Fresh Cuts: Mother's Day 2013

From left to right:  Orange queen, Toyota and Rococ tulips in foreground

We are struggling with the weather--how unusual for an Idaho spring to be so fickle.  We work in weather windows between high winds and freezing temperatures, go to bed dog tired and wake to snow!  Personally, I am over it, but alas, the universe is not listening.

In the greenhouses, the world is warm and moist, alive with beauty, color and fragrance.  I am so glad we have greenhouses.  Yesterday I walked through the hoop house and gleaned this handful of red/orange/pink delicious color--a stark contrast to the SNOW outside.

Yeah, I was less than thrilled and pretty much obsessed with the 1000 seedlings planted just days before, now under freaking SNOW.

It was such a beautiful, relatively calm day with a good clear five day forecast...ah well, that's farming.

On to the good stuff--this week we have for you many lovely things loaded with color to chase your cold, windy, frozen spring blues away.  Let's start with snaps, in addition to the fabulous lipstick pink Chantilly her sisters are in bloom.  The coral snap just shimmers with that pink/orange combination that rocks my world and the pale yellow is simply ethereal. We have two whites, the Chantilly ever so delicate with her open throat and our regular white snap, a little sturdier and compact.  

Chantilly snap pink

Chantilly snap coral--gorgeous

Chantilly snap yellow

Chantilly snap white

snapdragon white

foxglove white

We have a beautiful harvest of white foxglove, tall with ruby speckled throats.

We are growing stock this season and have a fragrant crop of white and violet.

stock white

stock violet

 
The first wave of sweet peas are just starting to bloom in lavender.

Sweetpea lavender

Icelandic poppies coral and sweetpeas lavender

daffodil "Tahiti"

 We have daffodils and poppies.

 And we have tulips!  We have varieties in nearly every color we planted.

Left to right:  Toyota, Rococo and Neon Lights.

tulip "Maureen"

tulip "Ollioules"

tulip "Mariette"

tulip "Perestroika"

tulip Parrot "Rococo"

tulip "Orange Queen"

Please refer to your email and fax for full availability.  You are very welcome to call, fax or email your Mother's Day orders.

Fresh Cuts: April 22

This is an insect hotel--people all over the world are creating habitats for bugs, the good bugs.  Good bugs are referred to as beneficial insects because they either provide a service or create a product.  Like bees, they pollinate myriads of crops and create honey.  Other insects--like lady bugs, lace wings and praying mantis, prey on crop destroying pests.  As farmers we try to attract these beneficial insects by providing habitat.  Habitat for these beneficial insects is disappearing so people all over the world are creating "hotels" on their farms and in their gardens.  Follow the link to see some of these enchanting creations.  I think Carlee and I need to make an insect hotel.

She was here last week "helping" on the farm.  I dug out the last of the tulip bulbs in the greenhouse and Carlee collected earthworms.

It absolutely delights me that this Barbie loving/future princess/queen of all things pink LOVES to play in the dirt!!  You would not have believed the ring she left in the bathtub.

Even though it has been a cold week there are signs of spring--if you know where to look.

We received thousands of seedlings yesterday and began planting them in the newly cleaned-out tulip beds in the greenhouse--out with one crop and in with another.

Tomorrow we will have a crew here to help with the plants in the beds outside.

In the meantime we are busy harvesting tulips from the hoop house.  The Impressions have begun to bloom first so we have red, pink and apricot Impression tulips.  (You can follow the link to my post of our 2013 varieties for good photos.)

We also have orange, yellow and white French tulips.  We have Flaming Parrot, Red Cap Parrot, Salmon Parrot and Rococo Parrot tulips too.

We have daffodils, Icelandic poppies and giant hyacinth.

 

This crop of Icelandic poppies is our best EVER.  We tried a new variety, Champagne Bubbles, and timed them to bloom early.  They are stunning, they love the cool and are bursting with life and color.

 

We have a beautiful crop of white Foxglove.  They are divine! 

 

The Chantilly snaps we planted on Ground Hog's Day are just beginning to bloom too.  We only have a bunch or two this week but soon the greenhouse with be full of snaps.

As always, please check your email and fax for full availability and have a gorgeous day.

Fresh Cuts: April 15

Query:  What do frustrated painters/farmers do when they are too busy farming to paint?

We "paint" with our cameras--well actually I use my iphone.

Even though the wind was raging the skies were bright and I put the sunshine to good use.

The vile weather put a stop to all work outside so I got a little design time.  I was taught that redheads should never wear pink, or orange or red...but I like breaking the rules.

I think the orange and magenta tulips, the coral poppy, the pink salmon parrot and the rococo parrot tulips were made for each other.  They strike the perfect counter point for one another and the red tones in each flower create a delicious harmony.  (I just wish I had some purple tulips to push this even farther.)

Obviously we have tulips and poppies this week.  I pulled some buckets out of the cooler so I could show you some varieties available this week.

Pink parrots

Rococo and Red Cap parrots

I am a little smitten with Rococo--I just devour the deep saturated color.

We have a few different varieties of yellow--Big Smile and La Courtine, which has a red stripe on each petal.

Avignon, which ripens to a fabulous deep mango.

Clearwater, a lovely clear white tulip.

Temple of Beauty, a deep coral lily-tipped tulip.

Super Life, one of our new varieties this year--hot pink to magenta.

Super Life open and fully colored.

We have gorgeous Icelandic poppies, our best crop ever.

And we have daffodils, the first blooms harvested outside the greenhouses this spring.

Please check your fax and email for current availability.