Sometimes things just work out!


This is the last post of 2012 and it is the last Monday of the month where Jane at Small But Charming is hosting flowers in the house.  I never would imagine I would have a few flowers left from this growing season. Some times things just work out without one's help or plan. This has been one of the wettest years here in Oregon,  I know you think it rains here all the time but it just feels like it.  Actually it did rain all the time and not all of our flowers were planted exactly on their schedule. We got to a point where it is just throw the bulbs and seedlings in there and lets see what happens. Anyway, everything outside of our hoop houses is a wet, slimy mess but in the back of one house were a few snaps and glads just chugging along.  We thought everything would poop out before Thanksgiving and we would get to the cleaning of the house after the holidays, but stuff just continued to grow and bloom. We are learning that if we can keep the cold rain off the plants, they have a chance to bloom and they did!  I became excited about future possibilities but have been tempered by Farmer Tony who gives this happening again in the future a one out three chance.  Bummer,  so the colors are not  holidayish  but they were for Autumn. Next year I plan for whites, reds and greens.  Just hope the odds are in my favor.

 I included a second photo to show the old arrangement which is pretty toasted but has been hanging around for over two weeks.  This is it for the glads but maybe if mommy nature is still kind, I can eek out an arrangement for next week.  My goal has been to have my flowers in the house every week this year since Feb. 17th.  I am close but the next few weeks are going to be tricky and the anemones hopefully will be here by the end of January.  Then we are off to the races with another season of flowers.  Check out the other flowers at Jane's.   
 
Wishing all a safe and wonderful New Year!

"Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year."                   Ralph Waldo Emerson

Quotable Sunday 2012

Slow Flowers


I am excited with the upcoming publication of Debra Prinzing's new book Slow Flowers.  Here's a link to her web page discussing the beginnings of her journey in writing her new book. stop-smell-and-gather-the-roses.
In her blog, she talks about the beginnings of the slow flower movement that is just starting and how it is similar to the slow food movement.  I have been thinking about that idea for a while and here is my personal take on slow flowers.

Slow flowers is about patience and nurturing and about the magical aspect of nature.  As I sit looking at a vase of snapdragons and gladiolas and I think about how long ago they were planted and how they have just come into bloom in the deepest darkest part of the season, I think, WOW, magical!  Snaps are the MOST tiniest seeds there is to plant by hand, one at a time into a soil block.  How can this tiny little speck grow to such lovely heights of color. Magical, with a little bit of nurturing it along and a beautiful bloom graces your table.  But it takes patience. It is not about having it now, when I want it; but waiting and helping it to grow for the beautiful reward that will come in the future. When it does bloom and is sitting on your counter, it is just that much more special because you grew it, nurtured it and waited for its time.

      The beginnings of the 2013 season, little snapdragons  and the end of 2012 season with the lovely blossoms.

So as we plant more tiny little snapdragon, lisianthus, stock and many other seeds this week, we will remind ourselves that it takes patience, a bit of nurturing and the magic of Mother Nature to have flowers in our house and for our friends, designers and customers who love locally grown flowers. It is about waiting for all good things to come in their own time.  Just like the perfect strawberry in June or the perfect tomato in August, the perfect flower is worth waiting for too. Slow flowers are worth the wait!

     "Adopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience."
                     Ralph Waldo Emerson

Flowers in the House


It is the last Monday in October and Jane is hosting a fith (flowers in the house) party.  Normally, I would not be participating because we would have no flowers as we are mostly a field grown flower operation.  However we have built season extension low tunnels and hoopty do high tunnels and are now able to have a few flowers earlier and later in our season.  So for late October we have dahlias, dianthus, a few more lilies, snapdragons and gladiolas still blooming.  Here are a few vases of flowers we have in our house this week.

Our goal is to provide more flowers to our designers longer in the season with Thanksgiving being our target date.  We have not ever done this without being wiped out by a heavy frost which hasn't happened yet.  But we are keeping the cold Oregon rains off our flowers which is a HUGE help so the last component will be, will the flowers keep blooming as the light levels keep going down.  We shall see.....

Join the party and see what others are doing in their homes.  Hop on over to smallbutcharming.

Quotable Sunday 10/28/2012



Inside versus Outside


From our windows, it looks like we still have flowers, lots of flowers.  So why did we end our market for the year?  There is a ton of stuff to do but shouldn't we still be cutting for market because it looks like there is a lot of flowers out there!

Armed with clippers and a camera, I take a closer look.   Well... there are flowers down there but boy you have to look for the nice ones.  It seems like there should be a ton of blooms but the damage is there from the wind, the rain, the bugs and a slight frost here and there.

Most of the flowers are in the field where the weather has been unkind or they have given their all to the cause and are completely spent.   However....The flowers we put in undercover in our hoopty do houses are doing very well.

These dahlias were planted very late with the idea that we want to know how far they will bloom in to the fall.  We are cutting them for our designers to use in Autumn arrangements and I am playing with the rest of them.  

              We also have a little patch of snapdragons and the very last of our gladiolas.

Building these hoopty do houses has been a great improvement for our flower selections and it will help us bring flowers to our markets earlier next spring.  Wish we had built some of these when we first started this enterprise... at least we have a few now, with more next year.    

          With the flowers inside, I hope to offer you a Sunday bouquet for a few more weeks.

"October gave a party;
The leaves by hundreds came-
The Chestnuts, Oaks, and Maples,
And leaves of every name.
The Sunshine spread a carpet,
And everything was grand,
Miss Weather led the dancing,
Professor Wind the band."
-   George Cooper, October's Party

Quotable Sunday 07/15/2012

The Season of the Mason Jars!

We are having a fun time this year making floral arrangements for weddings and other special days.  Saturday was just such a day. We did the floral arrangements for a Bar Mitzvah.  The request was for garden flowers in mason jars with two large special floral arrangements to be placed in special vases.  We love doing these types of flower arrangements where we can choose the best flowers we have for the day and I have so much fun putting them together.  The woman who ordered the flowers said that she wanted them to be local flowers only, she wanted to support local farms and to say that they came from the beautiful Willamette Valley.  We LOVE hearing that and we made sure we did our very best!

                                                        Fifteen jars to fill with lovely flowers.

          Here are the first 5 jars completed with flowers.  Dahlias, mini callas, snaps and even some sweet peas.

                                         Lavender and sweet peas, what a heavenly fragrance!

Here are the second set of 5 jars.  Couldn't have them all posed together because it was very hot  while I worked on them.   Off to the cooler for them.

                          The last set of 5 jars.  All a little bit similar and just a bit different. 

The order included two larger bouquets that would be placed into very special vases.  I hope these bouquets were special enough.

I love doing special bouquets and vases of flowers and I especially enjoy the simpleness of the mason jar.  It lets the flowers sing and be the stars.  

Love is to the heart what the summer is to the farmer's year - it brings to harvest all the loveliest flowers of the soul.
-- Author Unknown

Quotable Sunday  06-10-2012

Flowers 'n' the Rain and Callie's Birthday!

Friday is our big flower cutting day and it was a rainy day.  Well not exactly, it would rain buckets for a few minutes, stop, the sun would come out, flowers would start to dry, and we would have another downpour.  It went on all day, until dark when we were finally done cutting.  Just as we knew it would.  We lucked out, there were no hail storms or lightening.  Just downpours, typical Oregon June weather.  So the flowers had to be processed and dried in the garage.  Not much room for everything.

Snaps, campanula, penstemons, sweet william, stock, delphiniums and more spent time drying off before going to the cooler.  Two people, buckets, dog, and flowers moving around in a garage, trying to stay out of each others road and not knock anything over.  

We managed to get it all in and to the market, where we put together bouquets that went home with happy people.  Yea!  Another good market day!

Today is Callie's Birthday Day!  She is two years old today and a great dog.  Here is a few pictures of our great girl.

                                          This Callie the day we brought her home with us.

                                                           Just a little pup.

                                            This is Callie on her first birthday. No longer a little pup.

                      Favorites things:  Bones, string cheese, peanuts, running, digging, catching chips 

                       and pancakes in the air and butt rubs.

                      Dislikes:  deer and cats.

Her most favorite thing is to hang out with us.  You sit down and she will be at your feet.  Rub her butt and you have a friend for the day.

 

                                      Happy Birthday Callie the Flower Dog.

         "Dogs are not our whole life, but they make our lives whole."  ~Roger Caras

Quotable Sunday 06-03-12

All The Lovely Flowers

People often ask if they could come to our farm and see all the lovely flowers.  They imagine acres and acres of blooms blowing in the breeze.  Awwww....... I can see it, a beautiful sea of flowers.....That's not our place.  The beautiful flowers you see are in the farmers' market right on the table or at your feet. There is nothing to see behind the curtain at our farm.  Well, there is.... but not what you think.  There is grass that is growing faster than we can cut between the rows, there are the wild blackberries here and there, the weeds that need to be pulled and there are flowers that need to be planted.  Although the days are getting longer, sometimes there are not enough hours in the day to get it all done.  So if you want to see the lovely flowers, you need to visit us at the farmers' market each Saturday.  

Old fashion Sweet William in so many colors and some with what they call eyes.  Lightly fragrant and very long lasting.

Campanula is just starting for us.  Long sturdy stems with lots of bells.  Purple seems to be first, following with the white and blush pink.

Snapdragons, the variety is Chantilly, which has no snapper to them.  I find them more dainty and sweet than regular snapdragons.  Customers are mixed on them at this point.

                     I love the colors in the mix we planted, soft and creamy looking.

Here we have some new types of  poppies.  We LOVE the colors but we are still working out the post harvest treatment for them.  We flamed these gals( seared the stem ends) and told everyone to give them a try and report back how they performed.  Quite a few test subjects took up the trial.  Who wouldn't, the colors were great.

Lastly, for me,  a few of one of my fragrant roses.  Three big blossoms, that the deer missed.  We have tried fencing, a dog, netting and chasing them off but still our roses get hammered by them.  So we are still trying to figure out how we can deliver some fragrant old garden roses to those who love them and want many more.

                                          "It is the month of June,
                                          The month of leaves and roses,
                                        When pleasant sights salute the eyes
                                         And pleasant scents the noses."
                                 -  Nathaniel Parker Willis, The Month of June