Author: Allie

The weather can’t decide what it wants to do, or where it wants to be. Summer? Fall? No, lets try summer again…with added humidity, oh and rain! But no matter what the weather or season it decides to be, the flowers are just stunning. The colors, the depth of colors, everything needed to make stunning bouquets is available now. Not that it wasn’t available before, but the colors and textures right now are certainly something to write about. So I am. (Insert smiley face).

So let’s start with the dahlias. The OMG of flowers. The colors, patterns…you can have the jewel tones, or the pastel tones and just about any flower goes with them. I think they are my most favorite flower next to tulips. Well, OK, it’s a tie. The tulips herald in the flower growing season, and the dahlias are the swan song of the flower growing season.

This is just a smattering of the ones on offer, if I took photos of all of them you would have your socks knocked off they are stink’n beautiful. Do I have a favorite? No, they are all just amazing.

So. Speaking of tulips. Can you hear me sigh deeply? I got yet another letter from my sales rep saying that it was the worst year on record for tulip bulb growers, fusarium infecting the bulbs from the wet and cold year, so I will have no idea what I will get of my tulip order until the day they are supposedly shipped. So. I don’t know what I will have for the spring. Bummer for me. Because I am so small, it is hard for me to hedge my bets. I have tulips that have to get crated and in the cooler by a certain date to be able to offer them to you in February. If I was to order more tulips, that I can figure out the cool time for they won’t get shipped until the date that would push them back into March, so I am going to do the wait and see. I am only starting to have sleepless nights over this, but thank goodness I am not a tulip bulb grower. Jon, my sales rep thinks many will toss the towel in because of their losses. Fingers crossed that I will have some tulips to grow for you this year.

On to happier flower thoughts. The flowers are looking stunning. It must be from all the available water. Everything is still going strong. Some of the beds have been ripped out and have a nice healthy cover crop growing on them, I have been harvesting and drying flowers for use later in the season, thinking dried bouquets, wreaths, gift toppers, you know, that sort of thing. I have perennials that need to be divided and planted into their new homes, and beds extended. The Acidanthera is coming into its own, the Cobea is starting to bloom as is the hyacinth bean, filler and foliages are looking good and it is starting to rain again. It will be a wet harvest tomorrow morning, but everything will be well hydrated.

I will leave you with two images from this week.

Next week I will have Steve take a drone shot of the gardens before I harvest so you can see all the color.

Until next week, may you immerse yourself in the beauty of flowers. Allie

I decided not to labor this Labor Day weekend, and instead spent the days at the lake rowing, bicycling, swimming, having lunch with flower friends and dinner with family. It turns out I was way too busy to get the blog out last night, but here I am. And you thought you had a break from me.

The flowers are bountiful and colorful. The annual asters are in full stride, as are the marigolds, zinnias, and the dahlias. Ahhh, the dahlias are outdoing themselves this year despite the rainy summer. The chrysanthemums are budding up nicely and some might even be harvested this week. The Acidanthera have started to bloom. These are related to the gladioli but so much better, they are much more subtle of a flower with a lovely perfume.

I have started a new garden bed, at least I have gotten the new row marked out and the cardboard down, that will be finished this week, because I have new plants to go in. Meanwhile the plants are sitting in the shade most of the day until they are ready for planting.

Because it is labor day, I won’t labor on, but will leave you with a bunch of images from the past week. Enjoy.

Until next week. Allie

It is starting to look like September. I know this because the days are getting shorter, the light is changing, the flowers are changing and the gardens are ramping up again.

It is hard to believe that I have been cutting and harvesting flowers now for seven months, and I still have two(?) months to go. That is right, well, maybe a month and a half, but probably closer to two. Some flowers are looking tired and they have already been cut down and a cover crop sown, some are still going strong and will so until the temps and the daylight really starts to wane like the zinnias and the dahlias. The dahlias really don’t like the shorter days and just start to make weak stems, and the zinnias down’t like the chilly damp mornings. But, that being said, some of the flowers are only just now starting to set bud so you can look forward to the peacock orchid, pumpkins on a stick, pumpkins and chrysanthemums. The season of flowers will still rock on!

I/we invested in a battery powered LED light to light up the flower shed on these dark and gloomy days. What a difference a light makes. Now when you come to pick out your flowers you don’t have to take them outside in the dreary light to see what the colors are.

And better yet, I can operated it with my phone. I can turn it on and off, and increase the intensity of the light. Love it!

I know I should be making floral notes all during the season, but that is my goal for this week, after Tuesday. Stand in the garden with my notebook and start figuring out what I am going to grow next year, and more importantly where it is going to go. Most of my thoughts I can remember because I am in the garden daily, but I need to get it all down on paper. Like no lisianthus, one row of sweet peas, what perennials am I going to add and where are they going to go. Where am I going to put the dahlias and the chrysanthemums? You know, all that important stuff. I am going to use September as the planning month, the figure it out month, how am I going to rig up the irrigation in the second garden month, so on and so forth.

I am not going to bore you anymore today, I have a huge harvest that I have to start tonight so it will all be ready for pick up on Tuesday. My biggest order ever. But I will leave you with two photos from last week.

Enjoy, and I will be back next week. Allie

Have you noticed that the summer light is changing? It is no longer light enough to be in the gardens at 5:30, or really 6:00 in the morning unless I am turning on the irrigation. The urgency of being in the garden so early is gone, thankfully, for another year. Oh, believe me there is still plenty to do in the gardens but the urgency is gone. Mind you, it will pick up again before the season is done, planting tulips, getting the dahlias dug and ready for storage, getting the beds all put away, but that isn’t for another month, so now I have just a tich of respite.

Speaking of tulips. i got an email, along with many other recipients from my tulips sales rep, and they have had many tulip crop losses and failure to thrive crops so it could be that my tulip order will be reduced. By what number I have no idea, Nor do the suppliers at the moment, so it could be interesting. I might be a tulip grower, but I’m not a TULIP grower if you know what I mean. On my end it is a wait and see. I will try to have earlier crops like ranunculus and anemone but that will all depend on my skill, timing, and oh yes, the weather.

I still haven’t figured out how to rig up irrigation in garden number two yet. I guess I need more sleepless nights working on that one. I have figured out how to get the sides of the tunnel to go up and down more efficiently. It is done by all greenhouse growers, I am just a bit slow on the uptake. I have ordered the parts I need, Steve and I are trying to understand how to do this, or really Steve is trying to figure out what the heck I am trying to explain. It will all work out. Fingers crossed. Shipping is more expensive than the sum of the parts ordered. Go figure.

I think the flowers are doing quite well despite the summer they have been given. I mean, look at this flower haul from the other day, and this is only part of it.

I love it when I can take a few simple dahlia flowers from this, to this.

A special order going out on Monday morning. Yes, with notice I can create special orders for you as well.

I leave you with lat weeks #windowframethursday. I believe I titled it A burst of color for another gloomy day. It made me happy.

The last of the bells of Ireland, and two rose flowers that I got before the buds that smelt so sweet.

Until next week, may we all get to bury our noses in a bouquet of locally grown flowers. Allie

It is almost the middle of August, and the flowers, despite all the wild and crazy weather we have been having this summer are hitting their stride. The Japanese beetles are having orgies, they seem to pick one plant of each kind and OMG, the piles of beetles piling up on each other is just well, disgusting. So I am grateful that they are just at one plant and not at every plant. I squish as many as I can even when my hands are busy harvesting flowers but they are so thin it is hard to get them all. Tonight I had 20 of them on one Peaches ‘n cream dahlia, but nowhere else in the dahlia patch. Should have taken a believe it or not photo for you to see. Next week.

I decided on my drive back from the lake this afternoon that I am going to invest in a two valve programable timer for the second flower garden, yes, there are two…and the big garden because then they can be programed to come on when we are away and since next year I will be officially retired from gardening for others I can come back to the farm on Monday mornings instead of Sundays. I know, that is a run on sentence for sure. Not very smart of me to think of this when I was redoing the second garden but too late now. I will figure something out before next spring.

Flowers are getting harvested and hung up to dry in the shed. The beginning of the season or really until the last few weeks it has been terrible to dry because of the rain and humidity, but now the flowers are drying so they will be put in the storage bins until I need them in the winter for wreaths and package toppers. Package toppers you say? Yes, we went to a one year birthday party on Saturday, and the gift was wrapped in a paper bag, and topped with this.

In the winter, gifts that are given are wrapped in recycled paper bags, and topped with a little dried flower posy. The posy can be put in a vase for the winter and the wrapping composted, and when the flowers wilt in the summer from the humidity , they too can be safely composted.

Other farm news? The pumpkins are growing, the cup and saucer vine are starting to set flower buds, Yay! Love this vine. The cover crops are not germinating because it decided to stop raining although I would think the morning dew would be strong enough. It certainly gets my feet soaking wet.

In closing, have I told you how much I love flowers? Enjoy this beautiful August weather, flowers are abundant, flower farmers are tired and flowers are lively. Hope to see you soon at the Rock. Allie

Here it is August 6th. How did this happen? It feels like August. Today anyway. The gardens look like August with all of the typical August flowers blooming. The zinnias, rudbeckias, celosia, ageratum, dahlias, cosmos and so much more are all going gangbusters and the flower farmer looks as though it is August, tired and achey. The flowers make up for the gardener though and that is a wonderful thing.

I have the most amazing crop of self sown amaranth and celosia this summer. the celosia is all varieties with some of their own breeding and it is all over the place. And it is blooming just about the same time as the ones I so carefully germinated and planted out. They are smaller because they aren’t near the irrigation, and they haven’t been fed because I didn’t plant them but it is pretty amazing to see them. The amaranth is as statuesque as ever.

I love this plant. The foliage is great in arrangements, the flower spikes are great in arrangements and if I don’t harvest it soon enough the finches are all over it, (it is also a great grain) which is probably why it and its buddy celosia are all over the garden. Speaking of foliage and fillers, I have been adding interest to your bouquets with scented geraniums, basils, mountain mint that all have a beautiful scent, and color comes from the dusty miller, amaranth and mahogany splendor.

Now that the weather is drier than the last two months, I am beginning to get the flowers drying for this year.

The drying season has begun, and this will only be added to as the drier season hopefully continues.

Flowers that are on deck in the next weeks? The annual asters are showing beautiful buds, more zinnias and celosia, more rudbeckia and the peacock orchid. Further along on deck are

Pumpkins on a Stick and the big pumpkins I grew a few years ago. Fingers crossed on that one. they aren’t looking very big, nor promising at this point.

Remember, change the water on your summer flowers daily, or at least every other day and add a couple of drops of bleach to the water to keep the skank away. You can safely compost your flowers when they are spent. No chemicals or preservatives have been used in their post harvest, or their growing for that matter, unlike the imported flowers that come from most grocery stores. Those I would never compost. Not good.

I leave you with last week’s instagram post. I like this one. It is the cool colors in celebration of the cooler weather we had for a few days last week. Enjoy.

Until next week. Happy August. Allie

After weeks of extreme heat and humidity and rain we have today which is just about perfect. Clear blue sky, cool temps and a brisk breeze to keep the bugs at bay. And July still for one more day. Is this what August has in store for us? We will have to wait and see what Huey, the weather god brings us, but as we know, be prepared for anything.

We are truly in the thick of summer flowers now, zinnias, celosia, marigolds, rudbeckia, all the famous “dirty flowers”. Remember to change your flowers water daily if you can so the water doesn’t go skanky, and if you can’t remember to do it, add a drop or two of bleach into the water to act as a bactericide to keep your stems lovely. Shame on me on Friday with my flowers because this morning the water was peeyou. I changed the water, recut the stems, rinsed the stems, removed yucky stems and am enjoying the flowers again. It is also really good, in fact critical that your vases are clean. Don’t laugh but I wash my flower buckets and vases with a round toilet brush. It does a great job of cleaning the vases. If you are using an opaque vase, like this one,

remember to check the water levels as well. This is last Thursday’s #windowframethursday and when I looked at it this evening it was droopy. No water in the vase. Oops.

Your flowers are being harvested on Mondays and Thursdays so you have the freshest flowers when you come to the flower shed. They are cut first up in the morning before the sun hits the gardens, put immediately in water in the shade. Then after all is collected, into my cave we go where they are stripped of foliage, graded, put in fresh water and put into the cooler. I don’t think the summer flowers last quite as long as the winter and spring flowers and am happy if I get five days out of a bouquet as long as I do the proper steps, like changing the water daily.

The dahlias are coming, slowly. I have pinched them hard to slow them down, but I am ready for some wild color so harvesting flower stems when they happen is starting. Yay! The asters are showing buds, the fillers like the basils, scented geraniums and mountain mint are rocking on to give each bouquet a zing and the celosia, holy moly, do I have celosia. It has reseeded everywhere. I am not complaining mind you, but wow. Oh well. I can always dry it.

Speaking of drying, now that the humidity has vacated for the week, I have a bunch of peonies that have been in storage and other flowers that I am going to start drying for late fall and winter happenings. That is something to stay tuned for. Trust me.

So, this is a VERY COOL project that I am doing with my friend BJ. We are taking flowers, and pounding them onto fabric that has been mordanted. A very good upper arm workout, believe me.

I mean how cool is this. We are still in the trial phase, but I have plans. Oh BJ, are you reading this? I have plans and you are involved. As usual, I might add.

So I leave you with this, even though it is 90 degrees out, raining, snowing or tornado warnings I have flowers on open flower shed days. I have flowers by the single stem, by the bouquet and by the bucket. Yup. I have flowers. And to prove it, here I am in all my flower growing glory.

Or not.

Hope to see many of you soon, and until next week. Allie

Wow! We have had the sun out now for four days in a row! And not just a weak overcast sun, or a sun covered by smoke, but real sun. Let the watering commence. Although showers and storms are predicted for much of this week, that is OK. I have seen the sun.

The seasons are changing once again. I have been busy pulling out the cool flowers which included the bachelor buttons, the agrostema, most of the larkspur, bells of Ireland, and the clarkias. I have stopped watering the Icelandic poppies and it’s sad to say good bye to the sweet peas. That season had gotten off to such a good start but the wet, the heat and humidity just didn’t do them any favors so I cut down the first row. I would love to see if the re-sprout, who knows. The empty beds are being raked over and cover crop will be added until I am ready to get the seeded perennials and bi-annuals planted out later in September. So much work to do. It is hard to believe that in another 2 months the tulips will arrive. Yikes! So much bed prep to do!

The gardens and flowers are doing well, and lots of flowers are being harvested. The dahlias are setting bud and there is a flower here and there but soon, just soon there will be another explosion of color. I think dahlias rival tulips for color and style, and they are a great way to cap off the season that was started by the tulip explosion.

Just to show you the variety of flowers harvested last week, feast your eyes on these beauties.

Next week the wagon will look very different because every week new flowers come in, and old flowers go. That is what makes it so exciting.

So I will leave you now so you can dream of what to do with next week’s exciting floral selection. This is what I created with a handful of tiny stems or too weird to offer you, but I had a beautiful chance to be creative.

Until next week I will dream flowers and sunshine. Allie

Here we are. Mid July. Where is our hot and dry? Even hot and humid? This is stink’n hot and WET. I feel so far this summer that I am back living on Tamborine Mountain in Queensland. Holy Moly! Let the rain stop! I am grateful, oh so grateful that I am not a flower farmer in Vermont, or any farmer in Vermont, this is bad enough, but OMG, do they have it hard. And let’s just say that yes, crop insurance helps, but man dear, it doesn’t even come close. This flower farmer is so grateful that so far my flowers are standing, or rather leaning but we are good. This is this morning though. Didn’t know if I was going to have an open flower shed on Tuesday…

Yup, This is Stoddard Rd. Looking down the road from our driveway on the right, looking down the road from our driveway. All is good. It is safe. So the flower shed will be open Phew!

And the only reason I say phew is because I have flowers. Yup. Despite the rain, and the lack of sun, and the rain…I have flowers.

Squish, squish, squish as I walk around the property. My rain tanks are overflowing and have been for weeks now, the flowers are baulking and I can’t say I am blaming them. The non-stop rain is getting old, everything is damp, the weeds are OUT of Control! It’s a farmer’s life. We have no control, we just have to plan for the worst and hope for the best. The best? I have flowers. I am stink’n lucky. I am grateful for good drainage, good wellies and quick dry clothing.

And the flower life goes on. I am getting ready in my head for my next expansion. Lisa, don’t say anything. It isn’t going to be big, but as some of you know I am retiring from gardening for others at the end of the year and well, let’s just say that am planning on diversifying for my old age. I am prepping new beds between rain storms, and making lists. Then I will be done. Don’t say anything Lisa. I know.

Since I don’t have and #windowframethursday to amuse you with I will leave you with this I found on instagram. I love it. It speaks of so much. And only in the EU would you find this.

So until next week, when the sun shines, the breeze gently blows away the bugs and the moisture. May we all be grateful and enjoy flowers. Allie

So far this has been the yuckiest summer I have experienced in years. Hot and humid is one thing, that is to be expected because it is summer. But this rain? Holy crap! Enough for a week. Please! I am so glad I bought a water tank so I can keep everything watered throughout the summer. At least I know it works, I guess, and we have the system tuned I think. We haven’t needed it for a month now. At least we aren’t in fire danger, and I don’t have mold ruining my leather shoes and belts like when I was living on the mountain in Australia.

So what is new besides the rain? Well, the flowers in the tunnel have had about enough. Because of the high temps that we have been having, besides the rain which hasn’t been bothering them because they are under cover, the flowers have said, “You know what? This season is the pits, and we are done.” So, say good bye to the Icelandic poppies, the godetia and the clarkia till next year. The cosmos, zinnias are hanging on, the sweet peas are like outta here, and who knows, the sun could come out on Tuesday and we may not see another drop of rain until October. I would almost say wouldn’t that be great.

My other most exciting news of the week is this. Not!

You know what this is? Bear poop! Yup. found this “dainty” (8 inches in diameter) morsel on the path between the flowers inside the fencing and the roses. Now I know that bears don’t eat flowers, that is up to Bambi, who so far is disliking the Irish Spring soap, but honestly, I don’t want bears this close to the house and the farm animals. Hopefully, it was a juvenile just wandering through. That is why the donkeys have been so testy, I am sure. And you thought flower farming was just easy by putting plants in the soil and letting them go until they are harvested. HAH!

I read this on a flower site the other day. July. This month is American Grown Flowers Month. This is the month that all 50 states have flowers to sell, and the perfect excuse to buy flowers from a local flower grower and not from the supermarket. I know that I am preaching to the wrong crowd, right? But locally grown flowers are fresher than any flower than you can buy in a supermarket. Think about it…The flowers that you find in the big stores are harvested on a Monday morning, prepped, conditioned with floral preservatives, then sit in an airport, then fly to an airport then sit in a wholesalers before they get to you. Five days? Yes, they have a shelf life, but handle with care, don’t smell them, and I wouldn’t even compost them because of what is used to preserve them. Locally grown flowers? fresher, supporting a local farmer, yes you can smell and handle them with out fear and safely compost them. So, even if you love to buy flowers at the supermarket because they are cheaper, and last longer because of the chemicals…please buy local for the rest of the moth of July. doesn’t have to be from me, although I do appreciate it. Just buy Local flowers. Please.

So on to my next topic. I leave you with two flower photos. My annual 4th of July photo, and my #Windowframethursday photo. I hope they make you smile. They make me happy because I get to play with flowers in a creative manner.

The 4th is all red white and blue, and windowframe is what I had. I love the creative process and I hope you do as well.

Until next week, when hopefully the sun will shine upon the flower beds. Allie