HOLY SMOKES Pudge, your soooooooo talented!
Such a beautiful wreath!

Pudge, I just re-read your thread, I'm so sorry about your Dad, the last I heard was that he was not doing so well.

I'm so sorry.
Sharon

Pudge, i'm sorry about your dad as well. I sort of figured something was wrong because you weren't posting very much.

Your bouquets are great and i love the wreath too. I'm awful with bouquets - they might look all right for awhile but i tend to forget about them until they're all dead and ugly. Ever forget about petunias in water? Don't! :>

Pudge, so sorry to hear about your dad.

I love your bouquets! So cool that your new venture is working so well and I can sure see why!

Ang

I noticed you weren't around much too and hoped everything was ok. Sorry to hear about your Dad - but it's good that you & your Mom are looking after each other by the sounds of things :0)

Love the annual borders! Can't even tell you've been cutting them to sell - Wow. No wonder they are selling so well - good for you!

I'm very sorry to hear about your Dad, Pudge. I'm sure that keeping busy with the flowers has helped to take your(and your mom's)mind off of things. When my FIL was diagnosed with terminal cancer 2 years ago, I started digging a new flowerbed..........gardening is great therapy!

The bouquets are gorgeous! No wonder they fly out like hotcakes.

Thank you all for the kind words. Gardening has been great therapy and as I've mentioned many times, my dad was a knockout vegetable gardener and even started taking an interest in flowers the past few years - he could grow some knock-your-socks-off zinnias. When I'm gardening now I often hear my dad's words, mostly telling me what to do or what I should have done, LOL. He was the type that would spend ALL DAY tieing up one tomato plant just perfectly - never in a rush, all in good time. The epitome of a patient gardener, I hope some of that rubbed off on me. When he got sick, he got very sick very fast and then at the end of a most beautiful spring day he was gone - I guess heaven needs good gardeners, too.

Thanks for the compliments on my efforts, too. The past few years I've often thought it would be fun to have a flower/craft shop but the little town I live in just wouldn't support such a venture. This is about the next best thing and gives me a bit of a creative outlet. Learning lots about cut flowers, too.

Sorry to here about the loss of your dad. I'm sure your mother and you have grown closer with all the lovely work that you both have done.
Shelley.

Pudge, sorry to hear about your dad. He's still there with you especially when you're gardening.
Your bouquets are beautiful - no wonder they sell so quickly.
Isn't it great to get a tangible reward (ie.$$$) for something that you love to do!
Margaret

My sincerest sympathies on the loss of your father, Pudge. I also thought that something must have happened because you haven't been around so much. But then, like me, I thought maybe you were just very busy this year. And, wow, have you ever been. I'm really glad to hear that your venture is doing so well. This sounds like a great thing to pay for new seed, new plants, new tools, new soil, new pots . . . well, you get the idea.

I also can really relate to how you hear your father's voice while gardening and mine has been gone for 18 years already. But, he and I "talk" many times throughout the season on the successes or failures and what could be done better. Always, always about what could be done better. LOL. Occasionally, he'll tell me he's proud of me and that I really did something right. But, in my garden is where I really find an inner peace with my dad. It's funny to think about how many references I have made to my dad since joining FN but he really was a master gardener of great talent. And, it's only in the garden that I share time with him. Weird how he's never there during grocery shopping telling me which steak to buy. That's my mom and my MIL. Now you're going to think I really have flipped out. But I think all of us that have lost even one parent (all four of mine are gone) can relate to those special messages that come out of nowhere to let us know that they are still watching in some way. Take care of your mom, Pudge, and make each moment special.

Shauna

Pudge gardening is great for the losses. Mine passed last summer and I've done more new beds myself. My father wasn't the gardener, my mom is and she vicariously enjoys mine (can't be in the sun due to her health) I think it has helped her too.

I also am doing our farmer's market this summer. I'm selling thinnings from my yard as well as bouquets and photography. You wouldn't believe how many little hens and chicks have sold- and daylilies. Next is irises. you might think about that as well. Not to mention the extra seeds you start! It's amazing what you find out about people at the farmer's market! I think we need more land for cut flowers! LOL!

Sorry to hear about your dad. Both my MIL and FIL are gone and I still find myself wanting to pick up the phone and call them to ask them something.

My mom and dad are very involved with the local farmer's market in Brandon. I go for the first hour to help them out with all the customers that flood the market at the beginning.

Selling hens and chicks, I believe it that they would be popular.

But...selling daylilies and irises...are they potted up? Do you bring pictures of the flowers? What kind of prices are you asking for them? How do you display them? With all the varieties I have in my yard I could easily bring a tray or two along to sell each Saturday.

Do you also bring lily bulbs in September to the market?

Brenda

I have them potted up- this is my first year doing this. I check around and put them for sale at about half the nurseries, as its just extras from my yard. I'm in Montana so things are a bit different. I usually have something in bloom to show people. I haven't tried irises yet but hope to. I'm still working on alot of displaying- mostly pretty casual around here-- out in their little pots on the tables in some trays. I don't have lilies around here darn it (yet anyway lol) I have been thinking of taking extra seeds I collect though for those who might want them! It's been an adventure and I'm still learning alot!

Vrie,How many more weeks does your market go this fall? What about taking pictures throughout the summer and displaying them with the planted up perennial at the farmer's market the following year? I do this for our perennial sale in the spring and find that people really appreciate the pictures with the plants 'cause then they know what the perennial will look like.

I did talk to my sister (who does the farmer's market along with my mom and dad) and by the sounds of it there will be room come Sept. for plants at the market. IF I get time to dig, I could sell lilies. I already have all the pictures from last year and this summer's flowers. Does #1.50 a bulb sound reasonable or should it be more? In the spring I sell them for $2 but they are potted and should bloom for the buyer that summer yet.

Pudge, do you have perennials that need dividing? Does anyone else at your market sell perennials? How long into the fall does your market go?

Brenda

Thanks again. Mom and dad were married just short of 55 years and had one of those really great marriages. She is missing him terribly and it's heartbreaking to see but she is slowly coming back to her old self. Shortly after dad passed away mom found out she has macular degeneration which initially scared her to no end. But she is a good candidate for some new treatment which seems to be working (stopping the progression). Then about 6 weeks later her very good friend also passed away (if anyone recalls my post about mothers and store coupons, that's the friend). It has been a few very tough months. Again, thanks everyone (and Shauna - no, I don't think you've flipped out at all, I get it).

I really like the idea of selling hens & chicks, Vrie, and I sure have enough of them multiplying like crazy out there. Maybe some shallow dish gardens made up with decorative stone...

I don't think I'll expand into perennial divisions or bulbs, though - I like the bouquet making and dried arranging too much I guess. (Plus my application didn't indicate live plants, but I think I could swing hens & chicks in a dish garden - that's kind of a crafty-arrangey kinda thing).

The market goes into mid-October, I believe, but after the September 9 weekend I probably won't attend much. There is an indoor Christmas market in December which was actually what got me started on this whole thing - I wanted to get in on that Christmas market last year and they told me I had to be approved to and a member of the farmer's market. So I applied. I'm planning on selling fresh greenery centrepieces at that time. Otherwise I'll do a couple of local fall craft fairs with the drieds.

Margaret, you're so right about making some $$$ doing something you love to do. For a number of years I've been intent on getting the garden to somehow pay for itself. Believe me, it all (and then some) goes back into the yard in some form or other. But that's okay, that's the intent.

I think $1.50 a bulb is more than reasonable, Brenda - I'd be tempted to go $2 and next spring raise your potted price. What's a potted lily go for at a nursery these days (haven't bought one so don't know). Usually the deals are unnamed/mixed bulbs, but if you have names and pictures to go along with those lily bulbs - I know I'd buy them at that price. Not to mention you actually get to SEE the bulb before you buy it. Flash some of those beautiful photos and you're no doubt going to have no trouble at all.

The perennial sale that I have each May has been going for 10 years now. But, I only got my digital camera last June and so before that I used the pictures that I took with the 35mm camera. Amazing the difference in quality between the pictures taken with each camera. A picture is worth a 1000 dollars or so the saying goes. And it's true. I had a lot of people comment on the pictures this year and I am sure they bought the plant because of the quality of the picture I had with it.

I download from my camera into my computer and then transfer into the Futurephoto site. When they have a photo developing sale in the fall and winter for 15 cents each then I get as many as I can developed.

Brenda

I sell alot of stuff at $2 US. I looked around a bit and compared local prices. I know about "not on the list" Here I get conflicting reports as to whether I can sell excess veggies (if there are any here lol) One person in charge says I need a health certificate, one paper says raw veggies don't, so I decided to skip it!

Here we go to Sept 30 and I hope I'll be able to keep going til then. I start back to work Aug 30 so my time will begin to fill up. I also started a couple weeks late as the first wkend in June is a bit early for bouquets, but with starts next year.... Also I work until the day before the first sale so it's pretty hectic. The last week at a school is incredibly INSANE!

I have tons of photos but I haven't set them up in such a way as to sell the plants. The plants are kind of an "aside" here as well. Most of my sales are photos. I generally use the bouquets to show what the plants are, but will probably have to find photos soon for the daylilies and if I do the irises. the last daylily is budded now- I have them in so many areas they bloom forever!

Next year I'm starting tons of things early to sell potted- I have that south facing sunroom just dying for plant starts! Hmm. lol I also have to spend part of the winter setting up and getting better displays for my photos. Oh well, we need hobbies right.

Pudge, you have a real knack for arranging flowers, your bouquets are beautiful.

Very sorry to hear you lost your dad. And your mom, what a difficult time she is having. I remember the Super Store coupon story fondly and it is very sad to hear your mom's friend has passed as well. There are new drugs coming out for AMD, one biotech company in Vancouver, QLT, has had a drug for years but a few other biotechs in the USA are coming out with new drugs, hopefully they will help your mom retain her eyesight.

Just remember how wonderful it is for you to have moved home to be near your parents.

Thanks tabardca. I am thankful for moving back home - I got to spend a lot of time with dad in the last few years and helping mom out is just so much easier when you live next door. I have a friend from Calgary who is currently struggling/juggling issues with a sick parent and it's very stressful.

Last week's market went very well, even though there were a couple of other vendors who arrived with flowers - glads, glads and more glads. I'm GLAD I don't have glads - actually I do, but they're for ME!! This week I'm going to have a huge crop of Cherokee Sunset Rudbeckia for cutting - I've been holding back on them some waiting for the stems to strengthen. The few bouquets I've taken the past couple weeks have sold quickly, though.

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This Kilamanjaro Euphorbia is ready for cutting now that it's produced the variegation. I'm hesitant to use it, though, cause I've read the foliage can cause some severe allergic reactions in some people. Pretty, though.

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And I'm still trying to use up all this statice. It has produced beyond my wildest dreams, especially the yellow but that could be cause it started blooming quite early. The lavender, pink and dark purple are all blooming now, too . Good thing it makes a great filler in fresh bouquets.

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