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You probably thought I had faded off into the void, but here I am, another year of flower growing for you, my flower lovers.

I will say I am not sad to see the end of 2023. That last quarter was a struggle to say the least, but the calendar has turned the page and we are looking towards a fantastic floral year. I have started PT for the left wing and fingers crossed I will be back to fine fettle by the time flowers begin.

Speaking of flowers, seeding begins this week for the perennials, next week the first three crates of tulips get hauled into the dirty room, which means I must do a deep clean before now and next week. If all goes to plan, I should have tulips available for you all by the middle of February.

Meanwhile, both Steve and I are suffering from head colds, so have had a total down day watching the snow come down. Now the garden is safely covered for the rest of the season. That is if the snow stays. I have been walking the gardens once or twice each day just to check on things, checking that I have enough space to put everything when the big plant out begins. I am also digging deep into becoming a better business person…not fun but necessary, as well as flower learning which is far more fun than the business side of things. At least in my opinion.

Happy January everyone. It is good to be back and growing flowers again.

I dream of flowers, do you? These dahlia tubers are dreaming flowers. At least I hope they are.

Until next week. Allie

Happy holidays to all you you, my faithful flower people. I hope each of you have a safe, family, friend and fun filled week of celebrations. We here at Lottarock are celebrating the increasing light, friends stopping by, cheer and family. I mostly want to thank you for supporting this flower farmer with your love for my flowers and especially giving your support during this flower farmers shall we say challenging last few months.

I will be back weekly after the New Year because believe it or not, seeding begins and soon there will be tulips. Yay!

I wish you all the best holiday season. You flower lovers are the best and I thank you all from the bottom of my heart. See you in the New Year.

I dream of flowers. Do you? Allie

I hope everyone had their fill of turkey and all the trimmings on Thursday and now everyone is ready for the exciting month of December, decking the halls with fresh and local greens and trees. Nothing speaks more than having a local and natural holiday season. Yes, the decorations don’t last as long, but either does a flower bouquet. At the end, they can all be composted and not filling up the landfill with plastics and more.

My pots and urns are filled with boughs cut from the farm, mixed with red and yellow twigs, adding some dried hydrangea, tying on dried white and red gomphrena flowers, some honesty seed pods and there you go. Beautiful. My gifts are wrapped in paper bags and festooned with dried flower posies…what could be more beautiful.

Since the gardens are all sleeping, and the bulbs are doing what they do without my help, I am going to give you a break from my posts until things at Flowers at Lottarock start rock’n. I will still be happy to do dried flowers bouquets for you, posies for gift adornment, or being creative for you, but since we will all be busy, I will take a bit of time off from doing the blog posts, but in mid January, I will be back. Promise.

That being said, if you do need my florals, contact me at flowersatlottarock@gmail.com. I more than likely will not be checking the website like I should. Bad me. But hey, everyone needs a vacation from a website.

I leave you with pics of an arrangement I did for a thanksgiving table last week. Enjoy.

All grown or harvested here at the farm. To me it reads the end of the season beauty.

Until next year my flower people. Have a safe and fabulous filled December, I will be back in January. Promise.

I dream of flowers, do you? Until next time, Allie

We are on the back half of November now. I no longer have fresh flowers to harvest, but do I have some lovely dried flowers to create many things. My first creation of the week? Check this out.

These are all made on grapevine bases, grown, harvested and made by me. The evergreens are grown by brother Sean, the dried flowers by me. The wreaths are completely compostable, no wire or plastic is involved. No, they won’t last forever, nor should they. Like your garden flowers, they are to be enjoyed, then let them go back to the earth. The wreathes measure about 18″ across, and each is different, but you probably figured that part out already. I will also do holiday table arrangements in your vessel if you like. Love the chance to be creative. So. If you are interested, send me an email at…flowersatlottarock@gmail.com. I only look at the website on Mondays and not always at the comments. I know, me bad, wicked bad.

The cutting garden is officially put away for the season now. The gate is closed. The last of the beds got their protective coat of leaf mulch on Thursday and I have but the rods in for the low tunnels. If I go in now, it is just because I am planing or dreaming of what will be.

Saying that, I am going to try to rest my wing. TRY, to rest my wing. I will still give you flower farm updates until December, then I will give you all a break until Mid January when flower farming starts all over again.

Have a great Thanksgiving with family and friends, remember to let me know if you want a wreath or an arrangement, and I will be back next Sunday.

I dream of flowers. Do you? Allie

Well here we are in mid November, and now I can honestly say the gardens are done for the year. Last Thursday’s freezing rain, and this morning’s low temp of a whopping 24 degrees has just about done it. That being said, I finished up getting all the beds, irrigation, weed mat, posts put away a few days earlier. Everything is safely tucked in now. I just have to get the leaf mulch on the beds because I don’t want any exposed soil, but there are to be some nice days at the end of the week so that is the plan.

But!!! Spring is in the air….look at this!

So at five weeks, growth is starting to happen, and this is so exciting! This is happening faster than my wing healing. Actually anything is happening faster than my wing healing. We turned the cooler system over today from cooling to heating. I hope we did it right. Even with instructions it is a challenge, but the alarm will go off on my phone if we goofed. We will know tonight.

The last floral bouquet went our yesterday. I was asked three? weeks ago if I could do a flower arrangement for a memorial service, so I did a big harvest of beautiful hydrangea blooms, kept them cool, which hasn’t been hard, and created a farewell bouquet.

I had picked the most amazing hydrangeas, blues, blues that had turned a deep purple, whites, and creams. Added some late blooming chrysanthemums rosemary for remembrance, and spirea foliage. If you are up for creativity, I can do it (sorta).

I have had a request for, besides holiday wreaths, holiday bouquets. Sure, why not. My goal this week is to make a prototype of each, with estimated prices, post photos of the next Sunday and we will go from there. The wreaths are going to be all natural, fully compostable with the material grown here or at my brother’s. That is right, at the end of the holidays, you can toss it in the compost, or hang it somewhere and maybe the sprig birds will like it for nesting. No wire or plastics will be used. Stay tuned.

The sky is getting dark, the dogs are getting anxious and I can hear the donkeys calling for their dinner, so I will leave you here.

I dream of flowers. Do you? Until next week. Allie

Well we turned the clocks back this morning and I finished putting the cutting garden to bed this afternoon. The days are now shorter and it forces me into the house at a decent hour, both are good. It’s bittersweet in so many ways, yes, the days are shorter but it means cozy time by the fire. With the days being shorter and the garden all done with cut back, maybe my wing will begin to heal. Maybe. I would love to get leaves on the beds and wood chips on the paths so spring would be easier, but we will see. I really need to get this wing to start healing.

I got a request for eight jars of posies for last Friday, and it was the night before the big freeze that took down everything but the chrysanthemums. Luckly I harvested plenty of stems to fill the order so Friday morning I had a very happy customer.

I mean who would have thought I would have had this many flowers the first week of November? Now it will just be dried flowers done to order. If you are interested in one, just drop me an email. In case you forgot it, it is flowersatlottarock@gmail.com

I know, you are wondering what am I going to do with myself now that the gardens are cut back? Well, I have leaves to spread on the beds, wood chips to add to the paths, one more tiny batch of bulbs to plants. I need to find time to study, as well as go through my seed inventory because early spring flowers will need to be sown by mid January. Then the flower growing season starts all over again starting with the ranunculus and anemone mid January, then hauling tulip crates mid January, so I need to get ready, fit and organized for all of that.

Oh, and now that the push for getting the gardens cut down, I can get back to my favorite creative floral challenge, my #windowframethursday that I try to post every Thursday on Instagram. This is a true challenge because I want to show what can be harvested from the gardens every week of the year, but I do enjoy the chance to be creative.

I haven’t given up on the wreaths yet, I know I have two people that are interested. I need to get some harvesting done next week, this week is full up somehow, but stay tuned.

So until next week, dream flowers. I do. Allie

I know I said last week that it was the end of the flower season, but lo and behold I had enough flowers last Friday to have another open flower/tool shed day.

I don’t think there is going to be another open flower shed this year, but who knows. We are to get our first freeze on Tuesday that will truly put an end to to flowers, but, if you want something special and I can do it, just let me know.

The dahlias are all dug, sorted and ready to join the tulips tomorrow, before the big freeze. Can you believe that we had 32 varieties to choose from this season? Some, like the dinnerplates will be going into the flower bed next summer, that leaves room for four new varieties to add next year. Next on the list of to-do’s is to get the last of the tulips planted. These are the ones that go into the outside beds and I have a group of lovely flower people to give me a hand to get that done. Meanwhile, the new peonies have been planted, and the garden continues to get cleaned up. No rush at this point, all the important things are done, and as long as it all gets done by the time the snow flies I should be good.

I made a lovely thank you bouquet for a wonderful friend who came last week to help be get beds prepped for the new peony roots, just in time, get the spring bulbs in the ground and get the pots of perennials that had been waiting to get into the ground for months healed in.

Meanwhile I finished getting two new beds ready for planting. One I had no intention os doing but it is now filled, and the other will be planted out in the spring with shade loving perennials. I have to stop planting more flowers! Next year, I won’t be adding anymore. “Sure” I can hear you all say.

So between creating new beds and planting I have had a lovely time creating. This image is last week’s #windowframethursday. It is full of late summer flowers and the last of the dahlias for the year.

So things are winding down at the farm. We are sleeping in now until 6. Quite the luxury. By Thanksgiving I expect to have the gardens completely asleep, then come mid January we start all over again, I will be rested, have a healed wing and ready to go.

I leave you with the last flower sign of the year. Don’t worry, I will still be here, blogging away for a bit longer, then I will give you a well deserved break.

I dream about flowers. Do you? Until next week. Allie

The grand circle of gardening is an interesting thought. I have truly started to tear down the cutting garden, but also getting ready for spring with the planting of the tulips and other spring bulbs, sowing cover crop on the cleared beds, then looking ahead, because every flower farmer must look ahead. I see that this past spring’s tulip crates were being pulled into the dirty room and cool crop seeds were being started the first week of February. I will still be working in the gardens somewhat until the snow flies and stays, because everything I can get done this fall, makes spring easier.

This past week’s project was getting the dahlias taken care of. I put out the call for help and you came to my rescue. Unfortunately the weather gods were not going to cooperate so I cancelled the harvest party not wanting you all to work in the rain. I started Thursday afternoon and got them all cut down, labeled, dug and in their crates by the end of Friday. let’s just say it was an Aleve evening. But, the good news is they are all in crates, in my cave waiting to be sorted, sorta cleaned and put in the bulb room with the tulips. It is going to be a very full bulb room in another week for sure.

Now that the dahlias are out and safe, I sowed cover crop seed, fingers crossed that the birds don’t eat all the seed and the seed isn’t so old it won’t germinate. After our expected low temps Tuesday morning, the weather looks really good. So good weather for getting the remainder of the garden cut back, composted, landscape fabric up, irrigation pulled, more cover crop sown, and if the weather holds, get the paths mulched!

We did have some fun, decorating the tractor with flowers!

You might ask what is left? I mean, the flower shed is closed for the season! Well, I still have the in ground tulips to get planted, but more spring bulbs, a stack of perennials to get planted that so far I haven’t killed yet while they were waiting for their space to open up, I have more peonies to plant….finishing up making another flower bed….Then, do something with the house gardens. I am setting Thanksgiving as my deadline. Then I will rest for December and most of January, then the circle starts all over again. Yay. And fingers crossed, we will have flowers again by Mid February!

So I leave you with a front porch scene. There was no #windowframethursday last week, too busy in the garden, but I created this instead. I kinda like it. I hope it makes you smile.

So, until next week, may we all dream flowers. Allie

Flower friends! I have so much to say, I just hope I can remember it all. Lots of announcements, so pay attention. Please.

This coming week will be the last week of the flower shed for the 2023 flower season. You people have knocked off my floral socks off with your dedication, understanding and support, especially these last few weeks with me because of my broken wing, and Steve being out of commission. Your generosity with your time to help out here at the farm and just moral support is keeping my head above water. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts. It takes a village of flower lovers and others to get us through this.

As you can see, I still have flowers.

So even though I won’t have open shed days, I will take take orders for special orders until I really don’t have flowers. Mixing fresh with dried or just dried. I just need a few days notice to pull it together please. Please email me with your request. My goal of being able to do Christmas and dried wreaths is on hold until my wing is mended and our life isn’t quite so…chaotic.

That being said, after Tuesday I am going to start to cut back the dahlias. I think my wing is good enough if I take it slowly I can get the stalks cut down, bit by bit. My plan is for Saturday, weather permitting, to start lifting the tubers and getting them into the crates, then I can sort through them at a slower pace. Here is announcement #2. On Saturday, or Sunday if it is a rain day I am having a harvest party. Like what they do in Europe to harvest the grapes. I will supply a simple lunch and wine or beer to anyone that can come by to give a hand, arm and or back. Rain day will be Sunday. If you come for an hour, that is great, if you can come for longer that is great as well. The most important part is getting them lifted and in crates in an organized manor, and into the floral cave so I can deal with them when I can.

Meanwhile, cut back of the annual beds has commenced. The netting is laboriously removed, stems cut back to the ground, irrigation wrapped up…weed mat lifted and labeled, cover crops chopped and dropped…

The good news is…All of the tulips that I ordered, and didn’t order, that is another sentence, are safely tucked in their crates and in the bulb room.

The interesting news is, Thursday I received an email from my tulip supplier that more bulbs were on their way. Apparently they wanted to make up the numbers of what I didn’t get because of all the tulip problems. Announcement #3. So. I now have an extra 1000 tulips. I have already planted 125 of each of the 2 varities, will plant 125 each in the ground, which leaves me ….500 tulips available to you at cost. They are Strong Gold, which is a beautiful yellow, and Purple Raven, which looks like a deep pink by the photo. I am selling them in bags of 20, so when you plant them in the garden it looks like you did it on purpose rather than an oops. So, a bag of 20 tulip bulbs will be $8.00. If you are interested, send me an email and I will get them ready for you. These are beautiful bulbs by the way. I wish more of the crop they sent me looked that good but oh well.

I think that is the end of my important announcements. #1 Flower shed done for the year but bouquets on demand, #2 Help on Saturday or rain date Sunday with the dahlia digging and #3 Tulips bulbs for sale. I think that is it. Hopefully I haven’t forgotten anything.

So I leave you on this #windowframethursday image for those of you not on Instagram. I call it a study of purples.

So, until next week, may you think flowers, especially dahlias and tulips. Allie

The long awaited delivery of the tulips for next year’s flowers has happened. They were shipped on the 29th of September, great, that was the week they were to be planted, they arrived on October 4th. Meanwhile, while I was impatiently waiting, I got my numbers sorted, figured out what I didn’t get, tried to order replacements, cleaned crates, made the call out for help, and lo and behold…it all worked out.

I asked for help, and you most amazing flower people helped. On Friday, Kathy, BJ, Ann and Nancy got all 2500 but 375 tulips planted, and hauled into the cooler. I was waiting to hear from my bulb supplier about three substitutions before they got planted. They were speedy with their reply, and Gary and Shelly helped me get the last ones planted this afternoon. Thank you so much for all your help. If all goes according to plan, I should have tulips available by mid February. When we need the color the most. I figure I will get the outdoor tulips planted by early November, and my wing will be fixed by then right? Just say yes.

The gardens are still going strong believe it or not. Steve took this really cool drone shot last Thursday of the flower garden. The light was just right.

Meanwhile, with my broken wing I will slowly get the garden ready for take down. Slowly, bit by bit it will happen. My next big call out for help will be after the freeze, when I need to tackle the dahlias. Even if you can spare me an hour or two that gets so much done. Once the dahlias are done, the pressure ifs off, and I will get done what I can. It will always be there next year waiting for me.

Besides planning for the tulips delivery, and getting them planted I have had fun with flowers this week. I love being able to be creative with my own flowers. I actually take the time to do the #windowframethursday, the rest are just hit or miss. I did a large arrangement for Steve in the garage for this photos for the Monadnock Art Tour that was Saturday and today. Now that was fun, and I think it turned out well. What do you think?

It looks as though, by the weather forecast, that we won’t have a frost this coming week, so at this moment, there will still be flower shed this week, but please stay tuned to the newsletter which will give you more up to date info. I haven’t had time to do anything with the dried flowers. I just don’t have enough mobility, but, if you want a dried bouquet, put in an order and I will get it done. The Christmas wreaths are still in my mind, but I really need to have two fully or mostly fully functioning arms for that project so please stay tuned and think positive thoughts.

I think that is it for now. I will keep you posted, thank you for all the healing chocolate, yum! The help that you are giving me and the positive vibes you are sending. It all means so much and I am so grateful. Thank you.

Your one winged flower girl, Allie