Author: Allie

Although the days are getting shorter and the flowers aren’t quite as needy, there is still lots happening here at the farm. Just about every flower that I have is in bloom right now, and looking good to boot! Let me start at the front right row and go from there. Cosmos, blooming, marigolds and nicotiana all blooming. Next row, strawflowers, asters, scabiosia and cleome, all blooming, and so on and so forth. You get the idea, I have a lot of flowers blooming.

Most normal flower growers would never have flowers blooming in their fields, I know I shouldn’t, but if I haven’t cut it, and I have plenty to cut from, I am leaving it for the bees, and let me tell you I have some very happy bees right now. The garden is humming with their excitement. Don’t fret though, there are plenty of flowers for you all as well. I just want to make everyone and everything happy. I am not happy though sharing my flowers with the Japanese beetles. Come on birds, there is plenty for you in this garden as well.

I wish it would rain. I have a bunch of seedlings from the old vegetable garden that I want to move into the flower garden, and some transplanting to do so the question is…do I take the risk and do it by the end of the month? Or do I keep my fingers crossed and hope for the late summer fall rains to help me out. I need to get them moved soon so they can get established before winter sets in. I know, I know, that is months away, but things like this have to be planned for.

As I am typing this I am looking at the vase of sunflowers that came out of the sign last Friday. Waste not, want not. Yes, I recycle my flowers. That water in that vase is skanky! Does it need changing! Actually not only does the water need changing, but I should also clean the vase. You know the saying is that your flowers want clean water to drink as well as you do, so if you wouldn’t want to drink the water in your vase or your flower buckets, neither would they.

Here are some flowers of the week….

I grow the talum for the little red berries, but I am going to try using the flowers and some of the very chartreuse foliage because it looks so cool. I will have to experiment.

My final note tonight is this…because I am such a space cadet most evenings and I can’t remember to send out the newsletter the night before flower day I have decided not to. If I have any important changes to tell you I will let you know, like time changes later in the season, but for now, I am going to give your inbox a break from me, and my sent box a break. Rest assured, I will be open, without fail on Tuesdays from 2-6 and
Fridays from 9-3, until further notice.

Until next week, Allie

Here we are in Mid August, and the flowers just keep coming on. New varieties of flowers almost every two weeks and that is what keeps it all so interesting, all the different varieties of flowers that I can offer you.

The extreme heat and humidity of the last few weeks wasn’t good for anything. Your flower grower wasn’t happy, the dogs weren’t happy, and the flowers weren’t happy one bit. The strong scattered storms only dumped torrents of water, good for the rain tanks, not good for much else. The cosmos took a hit so most of the have been cut back, but cosmos really aren’t wind stable. They break with just the slightest breeze even if the are staked up. The rain gutter on the tank I use for filling the water buckets and washing the buckets has come unattached, which Steve has fixed but I realize that the down pipe is not where it should be so I just have to climb up and reattach it. Speaking of rain tanks. Look what I purchased.

This tank holds 1550 gallons of water. It will be placed behind the new, and still unfinished garage and the roof on the right side will fill the tank. We have a few details to work out, but we will be ready for next year’s growing season. It may not be used for the flowers, but it will give me water to get the fruit trees, blueberries, grapes and all the trees and shrubs decent water during the growing season if the weather gods aren’t kind to us. Very excited about this believe you me.

You must be wondering by now what flowers are available. There are plenty for you all to choose from. Zinnias, ageratum, scabiosia, celosia, dahlias, asters, marigolds, sunflowers, rudbeckia and so much more. There is also lots of aromatic and colorful filler to round out each bouquet. Oh, and the peacock orchids are setting bud so stems of those will be available as well!

I was asked on Friday now much longer will I have flowers and I would say through mid October so that is exciting. Then clean up and I start planting for February tulips! It is never ending here at Lottarock.

I have had requests this year about doing flowers to be given as gifts, small dinner parties and little events. I have done them happily, so now I am putting this out there for you all. Can’t believe I am doing this. If I have enough notice, I will create for you. NO WEDDINGS though. Dinner parties, birthdays, concerts all can be done. All I ask is a day or two of notice. If you need the flowers on days that I am not open, I will do them and put them in the spare fridge for you and they can either be deducted from your card, or they can be paid for separately. Just saying that I am not a floral designer, but will do my best. If you have any questions, just shoot me an email. I do enjoy the creative part of flowers as well so we will see how this goes.

I leave you with the shed door bouquet, made out of stems that are too short. I kinda like it.

Until next week. Allie

We have now entered August, and boy does it feel like it. Hot, humid and dry. Dry as a bone in the outback. The good news, we had .85″ of rain today. Not nearly enough, but I won’t have to water the garden tonight. I am trying to get myself into the difficult mindset of running the irrigation in the evening, hoping that the flowers will have a longer time to take up the water before the sun hits them. I have been watering at six in the morning but I am going to try to remember to do it after evening chores at six at night. One wouldn’t think that this would be difficult but apparently it is for me. I am hoping that it will make a difference with the flowers.

I am not really sure what all the fuss is for flower growers to grow cosmos. Yes, they are a lovely pink, red, seashell form, doubles etc, but the vase life is short, or the flower life is short and they get tangled up in everything. One could say the same about the flowers of the sweet pea, but at least with the sweet peas you are wooed with the intoxicating aroma. Cosmos, bah. Next year they will be relegated to the verges for the bees, but not in the flower garden per se. If I need a quick filler for something I will have them on hand but for my mixed bouquets, bah. I am in love with the nicotiana that I am growing now and might try a few different colors to round things out.

You know how I say that flowers have their season? Well, the sweet peas are out, the perennial scabiosia that I love, love, love is about down, but the zinnias are doing well, the rudbeckia is out of this world. In fact, next year maybe I will plant only half of the sunflowers. I love the rudbeckia so much more, and I get about the same color schemes. I mean, look at this Rudbeckia.

The fillers are coming into their own. I don’t know why they take half the summer to be able to pick, but they are so worth the wait. If I can make a bouquet smell as delicious as it looks I am a happy flower farmer. The foliage of the Hibiscus mahogany, the basils, the mints, the various amaranths, are all good in my book. Like I have said before, if you want unusual, I will grow it.

Another flower I am having fun with this year, and I can’t believe I am saying this, is the cleome, or spider flower. Yes, it is thorny, and yes, it doesn’t not have a pleasant aroma, but it holds up well and gives a bouquet some…what is the word I am looking for?…Look at these florets? unfolding…

So, What else is happening? The dahlias are coming into bloom. Slowly, but I should have a few stems to offer this week, with more on the way.

This is very exciting and I have the old standbys as well as a bunch of new varieties this year. But also, besides the dahlias coming in, the first of the annual asters are starting to flower. Soon, there will be buckets of asters.

So. I leave you with this thought. Am I growing too many flowers? Nah. I hope. It is just high summer and everyone just wants to stay cool and not think about flowers. Sigh.

Until next week. Your flower girl. Allie

Welcome.

How on earth did this happen? We are in the thick of summer and you can tell by the flowers on offer. The true summer flowers are here, the zinnias, cosmos, sunflowers, rudbeckia, lisianthis, yup, all the summer flowers and the summer bugs that go along with them. Every morning is started with watering, harvesting and squashing bugs. It’s a great way to start the day I tell you.

As I have said, when one flower exits, another variety of flower steps up to the plate to add beauty. The sweet peas are sadly gone until next year. Last week’s heat wave did them in as I had feared it would. So the sweet peas are gone, but the dahlias have started. Slowly for sure, but this next week’s heat should push them right along.

So other than watering, harvesting and squishing bugs, there is’t much to report. I should be starting perennials like soon, like last month, but here we are. August tomorrow. I better get cracking. I have weeded the perennial area of the cutting garden and have gotten most of it mulched, which is quite the task, I have added more netting and tied up more rows to try to keep the stems straighter and not quite so arty farty. I like them that way but not everyone does. Tuesday morning is still fertilizer day, and farm day and I have been harvesting flowers to dry. Have no idea what I am going to do with them yet….time will tell. If you have any ideas, let me know.

I will leave you to enjoy the rest of the weekend. Stay cool and hydrated, the flowers and I will also do so. Until next week. Allie

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

Wow, is it dry. What a difference from last year when we were getting good rain to make up for the previous year. Now? I would love some rain. A week of a nice soaking rain would be oh so lovely. Thankfully all the flower beds are on drip irrigation and everything is well mulched, but still, it is dry. I am also grateful that I have rain tanks scattered around the property because that water is going to be needed. I have now decided to let the high tunnel go. Most of the crops have been harvested from there and they did a marvelous job bridging the seasons for me, but now, maybe a week or two earlier than I would have liked, I am stopping their water. This only affects the Icelandic poppies as a crop but I need the water elsewhere. Instead I will be harvesting seed to save, harvesting the last of the ranunculus and anemones to save for next year and redesigning the entire high tunnel to make more growing space for early spring flowers. Yippee!

The peony season has also just ended. I made myself a lovely bouquet with the last of the blooms. I made the bouquet last Tuesday and it is still looking beautiful on the coffee table and that makes me happy.

As we know, one flower exits, and another quickly takes its place. The sweet peas are going gang busters. I just love burying my nose in a bunch and inhaling. It is such a seductive perfume and when I walk by the rows in the evening the perfume just wafts around me.

Also coming in strong are the rudbeckias and the snapdragons.

There are plenty of flowers to chose from that is for sure. I love growing the unusual, not lots of them because they are so unusual, but they add such interest and sometimes drama to a bouquet, but I also grow many of the usual flowers as well to round out the selection.

Now that the typical hot weather is here, here are some tips to keeping your flowers lasting longer. Take your flowers home in the go cups and don’t let them sit in the hot car. When you get home, recut the stems, add the flower food if I remembered to give it to you, and yes, It does make a difference. Put the flowers in cool water and keep them out of the sun. Change your vases water every few days, and if you have run out of flower food just add a small splash of chlorox to the water to prevent scummy stems. The best flowers of the summer are known as the dirty flowers and they will turn scummy quickly if given the chance so the flower food helps as does the chlorox.

I am almost done here. I just want to remind you that the flower shed hours are now Tuesdays from 2-6 and Fridays from 9-2. If you haven’t been here yet, we are at 76 Stoddard Rd, Hancock and there is a sign at the end of the driveway when we are open. Bring a friend as well, the more the merrier.

So. I’m done now. Until next week. Flowers Rock on at Lottarock! Allie

It is funny, I was doing an instagram post last Friday for the flowers I was taking to the Hancock Market and I looked at the bunches of flowers ready to go and said, “these are not your typical flower bouquets.” The flowers I grow are not typical for the most part, but they are the flowers that I like to grow and use. The Eremurus (Foxtail lily), Kniphofia (red hot poker), the sweet peas (that I wasn’t going to grow), and other really cool plants will be available in the flower shed this year. I like the challenge of growing the odd flowers, I like the challenge of making a bouquet using some of these flowers and I hope you enjoy them as well. And I want to thank you for allowing me to follow my passion.

Besides the unusuals, the usuals are starting to rock in. The snapdragons, rudbeckia, and zinnias are rocking in, the filler is looking good and there are plenty of flowers. I have been harvesting buckets of sweet peas, I still have peonies, well, you can tell from this what is being harvested at the moment.

I have sown cover crop onto the two new beds that I will hopefully be putting into production this fall with more peonies, which apparently I can’t have enough of, and bearded iris. The bed inside the garden fence has germinated, but I keep finding weird places whee the buckwheat is germinating. Thank you chipmunks. The bed outside the fence is being enjoyed by the free ranging guinea birds. They have both germinated but I am no longer watering them because I must save my water for the flowers, so those beds will be what they will be. Any cover crop is good I tell myself.

The dahlias have had their first course of coralling. I am trying a new method this year. Not happy with it right now, so I will redo it on Tuesday so it will work better for me.

I have been told on numerous occasions over the last few seasons of the open flower shed that “I am not good at arranging or picking out the correct flowers that go together” and as I said on Friday, It is what makes you happy. It is not a contest, and you are not being judged. It is what ever makes you happy, and you being happy with local, flowers, that fills me with great joy. Thank you.

Until next week. Allie

Here we are, the night before the 4th of July, summer is more than half over and I feel as though we are just getting started. The spring flowers are done, until October then the tulips come to be planted. The later spring flowers are done, so so long ranucnulus and anemones. Yes, I still have peonies but soon they will be gone and then, the summer flowers will be here. Yes, the summer flowers. That means cosmos, zinnias, marigolds, asters, dahlias and so much more. So much more that I can’t even remember what I have planted. Oh, and sunflowers. Lots of sunflowers.

The last of this summer’s flowers seeds have been sown and in the next week they will be planted out into the garden. If I were to want more biannuals and perennials those seeds will have to be planted in the next few weeks so they can go into the garden by September. It is so interesting because some days I can barely get out of my own way, but yet to keep up with flower production I need to think at least, and that is truly at least six months ahead, really I should be thinking a year in advance. I do my best.

All of the anemones and ranunculus that were grown in crates have been taken out and are now drying off before storing them for the next season. The ones that were planted out into the high tunnel and now getting dried off and sometime this month they will be dug up, cleaned and stored until planting in February. Soon the high tunnel will be empty like the greenhouse. All those beds in the high tunnel are going to be rebuilt, so I have more space to grow those cool flowers that were an important segue from spring to summer. I am learning on how to bridge the gap so there will always be flowers from mid February until mid October when the last killing frost ends it all. I take a breath, plant the tulips and it all starts all over again. Aren’t I lucky to be able to grow all these flowers for my/our enjoyment. I am having a blast and I hope you are as well. In case you don’t know….I love flowers.

I will now let you enjoy the fireworks of the 4th, but I do have to leave you with two photos of last week’s harvest, or part of last week’s harvest anyway. I can not thank you enough for for being part of this floral adventure with me.

So until next week, I leave you with visions for floral bouquets! Allie

Welcome summer! With spring’s chilly exit last weekend the summer temperatures are here, and that means goodbye to the spring flowers, the tulips, anemone and ranunculus. Hello Icelandic poppies, corncockle, clarkia, bachelor buttons and many perennials. Soon they will be gone and the summer annuals will be here. What makes flower farming so interesting is that every week there is something different in the offerings, and sometimes a special floral treat. It can be a couple of stems of delphinium, a stem or two of the stately foxtail lily, bundles of lavender. One just never knows.

The lovely, dainty sweet peas are here. Yes, the ones I wasn’t going to grow. They will be offered in bundles mixed with other dainty flowers to round out the bouquet. Yes, I know that they are short lived in the vase, maybe 4 days, but honestly, how can one pass up on the beauty and the perfume? Makes me swoon. This is when you get to use all the little vases you were wondering why you were keeping. It is for the sweet peas.

I still have peonies to offer. I only recut and condition what I think I can sell on open flower shed days. I don’t want to say that I am parsimonious with them, but I don’t want their beauty to go to waste. I should have them to offer until mid July and they should last in your vase for at least five days.

More sunflowers are being planted for another week or two yet and the dahlias have all emerged and some have even had their first pinch. Ranunculus corms are being dug up, washed and dried to be stored for next early spring planting, and that includes the anemones as well. Crates are being emptied and on the next wicked hot couple of days they will all be disinfected for the next batch of tulips in October and so on and so forth. Everything is looking good I think and I am staying our of mischief. Well except I am going deep down the peony selection hole. I think I can fit another 12 plants in….then thinking about adding bearded iris to the mix to round out the offerings. I know, Call me crazy.

I leave you with these images to see what the possibilities are. I think it is worse than a candy shop.

As you can see, lots of very cool flowers to be had.

So until next week, may you dream of the floral bouquets that you can create. Allie

On Tuesday it will be the summer solstice and summer will have officially arrived, and I can almost say, almost, say that the summer flowers aren’t far behind. Hard to believe that soon we will be halfway through the year, and flowers will still be available until October 15th. Well that really depends on Mother Nature, and seeing that I am rugged up in a heavy wool jumper who knows what she will have in store for us. But, wait until you see what I have in store for you this week coming. Have I got some beauties.

The peonies are almost done being harvested but have no fear, I have them all stored safely in the cooler so before each flower shed day I will have new ones available that will be recut and conditioned for you. So here is the question. Are you ready? Is it crazy for me to want to plant more peonies? I have the space. I feel as though I need more varieties, not that the ones I have are boring by any stretch, but I would like to mix it up some more. Am I crazy? What do you all think? If I get more this fall, I won’t be able to really harvest from them for 2 years and I will be…don’t go there Kerwin. It’s flowers. How can I say no to flowers? I am thinking about adding iris this fall as well. Not tons, just a few varieties, just to add more floral interest for you all.

All the dahlias are planted and all but a few are sprouted so those rows the irrigation is now on. The two flats of sunflowers that I was hardening off before planting the chimpmunks enjoyed, so only about half of those were planted out today. More will go in by the end of this week, then one or two more sunflower sowings and everything will be planted. Now is time to start seeding next years perennials and bi-annuals so they will be ready for next year. More foxglove, astrantia, campanula, geum. Hmmmm, I might be running out of space soon…

I am changing the open flower shed hours. Tuesdays will now be from 2-6 and Fridays will stay the same at 9-2. I think that this will be easier for everyone to remember, including me. I was having the hardest time with Tuesdays hours in my mind. I hope that this change will make it easier for you to come and visit, and for me to remember. I am generally here anyway so why not?

As always, I look forward to seeing you. I miss you when you don’t come to visit. It’s a floral social fix for me as well…sounds corny, but true. Your enthusiasm for what I do makes it so much more. In so many ways.

So. Until next week. Allie