinths.

Speaking of tulips… if you look closely, really closely, you will see the tips of the tulips poking out of the bark mulch.

That is very exciting and a big phew…I think I stress more about tulips than I do any other crop I grow. Probably because they are such an investment of dollars, time and energy. They are such a treat at this time of year.

I am sure you are all asking what I am going to do with my time this week, besides planting 20 shrubs and I have no idea how many perennials. Wait, I think it is 90 perennials that will have to go in this weeks as well. Well… I have a greenhouse of seedlings that are ready to go and be planted in the tunnel.

They will also be joined by the last planting of ranunculus and anemone. This planting will wait until at least Thursday because the lows for Wednesday morning will be 18 degrees. That calls for two layers of frost cloth for protection.

Meanwhile, under the benches I have narcissus from last year’s crates that I wintered outside and hauled in when they were un-frozen. I had hoped they would beat the field grown narcissus in bloom time and that just might be the case..

So on this long rambling note, I will leave you with our Easter wishes from Lottarock.

Until next week, Allie. I dream of flowers, sunshine during the day, rain at night and a few more hours in a day.