Month: October 2026

What at Busy Week!

It’s the last Sunday of October and the rush is on. I am not terribly worried that most important items on the to-do list won’t get done because I am ticking them off like a crazy person, but I am worried that all the niddly little things won’t get done because I am running out of steam.

With the now blacked dahlias from the last Saturday freeze, I cut back and dug the dahlias on Wednesday. All of them. All 54 varieties are now dug and in crates in my cave curing before I can ge them put away for the winter. There is no rush now because they are safe, but what a job that was. I couldn’t move much that night.

Then… I got notice that the tulips were finally shipped, only two weeks later than requested.

Thursday I dug and moved 30 peonies into their new bed as well as stowing the netting and stakes in the shed.

Friday we spent the morning doing my most dreaded job, putting away the irrigation lines. Ugh. Steve helped me with it this year and that made all the difference in the world. It took us only a half day instead a full day of just pure angst. He’s the best.

Then the long awaited tulips arrive.

So yesterday I crated up all said tulips. All 48 crates, all neatly labeled and stacked in the cooler now, chillin’ for 14 weeks before I can start growing them on. Seems like a long time I know, but by mid January I start pulling them for winter color! Yay

I started crating at 9:00 in the morning, and finished at 4:30 in the afternoon. Do I need to say I could hardly move?

So while we wait for spring tulips (only four months away) I still have some stunning chrysanthemums to be had.

I am harvesting these beauties daily it seems. If you are interested in a beautiful bouquet just let me know and I will have one for you. You can email me at flowersatlottarock@gmail.com. or text me. 603-933-2017.

My treat to myself is that I mostly took today off. I did my floral zoom class which was a lot of fun, and this is what I created.

On deck for this week coming? Get the daffs that I forced into the ground, along with the Dutch iris, plant the box of narcissus planted around the crabapples and lilacs in the twiggery, continue cleaning up the cutting garden and then if they are dry enough, start to tackle the dahlias, getting them ready for their winter hibernation. Dare I say, another busy week.

So I have to leave you with this photo taken this morning. Look what is blooming on the edge of my compost pile.

Talk about hardy souls. I should dig them out and keep them for hardiness, but at the same time I want to see how long they go for. I don’t know it they are still going because they are on the edge of the woods and sheltered, the heat from the compost of just hardy plants but damn they make me smile.

So, until next week, Allie. I will still be dreaming of flowers, but looking forward to a break come mid November? Fingers crossed.

Happy Frostmass!

And that my friends is a wrap for 2026. Well, not quite, because the mums are still coming in, but as far as the summer flowers and all the other flowers go, the season in over. I’m ready, to be honest. Not done by any stretch of the imagination, but getting closer.

The forecast did predict a freeze, not just a frost, but a freeze, and we bottomed out at 26 degrees F. This is early this morning…

Then as the sun hit the plants, we go to this…

As I went to cover the mums again just now for tonight’s lows the plants are giving off that rotting smell already. It’s kinda pleasant smell if you’re not overwhelmed by it.

The chrysanthemums in the tunnel and under the row cover seem to have come through pretty well. The evenings will all be around freezing but nothing big again till next weekend I think.

I am still waiting for the forcing tulips to arrive. I was hoping to have them crated up by now but patience. It really comes down to no tulips for Valentine’s Day, but hopefully before March? I am hoping they arrive this week. I have gotten the invoice, just no tulips. That’s OK, I still have plenty of things to do, I just want to get them crated and in the cooler so you all will have them earlier. Stay tuned.

Now that we have had our freeze, garden clean up begins in earnest. I plan on starting at the back, and work my way forward, after I do the dahlias. I have to at least get the short row cut and dug so I can get some of the peonies dug and moved. One move is always dependent on another move.

I did have a chance to play with flowers on Friday. My second time in two months? I have yet to post these on instagram, so you get the first look at.

Before the freeze, yesterday afternoon I went out and harvested the last of the dahlias for the year. I combined them with the last of the dahlias with Petals_603, and home_place-farm to combine for our last sale.

So. I do still have flowers, just not for an open shed day, so if you are interested, just reach out and I will make it happen.

I know, it’s sad, but also quite joyful to be running out of flowers. don’t worry, 2027 is looking equally abundant in flowers.

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

What an October so Far

The foliage has, or is, spectacular this year, the best we have had in years. We are officially no longer in drought, the flowers are still cranking out with no frost in sight for at least another five days and I got an all clear with the eye doctor. I can officially go back to gardening! And that my flower friends is the best news ever! That news comes at a particularly good time because as you know, October ramps up in what need to get done in the garden. Tulips, digging dahlias, harvesting mums, cleaning up the beds and hopefully prepping them for spring, and trying to eradicate the stink’n voles. Like I said, a very busy number of weeks ahead.

The dahlias are still cranking out amazing blooms. Maybe not as quickly as earlier in their season, but still lots of blooms, and check out these stunners.

The frost just needs to hold off just a little bit longer. Please. I have flowers going out at the end of the week for a wedding.

The chrysanthemums are coming on. Not as fast as I would like, but they are coming along. The first crates of tulip bulbs have been delivered and they are safely tucked in the cooler. Now that is a great story. With the arrival of the bulbs I wanted to lower the temp of the cooler to 45, not that it is 100 % necessary with the field grown tulips, but we did it anyway. Or tried to. The air conditioner that we had been nursing along for over a year decided it didn’t want to go that low. Luckily, I had a back up from when I thought it was going to crap out two years ago. So with my brother Charlie’s help, we were able to swap out the old, and put in the new and we are ready for the next shipment of tulips which should be really soon now. I figure it will all work out timing wise and not to sweat it. Out of my control.

While I am waiting for the frost, or really the freeze, I will resume weeding and organizing the cutting garden for next year, now that I m allowed to. Once the freeze happens the dahlias will get cut down and lifted, then I can move the peonies that are too crowded into their new place, then organize the dahlias and get them into storage, plant the tulips that are being forced and get ready for spring. I am hoping to get the garden finished up by mid November. Can I do it? Damn will try to.

I have done my first flower bouquet since my detached retina two months ago. I think it has turned out well. It was for a birthday celebration. And I celebrated that I felt confident enough to pull it off.

So there you have it. My one and only creation in the last two months.

The flower shed will be open on Friday… not sure for how much longer, but i will let you know in the newsletter or here, which ever happens first. I can still do special orders for a bit longer, probably into early November? We will see what the flower gods decree.

I will pass this off to Steve for proofreading and his little ditty. Until next week.

Allie. I dream of flowers, do you?

Here we are. October

I don’t know which season is crazier. Spring, where everything bursts on the scene, or Fall, where deadlines loom. Right now, I am feeling the rush of deadlines. Crazy I know. So bring it on.

The eight Cotinus quart pots arrived last week. October 1 to be exact. Are they planted? Nope, I have to do some serious jiggering in the twiggery. Where I was going to put them I decided not to, so now I have to create a new row, but before I create a new row, I have to shift some plants, and I need help with this project. Cue in Steve. It is a bigger project than a one eyed farmer can do right now. Hopefully it will be done this week. Because….

The first shipment of tulips arrives tomorrow. Unfortunately not the ones that get forced but the in ground ones, so they will just be stored in the cooler until I am ready for them. The forcing tulips hopefully will be here in another week so I can get them planted up so I will have tulips for Valentine’s day. If not, well, it would be the following week in February. I have cleaned all the crates that I will need for the forcing tulips and I think I am ready. Just waiting.

Meanwhile, a frost is in the forecast for Wednesday morning, so the next two days will be spent prepping for that. I do have elevation helping me, but I still have to be prepared. Getting the frost cloth out to protect the chrysanthemums, harvesting everything that is worth harvesting and seriously hoping for the best because I have some big flower orders going out in the next two weeks.

To be perfectly honest, this flower farmer is ready for the season to end. Well, sorta. I’m tired and my @$^*(! eye isn’t helping matters.

Here I am labeling the dahlias, on my hands and knees

because I really am not supposed to be upside down yet. I think I did OK. I think I only have two or three that are questionable, so they are labeled, unknown A,B and C. It was a beautiful day and it has to get done before the freeze turns everything to a black mush. Then I have absolutely no idea what is what. By they way, they are still looking absolutely beautiful.

Flowers operate on their own schedule, not mine so while I am madly waiting for my chrysanthemums to flowers, they are just taking their sweet time. In my opinion. But here is what I do have showing color and looking good.

Apparently I need to work better on my labeling system. I say this every year, and yet every year I wonder what I have. Ugh.

I still have beautiful flowers, the shed will continue to be open on Fridays until it isn’t. That date has yet to be determined. I am going to send this off to Steve and hopefully he will make sense of it.

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