Phew, it’s hot, and dry. I feel as though I am back in Australia these days with these temps and dry. But here I am, sitting under the ceiling fans that are going full bore planning my week on how to stay cool.
It is best to water the gardens and to harvest first up in the day so I try to be out with my harvest buckets by 6:00, while the gardens are still in the shade of the trees and the tool shed. The plants go into a wilt like the flower farmer by 11 in the morning. They have water, it is just with this intense sun because there aren’t any clouds and it is just that they are respiring faster than they can take the water up. As soon as they are back in the shade they look better. Kinda like me.
I think I have harvested the last of the sweet peas for the season. I have two buckets of them in the cooler, but they don’t like this heat and all and I think it is the end of this year’s crop. I would suggest that if you want some, better get them soon. The ones in the cooler are really looking good and I am finding they are lasting about 4 days in the vase which is good for sweet peas.
Flowers are rocking in like crazy and in any color combination you could want. Just look at last week’s floral display.
The dahlias are budding up and I figure soon they will also be added to the floral bench. As I say, the flowers are always in transition, one flower exits for the season, and another quickly fills in the ranks. That is what keeps it interesting about being a local flower grower, flowers truly have a season.
With this heat, the flowers are having a hard go of it. Take them home in the go cups of water, recut the stems and put them in cool water with the little packets of flower food. Keep the flowers out of the sun, and repeat this process every few days to keep your flowers looking their best longer. As I said, now is the season of the so called dirty flowers. These are the flowers that make your water scummy in just a matter of days. Zinnias, rudbeckia, celsoia, sunflowers and others are all guilty of this. If you run out of little magic flower powder, just add a couple of drops of bleach to your flower water and that will help tremendously.
So, I am going to go for a swim, but I thought you would like this drone shot that Steve took last week of the flower garden. I must say, I am pretty proud of it.
Until next week, your wilted flower farmer, Allie