Bryan,
That's an ugly word right now! I'm hoping it's really far away from here, and I think we're safe for a while since it was 75 here today. We are having some incredible weather right now and I'm really enjoying it. What kind of dogwood do you use for your wreaths? It sounds like you have quite the business going, you should be proud of yourself.
Cheryl

Bryan,

I finally got my wreathmaster last Friday. I'm having a little difficulty tweaking the overhead clamp, the instructions aren't really clear on how tight it should look after clamping. It doesn't seem to want to crimp my grasses tight enough and they are kinda loose in the clamp, maybe I just need more material. I haven't spent a ton of time because I'm thick into the seed harvest, spent several days working on my 1959 John Deere combine. I retro fitted it to combine my little seeds. It's working good now and I'm sun-up to sun-down now.

Anyway, any tips on wreath making would be greatly appreciated. Also, I ordered 100 10 inch rings from Maple Rigde to come with the machine. Are the clamps on the 10 inch rings that you get by the pallet shorter? There seems to be alot of extra clamp sticking out on the inside of the ring that isn't hidden by the material from the previous clamp.

Steve

Snow! I don't want to hear about that yet. Most of my Dahlias haven't even bloomed or budded. :-( And the temperature has been in the upper 80 two days in a row. It is supposed to drop on Thursday, though.

I was in the Chicago area for those 80-degree temps last week, along with the usual humidity. That sure felt weird, as my place here in Idaho had thoroughly frosted already well before I left. We didn't go downtown to the Field Museum until it got cooler.

We could get snow any day, or crazy low temps. A couple of years ago, we got a temp of 5 degrees (yes, that's Fahrenheit, way below freezing) in October. Anything that wasn't dormant yet was hit very hard. I'm hoping that won't happen again, but snow would be fine by me, even though it certainly won't stay on the ground this early. Everything has frosted beyond cut-ability anyway.

Jeanne

Jeanne,
I'm hoping that we don't get hit hard before things go dormant because we've had some really strange weather lately. We have yet to have a frost, and things are still growing, or even starting to re-grow. I have a few carnations popping back out, and noticed some lavender blooming today. Really weird. Today is the Canadian Thanksgiving and the first time since I've been here that I've had fresh flowers in the house from my garden. There are still zinnias and dahlias to cut, and a few glads. I don't know what I'll do with these glads because the leaves have not even started to die back. Plus we are on our 3rd day of rain, got 6" yesterday alone. And it's warm! It's pretty scary because I know all heck is going to break loose sooner or later. It's set me back on my customers gardens because nobody wants their stuff cut back for the fall clean-up since it still looks good. I sure could have used some of this rain in the summer, but you know how that goes. At least it's good for my fall rye, and the lawns still look so lush and green. Our leaves are just starting to turn, so things really do look nice.
Cheryl

Over her in Massachusetts we are still cutting,zinnias, statice, salvia, a few snaps. I'm now wishing that I had planted that last planting of Sunflowers, they would have sold like hot cakes along side of my pumpkins and squash. But at the time I figured they didn't have enough days for maturity. I love this time of year. Usually the leaves have all colored up by now, but so far things are still green. I noticed that some farms were still selling corn. WOW, That does seem very strange this year. Along with the snow come all the new catalogues. Can't wait. I've been receiving a steady supplies of boxes from the FED EX truck with all our wreath making supplies. The work shop is all set and ready to goooo. Yup, I love this time of year. But then again, I love all the seasons. Happy Fall.....HEIDI