Quotable Sunday 04/28/2013

Busy Bees

                                   Busy seeding hundred of summer flowers  in the greenhouse.

 

Busy getting seedlings and summer bulbs in to the ground.

Busy adding shade cloth and netting to aid our flowers while they grow.

                                Busy cutting for special orders and delivering to happy designers.

               Busy picking for market and making mixed grower's bunch to sell at our Saturday market.

                                                          Busy day at the Market
        
                                                        (no photo, sorry too busy to take a picture)

After a long and very busy day and busy few weeks, looking forward to a nice meal and an early bedtime. 
Oops, more tulips are ready and can't wait till morning.   

                                                 Busy picking and wrapping 600 more tulips.

I still needed to get this written.  I am tired and need to sleep.  Please pardon this blog for its oddness as I am at the end.   Oh, a pretty bouquet and a nice quote.   Good night.

Gratitude is the fairest blossom which springs from the soul. Henry Ward Beecher

Quotable Sunday 03/24/2013

Daffodils

Ask a flower farmer what their favorite flower is and they will probably say, I love them all  and can't choose or will love the fancy flowers of roses, peonies and lilies.  I love some flowers more especially for their season.  The daffodil is one of my favorite for the early spring season.  I love how it grows in the cold dreary part of the winter, sending up fronds to say, I am still here, just wait.  How it grows and spreads and multiplies into other little friends and says just wait, there is more of us.  How at just the right time of the season, it bows its head and says, pick me now if you want me to last.  And no matter how hard you try and keep up with the picking, a warm sunny day; the kind of day that says spring might just be here, the daffodils can't wait any longer and bust out blooming. How can you not love all that cheerfulness.

We have them in pots, under the trees, and out in the front of the property.  They grow and naturalizes so well here.  There are even fields of daffodils where they are really raising grass seed.  The daffodils come up, show off and then die back while the grass grows and never get touched and come back year after year. They are so smart to be not so tasty to the deer and other critters so they don't get nibbled on. 

We are raising quite a few varieties for our flower markets, mostly the double and fragrant daffodils.  We have approached this slowly as when they grow practically wild we have been testing the interest level and it has been great.  

For the past few weeks, I have been meeting with many lovely young gals who are planning their weddings for this year.  Lots of flower talk, bouquets, table centerpieces, colors, ribbon;  it has been so fun and exciting to help them plan their special day.  It created an urge in me to play with some flowers.  So taking some field daffodils and some fancy daffs that got away from me,  I played.

I had a blast making this bouquet and a few other goodies.  It was fun to get back into the wedding mode and stretch and play.  I am so excited about the new season of weddings that I will play a small part in those couple's  magical day. 

For a few lovely days, I will be able to gaze upon this little bouquet and be amazed by the colors, textures and just the beauty of the flowers and know that it was worth the wait.  I bow down to you little daffodils.

"All day long blew the daffodils,
Oh, what a sight to see,
A myriad gold-gowned daffodils,
Moved to a rhythmic glee."

-Teresa Hooley-

Happy Thanksgiving Day!



We had a few more flowers left that we could deliver a Thanksgiving bouquet to a dear friend's big family gathering and still have a few flowers left for our table.  Thank you Mother Nature for the bounties of nature.  This is our first holiday meal that is gluten free and it will be wonderful as we enjoy our turkey with a ton of vegetables that we bought at our last Farmers' Market of the year.  So thank you and many blessings to all our friends both new and old, to our families spend across the country and to you who support us in our endeavors.  Hopefully next year we will have more flowers available so those who believe in supporting local business will have local flowers too.  Please shop local as much as possible and support local businesses and farms.

                                                             Happy Thanksgiving!

Quotable Sunday 09/02/2012


September is Here!


I use to be a school teacher many many years ago and even now the first days of September make me think of  firsts.  I think I reoriented to the first of September rather than the first of January.  There are so many more firsts this time of year.  First days of school.  All the new stuff:  new clothes, new sweaters, new shoes, new school supplies.  Seeing old friends, meeting new friends, football games, falling leaves, crisp mornings...Yummy apples fresh or in crisps, sweet pears, making applesauce, making pies, canning pickles, tomatoes both sauce and salsa... Dark mornings, early evenings, wearing a sweatshirt again, wearing fuzzy socks.  

The flowers that we have, are what we have; can't make any changes as this point. But the firsts of next season are coming.  The anemones and ranunculus bulbs are on their way. 
 Can't wait to be offering these beauties again.

 Next year's lily order has been sent.  Soon daffodils and tulip bulbs will arrive on our doorstep to be planted for next year.   We are busily building two more hoopity dos where our ranunculus and anemones will grow in. 

 The coming of fall, the ending of a season but the beginning of the next one. New firsts!

        September is here and fall is on our doorstep.   We love this time of the year! 

                                               "By all these lovely tokens
                                                 September days are here
                                                With summer's best of weather
                                                And autumn's best of cheer."
                                                         -  Author Unknown