Author: Allie

Before I start up with my Sunday afternoon ramble, I want to thank you new subscribers to Lottarock. This is the weekly newsletter that keep you up to what is happening on the farm. This is different from the newsletter that goes out the evening before each open flower shed day, which reminds you of the hours and what will be available in the shed the next day. The blog post, which this is, is much more chatty, and the newsletter to the point. Again, Welcome.

So long tulips, hello peonies. I have been harvesting peonies by the arm load twice a day, and with the warm weather, I check them three times a day, and when I am harvesting them it is by the arm load.

So many colors, shapes and sizes to choose from. I would say so far I have harvested about half of the crop, so there are many arm loads left to harvest. I don’t expect to be running out of peony offerings anytime soon.

All of the seedling are in the ground. Yay. Well, not quite all. I had to do another sowing of zinnias because the first batch was devoured by the slugs. Damn things. I am now setting out beer traps with PBR, (Pabst Blue Ribbon for those of you not in the know). The slugs really go for it so if I have to spend 10 dollars a week buying PBR to get my flowers to grow, so be it. Most of the dahlias have sprouted above ground, so now their irrigation can be turned on. Before I know it I will be putting in more stakes to start trussing them up.

In the harvesting department I am still cutting the anemones and ranunculus, and now added to that is the phlox, some dianthus, as well as orlaya, nigella hopefully by Friday the feverfew and agrostema will be added to the list. One has to love the diversity of what is being harvested now. Speaking of diversity, check out this bouquet that I made just cause i could. Tulips, iris, peonies, daisies, valerian and beauty bush to round it out. It is now sitting in the kitchen going strong.

I participated in a pop up on Saturday that was a lot of fun, and got to meet more flower lovers. I had my normal offerings, buckets of flowers, arrangements and posies, but during all my conversations I started to call the posies starter posies. If you don’t know where to start with your flowers, start with a starter posie and add to it from the many offerings and create your own masterpiece. I think that is a cool way of looking at it. You can also just enjoy the posey as it is. Anyway.

I am running out of things to say, so I will leave you here with last week’s #windowframethursday.

The first of the garden roses, with peonies, honeysuckle and Calycanthus “Athena”

Until next week. Allie

And welcome new flowers. Tis the end of the tulip season. My goodness you all certainly showed your love for tulips this year. Thank you from the bottom of my heart. My best year yet. Hopefully you will like next year’s tulips just as much, because the order has been placed.

Things are progressing on the planting end. All of the dahlias are in, all 200? of them? It seems like a lot of them but we all seem to love them at the end of the summer for their vibrant colors and shapes. This week is the big push to get the rest of the summer annuals in. It seems as though I have a slug problem and they are eating every bit of soft plant tissue. I hate slugs, the slimy gross disgusting things they are. I will take a snake any day. Speaking of snakes, I have one living under the weed mat in the garden, he certainly won’t go hungry with all the moles I seem to have, but getting back to slugs… I thought marigolds are resistant to just about everything except Japanese beetles, but may dear, the marigolds have been stripped to just stems. I am keeping my fingers crossed that the root systems are strong enough to support fresh growth, otherwise another sowing will have to happen and that might be pushing it. I might be putting out beer slug traps throughout the garden to trap the buggers.

I have been slowly harvesting peonies. My first harvest is Red Charm.

I suspect that with the warm temps that we are to have this week I will be harvesting peonies about three times a day. I have also just started the Itoh Canary Brilliants which is that lovely yellow. Oh yes, it’s peony time. If you want a special quantity, variety or color you might want to let me know so I can have them ready for you. I have a bunch on hold for a wedding at the end of the month, but if you have a big event or birthday coming up and you want peonies better let me know. Just shoot me an email.

There are more flowers to be had than just peonies, just so you know. The anemones are going strong, the ranunculus are finally rolling in, the little phlox are getting harvested as well as some of the dianthus. Lots of buds showing, so things are looking promising. This is this morning’s harvest from the back garden.

It has been a fun week. I had a big order of flower go out yesterday which is always exciting.

I actually got to do my #windowframethursday this last week. As much as I try, that Instagram post doesn’t always happen, but this time it did. I had lots of fun with this, playing with colors and texture. I won’t show you today’s photo, but it still looks good, the flower cave is a great space to hold flowers this time of year.

I opened up the petals of the tulips to give them a bit more wow factor and so you can see the inside of the tulips. Also with geum and golden mockorange.

So, I guess that is about all the news I have today. As always I look forward to seeing you at the flower shed on open days. Also, I don’t want you to forget that I will be at the DubHub pop up next Saturday from 10-4, or until I sell out. Fingers crossed. There are going to be a lot of amazing artists there so do come along and say hi. (and shop!)

So until next, keep dreaming of flowers, cause I do. Allie

As much as I love them, and as good as they have been to me, this week will be the last week for tulips until February 2025. Even though they are still looking good and holding up, I am ready for a floral change and I will assume you all are as well. That being said, Friday we will all say thank you for your beauty, getting us through the winter and early spring and for bringing us joy.

Don’t worry though, there is no shortage of flowers. The long awaited ranunculus are here, or they should be. I don’t know what they are waiting for. They are joining the anemones, and the very first of the peonies are here. The orlaya is just about ready to harvest and some of the cool flowers are showing bud. The bouquets may still not be big and bodacious, but they will be colorful.

To date, I have planted 275 peonies, 35? different varieties, and am nearly done with the that planting. That will be a huge project off my list. The last of the summer annuals will also go in the ground this week. The big irrigation system is hooked up and ready to used once the seedlings get big enough. Sunflowers, that I wasn’t going to grow, will be planted every two weeks for a filler, and bits and pieces need to get gone. When I take a deep breath, I will then mulch all the pathways to try to keep the lovely weeds under some control. Hopefully the rain gutters will be put up so I don’t have to go so far to fill my flower buckets or to wash them for that matter. It is sooo nice to have two working arms again. I can shovel, hoe, push a wheelbarrow, drag hoses and all that really fun stuff which is why we garden.

I have been invited to join a PopUp at DubHub on Saturday June 8 so put it on your calendar. Lots of really cool artists will be there and I will be there with amazing floral bouquets. I am going to be creative! So please pass the word around. I will also remind you leading up to the event.

I guess that is about all for now, the gardens are calling me. I leave you with images of the flowers I did for a celebration of life on Saturday.

Until next week, Allie. I dream of flowers, do you?

Personally I have been enjoying the cooler temps of May. It makes working in the gardens so much more enjoyable than when the temperature are in the 70’s and above. The black flies have been doable, or maybe I should say tolerable, and it has been really pleasant. The spring flowers have been taking their time coming along which isn’t quite so good, but with this coming week’s temperature in the 80’s they will come on really fast. Maybe too fast. It is hard to keep the tulips from blowing open quickly when it is that warm, so Tuesday, the flower shed will be in my floral cave where it is cooler.

It has been a busy week here at the farm. Lots of seed sowing and transplanting. More flowers have gone out into the garden and more beds have been prepped and are waiting for planting. The garden is starting to look like a garden again rather than just long rows of dirt, I mean soil. The anemones are really starting to put on blossoms. Last week I moved them out of the greenhouse to keep them cooler along with the very slow to come ranunculus. I wonder if the ranunculus are ever going to bloom this year. Humph, maybe I added too much fertilizer when I planted them. Lots of lush green foliage but nary a flower bud in sight. At least the anemones are going strong. The plants in the tunnel are looking good, lots of self sown seedling that I am keeping some of, I look at it as the second succession. The first are the seedlings that I planted out, and second succession are the self sown ones. As long as things don’t get too crowded in there I will let it go.

The peonies are full of fat flower buds and some are even starting to show color. If it is true that it is going to be as warm as they are saying this week, I might have peonies before June this year. Won’t that be exciting?

This past Saturday was an event for Music on Norway Pond, and I was asked to do the flowers. Fifteen jam jar posies for the tables, two larger arrangements and a floral crown for the bust outside the door. This is what was created.

I think that they came out pretty well if I must say so.

There will still be tulips until the end of May, or until the peonies really kick in, then that will be the end of that season until next February. I will continue to run the tulip special until the end of the tulip season. I understand that many flower people are buying the two, and then the third they are giving as gifts, or paying it forward. I think that is very generous and let’s see if something special won’t happen on the tulips last days. Stay tuned.

I have a big crazy week coming up, so I will leave you here, with a handful of posies.

So until next week. Allie. I dream of flowers, do you?

Here it is nearly mid May, and the weather has been cool most of the month so for the most part spring is taking it’s sweet time which is good because the flowers are coming on slowly so I am able to keep up.

The last of the tulips for 2024 have been harvested. Dare I say YAY? don’t worry, there are plenty to be had yet, so I will continue to run the buy two get one bunch free for a bit longer. I love them, but I am glad to have other flowers to be harvesting. Not in the abundance of of the tulips yet, but just something different. The anemones are starting and are looking good. The ranunculus? They seem to be taking their time slowly, but the feverfew is budding and the plants in the high tunnel are starting to really put on some growth. The perennials are all looking good and OMG you should se the buds on some of the peonies. It looks like Red Charm will be first out of the gate, but I could be wrong. A flower grower should never make predictions on what or for that matter when something is going to bloom. That leads to trouble.

Slowly more things are getting planted out into the garden. I have more seedlings to go out this week and another batch of seeds to get planted. Memorial Day is quickly approaching and that is my deadline to get just about everything in the garden planted out. All of the dahlias are now out of storage and in the dirty room feeling the warmth and hopefully having the buds swell so I know where to do the dividing before they get planted. I just need a bit more time, but don’t we always say that about everything?

Things in the gardens are looking good and I am happy about that. Fingers crossed it will continue to go well.

Since there isn’t much to say, that I can remember I will leave you with two arrangements that I made last week. I am no designer, but a flower grower that likes to have fun and if the odd commission occurs, I will give it a go.

Pardon the typos and grammatical issues. My proofreader is still away…argh.

So until next week, Allie. I dream of flowers

Welcome May and all the flowers that come with it! We are getting a good rain today, and the next two days are to be really warm so I suspect that we are going to start having more flowers than the lovely tulips. Yes, we will still have the lovely tulips, but now to add to that we have frittilaria, leucojum, (which is like giant lily of the valley), the alliums are budding up, I still have some hellebores to harvest, still lots of heirloom narcissus. I mean look at the offerings from last week! And it will only get better from here out. YAY

I will also have the very first anemone to offer this week. There aren’t many and they will be incorporated into the posies, but this is exciting and the ranunculus shouldn’t be far behind in the offerings. I hope.

Mothers Day is nearly upon us and I will be offering something special at the flower shed on Friday to celebrate. Haven’t quite decided yet, but it will be exciting for sure.

The first batch of cool flowers has been planted out into the garden and the perennials and the self seeders from last year are all looking good. The rodents really liked the perennial anemone over the winter or early spring, but I planted them, or what was left of them back in the ground, gave them a pep talk and am keeping my fingers crossed. Seeding and transplanting are still taking place and I am happily busy.

I am having a blast doing my #windowframethursdays I lets me really be creative. This was last weeks creation and I really like it if I must say so.

An offering of what I am harvesting at the moment, put into an arrangement.

I will close here. Steve is away, so there will be no proofreading, except for me, so please excuse the grammar, punctuation, spelling and everything else. Also, I will be sending this out so if you get this, yay! I remembered how to do it.

Allie. I dream of flowers.

Things are really ramping up here at the farm. The narcissus are going gangbusters and they are getting harvested two times a day now. I harvest at what is called the gooseneck stage, so they haven’t been kissed by a pollinator, then they go into dry store so just before you get them they will be rehydrated and will last longer for you. Sorta like what I do with the tulips.

Speaking of tulips, the last crate of tulips will be harvested tomorrow, Yay! And it looks as though the first two varieties of the outdoor grown ones will also be harvested. With these temperatures higher than what we have been having, the flowers come on fast, so it is a race to get them harvested while still in bud.

Meanwhile, all of the perennial seedlings have been planted, all transplanting and dividing that needed to get done is done and everything has had a good soak. I wish we would get a good soaking rain. The last of the plants that were ordered during the winter are here and planted out, and the chrysanthemum plugs are potted up and ready to have their first cuttings taken, hopefully this week.

The high tunnel is full, the irrigation is up and running and you can actually see the plants now without having to squint and use your imagination that they are there. The next batch of seedlings goes out into the big garden this week with protection once I get that row prepped and ready. Phew, there is a lot to do. Meanwhile more seeding has to take place and more transplanting.

I am making up small posies to offer on Fridays, perfect little bundles of flowers for the table, hostess gift or by your reading chair. The early spring flowers are tiny flowers, hence posies. I just harvested a handful of fritilaria, the muscari are still going, hellebores are looking good and the tiny narcissus could all grace the posie offerings.

I leave you with warm floral thoughts, and I hope to see you at the flower shed. Well, in truth is is still the tool shed, but soon the flower shed will be like how you know it. Tidy and full of flowers. This photo is the shed door floral treat, which is now gracing the table outside the front door. Look at those bodacious yellow blooms. Talk about swaying to the music!

Until next week. Allie, who is always dreaming of flowers.

Tomorrow is Earth Day, and I thought you would find it interesting as a flower grower what I do every day growing flowers, not just on Earth Day, or the week of Earth Day but every day for the Earth.

First, and although you probably know this, no chemicals are used here at the farm. Not even “organic approved” chemicals. Even though they are allowed for organic certification, any pesticide, organic or not, kills. And that will not happen here. I strive for biodiversity with hedgerows, brush piles and bird houses placed all over. Yes, I fence out the deer, but only in what I am trying to produce. They have free range everywhere else on the property. The hedgerow material gives habitat as well as food sources, and pollinator plants are also planted on the edges. I want the birds and the amphibians to do their work on the insects. If I have to, I will squish, with or without gloves…

Water for all the verge plantings are watered with tank water collected from the roof every rain storm. Even though we have well water, I try to save that for the house, although the large cutting garden is on well water, the beds are all on drip irrigation and are mulched heavily.

Once the flowers are harvested they are placed in clean buckets with clean water. If you don’t want to drink the water, you flowers won’t want to drink the water. I don’t used floral preservative, but you are welcome to especially for the summer “dirty flowers”. Keep your vessels clean, change the water often, cut the ends of the stems when you change the water and the flowers will last.

When I wrap the flower bunches, or bunch the bouquets, they are wrapped with brown kraft paper and tied with raffia. When the flowers have gone by, they are safe to add to your compost pile without any harm. The cups you are welcome to take your flowers home are already recycled, and you are welcome to use the same cup each time you come to get flowers. These McDonalds are already being recycled.

I do everything I can to make this flower farm, and the rest of the farm here sustainable and safe for every critter. Yes, my flowers are more expensive that what you would get at Shaw’s or Trader Joe’s, but remember, they are safe to give, safe to compost and even safe to eat if they are edible, and many of them are. Support your local flower grower, no matter where you live. We are all making the Earth better.

On to what is happening here at the farm. I seem to be behind in seed sowing, but that will get done tomorrow. All of the perennials and biennials have been planted out…self sown seedlings will be transplanted tomorrow to places they need to be versus willy nilly. The last of the forced tulips will be harvested this week and the field grown ones are showing buds! Hopefully the remaining irrigation will be hooked up in the high tunnel before Steve leaves for a photo tour with friends…The narcissus are starting to color up, the peonies are starting to show more than buds and the farm is a happy happening place.

The last two photos are of the tulips that were offered last week, and one more…

So until next week, may you be kind to the earth, support any local flower grower and enjoy the days of sunshine.

Allie. I dream of flowers. Do you?

I can’t say that March is my favorite spring month, but after this last week’s I’m not sure April is much better! After two amazing days, weather wise, at the beginning of the week so we could all enjoy the solstice it has been nothing but rain, or at least it feels like that. It is certainly too wet to get into the garden and get the next succession planted, so I wait.

We are down to the last seven crates of forced tulips, and all of them are in the greenhouse but two. The dirty room has enough space in it I can now spin around with my arms out wide! Well, one arm out wide, and the other one catching up.

It is so nice to be able to walk in and not have to slide in past all the tulip crates. It also looks as though my timing is good for a change and there won’t be a lag in tulip production. Hopefully the rest of the crops will time themselves nicely. Now when the dogs dash to their crates I don’t have to worry about accidents involving tulips.

I planted out the sweet peas that I wasn’t going to grow this year. They are really just for me, but if I have some stunners, I will share. They are an expensive crop to grow just in the labor, and I can’t make up that cost so I will grow for me, and as gifts.

On Friday between flower people I got all of the trees and shrubs fertilized as well as the peonies outside the garden fence. Next up is pruning the hydrangeas and the roses, and hopefully getting the next batch of cool flowers planted out and the perennials inside the garden fence cleaned up and fed. Never a dull moment for sure.

The narcissus are starting to be ready to harvest so soon there will be mixed bunches to offer as well. The orchard is starting to look lovely with all the spring bulbs starting to flower. when you drive in to pick up flower make sure you check out the beauty there.

I have been asked a few times when is the flower shed going to be open in Tuesdays. I would say shortly. I need to have enough flowers available to make it time efficient. When it happens I will let you know here as well as in the newsletter that I hope for you local people you are getting. Until then, the flower shed will just be open on Fridays from 10-2:00.

So I leave you with some random tulip photos taken during the week. Actually the first one is of the tulips that were offered last week. I do post on instagram what will be available the night before the flower shed opens.

The next photos are just random tulips in vases scattered in the kitchen. I hope you feel inspired, and enjoy them as much as I do.

So until next week, may the sun shine and the flowers bloom.

Allie. I dream of flowers, do you?

What a week this has been. Can’t say that I have enjoyed it, even with all the beauty, and it was hard on this flower farmer who couldn’t do anything to help in the snow removal department. Thank you to everyone who understood about the flower shed day change. It was much easier all around for everyone, and Steve had a chance to get more of the parking cleaned up Saturday morning once the snow had firmed up.

There is a reason that I plant all of the cool crops in the high tunnel. It has no ends and all of the crops can handle the vagaries that the weather can toss it. The ranunculus, second crop, are on the left, the dianthus, phlox, stock, and other cool seedlings are in the middle, and what I have for anemone are on the right. All looking perfectly happy when I watered them this morning.

I seem to be running a bit behind in the seeding department, so tomorrow is a big seed sowing day. I don’t have PT until 4:30 so I have all day to get the job done. Don’t worry, all will be fine. Still sowing cool crops and by the end of April the warm flowers will be sown. I did get the twenty peony roots planted last Monday. The snow was being predicted and I had a very small window but I thought 10 planted before my Ortho appt, and then 10 when I got home, but it went’ so smoothly I got them all in by lunch. That is a huge project off my to do list. Have I told you that I placed next year’s tulip order. That is another huge item off my list. I hope I haven’t done wrong by only ordering 11 varieties instead of the 25 plus that I normally do. I like the variety. If we don’t like it next spring I will go back to the old way for 2026 and just pay the surcharge per bag. Hope you will like what I have chosen. All the forced crates are now growing on either in the dirty room or the greenhouse, the ground tulips are pushing up through and today I can see them through the snow. Don’t wory, still lots of tulips to enjoy this season. Notice I didn’t say spring.

Looking back at my photos from last year my magnolia was blooming! Maybe with the warmer weather this week it will pop. The buds look pretty full and cracking on the Start Magnolia. That will be exciting.

I leave you with two photos.

Remember we are back to the normal flower shed hours now, fingers crossed no more snowstorms. The shed is open on Fridays from 10-2:00 and if you want to se what will be in the offering, check out my instagram account on Thursday where I post the harvest for Friday’s offerings. You will find me at #flowersatlottarock

Until next week when the snow has melted and fingers crossed the narcissus will begin to bloom. Allie. I dream of flowers