Author: Allie

So here we are. May. Nearly the beginning of fabulous flowers to be had from Flowers at Lottarock. What a month April was. I have been absolutely busy here at the farm, some days I feel like I am spinning and by the time dinner is cooked and cleaned up, I am cooked.

We have had some good rain in the past week. Not enough to get us out of the drought stage, but enough to put water in the rain tanks, and to give me a day off from hauling water to all the trees and shrubs that we dug and transplanted at the beginning of the month. I look at it that right now, every drop of rain is a good drop.

In the seeding department the warm temperature annuals have been started. There are only three to four weeks before they go into the ground, and they grow quickly so they get a later sowing date. Exciting things are happening though. Lots of very cool zinnias, cosmos, scabiosa, and celosia have been started with lots of fillers and little flowers I have received notice that the dahlias have been shipped so with what I have overwintered and what I am getting it should be a very colorful summer.

As the seedlings are ready and when the weather cooperates, the beds are being planted out. It is pretty exciting though, I have to say. The scary part is will I have enough space? Only time at the end of the month will tell.

Speaking of color, the tulips and narcissus are really coming into their own, and I am harvesting at least twice a day.

I have plenty of flowers available for everyone and as you can tell, color is not a problem. We have doubles, parrots, singles, yellow, purple and pink tulips and it seems as though every other color under the sun. They pair beautifully with the fragrant narcissus, some random greenery from the yard and viola’, you have just created a beautiful bouquet.

I leave you with an image of a tiny posey I made with tiny flowers. The vase is just an old spice jar, but I have found that nip bottles also work well in a pinch. This posey includes a narcissus, some cedar from the hedge that had just been sheared, some muscari and frittilaria.

Remember, the flower shed is open on Tuesday afternoons from 3-6, and Friday mornings from 9-12. I look forward to seeing you all. Until then, Allie

Phew, here I am at the end, or beginning of another week here at Lottarock. It is that time of year when things just get crazy, and maybe a bit out of control, but I have made it here so here are the happenings.

I am just now thinking, it is all a blur, can I even think back to Monday? I got to take a week off from Monday’s seeding because nothing was on the schedule and that opened up so much time I was able to pull together my spring bulb forcing order and get that off. We are going bigger next spring. Much bigger. Hope you all love tulips cause I have 3000 ordered for forcing. That isn’t including the ones that will just be planted out in the garden beds. So with the ordering of the tulip bulbs, we are trying to figure out how to build a cool storage room in the barn to hold all those bulb crates. Move over goats, tulips moving in with you.

The rest of the week we worked on the fencing around the garden to keep out the dogs who just love running through the garden “helping’. You can only imagine, I am sure. Transplanting seedlings, harvesting flowers, planting flowers out into the garden and now I am worried I will not have enough space for everything I want to grow, or need to grow. Move over veggies, flowers moving in with you.

The most exciting event of the week is Friday was the first open flower day. I had lots of beautiful daffodils, and not just your average yellow I might add. The first of the tulips are rocking in and I was very excited to see everyone who came out.

It looks like the flowers are really starting to rock in. I have been harvesting daily, so there will be lots of flowers, daffodils and tulips. I will have flowers by the stem so you can create your own bouquet, and will also have bouquets already made up.

I hope to see many of you on Tuesday, remember that the hours are now 3-6:00, and not what the website says. Have to fix that one of these days. If you haven’t gotten your flower card yet you can purchase one at the flower shed. All cash and checks are welcome. I leave you with the final photo of the combination of the road sign flowers and the shed door flowers.

Until next week. Allie

What a shock to wake up to snow, and an all day snow at that. Yes, I knew about it, and was sorta ready for it. All the daffodils that were at gooseneck stage or starting to open got harvested and are in cold storage. The tulips? I was hoping for the best, hoping that the snow would gently fall around them and support them rather than crush them and the gods were smiling this time, they all came through unscathed. A huge sigh of relief.

The pace here at the farm is really starting to pick up and sometimes I feel as though I am just running in circles. Last week’s snow didn’t help, but it didn’t hurt because it did give us some desperately needed precipitation. We bought two more rain tanks, 275 gallons, and Steve spent the better part of two days getting them all hooked up to the gutters, then we spent last Friday watching and hoping that the snow coming off the roof wasn’t going to tear the guttering down. A few times he had to go out to clear the mess but all in all we have about each tank about an eighth full. More rain is in the forecast for Wednesday so fingers crossed.

Garth was here with his little digger at the beginning of the week moving trees and shrubs that I planted when I first built the house. Now they are, or were in the way of this summer’s building project. A garage. It looks really different and if I can keep the water up to everything we should be good. They will give a nice backdrop to the cutting garden and also be used for arrangements when the time comes.

Friday, April 23 will be the first open flower shed day. I was hoping to be open on Tuesday, but realized that I have my second vaccination that afternoon, so, Friday it is. I will have tulips, some stunning daffodils and who knows what else.

Seeding and pricking out seedlings is still going strong. Wish I didn’t have a rodent joyfully nibbling on my babies but I do. Bugger all. One would think that with all the tasty self sown lettuce and arugula in the same space as my seedlings they would be more enticing. No. It, or they just want my good stuff. Peanut butter, salad greens or bachelor buttons, hmmmm…..

I will send out a reminder Thursday night about the flower shed being open, but it I will also say it here. Friday, from 9-12:00. Drive slowly in the driveway, the birds will be out, the dogs in. I will have the sign out at the end of the driveway as usual. Also we are located at 76 Stoddard Rd. Hancock. It will be first come first serve. I don’t have tons yet, but enough to make many of you happy. The season is just beginning!

Until next time. Allie

What a week this past week it has been. No rain, more wind, and June like temperatures. Not good for this flower farmer. Or any farmer for that matter. No matter what I did, it just wasn’t going to end well.

Let me prove my point. My magnolia behind the house normally blooms the end of April. Now look at this photo, taken tonight. April 11th.

With the high April temperatures, things are popping like there is no tomorrow. The tulips, are not blasting, but close. I was berating myself because seedlings were burning out and the tulips, oh, my tulips. I am watering them and keeping my fingers crossed, praying for cooler temperatures, not freezing temperatures, but cooler temps, and of course, rain. Oh we so desperately need rain.

Let’s just say that this past week has been a challenge, frustrating, and any other adjective you want to add in. Argh!

On the positive note, the daffodils are budding up nicely and are starting to bloom, the rest up the bulbs are really starting to emerge, and when I started to poke around the peonies, I am seeing buds, which means that with the dry I will have to start watering them as well. I hope that this summer will not be spent dragging hoses and water buckets, but if I must I must.

Seeding is continuing. Learning is continuing. Watering is continuing. What else can I say.

I know, flowers will be happening any week now, and as soon as I have enough to bunch I will send out the newsletter to let you know and post it on Instagram. Wipe the dust off your cards and get them ready. You do’t have a card yet? You can purchase them on any open flower day, whenever that begins, you can buy one by by sending a check along and I will mail you a card, and if you happen to still have credit on your card from last year, bring that along. It is all very easy, just old fashioned. Checks can be sent to Flowers at Lottarock, PO Box 35, Hancock, NH 03449

On that note, I will leave you paused with anticipation and I promise, I will be more cheerful next week. Looking forward to seeing you all soon. Allie

Here it is the first week of April and not a rain cloud in sight. Great for making energy with my solar panels, not so good for the gardens. We need rain, and not just a little bit of rain but a nice gentle rain, say an inch a day for about a week. That will green up the grass for the animals and give the bulbs a good push the perennials and bulbs a decent push in the right direction.

Seeding is coming along. I think I am getting the hang of these new soil blocks. Talk about a learning curve. Hopefully by the end of the sowing season I will have figured out all the nuances, but maybe not. Only time and practice will tell. With last week’s bitter cold morning temperatures some of my seedling took a hit. The experimental cool ones that were planted in the bed seem to have weathered the cold better than the baby seedlings that were just too young. I should have brought them in for the two nights but I thought the double layer of remay would have helped. Well maybe it did, but not enough it seems. Need to sow some more tomorrow to catch up. What did do really well was the dusty miller and the Icelandic poppies, snapdragons, bachelor buttons flax and stock.

The spring bulbs are springing forth. The daffodils are slowly emerging, and the tulips seem to really like where they are because they are really growing. It would be really strange to have fresh local tulips before the daffodils. The other spring bulbs are also emerging and every walk around the gardens I see more exciting things happening.

Between seeding, pacing the gardens, learning on Zoom and webinars, I have been getting the beds ready for planting. Today Steve helped me get the sweet pea fencing up, I have reworked the newer flower beds, getting them straight and where they should be. Irrigations is getting laid out because in another five to six weeks I will be planting out and things do tend to get chaotic here at the farm.

I look forward to seeing you all later this spring when the blooms are a bloom’n. Don’t forget to sign up for the Lottarock Flower Club membership. Checks and be mailed to PO Box 35, Hancock NH 03449, or you can come on the first day you want flowers as well. Until next time, I leave you a photo of what is to come. Soon. I hope. I am ready.

Here it is Sunday again, and I sit in front of the computer listening to the rain fall, oh such a well needed rain. I haven’t looked at the rain gauge yet but I am hoping for at least 1 inch, 1 1/2 inches would be sweet though. That would certainly fill the rain tanks that we have set up, take away some of the mud and give the plants in the garden a good boost to grow. Okay, as of 5:45 we are at .65 inches, not nearly what I wanted. Between my every few hour garden tour circuits I can almost watch spring happen.

So. You are asking what is happening in the gardens at Lottarock. Plenty, believe me. The daffodils are emerging from their winter hibernation, the tulips, OMG they are popping up like crazy. This is last year’s photo and I would say they are further along than the photo, and maybe we are a week later.

In the perennial beds the asters are looking good, as are the chrysanthemums, sedum, kniphofia, and today I saw little itty bitty bits of the delphinium emerging, along with the alliums. Oh yes. Things are getting exciting.

In the annual department my trial bed of cool annuals are actually growing! The bells of Ireland, stock and bachelor buttons that the resident mice didn’t basal prune are looking good. Anemones and ranunculas are putting on growth as well now. I am spraying all seedlings in the little greenhouse and high tunnel with a solution of castor oil, dish soap and water. If it works to keep the rodents away from the bulbs when they are planted why not mice nibbling on the foliage? Knock on wood. It seems to be working. Must be applied after each watering though which is a bummer, but what the heck.

Sweet peas are germinating and should be in the ground the first week of April, or maybe the second week since the first week is this week. Where does the time go?

Now is the time that we are opening up Lottarock flower memberships. Yay! We are still doing it the old fashioned way. Cash or check made out to Flowers at Lottarock. Price is still $100. It still works like a gift card so your “purchase” is deducted from your balance. As soon as flowers start, the newsletters will begin keeping you informed of what is being harvested for each open hours. The hours have changed slightly this year. Now it will be Tuesdays from 3-6 and Fridays 9-12. Hopefully these times will be good for everyone. I need to limit the time open because I have to lock up the dogs during the open hours so they don’t greet everyone. What have I missed? There will be plenty of flowers so bring a flower loving friend along and get them hooked on our beautiful, responsibly grown, farm fresh local flowers.

I leave you till next week with this photo of last year. Allie

It has been quite a week here at the flower farm. Spring rocked in and I am sooo happy about that. I know, it is still March, and we still have to go through April, but things are a happen’en in the garden and I am loving it.

I am now on a weekly seeding schedule, which means that every Monday is seeding day. We started out slowly with the cool flowers but now we are ramping it up a bit and we are starting to rock and roll. Am I ready? As ready as I will be I reckon. I have seeds, compost, Pro-mix, heat mats, grow lights all lined up so I have been practicing with my soil block making so here we go.

I had moved out all the trial cool seedlings into the little greenhouse to cool off. The are keeping the ranunculas and the anemones company, but yesterday I got them into the actual garden beds. All of the Icelandic poppies are in the high tunnel, the stock, snaps, flax and bachelor buttons have been planted into the bed. I had to. I have what I think is a mouse feasting on all the greens. I have lost half the stock, the bachelor buttons have been well pinched so they should have excellent branching thank you. We have tried trapping, but it is wily so tonight we will try spinach and sprouts as bait. The creature seems to be craving greens so we will go that route and see what happens. Argh! I couldn’t figure out why I wasn’t counting as many ranunculas as I had been. They are still there cause I checked, but the critter has eaten all the tops. Sooo frustrating let me tell you.

While I was out in the garden checking on things as I do at least 12 times a day, because you never know, something might emerge from the earth this hour, I heard a buzzing, and if this works, I have a video of the witch hazel in full bloom absolutely covered with happy honey bees. This will be my first uploaded video so we will see how this goes. Didn’t work. I will try to post it to Instagram tonight. Try. The operative word. Instagram acct is Flowers at Lottarock.

In two weeks membership to Lottarock Flowers will be opening for the season. Many of you have a balance left, many of you don’t. If you have any questions email me at flowersatlottarock@gmail.com and I will fill you in. The membership is $100, and is good for two years. It works like a gift card, so when you come to get your flowers, that total is deducted from your balance. This is so exciting, and I look forward to seeing you when the flowers start, stay tuned.

Until next time. Allie

It has been a whirlwind week here at Lottarock. Emphasis on wind. It has been crazy windy this week, gust up to 45 mph, blowing over trees, blowing around anything that isn’t fastened down. And with today’s wind it is ushering in low temperatures of 12 degrees, and that isn’t including the windchill factor. So here is a quick look at my beautiful witch hazel that is in full bloom and looking just oh so nice, because tomorrow morning my guess is that it will be pretty toasted. Those lovely flowers do withstand the cold, just not 12 degree cold.

Between gale force winds, we have had some amazingly warm days that have melted lots of snow. The flower beds are still covered in snow, but the edges of the garden areas, where the daffodils and tulips have been planted are all open, and if you look closely, you will see green daffodil shoots poking through the mulch. No action on the tulip beds, but I have only just taken off the Christmas wreaths that I had put on when we had that warm spell back in January.

In the little greenhouse in cool seedlings are hardening off, (I need to cover them tonight), and the anemones and ranunculas are all hanging in. If you look closely, you will see the little ranuncs poking through. I have counted about 25 at the moment, not bad I reckon. I was thinking that they were going to be a total bust. At least I have growth so far. But as usual, time will tell. It is very exciting to see all this growth happening though.

This week will be spent getting ready for the first big seed push that happens in two weeks, but I need to sit down with the plot plan and figure amounts and where they are going. No, I haven’t done that yet. Hopefully those seedlings will be getting in the ground, and we will measure up for deer fencing because during the winter they nibbled off the flower buds of the lilacs. I certainly don’t need they noshing on my beautiful flowers when they start to come into production. You would think that I wouldn’t have deer with two dogs, and maybe they wee just doing walk through grazing but better be prepared.

I leave you with what is to come. Tulips from last May. Until next week. Allie

Like the swallows of Capistrano coming back in spring, the rocks at Lottarock are also coming back. Finally the rocks are reemerging from underneath all the snow. Having the rocks reemerge and mud. I can’t think of a better thing, outside of the color green and flowers of course.

I only have a few more weeks of slow time before things really start to rock and roll here at the farm. I made a map of the actual annual flower space and have figured out that I have 1700 square feet of growing space just for the annuals. That is not including all the spring bulbs and the perennials that have been planted so fingers crossed, I should have plenty of flowers this spring. I always say fingers crossed because when one deals with Mother Nature one just never knows.

I have bumped up the experimental cool crop seeds that I planted at the beginning of February and man dear they are looking good. Once I got them transplanted it was like they have grown overnight. I am still learning about soil blocks, but they are certainly easier to transplant into cell pacs and into larger soil blocks than any other method that I have used before. I am hoping to get them planted into the high tunnel by the end of this week. That is the plan anyway. I still have to get irrigation out there to get the beds watered before planting. The water line to the barn is still frozen, so I will have to run a hose out of the dirty room, through the garden to the high tunnel to get the beds and later seedlings watered, then at the end of watering, drain all the hoses and take them inside so they don’t freeze so I can use them again. A good way to get my steps in. At the moment, the seedlings on deck to be planted are snapdragons, stock, bachelor buttons, Icelandic poppies and some dianthus. Not large numbers of anything, just wanting to see how this goes. I am certainly looking forward to this though.

The next batch of cold tolerant crops gets seeded tomorrow, then around the 20th of March the big seeding starts to commence. That is when things start to get really exciting.

I still am not sure about how the anemones and ranunculas are doing in the little greenhouse. I am seeing growth, and this is where patience is vital. Tomorrow because it will be above freezing all day, fingers crossed I will drag out the hose and water the beds. Only time will tell, and believe you me, you guys will be the first to know if I see good things happening. This is what I am waiting for so impatiently.

Until next week, I leave you a lonely flower bud. Allie

Tomorrow is the first day of meteorological spring. Yippee! or, bloody well about time. Looking outside it seems as though the snow will never melt, but it is because the rocks are slowly emerging and the mud season is certainly here. I don’t go outside without my barn boots on. it is getting yucky.

So what is happening here at the Rock you might be asking. Well, I have just finished a week long virtual flower growers school. I did learn lots so that is good, my head was normally spinning at the end of each session but that might have been two fold. All the new information and being on the computer but it was worth while and that is good. Tomorrow there is a zoom with a flower grower in New Zealand so not only will I be able to glean things but I can armchair travel as well. Won’t that be exciting? I think so anyway.

Besides me being behind my laptop, I have been busy talking to my first batch of flower seedlings. I gathered a bunch of rain water yesterday for future waterings because I think my tap water might be just a bit rough. I seem to be getting a salt buildup on the soil blocks so I will see if the rain water makes a difference. The first batch of seedlings are really getting big and strong so they will be planted out on Wednesday after Tuesday’s deep freeze so what happened to the ranuncs won’t happen to them.

The second batch of seedlings that were started 1 1/2 weeks later will be planted into the high tunnel. Unless, and this is a big unless, all the snow melts and I can find a garden bed to plant them into.

The ranunculas and anemones that were planted out last week with such hope are not looking their best. Oh this is so sad. That wicked cold night that got down to 12 degrees wasn’t good. They were just too soft, or rather hadn’t been hardened off sufficiently. The anemones are holding their own at the moment, but I am keeping my fingers crossed for the ranuncs. The trials of flower farming, and no matter how much experience you might have, Mother Nature will always have the upper hand. I can only work with her and mitigate what I can. All ten fingers are crossed that they will come through.

I leave you with an image from May 27th last year. This is what I am hoping and keeping my fingers crossed for.

Until next week. Allie

You do know she was at this flower gardening gig from an early age, don’t you? Steve