Fresh Cuts: May 13

The first things to bloom outside on the farm are yellow--daffodils, spurge and thermopsis.  And it seems that every shade of yellow tulips is also blooming.

Yellow Explosion bouquet

tulip "Big Smile", thermopsis, spurge, daffodil "Bridal Crown", Icelandic poppy, "Flaming Parrot" tulip

Chantilly snapdragon pale yellow

Icelandic poppy, "Bridal Crown" daffodil

Spurge and Chantilly snap in pale yellow

Daffodil "Bridal Crown"--looks like a handful of popcorn, smells so sweet

This is our cutie Sam who helps after school, she is graduating in a few weeks. (She is the official Bindweed bucket scrubber this year.)  She stopped by to show off her "graduation car"--congratulations!  And to pick up a bouquet for her mom.

Happy Mother's Day from Sam, Zeke and Gus!

 We have loads of tulips this week, many are variations of yellow, but we also have red, orange, pink, apricot and mango.

tulip "Dordogne"--a dreamy mango color with slight pink accents

tulip "Hocus Pocus"--huge lily-tipped tulip, streaked with orange

tulip "Red Cap"--magenta/pink parrot tulip

 

 We have beautiful white foxglove.

foxglove white

Icelandic poppies in coral and white

Icelandic poppies, white and coral

Daffodil "Bridal Crown"--looks like a handful of popcorn, smells so sweet

We are cutting the last of the daffodils and the thermopsis have just begun to bloom.  The thermopsis is the yellow flower in the top right of the photo, it looks like yellow lupine.

Stock, white and violet

 We are harvesting beautiful fragrant stock, white and violet.

And we have snaps, lots and lots of snaps!
 

Chantilly snaps, pink, raspberry and rocket red snaps

Chantilly snap, pale yellow

Chantilly snap, coral

Snapdragon, white

Please call or check your fax and email for current availability. 

 Have a lovely Mother's Day.

What's Fresh June 18, 2012

It is "perennial time" on the farm and that means that we are running in an attempt to keep up with all the perennials blooming.  For months these work horse plants have been storing energy for the big show--and it is happening now.  Some of the first perennials to bloom are the peonies.  RT has been cutting peonies every four hours for weeks and will finish soon...just in time for the other perennials to kick in.

(Notice the cute jar--yep, we painted it.)

So the list of perennials begins:

Baptisia

Foxtail Lily

Foxglove, actually a bi-ennial.

Oriental poppies and delphinium.

Bellflower lavender

Bellflower white

Bells of Ireland

Delphinium--deep violet to white and all shades in between

Peonies

Deep pink

Soft Pink "Sarah Bernhardt"

White

Snaps white

Snaps burgundy

Silver King

Scabiosa white

Please check your fax and email for full availability.

Planting

We have such a short growing window that instead of direct seeding all of our plants we order seedlings in plug trays. This gives us a six week jump on some tender annuals and a good head start for perennials. Our plants need to be seeded and started weeks before we plant and there is a high demand for seedlings each spring so we must make our orders in the fall. Second guessing the weather is the real challenge, we check the long term weather forecast (ha--may as well consult the Tarot deck), look at prior years, pick a shipping date and hope for the best. This year has been a real crap shoot and seedlings have been arriving daily in the pouring rain. UPS and FedEx trucks roll up and down the drive leaving boxes and boxes of plants--seedlings, annuals, perennials and shrubs.

A new shipment of seedlings from Bluebird Nursery.

Upon arrival I unpack the boxes, water the trays and hope for a break in the weather. The forecast is good, but the ground is so saturated we cannot work it.

Unpacking nursery shipments is always exciting--I'm challenged by some of the creative packaging, thrilled with the contents of each box and curious to where it will all go!


Plug trays--plastic trays filled with seedlings packed in finger-sized plugs of soil--watered and waiting to be planted. As you can see by the shadows, we have sunlight!

RT, the maestro, gets creative, re-purposing space in the green house and hoop house for some of the new seedlings. Planting plugs is low work--I crawl, squat and duck-walk down the rows planting seedlings in the support netting. (As the plants grow rows of netting support the stems and prevent the plants from foundering.) Carey, our new wonder woman helper, makes the work go much faster. We start out stiff and chilly but soon the sun has warmed the hoop house and the work goes quickly.

An excellent shot of the support netting, the plug trays and Carey, our new wonder woman!

Carey and I are planting snap dragons. The seedlings are very small and the plugs themselves are only the size of the tip of my finger. They must be pulled gently from the tray and then set into the soil. The snap trays hold 250 seedlings. In no time we have set out planted several trays-whew!