Month: May 2026

May’s Mid Point, Week 21

I am not quite sure how we have gotten to mid May already, nor our crazy temperature fluctuations.. I mean really? Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday we were getting a much, much needed rain, and we had a fire in the wood stove each day because it never got to 50 degrees. Today, marvelously sunny, breezy and and unreal 80 degrees! Tuesday is to be 90! WTF!

Needless to say farmers are pulling their hair out. These swings are very hard on the plants, especially the ones that go out so small. I am keeping my eyes on the last batch of tulips left in the ground. As soon as they start to show color they are getting pulled. They will all be out of the garden by Tuesday for sure, if not tomorrow. That space will then be turned over to the chrysanthemums that are going to be grown in crates.

You know how I keep saying flower farming keeps you on your toes? Well here are the first anemones.

Now these are early. Like a month early for the greenhouse, and two months early for the tunnel. I have no idea what is going on. It should take three months from planting to bloom. the greenhouse ones were planted out the end of March. The tunnel ones on the right not until mid April and I thought they were going to be a total loss because of the heat. Five days of temperatures in the eighties and they start to go dormant. It looks as though I will have a handful of anemones at the shed on Friday. The ranunculus? Who the heck knows. the pansies are also starting to bloom, but I was sorta expecting that.

I was going to start the Tuesday flower shed this week but seeing the temperatures, the flowers will just blow wide open so I am going to wait until the 26th to start Tuesdays. Mark your calendars, and I will remind you.

I have to say I think the farm is at its most beautiful right now. The crab apples are blooming, as well as the magnolias, lilacs, narcissus and soon the bluebells and camassia, (what the stink’n voles haven’t destroyed). If you come to get flowers please wander around and enjoy the beauty.

I have a busy week ahead of me. Flipping beds, planting out the last of the sweet peas I”m not growing, potting up the chrysanthemums that was on the list two weeks ago, starting to get the annual beds ready for planting, oh yes, I have plenty to do.

I am going to pass this over to Steve, but before I go, here is last week’s tulips of choice and I was able to get a bunch for myself and OMG! They are stunning! Least I think so.

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

Happy Mothers Day!

I hope all you mothers out there were treated with fresh, local farm grown flowers for your day of appreciation, if not, I still hope you had a magnificent day.

I was having a creative day today. I was asked to assist in a floral install at the Inn at Hancock. I am glad we did a prototype on Thursday because it got the brain cells churning so this morning’s installation would go smoothly. We had left the framework in place from Thursday so this morning, starting at 6:00 all we had to do was flesh it out. I think all three of us were pretty chuffed at the finished creation.

If you can zoom in on it you will see it better. I am especially proud because every lovely stem was grown here at the farm. All of the forsythia, kiwi, spirea, tulips and narcissus came from Lottarock.

Meanwhile, while I am not being creative I am busy on the farm. No watering this week which is huge! I did get more hardy annual planting done before the rain and of course harvesting more tulips and narcissus. The cooler is getting full again!

The flowers in the tunnel are looking good. I do need to fertilize tomorrow morning, which I have to do before it warms up and the wasps take over. It is a point of contention having to share growing space with wasps. And speaking of sharing space, the robin is back on the nest in the flower shed. I just let her know that we have to share the space on Fridays during the open flower shed.

I do understand that my open flower shed days don’t fit everyone’s time frame but you can always message me to say that you need flowers on a certain day and I will do my best to accommodate but the flowers shed days do work best for me, and the weekends are mine. Soon, soon Tuesdays will be open, just not yet. I will let you know when.

The farm is looking it’s spring finest, I must say, so when you drive in and out I hope you go slowly to enjoy the beauty. It certainly makes my heart swell.

My other creativness was last Thursday’s floral hostess gift. I haven’t posted it yet on Instagram but I will share it here because I can.

I must say I do love being creative when I have the time not to rush…Hah!

I hope you all have a fabulous week, Allie. I dream of flowers, oh you have no idea how I dream of flowers.

The Calendar Says…

The calendar says May 3 but it feels more like April 3, or even March 3, but it is May by the number of flowers that are blooming here at the farm. The orchard is looking beautiful with all the narcissus in bloom, the peaches in bloom, the grass that is slowly greening up, yes, it is a spring sight to behold. On the other had, it seems as though growth has just stalled a little bit. That is fine I guess. I much prefer a long slow spring than one that last a mere week.

The harvest of the field tulips has begun. Normally it seems that I just about harvest all 1500 tulips in a few days, but here we are, slowly harvesting and getting them into the cooler. My timing has been good this year. I have maybe 150-200 of the forced tulips remaining, then onto the field tulips. I think I have some beauties coming in for our enjoyment.

The narcissus are getting harvested, counted, name noted, wrapped and put into the cooler. I still have a few varieties that are just showing bud but most of them are now in the cooler. I try to harvest every morning so everything is at their best. And for the people out there that think narcissus/daffodils are just plain boring yellow flowers, you couldn’t be more wrong, I have some stunners out there waiting to be harvested.

The leujcocium will be ready this week, along with possibly the last of the fritillaria, but other spring bulbs are ready to take over in the love department. Ask any flower farmer what their favorite flower is and their answer will always be the flower that is blooming at that moment.

Everything is looking good and I am pleased. I feel as though I am on top of things, (for the moment I am sure). I am topping up quantities of perennials that the damn voles have eaten, I moved all the remaining camassia out of the garden and tucked them hither and yon. It will make harvesting a royal PIA, but at least I will have something to harvest. I have ordered another ten bareroot shrubs that should be here by the end of the month. Again to fill gaps (sure Allie). The forcing tulip order is in and confirmed, now I just have to get my field tulip order together along with more narcissus and other bulbs. One can never have too many flowers I say.

Somehow I ran out of time last week so I did not do a #windowframethursday, but…I did do table flowers and a large arrangement for the Music on Norway Pond Gala event last night. I think it came out well.

This week on deck is to start transplanting the rooted chrysanthemums into bulb crates and get them outside to grow on until there is space in the tunnel, once the cool annuals are out. The flower tetris never stops, believe me.

Many of you have asked about Tuesdays open flower shed. Not yet. I will certainly let you know, but I need to have enough variety of flowers to offer you, as well as volume to make that work. Believe me, I will let you know, and I will also put it in the newsletter. If you aren’t on the newsletter list, after you read this, scroll down, way down, and you will see where to sign up. I think, the newsletter is the second sign up.

I see that many people sending out newsletters etc. are stating that their piece was not written by AI. None of this is AI generated, nor will it ever be. I enjoy writing my weeklies far too much, and it is rare that I have nothing much to say.

So I will leave you with last week’s tulip offerings. Soon, there will be more.

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