Author: Allie

Here I was lamenting how cold spring was and bam! Summer. Oh, it isn’t pretty. I mean it is stunningly beautiful, but the cool flowers are not happy. Not one bit. I have pulled all the tulips and they are safely enjoying the AC in the bulb room, all tucked in for open flower shed days. There are lots of amazing varieties to be had, from french tulips to stunning doubles to just out of this world colors.

Because if this heat, for the moment I will be having open shed days underneath the garage. All you will have to do is follow the sign and the driveway. That space is alot cooler than the flower shed is and I am doing everything I can to keep the flowers looking beautiful for you. I guess for the moment we will be the flower garage.

The heat is causing other problems as well. The ranunculus and anemones that were starting to look sooooo good, don’t like this heat at all. I have tacked of some light frost cloth to try to break the greenhouse getting so extremely hot, but with the ambient air at 85 degrees, it ain’t much, but it is some. Keep your fingers crossed that they will keep going and not decide to start to go dormant. On the other hand, the plants in the high tunnel are now going gang busters with the heat so go figure. A plant and growing technique for every season.

I am behind in the sowing and the transplanting. I have been holding down the fort while Steve is away and just lets say that there aren’t enough hours in the day. Or there are enough hours, but I am good for only a portion of them. Up at 5:30, in the garden by 5:45 trying to beat the heat and collapsing by 9:30 and still not getting everything done. Oh well. It will all eventually get done. Or not. The good news is that the first of the Icelandic poppies are starting to bloom and they don’t seem to mind the heat so the flowers continue.

With the tulips all pulled I have let the dogs into the garden for rodent patrol, besides now tilling up the beds and aerating them, I have a very tired and dirty garden dog.

And I leave you with this weeks bouquet, with Mikey in repose. What a life.

Until next week. Allie

What a week! What a Day! But first. Happy Mothers Day to all, non mothers included because you too are important and vital to households giving love and support as well. I am a mother to all the critters on the farm, so therefor, I also celebrate. Even having a mimosa to celebrate my mother and my mother in laws life. Cheers ladies.

The tulips are rocking in fast and furious. If it is sunny and warm I am harvesting tulips, narcissus and anemone three times a day. If it is cloudy and cool, I can get away with just one harvest. Last Thursday I got in a minor panic. The bulb room hadn’t been set up with its new cooling system and I had tulips coming on like mad so my darling Steve hooked up the new aircon and we are good to go. And just in the nick of time because I needed the cooling space. Bless him. I knew I married him for something. Need I say, that the cooler is filling up nicely and smells like an intense florist shop. Yumm.

The tulips and narcissus are going strong, as are the anemones. The frittilaria are now being allowed to go to seed. The ranunculus are starting to come in as are the allium and leucojium (otherwise known as Giant Snowflake). Certainly in a week there will be more flowers in the offering. All dependent on Mother Nature of course, but exciting none of the less.

Yes, the anemone have little greenfly. Yes, they will stay there. They are doing no harm to the flower, the numbers are low and I prefer not to use any insecticides, even insecticidal soap because first they will ruin the flower faster than ever, and second, I really don’t want to use anything because of the ecosystem I am building here. If they are really bad I won’t sell them, If you want a perfect flower then you may not want to buy them, but those are our choices.

So I made a snap call last night to open the flower shed for Mothers Day, and thank you to everyone who came out. I had lots of lovely tulips and flowers to offer and it was such a beautiful day to travel to the farm.

The plants in the high tunnel, greenhouse and the garden are all looking good. Requiring a lot of water because of the wind whipping all the moisture out of everything but they are getting bigger. I can even see them from a few feet away now. Onward and upwards they say.

It looks like, for the time being because I have so many flowers, that the flower sheds hours will now include Tuesday afternoons from 3 to 6 as well as Fridays from 9 to 2. It might be a bit chaotic, but you are probably used to that by now with me. I look forward to seeing you.

I leave you with the photo of this weeks bouquet. Not my photo, but Steve’s.

Till next week. Allie

Holy Moly, here we are at May 1. I don’t know whether to be in a panic or excited. Doesn’t matter, it is the first of May, and things are a rock’n at Lottarock. Where do I begin? The anemones are requiring a daily harvest, the ranunculus are so close, oh so close to being harvestable and available, the narcissus are going gang busters and the tulips? Ah yes, there will be tulips available at the flower shed this Friday, especially if the rest of the week are days like this. OMG, what a day this is.

This mornings harvest. ‘Scuse the “model” holding them. But just look at those flowers!

In answer to your burning questions, yes, the spring flowers are rocking in here at Lottarock. I have been busy watering every day the wind is just whipping the moisture out of everything, my face and lips included. Where is my Burt’s Bees? People might look at me quizically when I say it is dry, but it is, trust me.

The summers annuals seeding is progressing nicely. This seasons perennials have been planted out, the older perennials are starting to look good, like something is happening anyway. The peonies, the next big exciting thing here at the farm, once we move on past the early spring flowers, are putting on some good growth. My days are busy, but that is good. It is keeping me out of mischief.

At this point I am going to keep the flower shed hours open just on Fridays from 9-2. But that is all up for change ’cause I can, and if I am overwhelmed with flowers, I might open on Tuesday afternoons, but that will have to wait and see.

I am leaving you with a photo of last week’s posey. Let’s see, anemones, fritillaria, narcissus, andromeda and pine. My next challenge is to make a bouquet a week, photograph it well (like Francis Palmer, have you see her work?) and record it for you. That way I am hopefully improving two skills. Flower composing and photography.

So. Until next week, may the weather be balmy with a slight breeze to keep the black flies away and some lovely evening showers to help the flowers grow. Allie

So here we go, round two is coming up. What does that mean? Well, we are all done with the forced tulips, I, or we have taken a week’s deep breath, and now we are beginning the next round, the in ground tulips. Just to let you know, they are just as stressful as the forced ones but in a different way. Now I am truly contending with Mother Nature, and she can be fickle.

The good news is, it looks as though I will have tulips available for Friday, but please pay attention to the newsletter on Thursday night. I WILL have some beautiful narcissus available so you don’t have to raid your garden for a beautiful bouquet. There are anemones, yes still with short stems but they look beautiful in a little bud vase, the frittilarria are now standing up straight and, if they are listening to my whisperings, they should be close to harvest.

There is something about little flowers. You have to stop and look at their beauty, or to be more eloquent, to pause to enjoy their beauty. They are not a stand up and look at me, and I will have plenty of those, but a small vase of these on your desk, by your bed, or maybe a favorite place, in the loo, where a lot of pause happens.

So what have I done on the “week off”? Well, I supplied flowers for a bridal shower, and also for the fundraiser of Music on Norway Pond. That was a lot of flowers, and I was harvesting and conditioning them about every hour trying to hurry them up. Let me just say that breathing warm air over them in impatience DOESN’T work. In the end it all worked out.

Meanwhile back at the flower farm, the sweet peas that I wasn’t going to grow are now planted in the garden. Steve, bless him, helped me, or let me help him, put up the sweet pea fence and planted commenced on Friday. I also go the second round of cool crops planted next to them.

So It goes like this, first sow the seeds. Upon germination, move the seed tray to under the lights until big enough to transplant into larger soil blocks. Leave the seed tray dirty room until big enough, or warm enough to be hardened off in the greenhouse. Then when that space gets to full, they get more hardened off outside the greenhouse waiting for planting in the garden beds and the greenhouse space is filled again. It should be set to music, the seedling shuffle.

I leave you with this, the next HUGE seeding starts this week, the perennials need to be planted out, the donkeys are having their teeth floated, which I think means they get ground down, and flowers will probably be harvested two or three times a day because it is that time of year. None of this is a complaint, by the way, just the way it is.

Until next week. Allie

Welcome to the flower shed.

Here we are, a beautiful spring day, if you like cold wind from the west and snow showers all day, but it is spring, and the flowers and I can’t be stopped. Slowed maybe, but not stopped.

Hurrah! The last of the forced tulips are done and sold. I want to thank everyone from the bottom of my heart for supporting Flowers at Lottarock for our tulip forcing endeavor. Yes, it was a huge learning curve, yes, the variety was limited, but next spring will be bigger and better I promise. I I will work on the stem topple. Even though the stems give away, for some reason, the flowers still looked amazing for a week either cut shorter, or just left as is in the bouquet it is very frustrating to have happen.

Now I am waiting for the field grown tulips to catch up. I have to supply flowers for two events this next weekend….so unless we got some really warm and really sunny days….I may not be open on Friday, but one never knows with Mother Nature. So wait for Thursday’s newsletter and I will let you know.

This is where we are at the moment….

If a flower farm has lots of flowers blooming in their field, they don’t have enough sales. Most flowers need to be harvested before they open. Once they are open, they are normally visited by pollinators, and the flowers can start to make seed and ten they start to die off. So the flowers need to be harvested when they are normally just showing color, that way they will last much longer for you, my flower lovers.

Seeding is progressing, the space shuffle is commencing, but I will be honest, it is awfully nice to be able to walk into the dirty room and not have to worry about where you are going, or the dogs tearing about and the tulips getting wrecked. They are out of there for the year. Phew and Yay!

So I leave you with this…the tulips are coming, as are the narcissus, the anemones are being harvested and the ranunculus are starting to throw visible buds, and I am a happy flower farmer.

Until next week. Allie

Welcome to the Flower shed!

It is amazing how some weeks it seems as though I have tons to report, and other weeks not quite as much. So much of it is weather dependent but…I do have things to report.

This week will be the last of the forced tulips! For me that is exciting because I will, hopefully, in the following week be able to offer something different. The in ground tulips are growing right along, especially with that good dose of rain we had the last few days. Now with some heat I am hoping to be able to start seeing flower buds and the wonderful variety starts. Variety is the spice of the flower grower’s life.
This flower grower anyway.

The narcissus are budding up quite nicely, and before we know it there will be beautiful mixed arrangements for offer. That’s right. Mixed flowers. The ranunculus are s-l-o-w-l-y budding, but the anemone are starting to get decent length stems, the narcissus are looking really good, I have some lovely flowering branches, so there is much to look forward to here at the flower shed in the next few weeks.

The high tunnel is full to the brim, the sweet peas that I wasn’t going to grow are out in the greenhouse getting ready for their first pinch, and the perennials have been moved outdoors because I needed room in the greenhouse. From this time of year until everything is planted out in June, it is a constant shuffle of plants from one space to another, but by some miracle it all seems to work.

For the time being, the shed hours will stay at Friday, from 9-2. As always, stayed tuned to the newsletter to find if there are any changes.

Remember this,
April showers, bring April flowers. Until next time. Allie

Welcome to the flower shed.

So here we are in April, finally. I can now pace the gardens and see things happening for real, rather than in my impatient imagination. So much is happening, where do I begin?

The high tunnel is almost completely planted with a wide array of cool flower seedlings. This is just a trial, but if I can grow cool flowers, (these are cool, but what cool flowers really mean is that they are flowers that actually do much better in the cooler temperatures, than the summer flowers). The plan is, get the rest of the ranunculus planted (these are the ones that I saved from last year) as well as the stock seedlings while I am waiting for the vet to come and do the donkeys’ teeth. By the end of Tuesday the high tunnel will be filled to the brim.

The sweet peas that I wan’t going to grow are geminating quite nicely and will hopefully be planted out by the middle of the month.

The in-ground tulips are really emerging from their winter nap, which is good because I am nearly our of the forced tulips. Yes, I will have some for the flower shed on Friday for sure, but there just might be a lull for a week or two, so stay tuned.

The anemones are starting to produce flowers, but only enough for my enjoyment at this point. However in a few weeks, fingers crossed, there will be enough for all to enjoy. The ranunculus are taking their sweet time but all things flower when they are ready, NOT when I am ready for them.

So while we wait….I hope you aren’t bored of tulips yet because I have 35 varieties of absolutely stunning tulips that are coming along. Doubles, parrots, magnificently colored singles. I for one can hardly wait. Speaking of tulips, I have already put the order in for next year. I know. I know. So to keep you filled in, the forced tulips that you have all been enjoying were pre-cooled bulbs, that were planted on December 23rd. They had already had their cold treatment onboard the ship on the way over. The problem is/was I could only order in lots of 500, which is why there were only four varieties to choose from when you came to get tulips. I have learned much this last year and will continue to learn this forcing tulip thing. I can’t say thank you enough for your patience and understanding, especially while I try to navigate Stem Topple. The bane of forced tulip growers, especially this one, but what I have learned is to really look at each bulb before planting for disease which seems to be part of the problem. This next order that I have just placed is going to be different. No pre-cooled, so I can have a much wider variety to offer. They will come in early October (fingers crossed), they will be crated up, and placed in the cooler for their cooling season. So, Week 14 I will have 4 varieties of 500. Week 15, the same but different’ varieties. Week 16 eight varieties of tulips so on and so forth. This way, none of us will be bored with the selection. So I have 3000 to force, and another 3500 in the ground. It will be beautiful, that is for sure. Timing and patience is everything. For now, it is exciting to see the bulb room empty of crates, but not of tulips.

There you have it. My flower filled life. I just love it, and love even more bringing beauty to as many as I can. Until next week, I will be dreaming tulips. Allie

Welcome to the flower shed

As I sit at the kitchen bench typing this and looking out the window there is white stuff coming out of the sky. Argh. Yes, I know that it is still March, but oh this time of year gets really hard to bear. So many beautiful days interspersed with some not so lovely days, like what is in our forecast. They have been saying for a few days now that a winter chill is coming our way, like two nights being down around 12F, and tomorrow is not even to get above freezing. Argh, no, double Argh. I have taken every precaution I can, the babies are all safely tucked in as best I can, and now I just have to keep my fingers crossed. Everything planted outside is supposed to be cold hardy, but this will be the test on just how cold hardy they will be.

Today was exciting because today I hauled out the last four crates of tulips out of the bulb room into the dirty room. So now timing and the weather is everything. The tulips in the ground are starting to emerge. Will we have warm enough weather for them to bloom by the time the last of the forced tulips are done? Only time will tell. To be honest, I am so ready to have a wider selection of tulips to have for you. Next year will be better with variety selection, it is quite the learning curve. Good thing I am not a control freak because some things like weather which dictates all is unpredictable. Thank you all for your patience while I learn this forcing thing.

The anemones are starting to flower. My guess is that it will be a few weeks yet before I will have enough for you all, and no matter how many times I check the progress of the ranunculus, I have yet to se any buds, but the plants look good and healthy so patience Kerwin, patience. These too will bloom.

Seeding is really starting to pick up, so once the tulips move out, the dirty room shuffle begins. Seeds on the heat mats, to off the heat mats but under lights to transplanting still under lights to…that all depends on space, weather and time. A true juggling act.

So I will leave you not of sugar plums dancing in your head but tulips in a champagne bucket because really, what could be better?

Until next time. Allie

So here we are at the first day of spring and it was beautiful. And now, the pace picks up for this flower farmer. Onward flowers.

It has been a busy busy week and this is still the slow time, or was the slow time, but things are starting to happen quickly now. The first batch of cool flower seedlings have been planted in the high tunnel, with another batch to follow in another week or two, and the second batch of anemones and ranunculus have been planted out, these in the high tunnel as well.

And a big surprise here, look at this everyone….

That bud is still a bit off from harvesting, seeing that it is only about two inches tall, but I hope within a few weeks I will be doing some serious harvesting.

The tulips that are planted out in the garden are starting to poke through, phew, because I have pulled my last full crates of bulbs this morning to go into the grow/dirty room. Hopefully, there will be continuous blooms, but with farming, timing is never a guarantee. I still have about 250 tulip bulbs in the bulb room yet to go, but they are only half crates. Also today Steve installed the air conditioner in the bulb room to keep the temperatures down. With the latest heat wave it was getting a little too hot in there for our comfort. (mine and the tulips).

I will keep it short tonight, but want to leave you with this photo of last Friday’s flower haul. I must say, I think it is beautiful.

Until next week. Allie

Here we are at Mid March and flower mode is ramping up. My winter break is over. Deep sigh. But things are a happe’n here at Lottarock. Yes, I still have tulips, many, many tulips, and yes, I should have flowers now all the way through till Frostmas in October, give or take a week or two. I was asked today when the ranunculus were going to come in…well, they are growing, I hope by early April? but it all depends on the weather. Does that mean you are tired of tulips? I sure hope not, I have many, many more coming on. Yes, the colors are getting boring, but in another month there will be tons of varieties. I am still learning the growing system, but I think I am getting there.

Over all, things are growing well. This week some of the remaining ranucnulus and anemones are going to be planted in the high tunnel. I am waiting for a slightly warmer week since I have to water the beds well before planting. They will be joined with some of the cool flowering plants, and then, in another two weeks I reckon the high tunnel will be completely planted out. This is all experimentation mind you, but if I can produce flowers early, by crappy I will.

I am gathering my tulip order for next year, but I probably said that last week, and I have figured out how to force a larger quantity next spring. The funny thing about gardening is that you are always planning the next crop nine to twelve months before the crop is ready to harvest. It is a bit different from vegetable gardening in that manner, the far in advance planning, and vegetables have far more succession plantings, but one thing is for sure, we are all at the mercy of the weather and light levels.

It has been working out for me to do the flower shed here now at Lottarock. The temperatures are better, the driveway is open and I can get so many more things done here at the farm during the open hours than I could when we were at Main St Cheese, so for the rest of the season, flowers will be available here at the farm. At the moment we will just have the flower shed open on Fridays and the hours will be from 9-2. Stay tuned to the newsletter for when the hours will change and Tuesday will be added.

So. Until next week. I think and dream flowers. All flowers, but especially tulips. Allie