What a week! What a Day! But first. Happy Mothers Day to all, non mothers included because you too are important and vital to households giving love and support as well. I am a mother to all the critters on the farm, so therefor, I also celebrate. Even having a mimosa to celebrate my mother and my mother in laws life. Cheers ladies.
The tulips are rocking in fast and furious. If it is sunny and warm I am harvesting tulips, narcissus and anemone three times a day. If it is cloudy and cool, I can get away with just one harvest. Last Thursday I got in a minor panic. The bulb room hadn’t been set up with its new cooling system and I had tulips coming on like mad so my darling Steve hooked up the new aircon and we are good to go. And just in the nick of time because I needed the cooling space. Bless him. I knew I married him for something. Need I say, that the cooler is filling up nicely and smells like an intense florist shop. Yumm.
The tulips and narcissus are going strong, as are the anemones. The frittilaria are now being allowed to go to seed. The ranunculus are starting to come in as are the allium and leucojium (otherwise known as Giant Snowflake). Certainly in a week there will be more flowers in the offering. All dependent on Mother Nature of course, but exciting none of the less.
Yes, the anemone have little greenfly. Yes, they will stay there. They are doing no harm to the flower, the numbers are low and I prefer not to use any insecticides, even insecticidal soap because first they will ruin the flower faster than ever, and second, I really don’t want to use anything because of the ecosystem I am building here. If they are really bad I won’t sell them, If you want a perfect flower then you may not want to buy them, but those are our choices.
So I made a snap call last night to open the flower shed for Mothers Day, and thank you to everyone who came out. I had lots of lovely tulips and flowers to offer and it was such a beautiful day to travel to the farm.
The plants in the high tunnel, greenhouse and the garden are all looking good. Requiring a lot of water because of the wind whipping all the moisture out of everything but they are getting bigger. I can even see them from a few feet away now. Onward and upwards they say.
It looks like, for the time being because I have so many flowers, that the flower sheds hours will now include Tuesday afternoons from 3 to 6 as well as Fridays from 9 to 2. It might be a bit chaotic, but you are probably used to that by now with me. I look forward to seeing you.
I leave you with the photo of this weeks bouquet. Not my photo, but Steve’s.
Till next week. Allie