Buried Treasure

row of ranunculus goes into bloom
 

Looking back at pictures of our fledgling farm from ten years ago makes me laugh. No greenhouse, no roses, none of the workhorse perennials and bulbs that we now rely on. It was just what we  planted that spring. We still plant a lot of annuals in the spring but it's over a solid framework of perennials, bulbs, and flowering shrubs that return bigger and better every year. Many of these have reached critical floral mass and reliably explode in the spring.

One of the joys of flower farming only happens in the winter. It's the comfort in knowing that although your fields are cold and barren now, they're also full of buried treasure. And the treasure gets bigger every year. No pirate ever had it so good. Bury one, harvest two! The booty is not only safe - it's getting compound interest. Over the years the work lessens and the return grows.

J.D. Gator

  Gator full of flowers for farmer's market 

Our summer help has come and gone but there's still a bit of tidying up to do out there.  Fortunately our tireless worker, Mr. Gator, has no college plans. He hauls buckets of flowers and mountains of mulch painlessly. The hydraulic bed saves us countless wheelbarrow trips. This week he'll be moving hundreds of lily bulbs to their new beds. Last but not least, he's electric so there's no gas and no noise. I just adore him- he's the strong, silent type.

 

Dr. Katz likes riding shotgun

 

 

 

Here Come The Pictures

Jonas Seaman Photography

 

It's been a super busy summer of weddings, farmer's markets and deliveries. A month or so after a wedding, the pictures start to come in. We're usually long gone before the ceremony so it's always a treat to see the pictures. I love this one with the umbrella man making his valiant effort to shield the ladies from the rain. Kudos to the photographer for capturing the beauty and comedy here. For more, see Wedding Photos above.

It's best to leave wedding photography to the professionals but I did get a good picture of a rose delivery a couple of weeks ago. They kept peeking out of the rear view mirror on the long drive out to Sea Acres. My favorite bunch: all sherberty orange and berry colors with a scoop of vanilla; like a creamsicle for the eyes. So we stopped to shoot the roses at the Olga dock. This picture is a nice reminder that no matter how high maintenance roses are, they're totally worth it. We definitely need to get the new Francis Meilland rose, a few more Sunshine Daydreams, and lots of Princess Alexandras.

Peony Madness

photo by Jen Martin Studios

Ahh, peony season is just ending! The weekly harvest of four or five buckets for the market has dwindled to two or three bunches. We did manage to create four gorgeous wedding bouquets during this special season.

Peonies are floral perfection: voluptuous blooms, superb fragrance and colors, sturdy stems and low maintenance plants. From the flouncy Sarah Bernhardt to the brash, blood red Coral Charm- I love them all! No matter how many we have I don't see why we can't find room for a few more. In fact, a customer just offered me some Hawaiin Corals from the house she is selling as she has no where for them to go. Of course, the only charitable thing one can do here is take in the orphaned plants.

Peony lust can blur the line between right and wrong if you're not careful. Years ago, a dear friend of mine noticed that a shrub at the public school was completely overgrowing the exquisite peony next to it. She was able to convince the school's groundskeeper that she should just take the peony home. It was huge and required a major excavation. She thought it best to do this surreptitiously in case any other peony lovers were lurking about.  It has since flourished into three prolific bushes with blooms that are a complex blend of off white and pure beauty.

A Rose by any Other Name...

Ranunculus are really coming on now. How did this beautiful flower get such a clunker of a name? It sounds like one of my son's favorite dinosaurs from childhood; some sort of clumsy, warty creature with horns. 'Look, Mom, a ranunculus fighting a tyrannosaurus!'

Despite the name, these flowers are incredibly delicate, many petalled, long-lasting in bouquets and they actually hold up in boutonnieres & corsages. Every time I walk into the greenhouse, the candy colors and straight stems get the lollipop song running through my  head. 'lollipop, lollipop, ooh lolli, lollipop...' It takes the edge off the desperate daily race to get everything planted, weeded, staked & tied.

Special Delivery

Tulips with wild currant blossoms

Things are really picking up speed here.Tulips and anenomes are blooming away in the greenhouse. Fruit trees are firing off too. Gambling on an early planting of freesias paid off  as their tops are now cutting through the soil even before the last frost date.  The first series of sweet peas has begun climbing to the ceiling. A hundred new dahlias just went into the field; I hope they make it.

For some reason sweet peas are irresistable to the little birds flitting around the greenhouse. They pull them out of the ground like worms and then just leave them to die. They don't even eat them! Every year my relationship with these little chirpers  begins like Snow White  but quickly disintegrates to more of a Yosemite Sam standoff. The trellis is surrounded in bird net and battened down like a tiny prison camp.

Regardless of the avian mischief, the early blooms and fruit blossoms have opened up our delivery season. Delivering flowers is the best part of this job. Everyone lights up when they get flowers whether they're for a birthday, anniversary or sympathy. They're usually about love. Someone loves you and they're thinking about you and they're sending you something beautiful. I even get to help with the note sometimes. This is best done in Snow White persona.

Marching into Spring

Hail bounced off the greenhouse this week as I thinned out hundreds of baby seedlings safe inside. It's amazing how much protection a thin sheet of plastic can provide. No snow, no driving rains and a good 10 to 20 degrees warmer during the day now. Although we live in zone 8, I think the greenhouse must make it zone 9 which puts us fairly close to heaven. Yes, heaven is probably in zone 10.
March rages on outside with tantrums of rain, wind and snow but it can't stop the daffodils. They've just started blooming here. After the long, wet drudgery of winter in the Northwest, the color and fragrance of daffodils is like manna from the sky. My thoughts on this beautiful but often overlooked flower:

They loved the tulip, poppy and iris;

They painted roses by the score.

But what about the daffodil,
Snubbed by painters evermore?

Fragrance of spring, form exquisite;

Colors bright and blooms galore!
Why not a still life from dear Vincent,
Or a landscape by Renoir?

Alas, I fear, it is the trumpet

Jutting out from that fine face.
Every time you try to draw it
It comes out wrong and you erase!
                                       -S.M.