Author: Allie

I feel like I am a kid again waiting for Christmas, except that I am waiting for my tulip delivery. Will it ever get here? Will the delivery person (Santa) find his way? The waiting is killing me. I have been good. Well, for me anyway. I am ready, my crates are all waiting for their delivery of beautiful tulip bulbs. The bulb room is ready, or will be when I need to to be, says Paul….please get here soon. I am besides myself. And we all know that patience is not one of my finer suits.

Besides waiting for my bulb delivery I really don’t have anything exciting to report. My seed order from Johny’s seems to be taking the scenic tour of God knows where. From Maine, it has taken over a week to be delivered, and each time I pull up the delivery schedule, it is delayed. If you guys who are hoping to get Christmas presents delivered before Easter, good luck. It is an especially long flight from Albion Maine, to Hancock NH, via the north pole, the Falkland Islands, Australia, Guam….Argh!!!!

So. Here I am waiting. Tulip bulbs, seeds, spring….but hey, I have a building permit that will expire in 20 days. Yup. Don’t get me going.

Did say that patience is not in my DNA?

I took last Sunday off, if you hadn’t noticed. Thanksgiving and all of its celebrations and recovery were far more important than anything that could have happened at the farm that week, so I gave you all a week off as my gift to you. But. Today I am back with exciting news.

The &*(%!! building inspector has FINALLY signed off on our building permit. Only 11 months from when we had filed it. Don’t get me going on that topic. No we don’t have said permit in hand yet, now we are waiting for the selectboard to put their signatures on the permit, but as far as we are concerned, we are good to go and go we will! We may not be able to park our cars in it until June, but hey, as soon as it is enclosed and safe, the electrician will hook us up and I will have electricity in the bulb room. Meanwhile, an extension cord will have to do.

So here is a funny story. I was talking to a reader about white wedding flowers for early June. I couldn’t remember if I had ordered any white ranunculus and of course I couldn’t find any invoices or packing slips but I had the boxes sitting in the dirty room waiting for planting. What did I find in the first box I looked in? Tulips. Somehow 100 amazing parrot tulips never got planted back in October. Oops! And these tulips are amazing when they flower, so I planted half of them in the high tunnel, and half in a bulb crate to try out the new bulb room. Nothing ventured, nothing gained is my motto. And I do have 100 white ranunculus, as well as pink shades, pastel shades, picotee to plant in January.

The other warm day I started to prefill the bulb crates trying to find a system that will work before the big shipment arrives. I think I have it figured out but then all the best made plans do have a way of tweaking themselves.

If it is sunny and above freezing this will work. The first thing I had to do was get the pro mix thawed, so 4 bales are now in the dirty room and the least frozen got put in the crates. I filled each crate halfway using the bucket of the tractor as my work bench filling 24 crates and once I got going it only took about 2 hrs. The hardest part really was getting the frozen planting mix broken up small enough to use. So I have 23 crates ready to go, stacked in the tool shed and waiting for the big plant. One crate was used for the found tulip bulbs hence 23 remaining crates. This is going to work, I am sure of it.

My other exciting news is that I think most of the seed for the 2022 flower season has now been ordered and are being shipped. Yay! The end of December and January are going to be very busy with tulip planting, ranunculus, anemone and freesia planting, and then soon seeding of the cool flowers perennials and bi-annuals. I better enjoy the down-ish time of the next few weeks I guess. Sure, with Christmas, Boxing Day, New Years all happening too!

Until next week. Allie

Sometimes I feel as though I am going in far too many directions, trying to get everything done on time to get flowers to you on time. Talk about planning. Tulips and other bulbs need to be ordered in May, to be planted in November to be in your happy hands by March. Phew. Seeds need to be ordered and some started by January so you can enjoy them this summer, then I also need to think about the autumn flowers that also need to be ordered like now, so I an have a decent selection so you have a decent selection in the fall. It is like tossing a bunch of balls in the air and keeping them all going. And yes, I do have sleepless nights trying to figure it all out. That is just scheduling, and nothing to do with the vagaries of growing, like weather, which I really have no control over.

I wish I were younger, but since that isn’t going to happen I just need to do it all now. Everything I read is just pick a few crops and do them all well, but I just want to grow everything, within reason. I love growing the odd bits because they are what makes your arrangements so special. I just love seeing what some flowers do and how to grow them. Like pumpkin on a stick. Weird to grow yes, interesting curve to figure out how to use it in an arrangement, but I just might have it figured out. Will I grow them again, yes, just because. It turns out that although they look delicate, they stand up to freezing temps so for your outdoor floral arrangements, they work. Here are two views of pumpkins on a stick.

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So one never knows what will just happen. One just has to try, keep an open mind, and have fun.

Now that the gardens are put to bed for the season, my mind goes like this. Tulips. First 3500 in. Tick. Bulb crates. Tick. Potting mix to plant next 2500 tulips in. Tick. Bulb room for next 2500 tulip bulbs….sorta.

Getting there. The temperature is holding at 40F, all by itself. I will paint it white in the spring, and I will more than likely have to run an extension cord this winter, but…getting there. A big Yay to Paul. Big boo to Tim the building inspector.

Flower seeds for spring…. making lists and checking them twice….finding a market for all my tulips….what was I thinking? Look at the clock by the bed, crap, only 2:00 am….what am I forgetting? But the floor of the greenhouse is done, just have to add the landscape cloth and it is done until the tulips are ready to go in and get ready for you.

Enough of me. I leave you with a little last minute table scape for Thanksgiving. Waterless so when the cats decide they need to play with it water won’t spill all over the table. You can make this as well. Fresh sage from the garden, rosehips, dried grasses and strawflowers. If you find you need some dried flowers and grasses to boost your table scape, email me and I will set some aside for you. Next year I will be more organized. (If we are lucky).

I wish you all a happy Thanksgiving. And my thanks is to all of you who keep me going with your enthusiam and love of flowers. I couldn’t do this with out you.

Just because the flowers are done for the season it doesn’t mean that the garden is done for the season, or better said, the gardener isn’t done for the season. I have been very busy.

The garden is now completely put to bed. All the beds have had their leaf compost added with the old wood chips full of happy mycelia strewn on top so nothing blows away. The perennials have been cut back, two new rows are in the process of being created. First, the area has been killed with black plastic, which only takes a week or two in the summer, then it is puled back, cardboard is laid on top, then old mulch leaves for a couple of inches, the a very thin layer of the old wood chips. In the spring, the beds can be shaped, and my new project started. Yup. New growing project.

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That project took about two days, then organizing the flower shed. It sadly no longer looks rustically floral, but at the moment it’s a clean storage shed. All the drip hose is put away, the netting is bagged and put away, the flower benches are stored. Tools hung, buckets washed and the flower cans as well.

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Then. Today, Steve and I drove down to a flower farm west of Scranton PA, a mere six hours away, to pick up 45 bulb crates. Was it worth all the hours on the road? Damn straight. At least I have the crates to now grow the forced tulips in when they arrive mid December. That is itself if a huge burden off my mind. Do I have enough? Well, I would never turn down the possibility of another 150, but at the moment what I have, with the input of some very gracious and generous friends, I will get the forced tulip crop going.

I know, you are all busting at the seams to know what is in store for this week. Seed ordering. I wanted to start it last week on the rain day, but I took a mental health day and really did nothing that day, so this week. Seeds. What do I have, what do I need, and what do I want? It has to make some money, but I do like the unusual that really make your flower arrangements sing and lets me be arty farty.

Until next week. Allie

It is so hard to believe that we have already had a full week of November. The temperatures have been relatively mild but boy are we waking up to some mighty white frosty gardens. Good, because I am no longer feeling bad about cutting down the flowers that were still looking decent, but OMG, so glad to see them go. Now I am racing against the weather. Will I get everything done that needs to get done before it is either too cold or to frozen?

You might ask what have I been up to in the last 6 days. Well, the tulips, all 3500 of them are planted. Three beds still have to be mulched, but I think that is pretty darn good. The dahlias have all been transferred into bulb bags are are now down in the basement, hopefully being safe. Now come the weekly checking to make sure they are all fine. I should, I really should have each variety stored in it’s own crate, but don’t have the crates yet, so I must pay particular attention to the tubers to keep them rot and disease free. No easy feat believe me.

Paul has been busy working on the bulb room. Yay! It has been wired, insulated, door and window installed….Hopefully electricity will be installed before I need it, but Paul has worked magic and I am happy. I would have taken a photo to post but I forget that we are back to winter time and it got dark to early. Will try to remember to post a photo next week. I would be happier if I had enough bulb crates for forcing the next 2500 in, but that is another story.

Post it notes are being put in the seed catalogs. Reviewing my notes and poor memory to see what I can delete, add and check the numbers so I have enough seed for each variety that I want to grow this next year. This is where the blog and the photos I post on instagram are important, they are my memory.

Steve has Frankenstiened the end of the high tunnel. It will be interesting to see how the temperatures will change this year having drafty ends. Better than no ends I reckon.

I have no photos to share with you this week, but, I am leaving you with two of last year’s photos so you can see what all the hard work will produce. Hopefully.

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Till next week. Allie

We finally have had a killing frost, or as flower growers call it ‘frostmass’. Even though I had already cut down most of the cutting garden, it is good to have the freeze officially here. As they say, better late than never. The dahlias in the high tunnel are still looking good, but not enough for all of you flower lovers. Just enough for me to enjoy, and believe me I am.

Since my last posting things have still been busy here at the Rock. There is so much to do, sometimes I feel as though I am losing direction but things are getting done. In the gardens, that one row that hasn’t been cut down yet is still standing although not nearly as proudly as it was last week. It is a little black around the edges, so hopefully this week it will be cut down like the rest of the flowers. The dahlias have been cut back, labeled and dug so now if I need anything beyond the first two feet in the tool shed I am out of luck until I get the tubers sorted and stored. That is on my list for this week. At some point, but I have more pressing things to happen first.

The most pressing task happening now is getting the first batch of tulips planted. They have been patiently waiting in their boxes on the screen porch waiting for this moment. Friday, the first few boxes were planted. Don’t ask me how many, I can only tell you that I have only 1200 left to go into the ground this week coming. Two thirds down, one third to go. I got an email from the other bulb supplier the other day, the sad news is that one variety isn’t available due to a crop failure, and I am shorted another variety, so I will only have about 2500 tulips to force when they come in in December. I am sad, but also somewhat relieved because I am having a hell-of-a-time sourcing bulb crates to force them in. If anyone knows of a source of black bulb crates like this snag them for me please! I am desperate!

Meanwhile, I have been getting next year’s seed order together, complete with some interesting things to try. Some that I grew this past year won’t be grown again, which gives me room to try some new cutting varieties this year coming. Spring is coming and I have to be ready for you my flower people.

So. If you have been worried that I would have too much time on my hands now that most of the gardens have been cut down for the season, rest assured, I still have plenty to do to keep me out of mischief.

Until next week. Allie

Confessions of a flower farmer. The end of the season is always so bittersweet. You are so ready for the long season to be over, but the flowers will be so missed as well as the flower people that make all of this experience possible. I so love my flowers, and it is so hard to let them go at the end of the season, but to be perfectly honest, I am so ready to see them go. A few weeks break between here and there, and off we go again, growing beauty and making smiles.

Today was spent taking down the garden. I went from this this morning

to this this afternoon.

For the rows that didn’t get cut down before we left on a well needed holiday, I had destructed five rows today. I goes like this, put on a podcast on flower farming, chop, chop chop the plants to the first layer of Hortnova (the netting that makes the stems stand straight, if I do it correctly), then pull off the first layer of Hortnova. Chop, chop some more to the bottom layer, pulling that netting off and stuff it in zip lock bags ASAP. Take out support pots and put them in a pile. Lift the weed mat, putting the pegs in a neat pile, then once removing the said weed mat, folding it neatly for storage. Then wind up the drip tape. This year I got smart and did all the tapes for each row together. After lunch I got even smarter and labeled the rows the tape came from because almost every row is a different length. One that bed is done, move to the next one. Breathe deeply.

My goal today was to get everything done. Nope. Still have one bed left of the annuals, lift the dahlias and the peacock orchids and get them into storage. Then I have 3500 tulips to plant….I am still having 2:00 am thoughts on that.

On a positive note, the bulb cooler in the “garage” is getting built. Yay! We may not be able to park our cars in the garage this winter because of our lovely (not) building inspector, but I will have a bulb cooler for the bulbs that hopefully be rocking in to be planted in December. I also will also be prepping the ranunculus and anemones in the bulb cooler as well. Then the Icelandic poppies and on and on.

I am going to leave you with the images of the dahlias this morning before they got the chop. Literally got the chop. By the end of the week they will be lifted, compost will be spread and we will all wait for spring 2022. Ye gads!

Until next week. Allie

PS. to my egg customers, just drop me an email when you need eggs and it will happen.

Thank you to all my flower people who have supported my flower endeavor this year. You have made it so much fun and so worthwhile. I never would have dreamed that this year, despite all of its rain, would have been such a good one, and it is because of all of your support. This thank you also includes all the the Yays and support from my long distance followers.

Since it is now officially the end of the flower season here at Flowers at Lottarock I just want to remind my fellow flower friends that if you purchased a flower card this year your card is good for another year. If you purchased a card last year, 2020 and have a balance remaining, your balance will be “payed forward” to supply flower bouquets to the residences of Scott Farrer, Summerhill, and Rivermead for the residents to enjoy, so thank you for “paying it forward”. The flowers will be greatly appreciated.

Enough business, lets talk flowers. What a crazy week it has been. I heard a rumor from our builder that approval has been given to build the bulb cooler. Yay! I won’t believe it until the fat lady sings her aria, but I can hear her warming up in the wings. That and I have three piles of lumber sitting in the back of the wanna be garage. It is progress, and I am grateful for that, believe you me. Now. If anyone knows where I can locate a mere 50 bulb crates I really will be rocking to a happy tune.

Clean up of the flower gardens has begun. Yesterday I spent cutting back the plants that were gone by, pulling Hortnova (which is the netting grid that supports the plants that I have a love-hate relationship with), lifting the weed mat and rolling up the drip lines. It took me all day to do six beds. I went from this

To this at the end of the day. It may not look like much but believe you me…

The beds that already didn’t have a cover crop growing in them then this afternoon had last year’s leaf compost added on top, and then I top that off with a sprinkling of very old wood chips to hold the leaf mulch down. It all looks so tidy at the moment, which for here says quite a bit.

This weekend was the Dublin Art Tour and Steve had his studio/man cave open for visitors to view his photography. I made two arrangements for him because I could. One for outdoors and one for inside to give a bit of color. I leave you with the two arrangements I made for your visual enjoyment.

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Next week there will not be a blog because I am not taking my laptop on holiday with me, but rest assured, I will be back with more news from Flowers at Lottarock before you have time to miss me.

Until next time. Allie

So here we are in October. It is so hard to believe that we will have had 20 weeks of flowers here at the farm. I think that that is quite an accomplishment, all things given. Yes, I will admit that we had a few no flowers weeks, but for the most part we are good! I can’t tell you how happy that makes me.

Despite that it is October, the flowers are still flowering like crazy. Yes, I have pulled the sunflowers and have fed the stalks to the goats, the seed heads to the birds and chipmunks, and have sown a cover crop on all of those now empty beds, but it seems as though the birds aren’t quite happy with the sunflower seeds I left for them but seem to have a propensity for the cover crop seed as well. If nothing germinates by Sunday, last year’s composting leaves will be added to the beds and ancient wood chips added on to to hold the leaves down, (lesson learned from last year, hold the leaves down) to keep the beds covered. Not only is every year different, but every week is different here at the farm. Soon all the beds will be cut down, and covered. I need to keep two beds prepped and ready for early spring planting of the Icelandic poppies, snaps, bachelor buttons, and maybe stock. As much as I love it, I have yet to turn out a decent stem, so next year is its last year to do well before it is out of the line up.

UPS notified me last week that the spring bulbs were starting to rock in. Thursday’s delivery was the anemone, (100), ranunculus, (300) and freesia (50) that I absolutely adore, but haven’t grown them since my days at the old Woodmans. I say old because when I started there in, GASP, 1977, it was a pretty good flower growing concern and an excellent floral training for me. Anyway, we used to grow at least a quarter of a hoop house of them during the winter along with snapdragons and stock.

Thursday, UPS notified me that I had 5, yes five boxes of bulbs coming. The average weight of each box?, about 50 pounds. They got to the house late so it must have been a new driver. I had already left for the lake, so Suzie S and company lugged them up onto the porch. Good thing cause the driver had left them sitting in the driveway.

But I look at it like this. Those boxes in six months become this.

What else is happening on the farm? I am still harvesting buckets of flowers. I will say again to remind you all that this is the last week of flowers. Unless…. we don’t have a frost….and you still want flowers. I don’t know. I am ready for a break. My local people, pay strict attention to the newsletters that come out either the night before a flower day, or that morning. Anything can happen.

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The flowers are covered with bees of all types, and I have to check each flower before I harvest it to make sure that I haven’t but my hand on a bee of some ilk and disturbed it. Bumble bees, honey bees and lots of monarchs hanging out on the asters.

So. Remember that this week coming is officially the last week of the open flower shed. Unless you read something in the newsletter. I just can’t give the flowers up yet.

Isn’t it interesting that the flower season here at Lottarock begins with flamboyant tulips,

and ends with flamboyant dahlias.

Flowers in with a bang, flowers out with a bang. Holy moly, the colors of the dahlias are as stunning as the fall foliage will be, but even better because there are more choices of colors and sizes of blooms. It is enough to knock one’s socks off. Keep all this in mind because there are only two more weeks of the open flower shed. Then Steve and I are off on a well needed holiday, good for us, maybe not so good for you, so hurry up and get some of these stunning flowers.

This morning I sat in front of the computer for the second half of my tulip forcing workshop. It was lucky for me that the morning was way overcast and windy because I didn’t find it quite so difficult to be inside on my laptop for 3 long hours. This portion of the class was devoted to planting up the tulips, their holding temperatures, and then growing them on for sale. I am starting slow and low with only 3000 tulips to force. My plan is to start providing stunning, locally grown, farm fresh tulips to you all by the first of March. Now, I do have a few spanners being thrown my way, but hopefully I will have a bulb cooler/flower cooler before Thanksgiving. If not, well, some good ole’ yankee ingenuity will have to happen. I also have a mere 3500 tulips that are going to be ground planted this fall. I am very excited and I hope you are all as well because I have ordered some stunners for this spring.

My other exiting news is that my new greenhouse came on Tuesday. This is very exciting because it replaces the old “erector set from hell” greenhouse that Steve got for me 10 years ago. This greenhouse is twice the size and has automatic venting which will make life so much easier on those shoulder seasons, and certainly in the spring. Check it out!

I am going to leave you with this afternoon’s harvest of flowers for tomorrow’s delivery. Just look at those stunning colors. They just make me smile and when you come by to get some they will put a smile on your face as well.

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Until next week, Allie