Fisrt, let me say to Jeanne, Thank You for all of the advice you have given me int he last 2 1/2 years. I knew nothing about cut flowers when I discovered the cutting gardens forum. The information I have gleaned from all the folks here has helped me immensily and Jeanne you were a huge part of that. I'm not giving you too much credit, just the credit that is deserved and appreciated.

What a beautiful, crisp September morning. I just put my two oldest daughters on the bus and finished making oatmeal for my little one. She and I are going to deliver the flowers I cut last night, midnight cutting with the headlight on is in full swing again. Rachel likes helping daddy deliver flowers because all the florsits spoil her with balloons and candy. Only about four weeks left on the cuts if the frost holds off. I've already started harvesting some of my native seeds when it's too hot out to cut midday.

My big florist is keeping me hopping, I'm delivering 3 X a week right now because of a big sale they've got going on. With the price of gas at $3.00 a gallon I might have to figure out how to get some of that money back, it's 92 miles round trip. My late plantings of suns are finally popping, everybody was complaining that they had to buy theirs from California and they just aren't as fresh as mine, that's good to hear.

I finally got to speak with Bryan from Utah on the phone after all these years and it was good to put a voice with the person from the forum. Thanks for all the help Bryan.

SusiQ, I sure hope everything works out for ya.

It's been said before but I'll say it again, the people on this forum are the salt of the earth and I thank you all for all of the advice, opinions and help through the last couple years.

Off to deliver, have a great day everyone!!!

Steve

Steve, you are unfailingly kind. You're welcome. If I were staying in the business, I'd have a lot to learn about marketing from you. That was always my weak point.

Nights are getting longer and colder. I got up at 5 as usual to harvest this morning, and lo and behold, it was too dark to see the stems! Coulda slept another half-hour, geez! I think tomorrow will be my last market. I cut the last lilies today. Sunflowers are definitely pooping out except for the branching types, but there aren't enough. My late planting (sunflowers, asters, snaps) didn't happen due to knee injuries. The succession-planted glads are doing exactly what they were supposed to do - now what do I do with 100 glads (but nothing else) next week? That's not enough to be worth going to market.

I will be digging up hundreds, maybe thousands, of lilies in the next few weeks and getting rid of them. Most are Asiatics and Asiatic crosses, but there are some Orientals. They are all larger than any that I've ever seen available commercially. I'm willing to send them but only at least 50 at once. I'm not looking to make a profit but would like to be at least reimbursed for packing and sending. Anybody who is interested, e-mail me directly and I'll let you know what I have. Anybody who would like to come and dig them up themselves can have all they like! We have a nice spare bedroom....

Jeanne

JEANNE, What a generous offer! You know me and lilies! I will take about 200 of them, maybe more so send me your list and I will choose away! I would like to compensat e you for your work somehow though! Just paying the shipping doesn't seem like much when you will have all the work of it! MAybe I would have some perennials that you would like starts of for your personal gardens next spring. We can talk about it then. In the meantime, I will look forward to that list!

Jeanne, I sent you a email. It really has been great reading all your posts.

Steve, It was good talking to you. I think you need to post a pic of your goshawks. The boys really want to get into falconry. They need to find a master to help them. It sounds like the flowers are doing great! Thanks.

All, September is going good so far. We had a small scare last week, when work called and said we might be going to LA for a few months. That would have been nice to help out, but the flowers/family would have suffered some. The FM is trying to collect $ to help out. I told the boys we need to do something good for the 1,000 or so coming to Utah. Hope everyone is doing good!!

Bryan

Finally getting some new dahlias blooming. I had my first two Beverly F's bloom after 2 years. Also have Denver Nugget blooming for the first time and something else with red orange petals. I am having to wait a couple of days between pickings to have enough to work with. I think I will now be doing my sand only on 4 days a week unless I get a flood of late flowers(I should be so lucky!). THose late planted zinnias are just starting to produce but I only have 2 or 3 dozen plants.

This morning I picked what is probably the last of our callas- some are still struggling to come up, but we just don't have enough rain this year. Anyhow, going to make some bouquets and take those and a few tuberose and crocosmia to a huge flea market, about 800 booths. I'm going to share the booth with my sister, who's selling essential oils. I'm really excited, it's the first time I've done one so big since our local farmers market is tiny!

Callas? You grow callas in zone 5? Hmm... I might have to check into that. I thought they were a zone 10 plant or something.

HI to everyone- I havent' been around for months and months-- I'm too darn busy to chat on forums lately, although I think about you all regularly... I'll be out in the field wondering about something and think "OH I should ask the friendly folks on the flower forum" and then I never make it to the computer to do so... I asked last year about twisted glad stems and never got an answer, I should probably ask again. It's really very odd-- some of my glad flower stems do weird things, they are bent and twisty... I should take a picture and send it. Last year I thought maybe it was because they were dry, but frankly, there's no WAY my glads are too dry this year-- they've been soaked. Maybe the cold night temps? But woudln't that keep them from blooming at all? They are blooming like crazy, and TALL. It's very strange.

We had a decent flower year, overall... we MIGHT be finished, depending on the weather. I still have several hundred more glads that are blooming, as well as some decent sunflowers, and if it doesn't freeze hard this week I'll go to market next Saturday, but I can't imagine we won't have a frost shortly thereafter. But this year's flower farming was better than last for sure... I probably made more than a thousand bucks this year off the flowers (nevermind what I SPENT... ). My husband is no longer quite the skeptic he was before and he wants to plant MORE LILIES next year ... which is incredible because he complained bitterly about planting them this spring!

Anyway, I'd better get to bed. Market days wear me out. I've been up since 4 a.m., what the heck am I doing still awake?

Kristen

Yeh Kristen, how much did you spend to get that $1000 worth of flowers, LOL. THat is what we don't "think" to mention to our mates when they are surprised to see us actually bringing in money, right? SUre glad you had a good year, and spend that money quick on bulbs for next year before the money gets away!

I finally have some time to breath since it's raining and I can't cut. The last two weeks have been out of control with so many things to do. My big florist has been featuring some of my flowers in this big vase sale they have and the stem count is to the point of insanity. Plus, since they are an FTD florist and FTD had this vase full of sunflowers for the made up "grandparents day", she is taking every last sunflower I can produce. Trouble is, I can only get 600 of them in my truck at a shot with all the other flowers so I am having to make a trip evry day, which means lots of night cutting.

Throw in the kids back in school with all that goes along with that for a little craziness. And to top it off, my father found a nursery that sold out to the city of St. Paul Mn. to put up townhomes and fanagled a deal with the guy for me if I wanted some hoop houses. I don't really know what I'm gonna do with them but I couldn't afford not to buy them (one more capital expense). Only catch was, we had to take them down ourselves over the labor day weekend because the city took posession of the land on that Tuesday. So, on two rainy holiday weekend days my wife, kids and I took down 3 of the 6 houses. I would have taken all six but didn't have time. Here's the best part, they are 15 ft wide by 8 feet tall and 120 feet long and each one only cost me $250.00. Like I said I'm not quite sure what I'm going to use them for, at the very least I could sell a couple on e-bay and make a little money to buy some shrubs for next year. Oh yeah, I almost forgot, when it's too hot to cut my fresh flowers I've been harvesting my native seeds, all hand harvest for now, I'll fire up the combine in a month.

Bryan, I ordered the wreath maker. Now I just have to call and get the rings. Plus, finish cutting the material to make the wreaths in my spare time, LOL.

Looks like the rain is letting up and I've got about 400 Sunflowers with my name on them.

Happy growing everyone,

Steve

Jeanne, I have definitely missed something, because I didn't know you were getting out of the business. I'm sorry to hear that, and am assuming it's due to your knee injuries? I know you won't quit gardening, or giving your friendly and most helpful advise here on the garden web, thank goodness. I certainly appreciate all the help you've given me, and especially the encoutagement when I wasn't getting too much of that at home. (You know how that goes) But after I told my husband it payed for itself this year, he plowed 3 more rows for me. Ha.
I'm not too impressed with our farmers market, I guess it's just not for me. I can see where a really busy market, and me having lots of bouquets to take would be worth it, but our market is pretty small, and there are 2 other, or sometimes 3 other people selling cuts. Not exactly the same, but the going price is 5.00, and 8.00 on dried bouquets. I sold more than half of what I had, but I figure all the time spent the day before getting ready, the gas, table rental, ect.. I can sell the same over the weekend without having to leave my driveway. But for all of you with big businesses, and large markets in your area, I know it's a great place for you to market your flowers. I have another idea for the town that's closer to me, I just have to talk to the municipality about a vendors license. A couple of weeks ago, I was asked by one of the bank tellers to bring her a glad bouquet next time I was in town. So I took 3, then made another few sunflower bouquets. Between the 2 banks, I made 50.00 in about 10 minutes. I thought, "now this is the way to sell flowers!" So, if I can get permission to set up a nice flower cart in the middle of the town, and go there on a friday afternoon when people leaving work might want to take home a bouquet for the weekend, I think I could sell enough to make it worth while. PLus, the girls at the bank don't mind spending 10.00 for a bigger bouquet. Here at my house, 5.00 is about all I can get. So, that's one of my projects for after the season, and also trying to design a cart that can be easily assembled, but look really nice when it's set up, and be durable enough to handle some wind. Just want to say thanks to EVERYONE on this web for all the advise and information that you give to us newbies, I'm sure we can be a pain sometimes. I hope you all had a good season, and I look forward to reading the post on what worked and what didn't.
Cheryl

Thanks for your kind words, Cheryl, and it sounds like you're exploring different ways to market your flowers- good for you! Can you make subscriptions out of those bank-teller deals? That would be more reliable than a cart. Forgive me if you've already thought of that.

Actually, no, it's not my knees, although they did add a little fuel to the fire, since I still can't kneel and don't know when (if ever) I'll be able to kneel again. I'm just plain tired and want a life. I can't charge enough for my flowers to make it worthwhile to give them my whole life, dawn to dusk, every day, from March to October every year. I sell out at the market but it's not enough money and the season is just too darned short. Dealing with this climate adds a lot of expenses. I finally got tired of trying. I can make a lot more money more easily and quickly at the hospital. I'll still have a cutting garden, mostly because I can't imagine NOT having one, but it will be much smaller and just for me with some extra for friends/neighbors/work. I'll be growing veggies for the first time, too, just for us. The sister I've gotten them from for years is moving to Missouri or Arkansas, so I'll be on my own. I don't know NUTHIN' about growing veggies! - but I'm going to learn. I can't think of a better way to use all the raised-beds space I have that won't be growing cut flowers. With the raised beds, I never have to get on my knees. I'm also looking forward to cleaning up and reviving the house garden I had to give up on because I just didn't have time for it. Now, that will require kneeling, so we'll see.

Kristen, callas ARE a warm-climate crop. We would have to dig and store over the winter. I don't think any amount of mulch will get them through a zone 5 winter.

You guys haven't gotten rid of me, yet. Once my knowledge becomes outdated, I might disappear, who knows, but not yet.

Jeanne

Jeanne,
Actually, I hadn't thought of selling subscriptions to the tellers, so thanks for that idea. It's certainly worth bringing up to them. Good luck on your veggies and I'm sure you'll do fine because all the same good growing practices that you have, apply to the vegs. A little more challenging at times when the flea beetles and cucumber beetles come out, if you have those out there. You might need to get out those row covers!
Cheryl

Well, the other shoe finally dropped. I have been considering myself extremely fortunate this season having timely rains and dodging all the severe weather. Well, Monday night I got my shot of the real nasty stuff. We had straight line winds of 70 mph with .75 inches of rain. The hail missed me but the winds flattened about 2500 sunflowers from my late planting about a week before they were due to start opening. Not a single one was left standing, they all got snapped off at the ground and landed on their unopened faces. The rain was nice and the lightning show was spectacular, I just could have done without the wind. My zinnias faired well due to being on the southside of my yard which is protected by mature pine trees. It was due to happen, I just thought we were past the real nasty stuff. We had a tornado in our county as well, it's the first tornado in 60 years this late into September. Nobody got hurt but it tore up the municipal airport really bad and tossed litlle planes and hangers all around.

I spent the day harvesting Baptisia leucophaea(Cream Wild Indigo), it's a back breaker since the plants rarely get over 2 feet tall and the pods are always right next to the ground.

Well off to bed. Hey, it's before midnight and I'm going to bed, what a miracle!!!

Take it easy,

Steve

The nights here are getting cold already. I am going to cut some glads tonight when I get off of work if I can. They are all planted at the same time but never seem to bloom togheter, these are the last of them. I picked a bunch of calendulas last night, pretty, but make my hands very sticky. I have them in my veggie garden and looks like they will resead themselves. Funny, I had such a hard time getting them to start, and now I will probably have them forever, lots of seeds.
I am slowly building up a cutting garden, have some coneflowers to transplant into it, should I do that now or wait till spring?

steve,
So sorry to hear about your 2500 sunflowers getting blown over. Next time the dog knocks over several of mine, i won't feel so bad, I'll think of you and know what bad really is. You sound pretty good for loosing so much. Glad the tornado didn't get you. That can be really scary. I had one touch down about 100 feet from me and rip a tree apart. That is the scariest I have ever been. My sister and dog were with me in the greenhouse and we hit the ground as close as we could get to each other and after a few seconds it was over. Hopefully you won't have winds like that for a long time.

Rita

Oh your sunflower story breaks my heart, Steve.

Of course, I had two-thirds of my gladiolas get frosted at 24 degrees on Tuesday night (I had planned to take them to a little Wednesday afternoon market just down the road). WOE, woe, woe-- probably 2,000 glad stems due to open in the next 1-2 weeks. We are moving to a better growing climate (slightly, slightly better) and I'll be glad of it-- I know they've had no frost there yet.

Kristen

Kristen, I Am glad the move is on...een a week or two more of a growing season will make such a difference on what is able to bloom. My garden partner lives 3 miles from my garden. We are at about the same elevation. And yet where my garden is a zone 8b hers is a 9 or 9b. We have never been able to figure out what makes the difference, though mine slopes gently to the north and hers to the west. She is at the top of a ridge, I am midway on a slight slope. I get frost around Oct 1 and she may not get a frost until mid Dec. THe same is true for spring..I have things frozen when the frost does't even touch her garden. MAkes for a good partnership anyhow as I get a little more heat in mid summer to start the dahlias.

Today we got the wedding flowers made up. TOok us 7 hours and we thought we would be done in 3! They are so beautiful though...I think our bride will be pleased. THese are the red, yellow, orange and blue ones for a wedding at the beach. The big bouqets have a background of tall striped micanthus grass, redbeckia triloba and lions tails, then masses of dahlias in the bright colors with blue statice. These are in cobalt ceramic pots. The small table arrangements also have lots of small flowers and some roses and lavender mixed in, as well as all the blue perennial asters I could find. THey are exactly the same shade as the blue statice so that worked out very nicely.

Tomorrow is the service for my best college friend who died of bone cancer. I made a beautiful arrangement made of pure love for her! IT has Cafe au Lait and Barbarry Dominion peach ball dahlia,s with strawberry blond sunflowers, hot cocoa and golden cellebration roses, and the tips of apricot branches that have started to turn apricot orange for fall. and a few clusters of blue statice like autumn shadows or the far mountains she liked to hike in.

LizaLily - your tribute to your friend brought tears to my eyes. I trust the love in it will help your wounded spirit.

Made me think of when my Mother died (at age 97). She had gardened until about 90 at which time her eyes failed her and she couldn't tell weed from plant. We added this to her memorial card:

"She had her flowers while she lived;
From dandelions to orchids,
buttercups to roses.
If you think of her,
Take some flowers to your mother, a friend, a shut-in;
So they'll have flowers while they live."

I'm taking time to breath today and hang out with my 4 year old daughter. My big florists vase sale is wrapping up and this will be the last week of large number of stems for her. I'm pretty much down to Zinnias, Ox-eyes a few suns and some Indian grass bunches. It's pretty good timing because my native seeds are ripening quickly and I'm a little behind on my harvest.

My wreath machine was supposed to be here last week but they are behind on making the tables for them so now they say the end of this week. That will be a whole new ball game, figuring out how to make stuff that will sell and marketing it. It should be fun as well to goof around with my native grasses and such to create a wreath that will be appealing to people. I'll definately be contacting the wreath king, Bryan, for some pointers.

I hope all your seasons are wrapping up well and you all had a great season thus far.

Take care,

Steve

Well, tomorrow I am off to Jeanne's to dig plants. As she says, a good friend gets down and dirty with you! My DH is an Idaho man so he thinks it will be a fun trip...Has he figured out yet that he is the main digger? LOL! On oue way we will stop off and see Poochella's dahlias so what a great GardenWebber trip! Wish I ould drop in on a few more of you and exchange a few plants! WOuldn't that be fun, a trip all across the country and exchanging garden treasures?

SO think of us diging away the next few days!

We dug and dug and grubbed and grubbed! LizaLily was here for a couple of days. You can't imagine how fun it is to garden with another cut-flower grower. We just had to cut whatever flowers were available in my raised beds at the time, and LizaLily made some bouquets for the house while I was making dinner. I didn't ask her to, but was hoping she couldn't resist, and she couldn't! And she really IS a genius with colors. Wish I'd run across her when I was just starting out.

We made the discovery that lilies really DO have contractile roots that pull them down to their favorite depth. I'd had a heckuva time getting them out the last time I dug up lily bulbs, so I'd replanted them quite a bit shallower. Well, guess what? They were just as deep as last time. The sizes they had attained made it worthwhile to dig them up, though.

Digging is pretty much all I've been doing in the garden lately, with friends and coworkers who have come to get plants, and alone to make room in my raised beds for the plants from the field I want to keep. There are still way too many plants, and only one person left who might want some, but she doesn't have much room. I'm too lazy to pot them up to sell, and nobody buys plants this time of year here. I guess they'll just stay where they are and feed steers next year.

The Labor Day weekend market was indeed my last. The next week, there weren't even 100 glads to take, and only a few sunflowers, so it wouldn't have been worth the time and effort. Now my field has been thoroughly frosted. There were a bunch of glads, and about a dozen Teddy Bears I almost picked, then decided to wait and keep them for the CSA folks - and the cold (probably in the low 20's) killed them that night. Oh well.... I still have my raised-beds area that hasn't frosted yet, but it's not enough for anything but flowers for the house. In her area, LizaLily expects to keep selling into November. I must have been nuts to even try selling cut flowers in this climate!

I plan to dig up the rest of the lilies, send Asiatics and Asiatic crosses to Steve, give big Orientals to not-enough friends who want them and try to sell the rest, clean dead annuals out of my raised beds and move some perennials up there pronto, before it gets just too cold to plant, then relax and hope for snow. Some of my market income went into season passes for the ski area. It seemed weirdly appropriate. And oh, yeah, dig out 2500 or so glads. What to do with them, I haven't even considered yet. I DON'T want to store them all over the winter. Aw heck, maybe I'll just dig up the few I want to keep and let the rest rot or get eaten by steers. It's tempting.

Jeanne

Jeanne, It is too bad you live so far north. I keep thinking it would be fun to come dig, then I walk outside and see the 40 or 50 flats I still need to put in. I still have echinops, rudbeckia, daises, echinacea and allilum to plant.

The wreaths have gone crazy and now the boys offically have quit, at least until they run out of money. Next week is our last FM and I cannot believe that we still can pick 3 hours every day without running out of flowers. I got back from today's FM and fell asleep for a couple of hours. Now off to make some more.

We had our customers take a survey today at the FM. We asked what prices they would pay, if they want to buy weekly, what flowers they want us to add, colors they want.
ADD: #1 was Daises, #2 was Tulips, #3 Liatris, #4 Callas. Prices: $8 to $10 was the average. Colors: More Orange was #1, more Whites were #2.

Right now I still have: Mums, Statice (all colors), Gomphrena (red, purple), Millet, Celosia, Suns, Zinnas, Echinops, Rudbeckia and curly willow.

Steve, I hope you got your wreath maker. The Dogwood is about a week away!! I love making twig wreaths. Flowers are nice, but I know I have to sell them quickly after picking. Twigs wreaths keep for years.

Septembers about over and the winter is headed here. I am hoping to have everything cleaned-up and hoops up by November!!

Good luck to all!!!

Bryan

I haven't seen any sign of winter heading this way yet except for shorter daylight hours. No rain since I can't remember when, and every possible shower goes over our heads and lands on someone else...sound familiar? Well, at least our temps are in the 60's now, not the 100+s!

I have been setting out starts of phlox, physostegia, campanulas and crazy daisy today. I dug up all my "summer berries" achilliea and gave them to my garden partner as I seem to have uncontrollable sneeze attacks around them. That was hard to say good-by to them as I really liked them! I did save out one the color of lemon sorbet and I have 1 red velvet in my garden and a patch of terracotta I can enjoy from a distance. IT is right in front of my hot cocoa rose and makes a beautiful companion for it!

I am on a roll about setting up my new garden patch. Paced it off today and it looks like 35' by 70' about. I will plant my tulips in one end of it and the rest of the center will be the annual row crops with shrubs and roses around the edges. Hopefully I will be able to do a 3 yr rotation with the tulips in it.The Tree Man is coming to give me an estimate on the 3 trees we want him to take down, and then my DH can do the smaller ones. This garden will NOT be raised beds but ones where the rototiller can be used to turn in cover crops. I have never been able to do cover crps before because I always had perennials mixed or raised beds that woud have had to be done by hand. THis one will need cover cropping because the soil is low in humas. I am hoping to get it in in time to plant something to grow over winter.

The frost was heavy enough last night to kill off the dahlias. All that's left is a few glads and snaps in my raised beds, just enough for a couple of bouquets for the house. I get so tired of the garden, I'm looking forward to being done with it and going skiing. It's time to think snow! - or it will be, soon.

Jeanne

Jeanne-- I can't believe you're already having frosts! It's STILL 99-100 here, has been for weeks! Normally, we'd at least be in the mid 80's by now. One of the weathermen said last night that yesterday was the 42nd day of above average temperatures this summer/fall. Not sure if they're consecutive, but we did match and break some records last weekend--even w/ the hurricane!

We don't usually have our first frost til mid November. Since we're all so "close" on the forum, it's hard to truely imagine/realize the vast distances between us and the "strange" climates we have as a group.

Susi.

Susi, We broke weather records this season as well. Lost count how many consecutive days of high 90 temperatures. Tonight, however, we're expected to get rain with gale force winds. Tomorrow's high is expected to be 58 degrees. After that, back to summer type weather. So, today we were out in the field harvesting buckets of dahlias for market on Saturday. Sunflowers that were not planted at the same time are coming on, however, all at the same time. The lilies in the hoophouses are blooming way, way ahead of schedule. These were intended to extend the season.

It has been an extremely difficult growing season with the high temperatures; however, our Saturday market that generally peaks Labor Day weekend continues to climb. Who would have thought......

Oh dear, my new bulbs came from Holland today and the man hasn't even showed up to LOOK at the trees yet, let alone cutting them down! I told DH that he is cutting down the smaller trees this weekend so that we can get the land cleared as soon as possible when the big trees are down...actually, could probably cultivate around those if necessary. Two of the trees that need professional cutting are in the border between the old garden and new one (why they need someone who can get them to fall so they are NOT on the current garden!) THe other is a very tall fir tree on the edge of my new garden.

If tree folks there are like tree folks here and in Aptos, California, they'll walk all over your new beds even if you ask them not to. Hang in there - there is plenty of time for bulb planting yet. What kinds did you get? I'm trying to live vicariously through others, as I can't order any bulbs this fall. It's nearly killing me. Somehow digging up old bulbs just isn't as fun as shopping for new ones.

Speaking of which, I'd better get out there to get the last of the lilies out. Lousy weather for digging up, cold and rainy, but I've got to do it anyway. I think the glads will have to wait until I get back from a week in Illinois, near Joliet, visiting my mother and stepfather. It will be even colder and rainier then, but there will be NO gardening at all at their house, so I'll be in withdrawal by the time I get back. I STILL haven't figured out what to do with all those glads, though.

Jeanne

Jeanne I would love to get some bulbs from you if we can work out the details. I think I am not too far from you. I would be happy to pay for them and the shipping, unless you are coming my way any time soon, (Spokane) and some of them would be going to a community garden where we donate the items grown to a low income restaurant so you could even write it off as a tax deduction, maybe. I have no free time, so probably wouldn't be able to make it your way to pick them up unfortunatly. A road trip up north would be pretty this time of year. Two large gardens, kids and a full time job take pretty much all I have. I was picking pumpkins in the dark last night.

Well, the tree man has come twice this week, both times when I wasn't home...must not know how to use a cell phone! HOpefully he will come back tomorrow.

Jeanne, this was the order from flowerbulb.net just to make up the varieties they had less expensive (or that Colorblends didn't have). The first year I got great bulbs from FLbulb.net and they had a wonderful selection at low prices. Each year the selection gets smaller and they went from boxes of 100 to boxes of 125. So I got the Christmas Marvel and Christmas (Present?) for forcing for Valentines day, daffs Actea, something yellow, and jack Snipe, Tulip Abu Hassam, Aladdin,Arabian Mystery, Yellow Dutch Iris, Blue dutch Iris, More muscari (Can't beleive I can't get them to multiply fast enough for the number I use in spring bouquets!, Frittilaria meleagris, and allium moly. That is all I remember right now anyhow. But these were just the tag ends of my orders! I bought most of the rest of my tulips from Colorblends and only bought from VE what I couldn't find elsewhere, Like Green Village. I bought my Daffs through daff depot, that is a part of Colorblends. I am really looking forward to seeing how the color blend tulips go, especially those French ones!

And Jeanne, I only have about 6 weeks to get my bulbs in before my new "daughter", Sunny,(My Adopted daughter's identical twin sister, age almost 25) arrives from Korea. I can teach her to plant bulbs but I don't think I should exhaust her with it! My Time schedule should work out OK though, especialy if the tree guy does show up to look to tomorrow and schedules an appt! (And October isn't back to back monsoons!)

Liza, where do you get all your energy? Look at the time you were posting, I was long asleep. All these bulbs you are growing, are they in a greenhouse or outside? I am so happy that you are getting to see the twin of your daughter. That is great. I have a 25 year old daughter also. Also Liza do you have a planting schedule that you go by each year so you don't forget something for your mix of flowers? Do you know if there is like a generic one out there on the forum somewhere that one could go by? I seem to think someone posted one last year but I searched for it and could not find one.

Thankyou,

Rita