What's Fresh August 1

We are still feeling the effects of the long cold wet spring, some good and some challenging. The cooler temps gave us strong plants with long stems and good foliage to support the flowers but our bloom times are still a little out of sync. As always, please consult your email and fax for complete availability but here a few of our favorites this week.


This is "Blue Stocking" bee balm, this particular shade of blue is a real tricky color to photograph and reproduce. It is actually much more blue than in the photo but I will have plenty on the truck so you can see for yourself.

Lemon Bee Balm, a cousin to the bee balm in the previous photo, this flower always reminds me of Dr Seuss. It looks like some wild creation he would make up to illustrate one of his stories. I like it and so do the humming birds.


This unusual plant is called Cerinthe. We grew it as a request from one of our plant loving clients. We love its lime green foliage and tiny bell flower.

A bucket of freshly harvest cleome. I am experimenting with it this week and will let you know about the vase life. I just love its unique structure, it reminds me of the fire weed blooming along the Teton Pass into Jackson.

Another shot of the coral pink cleome, if you look carefully to the far left of this photo you get a glimpse of the lavender pink cleome.

Lilies--yeah! The lilies have just started and we have two colors perfect for August. This bright orange that reminds me of a childhood growing up on Tang--just like the astronauts!

And we have this incredible red lily, it is hiding in the center of the snap dragons. Red is also a hard color to photograph accurately, it is so much easier to get true color with my brush! This red is this deep but it is warmer, like a deep mahogany stain. I'll bet it would be stunning accented with Black Eyed Susans and Diablo--we have both available, amazing!

This Red Scabiosa photographed a little more accurately but it is warmer making the immature buds look just like ripe raspberries.

Our second crop of Sweet Peas is in full bloom right now, we are lucky to have a shade house and cool nights that encourage this spring time flower to be in bloom now. This week we have an abundance of lavender sweet peas and next week we will have white also.

Our Verbena bonariensis is in full bloom, waving like a lavender cloud above the Black Eyed Susans. It is quite lovely. The little umbel of flowers varies in size from almost an inch to over an inch in diameter.

The veronica is still producing and is just gorgeous. It is the same color as the verbena and nearly the same shade as the "blue stocking". We grow several varieties of veronica, the flower spears vary in structure and length. We have a tiny "trident" veronica, three flower heads on each stem, the center flower one to one and a half inches long. Our medium veronica has a more regular two to three inch flower spear and our largest veronica has flower spears three to four inches long. All varieties are on strong twelve to fifteen inch stems.

White Veronica, the stems are not as long as the blue veronica, but the flower spear is much longer and a lot showier. The flowers are larger and form a spear three to four inches long.
Very delicate and pretty.

Viburnum berries--the same plants that produce our gorgeous Lace Cap Viburnum mature into these beautiful berries. These clusters of berries come in lime green blushed with red and ripen into deep red berries with a touch of green. We cut them on long woody stems with foliage. The birds that nest here love the viburnum, dogwood and curly willow and so when cutting we see an assortment of yellow warblers, Cedar Wax Wings and Lazuli Buntings--my favorite little song bird!

Grasses:

The Frosted Explosion grass is, well, exploding at the moment. RT is cutting it as fast as he can, we must harvest it before it goes to seed or instead of Bindweed farm we will be Grass farm!

We also have red millet and foxtail green millet.

We have new varieties coming into bloom every day. I will try to make another posting before the end of the week or I may just add to this one. You are always welcome to call or email and ask for a current availability list.

What's Fresh June 27

Yep, it's peony time--that means that the peonies must be checked and cut every two to three hours. Each bud must be pressed and repressed, checked for ripeness. The perfect time to cut a peony is when it is in the "marshmallow" stage--the bud is soft, very much like a marshmallow. When cut at this stage it will hold in the cooler and then gently open to perfection at room temperature. We have hundreds of peony plants that ripen individually and so it is like having a newborn that needs attention every few hours--RT eats, sleeps and dreams peonies! It is a huge job, but the results are so rewarding. I adore peonies and have them all over the house.

We have a good assortment of pink peonies, from palest blush pink to magenta. The large bud in the center is "Sarah Bernhardt". We also have "Coral Charm", she has worked her charm on me--I love her rich coral pink hues. That's her at the top of the photo.

This is another view of a "Sarah Bernhardt" peony fully open.

We have loads of cloud-like white peonies and sweet peas, a symphony of fragrance and texture.

Baptisia--in blue violet and smokey purple--gorgeous!

Campanulas--yeah! One of my favorite cut flowers, the campanula family produces strong, beautiful long lasting flowers, each with some sort of bell-like structure. This is Peach leaf Bell flower, I just call it bell flower. (That's Gracie, our newest addition--actually she added us I think.)

Another campanula, Canterbury Bells--we have purple and white. These bells are huge with multiple blooms on each stem. (That is Gracie again.)

The delphinium have also started--majestic columns in every shade of blue stretch to brush the sky--this series named for King Aurthur and his court.

Eremerus, also known as foxtail lily and desert candle, these stalks are loaded with sweet smelling blooms that open from the bottom up and seem to glow in the sunrise and at dusk. This sturdy stem is 3 to 4 ft. long and we will have white, yellow, gold and this peachy color.

Filipendula is also called Meadowsweet for its sweet fragrance. A slender long stem crowned with an umble of rose blushed pearls that open to a star-like white flower and fragrance. One of my favorite wedding flowers.

The delicate magenta flower in the center is Knautia. It looks so much like scabiosa but is not related. In the bud stage it look like little strawberries.

Melica is a delicate bronze headed grass, each head a collection of hammered bronze oval sequins.

The poppy are still my morning delight! To wake to see these scarlet heads bidding me "buon giorno" from a sea of green. "Che bella cominciare al giorno"--what a beautiful start to the day.

Fresh sage in bloom, delicious, silvery lance shaped leaves topped with lavender flowers on bronze spikes, and you can eat it!

Scabiosa, pin cushion flower, in blue and white. (That is Romeo in the background--the Bindweed cats are our quality control, they sniff every flower and sip from every bucket.)

Sweet pea--this week we have sweet peas on the vine. I cut two feet of sweet pea vine with buds and flowers and tendrils. It is delicate, sweet smelling and longer lasting than sweet peas cut for stems.

Fabulous Foliage

The foliage plants have also started to produce. We will have Diablo, with it's glossy bronze foliage, available for the rest of the season.

Lysimachia "firecracker"--need I say more! Fabulous color on long luscious stems.

Lady's Mantle, so named for the dew drops that gather in the leaves and sparkle as if they were diamonds on a lady's mantle. Deep emerald green velvet leaves accented by lime green flowers.

This is our granddaughter's favorite plant, lamb's ear. She loves to rub the velvety leaves on her little face and arms. I love the size and silver sage color of this beautiful plant.

The sedum is mature enough to start cutting. The glossy jade green leaves are the perfect foil for brightly colored perennials. We are able to cut sedum in early summer to late fall, when it develops autumn colored flowers.

Another viburnum is taking the stage, this variety is called "Blue Muffin" for the blue berries it gets in the falls. Only once in ten years have we produced berries, conditions must be perfect for good pollination, so we threw in the towel and now cut the white "berries" before they bloom. RT listed this cut as small lace cap viburnum. Vigorous woody stems loaded with glossy green leaves and an interesting flower.