It is beginning, the tulips are showing color! I can not even begin to tell you how relieved I am. I tried a new method, did the math, then worried and worried that I had messed something up, but, the first crates of tulips are just about ready for full harvest. The first two bunches go to birthday ladies this week, lucky them, then the rest will then be available for everyone. How exciting is that?!?
I am going to try something new this spring. Please email me and let me know what you think. Cranberry Meadow Farm (CMF) will let me put a bucket or two, depending on the interest, of tulip bunches in their hall. This would make the flowers more available to you, so you don’t have to drive to Hancock. I will still have bunches here, but I would have a set number at CMF available for pick up. Details haven’t been worked out yet, but please let me know what you think of this idea. Send the email to flowersatlotarock@gmail.com or alliekerwin@gmail.com. I generally don’t look at the comments posted on the blog so this is the better way.
What a wild weather weekend this past weekend was. I don’t need a repeat of it for a long time. We raised the temperature in the bulb room to protect the growing tulips and then after taking the temperature of the dahlias, which were reading a temp of 29.9, we lugged all the boxes of dahlia tubers up into the dirty room to protect them from the cold. If anything I couldn’t let those tubers freeze. This afternoon, when the warmer temperatures returned, we lugged all the boxes back down again. While I was down there I gave all the tulips a good drink which should see them through until they all come up to the dirty room to grow on. The good news is that everything looks good, and I hadn’t planted anything outside yet into the greenhouse or the tunnel.
But soon, the greenhouse and tunnel will be planted. The first batch of ranunculus are sprouting, the perennial seeds are sprouting and hopefully will be transplanted into larger soil blocks this week. The growing space shuffle is ramping up for sure and I am going to need upper arm strength to move everything around from now until June. Whoa.
Valentines Day is next Saturday, or wait, this coming Saturday. Ask your dearest for a flower card to get the flower season off to a good start instead of a box of chocolates. I mean I have nothing against a box of chocolates, but don’t you think flowers would be so much nicer, and the flower card will last longer than a box of chocolates. Remember the old Whitman’s Select box that would come in a red ribbon? Ah yes. Those were the days.
Because it is so white out, and we are all longing for some color, I will leave you with some of this week’s floral color. The forsythia I cut about two weeks ago, and the tulips, I cut today. Enjoy, and see you next week.
Enjoy the color, and until next week. Allie