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Even as I write this and white stuff is falling from the sky, I know that spring is coming. How do I know this? The stone walls and the rock are reappearing, we have finally gotten rid of all the snow and ice on the driveway, hello mud in the parking area! And as soon as a bit more snow melts this week I am going to be harvesting the Mt Aso Willows.

Not a great shot, they are far more beautiful when the sun is shining, but these pussy willows have the most beautiful silver and pink buds and they will be harvested this week! Something new and different for bouquets and bunches.

This afternoon I hauled out all of the perennial and cool annuals that are ready to the greenhouse for hardening off. Now every evening and morning will be spent taking off and putting on the frost cloth that will protect them from the bitter cold temps…The only seedlings that didn’t go out are the eucalyptus and the dahlia seedlings that are looking as though I should put them up into something bigger. Add that to the list.

The ranunculus look like they are getting ready to sprout, yay and phew. Timing might be al little off but they will happen.

I got a notice from my sales rep that the tulip order sheet will be posted this week. Eeks! I am only halfway through the forced crates and they want me to think about next year already!

Another sign of spring here at the farm? My witch hazels are starting to show color and bloom and anyone coming to get flowers you can be sure that I will be pointing this out to you repeatedly. When the witch hazels bloom it is just so damn exciting. And yes, they bloom when there is snow on the ground and when the temperatures are still winter like.

Another sign of spring? The row markers in the cutting garden have emerged, and if that isn’t exciting I don’t know what is.

What exciting things do I have on deck this week? Pulling more tulip crates, some seeding, watching the snow melt, doing about hourly laps around the property looking for signs of spring, harvesting the pussy willow and enjoying the warmer temperatures. All very important work if you ask me.

I leave you with last week’s #windowframethursday photo…Tulips, grape hyacinths and parsley that had gotten out of control in the dirty room. I think it makes a very nice frilly filler.

So until next week…Oh I forgot. Floret has done an amazing three part video on YouTube called the Beautiful Pursuit. If you have the time, watch it. Thirty international flower growers are interviewed about why they grow flowers and so much more. If you google “The Beautiful Pursuit” it will take you right there. I found it fascinating, and hopefully you will to.

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

Welcome March

We seem to back to winter this weekend, bitterly cold temperatures and wind but warmer temps and rain are on the way. To be honest, I am ready for mud rather than snow and ice. I have enjoyed the winter with snowshoeing and ‘Spare Time” but it is time to move on, bring on the mud and frost heaves.

Tulip crate hauling and tetris continues, I have I think five more weeks of tulips in the cooler yet to come out, three more crates of narcissus and a crate of hyacinths and random muscari so there will be plenty of spring until the real deal spring happens.

The ranunuclus have been soaked and are in the sprouting trays and as soon as I see green they will be transplanted into the greenhouse in tulip crates. The anemones have been soaked and are not waiting to be sprouted, but are in a crate already. I thought I had more corms but damned if I can find them so it will be what it will be for anemones this spring. By mid March I expect that the greenhouse will be full, and I will be prepping the tunnel for the next crop of spring plantings. Seeding continues for the cool flowers but soon, well in a month, the summer flowers will be starting. Time is flying by quickly.

Last Friday was the first open flower shed day that I wasn’t hauling flower buckets down to the shed every time one of you lovely flower people showed up. It turned out to be a beautiful day. After each bucket was loaded I put them on the veranda railing to keep them cool and out of the way until the shed opens, and what happen, a snow squall! but they were fine, Steve and I got them down in the shed for the open shed. It certainly is nice to have them all in one place.

Hopefully on Fridays going forward the days will be warm enough, but not too warm to keep the flowers in the shed.

I look forward to sunny and warmer days…I am leaving you with two photos…

Allie. I dream of flowers, do you?

Hey! It got above Freezing today!

I don’t know about you, but having the temperatures above freezing for the first time in ages is certainly something to celebrate. That being said, and seeing the beautiful temperatures for the coming week I am feeling behind. The life of a farmer.

I am for the most part caught up on my seedling transplanting and another batch of seeds need to be sown this week coming. I must get out into the high tunnel and get that cleaned up really soon because before long that will be planted out. Then I also have to get the ranunculus and anemone soaked and sprouted so they can go into the empty tulip crates. It is always a shuffle here for sure.

The seed rack is full, which adds to some space constraints. If I thought the temps would stay consistent I would move many of the perennial seedlings out into the unheated greenhouse but really, it is still February, even though late February and I still have to get through March…I can cover the flats with cloth which will keep them a little toastier but not enough I don’t think. The twenties they would be ok. The teens, that’s risky…I have been spoiled by the last few easy winters I guess.

The tulips are stunning, the narcissus are beautiful but let me tell you about the hyacinths. One, the vase life is at least two weeks and they have a lovely sweet scent. They look beautiful in arrangements and did I say they have a long vase life? Yes, they are expensive flowers but I think worth every penny. You should try them out when you see them available.

The hyacinths in the above photo were a week old before I stuck them in the arrangement. Four days later, as I write this they still look good. Wicked good I might add.

I leave you with last week’s photo of the tulip offering. Looks like spring I would say.

Until next week, think warmer spring thoughts and I will dream flowers.

Allie

First off, let me thank all of you who braved the bitter cold temperatures and our driveway to pick up the first flowers of the year. Thank you! And it was lovely being able to see you all again after such a long floral break. It’s good to be back in the flowers.

So it is another snowy Sunday, so far, as I write this at 4:11 the farm has been spared the dreaded rain. It has been going back and forth between light snow and sleet which I can deal with, with rain on top, not so much. As our DPW director says, only 33 more days till spring. I say spring is here at Lottarock at least flower wise, winter wise? Not so much.

After digging out tomorrow, I will be hauling out flowers to the cooler, empty crates to the greenhouse for the ranunculus and anemones to grow in if the nighttime temperatures stay out of the single digits for more than a night. Usually by now the corms have been soaked and starting to sprout, but who said this is usual? Or maybe it is a normal winter and we have gotten used to the past few years. I don’t know, but I would like to get them started. Patience. Why lose a crop due to my impatience. I also need to haul in this next batch of tulip crates. New varieties are on the horizon.

On a side note, I am so happy I had my shoulder fixed last March because if I hadn’t, I would not be a happy camper. I wouldn’t be able to clear the snow off the greenhouse and tunnel, I wouldn’t be able to haul tulip crates anywhere and I would be miserable. Go healed shoulder and fitness!

Go Spring!

I will be back next week, hopefully it won’t be snowing. Steve will do his little bit next and I will go out and do animal chores. until next week.

Allie. I dream of flowers, do you?

Outside it is cold and white having a fresh 7.5 inches of snow delivered last night but inside it is flower time. That is right, I have flowers! Better yet? Plenty to go around to erase those winter blahs.

Tulips, narcissus and very possibly hyacinths that I am trialing. I will send out the newsletter giving details on Thursday for Friday’s blooms to remind you all but the flower shed or rather the tool shed at this point will be open on Friday Feb 14, that’s right, Valentine’s Day so get some flowers for a special someone as well as yourself. Anyway, the shed will be open from 10-2:00, or until sold out. Because these are the first flowers of the season I don’t expect them to last long so don’t dally. Oh yeah, wear your boots. We might be shoveled but there are still patches of snow.

Besides flowers happening, so are the seedlings. Germination is looking good for the seeds that have been started and the dirty room is really getting full. It is a good thing I am tall because the paths are about twelve inches wide.

I had a moment of weakness last week and because they had just become available I have ordered another fifty flowering shrub, foliage liners. So sometime in mid March, 90 bare root plants will be arriving on my doorstep, along with the forty willows to root. I hope most of this snow will be gone by then because I have plants to plant. I might have some space in the cooler to hold them, they could possible go out into the greenhouse, but even that is going to be filling up quickly. We will just have to wait and see I guess. At least I know where I am going to plant them.

Soon I will be trudging out to the willows to start harvesting them, and also the lovely yellow stemmed cornus to round out the early spring offerings.

I will send this over to Steve now so he can proof read me and write his little ditty.

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

Well the silly groundhog saw his shadow this morning so we have six more weeks of winter. Duh. I could have told you that. Spring doesn’t happen by the calendar until March 22, six weeks away! Here at Lottarock, spring is here. Very NEARLY.

I have been busy harvesting the first of the narcissus, The first crate is almost completely harvested and the stems are in the cooler. The first crates of tulips are soooo close.

As much as I would LOVE to say, I will have flowers this Friday, I think not. I will however have flowers for Valentine’s Day, and what can be better than local, farm fresh flowers for valentines day? Or any day for that matter.

It will be interesting what imported flowers there will be this year for Valentine’s Day with all the new tariffs. This time of year almost all of the flowers come from South America, especially those long stemmed red roses. Tulips are imported from Prince Edward Island so they will also be affected by the Canadian tariffs. Looks like local might be the way to go! Go Local Flowers!

The dirty room sure is getting full. Right now there are 14 crates of bulbs, and another 5 or 6 come in tomorrow. I hope harvesting picks up soon because I will be out of space after tomorrow’s crate pull! Tomorrow the first set of seedlings get transplanted, so there goes a shelf on the grow rack, and the cool flowers get seeded tomorrow as well. I love a tetris challenge, which is good, because ’tis the season.

I will be sending out the newsletter soon for flower shed times and all that fun stuff.

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

But…spring is slowly happening here at Lottarock. Oh yes. How do it know that? Because the days are getting longer thank goodness, I had a bluebird on the arbor outside the kitchen window the other day and I have flowers. Yup. Flowers.

Here you go, the first crate of Narcissus, don’t know the variety because it is one of the few things I didn’t label. I won’t do that again. I try to name and date everything that is forced and seeded, and in the case of peonies, labeled and dated as well.

Next up in the spring lie up is this. Muscari.

So these Muscari are from the first tiny crate that I pulled at the end of December. Actually looking at my notes it was December 13, so it has been 43 days out. A bit longer than I had anticipated, especially when those narcissus above has been two weeks. Live and learn. But my, aren’t they a feast to behold.

The dusty miller in the arrangement is what I had but out of the high tunnel back in December when I was creating a memorial bouquet. I had needed to condition it because that tunnel hadn’t had water since June? but it still looked good, good enough to harvest anyway. Well when I went to compose this arrangement I pulled out the stems from water and they have roots! Go figure. They were just sitting on the floor in the dirty room, under the workbench totally forgotten. Tomorrow they will get potted up and maybe cuttings taken. I always can use filler early in the season. The branches are ones in my winter arrangement that sprouted so I just cut off the green bits for a bit of height and contrast. Honestly, I am quite proud of it, if I must say so.

The first batch of seeds that went down early January have germinated. Well most of them have anyway. The ones that you are looking at are yarrow and they are ready to be transplanted into soil blocks this week.

So by now I am sure you are wondering what about the tulips? Well, I am not making many guarantees, but if you have a birthday in February, you will be receiving tulips. I will have tulips for my birthday anyway. They are coming along. I still hope to have by the middle of February a decent amount to offer to all.

Now is the time to start paying attention to the newsletters that will be coming out in the next week or two. The newsletter will tell you when and where the tulips and other flowers will be offered and the times. The flower shed is only open on Fridays until May? and the hours will vary. If you know anyone who would be interested in local, farm fresh flowers, have them sign up for the newsletter. Flowers-at-lottarock.com or flowersatlottarock@gmail.com will get them there as well. Better yet, bring them along so they can get the floral experience.

It is so exciting to have flowers again.

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

Oh the forecast doesn’t look very warming this week coming. Down right frigid they say. My only worry is the little heater in the bulb room not keeping up to the sub zero temperatures but the temperature alarm is set and can only hope the temperatures don’t dip below 35. I’m not worried about the bulbs dipping below that, in fact after this cold spell we are going to drop the temperature down to 40, it is at 45 right now. What I am worried about is all the dahlias that are stored in there that shouldn’t dip below 40.

Last Monday was the first day of tulip crate hauling. The first 4 crates are in as well as a crate of narcissus. They are all looking really good, especially the narcissus that I can see the flower buds and they are putting on growth.

Because if the frigid cold temps forecasted I hauled in tomorrows crates in this afternoon. It is better for the bulbs, better for me and better for the house because I didn’t have a door opener, he was busy scraping ice off the driveway before tonights snow.

Some of the seeds have started to germinate which is always exciting. The red tone yarrow is up, the pink shades not so much, but it was old seed so I need to get some more in my travels. The eucalyptus is up, pansies starting and the echinops looks like I will really be able to see it versus thinking I am seeing it start to germinate. It is a very fine line. Later this week I will start the cool annuals.

Remember I told you all last week that I was bad because I hadn’t pulled the ranunculus and anemone out of the high tunnel and and I was lamenting their death? Well the other day I went in and pulled the corms. They look good! I think that because the soil was soooo dry that they somehow survived. The real test will be when I soak them to sprout in the middle of next month but I am keeping my fingers crossed.

That is about all that is happening here at Lottarock at the moment. I will be back next week with more tales to tell I am sure. Until then,

Allie. I dream of flowers, do you?

Yay! It is nearly here, the day that the first crates of tulips get pulled out of the cooler and into the dirty room. I have been slaving away the last two days tidying up, making space and just getting ready. Besides the four weekly crates that will be getting pulled, I will also be pulling a crate of narcissus and eventually crates of hyacinths. The hyacinths need a few more weeks of chill time but soon.

So this is an experiment this year forcing narcissus and hyacinths. First it depends if I can pull this off. No reason I shouldn’t be able to but I always worry, and the biggest question how will they be received by my lovely flower people. The cost of tulip bulbs is just going up and up, and I want to be able to offer other spring flowers to help relieve the winter blues, or whites depending on the day.

The perennials have been sown, now it’s a waiting game for germination. They do take their time it seems. The cool annuals get sown the week after next. I still have to get the tunnel ready for those seedlings but I have time yet. My first oops of the year is not cleaning the tunnel back in November when I had nice weather because the ranunculus and anemone corms are still in the beds and with all this cold weather they more than likely are smelt. Damn. Luckily I have enough I had saved from last year that were in crates, but the nice ones in the tunnel…well…It is supposed to be above freezing this week for a few days so I guess I will dig around and see if I can salvage anything. Ugh.

Everything is ordered for this year’s growing. All the seeds are here, the shrubs have been ordered, chrysanthemums ordered, willows ordered and the last? of the perennials have been ordered. It is going to be one busy spring. It will be an exciting and busy spring. Bring it on, I am ready!

That is enough for now, I will be back next week to regale you with more happenings at Lottarock. Until then,

Allie

I dream of flowers, do you?

As I sit here writing this the snow is flying outside and it is hard to imagine that spring is “right around the corner”, but in reality here at Lottarock, it is right around the corner. True.

Remember that litle wooden crate I brought in back on Dec. 15? It is the one on the left.

If you look carefully at the pic on the right, you will see flower buds! See, spring is right arond the corner. This means that I can start to pull another crate or two of muscari to have flowers soon, how soon I don’t know. Pretty damn exciting if you ask me. Add some greens, a few branches and viola! a posey. Who has a birthday coming up in a week or two?

The other reason that spring is around the corner is that a week from tomorrow, the first crates of tulips and a crate of narcissus will be coming out of the cooler and into the dirty room. My goal is to have tulips and mixed bouquets for Valentines day but who knows. I will keep you posted.

The seeding bench is cleared off and tomorrow the seeding of the perennials, pansies and eucalyptus will be sown. Yes, my vacation is over and back to flower work.

Since it is a new year, I guess I should have 2025 flower goals. It is already going to be a busy year with everything that I have ordered. New beds have to get dug, but first a donkey shelter has to be moved, stumps pulled and rows made before I can and get everything in the ground. I would love to have more flower lovers joining us here at Lottarock so if you know anyone who loves flowers and would like to join us, send them along, or better yet, bring them along and get a floral gift. My last goal is figuring out how to add photos to the newsletters that I send out to really pique your interest the night before open shed day. Technology, argh.

I will pass you off to Steve now, so until next week,

Allie, I dream about flowers, do you?