Hi everyone - we finally have sun again too...after weeks of heavy rain (which of course we needed after our dry, hot winter). I think the weather is the reason a majority of my rudbeckia hasn't come up...it needed more water in Feb. and didn't get any!

This weekend I planted annual scabiosa and gomphrena plugs, then worked on direct seeding amaranthus, broom corn, decorative corn, and two varieties of wheat and oats. I'm so glad my DH did the "hoeing for the furrows" - it made it go much quicker! 16 100' rows! But, I also found some folks to help with weeding! Whoo hoo...maybe I'll have room now to plant a few things!

Picked my first peonies over the weekend - to store for a 6/25 wedding. The bride is going to use my barn to arrange/store the flowers-she has good friend who is a floral designer in NY...hope she doesn't mind barns! But, I'm excited to watch them work.

Flowerfarmer...I do had planted procut orange suns about 3 weeks ago and was worried...but I did see some up this morning...as my husband was saying...think I should "flame" this bed? We quickly decided not to until the second planting! The flame weeder is definitely helping with the lambsquarters and other weeds in the areas we haven't planted yet.

What's the trick with larkspur this year? I've tried direct seeding in the fall and early spring, both times no luck, and this year my plugs are short and the trays not full...so, I have to order some from another source...and its getting late! However, I did find some orange echinacea and chocolate cosmos...I'm excited about that - we'll see how they do.

This week is my daughter's Annie play, so won't plan to get much done in the evenings...unless its watering the plants in the barn. Have a great week everyone...and don't get hurt! Jeanne - take care!
Wendy

...$40.00 a pot? I think I could handle that. Wow!

Today I went to a small greenhouse operation near my house (not in a direction I usually travel though). This is after going to lots of much bigger operations and not finding much. I got quite a few plants on my list. I wasn't planning on stopping so didn't have enough money with me. I plan to go back tomorrow and buy much more. Quite a few (even perennials) were in six packs for 1.25. I was very pleased because when I found cut flower plants other places they would be in larger pots for around 3.00. I bought a couple of single plants in pots for 1.00 each. Tomorrow I plan to go back and buy up all the plants I can use. It was such a relief to find someone with many plants on the cut flower lists.
I have been reading Lynn B.'s Flower Farmer book this week. I have lots of questions to ask but I will start a new thread for that. I am so glad I bought that book. The other one called "Cut Flowers For Sale" I thought was a big waste of money. I hope it was o.k. for me to post here. I am starting to be a cutflower grower but no where near being a cutflower seller yet. Probably will take me until next year to build up to doing much of that. Shirley

Last week was a busy one and am I glad that it's over. Friends in from Denmark on Wed and Thursday, My son's program/play and a plant/garage sale. Whew, I'm happy its all over.

Flowerfarmer you said that you were selling cut flower plants at market. That is what everone wanted at my little sale. I put a number of plants in 4pks or 31/2" pots to sell. I figured that the veggies would sell, but the flowers sold lots better. Friday and Sat here were really rainy and windy so I didn't sell the amount that I would have liked, but It was a good test to see what people wanted.

I cut the picts from the catalog and taped them to a piece of card stock. I also potted up some lilies and showed people those picts-I didn't want to cut up that catalog! People who were so-so interested went "wow, I better have one of those!"

Verbascum (plant) was a hit also, this is my first year growing it, anyone else have any experience with it?

My DH cleaned my pond out so the fish can have their summer home back. They were happily swimming around and exploring. Do any of you sell waterlily blossoms in a glass bowl at market? Just a thought....

The zin plugs were planted, about 150 of them. The last sun plugs were planted, the rest will be direct seeded. Pepper plants were planted with DH help. I cut the x's in plastic and he drilled holes with a bulb planter just the right size for the roots. Tomatoes go in this way also. Wha a time saver! 1/2 of them are in the other half are still growing up (I froze a bunch and had to restart them).

My son's b&w garden will get it's first blooms of the year very soon. The black tulips are just about to open. I am excited for him! Next year we will have to add some white daffs I think.

Tonight after work I need to help my partner plant the next set of suns, some celocia, zins and dahlias that were started from seed. Some are just about to flower! Ruby silk grass and any odds and ends go in today also. I'm thinking with the expansion here at my house maybe I took on more that I can handle! Time will tell.

Well, it's sunny this morning, a nice start to the day. Hope you all have a great one.
Patty

I have the same reaction as Shirley: $40 a pot for a dahlia? Ca-ching! Is the pot ceramic or your garden variety black nursery pot, Flowerfarmer? I can't believe anyone would pay that much for a single dahlia plant!

I would sever any emotional attachment I had to them, and stick on the price tags rapid fire. How to you market them: "copious blooms all season long?" What IS the attraction that would fetch such a price?

Poochella, I have seen them at our local garden centers for close to that price but on a plant in full flower. I have to admit to buying 1 or two and hoping they would grow in my garden but lost them the first winter, even though I had transplanted them to the ground. PRobably too late in the summer for them to form big husky tubers. Gee, bet you are thinking about all those healthy tubers we have to throw away when we divide, aren't you!

No, Liza you silly girl! I am thinking of severing my emotional attachment to the 150 dahlias I have planted out and wondering where on earth I could come up with 150 pots! LOL

I am also wistfully thinking of the nearly 500 tubers I have given away since last Fall's tuber harvest.... pass the Kleenex, please.

Poochella, I know you are busy looking for pots right about now. Or are you painting your sign? Poochella's Potted Dahlias.

I am not a nursery. Nor, do I play one on tv. I do have a degree in Marketing which comes in handy at times. It is all about marketing and display. Oh, and location, location, location. The pots are relatively inexpensive terra cotta colored patio pots. Not, the standard black nursery pots. The idea is that people leave these in the pots on their patios, porches, or wherever. They are, of course, going to produce nice tubers in these large pots. They have been in the hoophouse for awhile. So, they will be blooming soon. We market in two really good areas. One is metropolitan; and, the other area has vacation homes for many Chicago people. They don't have a problem spending that amount on a beautiful dahlia in full bloom. "We're gonna be rich!!" I am already thinking one or two more hoophouses next year because we are bursting at the seams. Funny how we barely begin a season; and, we are already planning for the next.

Wendy, The ProCut are exactly the sunflowers that we were having problems with germination in the field. I haven't looked at them today. It would be nice to have one complete day of sunshine. And the trick on the larkspur: We also had trouble direct seeding this. We tried in the fall. No go. We tried in the spring. No go. So, finally, I seeded it in trays, watered it in, covered them with black plastic, and put it in the barn/cooler for about three weeks. Took them out, put them in the hot greenhouse. I would say that germination was at least 98 percent. Not bad.

The journal has been pretty quiet. I am assuming everyone is up to their eyeballs in work. It's lunchtime; and, I get to dilly dally in the kitchen and on the screen porch for an hour. Good thing the porch swing isn't hung out there. I would be tempted to snooze.

Some of the Champion Blue Campanula we started from seed and planted out last fall are blooming. They are pink. This might be alright because they look nice with the Digitalis, 'Foxy' and daisies.

A while back I bought some little tin buckets with the American flag painted on them. Found them at the dollar store. They look aged. Tomorrow I plan to take them to market with sweet william (for red), daisies (for white), and Seven Hills Catnip (for blue). The plan is to sell the whole shebang.

For lunch we are having ice tea, and egg salad with huge tomato slices. Bought the tomato at market yesterday. They are grown in a greenhouse by another vendor. These people participate in all the markets we attend. I would have been a little suspicious about the tomatoes coming from somewhere south of the border; but, we know the family. Also, they were not all the same size which would have been another clue.

Enjoy the holiday weekend.

A supposed greenhouse-tomato grower got thrown out of our market a few years ago. We're pretty sure she was buying them wholesale, and she wouldn't submit to a greenhouse visit by our board to verify that she indeed grew them. They were suspiciously all the same size. Now we have a new greenhouse-tomato grower who is legit.

I've discovered to my woe that there probably IS permanent damage to one knee. I planted some glads yesterday and could only kneel in just-tilled, very soft dirt. Today it's killing me. I've got to plant glads and delphiniums and a few rudbeckia anyhow. I think I'll be having Advil for dinner, and maybe lunch, too.

Almost all of the outside Asiatic lilies have buds visible now. I get all excited about that, am I sane? They haven't separated or colored up yet, but they're visible. My 25 new Russell's Mix lupines are starting to color up. The three that have some color already are all purple or a purple-white combo. At least they aren't exactly the same purple as the wild ones around here. I can't sell them if they resemble wildflowers and have just plowed under the (supposed) Russell's Mix I grew myself, because they were ALL purple and resembled the wild ones. People won't buy anything they think is a wildflower here, presumably because they could just pick them themselves, for free. They don't actually get around to doing that, but they still won't pay for them. Those lupines I grew were much bigger and prettier than the wild ones, but people didn't notice or figure that out. They were the same colors. That was all it took to make them unsellable. The new purples are a much pinker sort of purple. I hope they'll be more obviously domestic and different. I figured by buying 25 of a mix, I'd end up with SOME I could sell. I'll give away or throw out any plants with purples that resemble the wild purples. 17 are planted but the rest are in pots, so I can easily plant them wherever I end up pulling out purples.

Well, back to work.

Jeanne

Greetings all,
We are finally starting to get some nice weather here in Wisconsin. Still quite cool at night, but the days are warmer and we have seen the sun all week. Hooray, sure does make you feel good.
I've been planting in a frenzy, trying to get everything in. Drove over to the farmer's field I'm renting and planted another 200 bulbs last night. I'm definitely getting slower as I'm sore from the unaccustomed activity, though, and my aspirin is my best friend, LOL! Also planted some ferns, Juncus, and calla lily plants out in my garden.

Do you bulb growers use a bulb planter or dig holes or what?
Initially we started off digging a trench and putting the bulbs in, but last night I used a bulb planter and it worked pretty well, but my rows did get a little more crooked.
Everything is getting nice and green here and I love it!
Happy holiday weekend, everyone !
Susan

I'm no model of efficiency, but this is how I plant bulbs or corms. The row or raised bed is amended, tilled, and drip tubing stapled in place first. I lay the bulbs out, on the top of the soil, where I want them (this keeps the rows somewhat straight, and it gets very fast with a little practice), in as big an area as I can reach at once. Then I go along the rows with a narrow trowel, picking the bulb up with the left hand while simultaneously sticking the trowel straight in, then pulling toward me in one move with the right hand, then put the bulb into the hole behind the trowel and press it in place with one move with the left hand. It sounds complicated but isn't, once you try it. Once all the area I can currently reach is done, I push the dirt back over the tops of all of the holes at once and pat if down a little. Then I move down the row to the next segment I can reach. In order to keep track of where I left off, so I know where to start the next segment, I leave the bulbs that are closest to the next section sitting in their places on the dirt, not planting them until I'm planting that next section. When you've done a few hundred you get pretty fast. I do this on my knees, which is a problem lately. If I had a way to plant them by machine, and could afford it, I would. I'm sure this way wouldn't work for a really big grower (unless they had cheap undocumented labor), but it's fast enough for me to do 500-600 in half a day, if I don't count the bed prep time. I am NOT efficient or fast - I have very poor hand-eye coordination. Someone who is better coordinated could probably do it in half the time. I find this system considerably faster than using a bulb planter. With the bulb planter I found I was constantly have to use the other hand to push the dirt back out of the bulb planter, which really slowed me down.

Jeanne

I finally got out to my dahlia garden! Just finished weeding †he 3rd block of 3, as well as the border of lavender roses and white lilies that runs along the west side. I have decided that the soil there is grossly lacking in nutrients so will be layering on the compost and then a straw mulch. THe glads I never got around to pulling look OK so far though a little light green in color and dryish...yes, the beds are drier then I thought too. I will fertilize them as well and watch them for the first sign of thrip damage. I have been spraying them with Safer's as a preventative measure this year. Nothing ventured, nothing gained...and so many or them that will be ready before anything I am planting if I can save them. Lots of slug damage unles it is the 2 remaining older ducks eating the dahlias. I think the dahlias will get some pet-friendly slug bait tonight too. Lost a lot of my delphimiums to the conditions mentioned above...they are down the side border with the Siberia Lilies and lavender roses. I'll know I am there when the delphies grow and strong and dark green. in thier leaves, with 6' spikes of blue. THey are Royal Aspirations and Sky Blue from the folks in New Zealand. I raised them from seed. I think I will take cuttings to increase the plants back to what I had. (That is if I can get them healthy enough to take shoot cuttings from....)

FInally got everyone else to go do their own thing so I COULD GARDEN TO MY HEARTS CONTENT... Just in on a rest break now. WHen I go out I will plant the rest of the dahlias into the garden..then get the soaker hose going.

"I'm sure this way wouldn't work for a really big grower (unless they had cheap undocumented labor)." Jeanne, I'm pretty sure large growers wouldn't have undocumented labor using the methods we use. That is, if they had undocumented labor--which I don't believe they do. It's hard enough finding migrant workers to work on a flower farm because many of them think that flowers are woman's work. Maybe that's why so many flower farmers have interns. Anyway, the two men and a shovel still seems to be our method of choice for planting dahlia clumps. Next year instead of digging holes though we are going to make furrows, drop the clumps in, and cover them. We could use a planter; but, we don't plant just one tuber. Necessity is the mother of invention though. So, we have all next winter to ponder that one. So many other things to tend to at the present time -- such as endless weeds in the hoophouses, getting rootbound plugs planted in the field, worrying about why some basil are that yucky shade of yellow/green.

It was a very long day yesterday (Saturday). Market was overwhelming. Customers continue to buy Dame's Rocket. Amazing. For those of you who think you will just skip selling bouquets next May and do bedding plants (I read your post, Kristen): Don't sell yourself too short. I don't know how your markets are; but, people are looking for fresh flowers at our markets. Competition is fierce at the market we attend. You have to be the first one out there with the goods. Fickle customers expect this. One of our markets has experienced such a rapid transformation. Five years ago, they only wanted bedding plants and hanging baskets in May. Now you can't give that stuff away. The customer is not interested. People were looking for pepper plants yesterday. Nobody had any. Next year everyone will have pepper plants; and, they won't want them. They still want those basil plants though. Get em while they're hot folks.

My better half just said, "Would you please just put yourself to bed." I think I will do just that......

I need to take good notes on the bulb planting methods-- I just made my husband plant 500 field lilies for me because it's so labor-intensive, digging trenches, etc. On the other hand, we planted 3,000 gladiola bulbs this year in about a day and a half using the trench method... shallow trenches, about 2 feet wide, lay 'em in side by side, then a two-foot space, then another two-foot row. I think they were about five to seven deep in the row. It was great. I got home from market yesterday and he was FINISHED (I did the first half one morning earlier in the week). I hope they're not too close together-- I looked it up everywhere I could find and generally found that I can grow them back-to-back if I want (and don't mind risking disease). So I figure seven deep with a two-foot break is OK... It's also amazing how little space it took-- not half of what I had budgeted so now I've got room for MORE STUFF.

Then today I planted 1,000 square feet of sunflowers... a lot of it (maybe half) was saved seed from last year and I'll be VERY interested to see what colors come out. I saved from my favorite flowers last summer but I'm not expecting much the same. I really think sunflower seeds are too expensive -- some of these are $3 for 50 seeds, it's crazy! Speaking of which, anyone care to share your sunflower prices? I wish we could have a price thread-- any time someone starts one, no one will really post. I'd love to hear what others are charging at farmer's markets for single stems of some things-- dahlias, peonies, glads, sunflowers, etc. I did 50 cents a stem for some large lupine this weekend and no one flinched. One woman had 50-cent stems of delphinium but another guy had delph bouquets with just five or six delph stems with some honeysuckle as filler for $10 each. Everyone sold out, I think. But I've noticed that-- people just pay what you ask sometimes at our market. I can price something double what a guy down the row is selling the same thing for, and sell out as easily as him. Anyway, all my dahlias are coming up in their pots and I've moved them into the hoophouse now that some tomatoes are clearing out... Flowerfarmer, I sure HOPE they aren't 7 feet high! That's insane! Most of them are thankfully in five-gallon pots, but a few are in smaller pots.... we'll see what happens. I can see it now-- a hoophouse filled with toppled dahlias. Ugh. Tomorrow I'm doing ALL the rest of my direct seeding, getting up at dawn and getting to work-- calendula and edible flowers (we're going to sell an edible flower mix) and some more sunflowers and broom corn and then all of the veggies (purple carrots and white carrots and bright yellow carrots, weird greens and blue dill and fennel and more broom corn).

I'm sunburned-- the back of my neck hurts-- who knew I'd someday be a real true redneck??? How embarrassing. And my poor blond, blue-eyed baby boy (9 months this week) is out in the sun 80 percent of his waking hours in that glare! I'm hoping for rain this week-- there's lightning over the mountain peaks tonight and moisture in the air.

And next year, darnit, I'm growing some $40 pots of dahlias. I can TOTALLY see how that would sell at our chi-chi market. They're selling single lily pots for $10.

Kristen

I haven't posted on this journal in the past, because I spend most of my time with veggies and fruit. It has been so cold and rainy here in the Northeast that I haven't had any flowers for two weeks at the market- a first for me. The iris and the peonies are in bud but seem to say they won't bloom until the sun comes out. Perhaps this is because their pollinators don't come out in this weather.If anyone is looking for a fun book, try Sex in Your Garden by Angela Overy- she puts flowers in a different perspective.

KristenMarie- My husband gave me a great hat for Christmas- it is made of UV material and has side and a long back flap that covers my neck. I look pretty bizarre in it, but most days I work alone on my patch of nirvana here. I love it and it protects my neck.Maybe they come in baby sizes.Becareful of the sun on your baby boy. I know they are even recommending UV sunglasses for the children now.

Liza Lily, have you transplanted delphineums? I am thinking of moving some Pacific Giants, and wondering how successful I will be. Would do it towards the fall.I would love to know the particulars of taking delph cuttings.

And last of all, a big thank you to SuzyQ. Last year I had a post of what to do with all my tulips that were blooming before market. Her response was for me to get going, cut them and move them into the fridge.It was too late for them last year, but this year, I did just that. Moved the veggies into the house fridge, and took over the garage fridge, with my husband quietly frowning in the back ground. I picked the tulips twice a day as they colored and brought them to market at the end of the week. The next week, I had several customers come up and exclaim that their tulips were still beautiful.I know it sounds like a small thing to the big professional growers, but it was my first experience with really trying to pick at the optimal time, and storing the flowers. It was very successful, and I wouldn't have done it without SuzyQ being so enthusiastic in her response to me. The iris are now in the "pencil stage" and will be picked and stored this morning, and I am constantly feeling the peonies for the "marshmellow stage" even though I don't know what that is. A step up on the quality ladder for me.

Barb,

How VERY nice! Thank you for your compliment! That idea worked better for me last year than this, but I did some that way this year. My timing was off on a lot of things.

Can you tell us store name or hat-brand name for your hat? I'd love to get one. A lady here in town I did some gardening for a few years ago wouldn't let any of her extremely fair skinned family out of the house w/o these white baseball caps that had a white "skirt" attached all the way around the sides and back of neck. They looked like some kind of safari hat, and well, yes, goofy, but I'd sure like one now! I've lost track of her, so need your info.

I haven't posted on this journal because I'm so far behind all of you, and have lost too much time due to husband in the hospital & youngest daughter graduating high school, and a few time consuming gardening jobs. And, the more I don't get done, the more depressed I am, and the cycle continues.

I planted aprox 100-200 various sunflower seeds about 3 weeks ago, and 2 days later they were GONE. Birds got 'em, I guess. So I FINALLY forced myself to make a new seed order (the one that should have been done in Jan-Feb!) and have brand new seeds to start sowing TODAY. I'm still frantic about birds & grasshoppers & heat all doing in my new seeds. I'll plant in six packs or seedling trays, and cover protect them somehow.

Some suns I DID plant back in late March, early April, ARE up and should be blooming soon, but there's not many of them. My first year lilies have been blooming since Mid-May, and my self-sown larkspur are GORGEOUS! Sold some to the florist, but she misunderstood my price, and/or I wasn't strong enough about saying $6.50 PER bunch, and I only got about $25.00 for 7 bunches. I didn't want to quibble, I was "thrilled" about the sale, and then when I got to the car I figured it on my calculator and realized how much I lost! DANG! That was the same week I lost the sunflower seeds!

I've got marketing ideas like crazy, but NO negotiating skills!

That week was also about the time I lost one of my two subscription clients. That was the new one, had only lasted a month. The guy bought it for the church office staff, said in his message to me on the phone that it wasn't appreciated enough. Haven't gotten to talk to him directly.

So I've been feeling very Eeyore and Chicken Little lately. We have had some rain this weekend, not enough, but some, and if it wasn't going to rain off and on this week I'd say, to finish the sentence above, ".... but maybe the sun will come out tomorrow!" LOL!

Got Hosta fever in the last month and have bought some from my nursery and my sister's nursery (where we work, not own, alas!), and all are huge plants just itching to be divided! Got started on some of that last night, so there's something positive. I'll have hosta leaves and flowers for sale one day, slugs & crown rot not withstanding (LOL!), and 11 and 1/2 years after moving into a shady shady home, am FINALLY building an honest to goodness SHADE garden! We-eell, DUH!

Happy growing and selling this week, everyone! And thanks again, Barb. How unexpected and uplifting to see your note to me.

SusiQ

SusiQ,
The hat came from Gempler's (www.gemplers.com). I'll warn you- it is really ugly, but then so is skin cancer.