Seeds for 2008

I just finished doing deliveries for 2007 but it is already time to prepare seed orders for next year. I always have seed left over from previous years but it seems like I still end up ordering the same amount because the business keeps expanding and I keep trying new things. I will probably still add or remove some things in the next week or so but these are the seeds I plan on ordering. Items with a * are new this year, though most of the perennials won’t start appearing in bouquets until 2009.

Perennials
Alchemilla mollis (Lady’s Mantle)
      Robustica
Aquilegia (Columbine)
      Barlow Series
      *Lime Sorget
      Swan Violet & White
Asclepias (Butterfly Weed or milkweed)
      *incarnata 'Soulmate'
      incarnata 'Ice Ballet'
      tuberosa Wild Orange Type
Campanula persicifolia (Bellflower)
      *White Bell
      * Blue Bell
Centaurea (perennial bachelor button)
      macrocephala
      *montana
Chrysanthemum coccineum (Painted Daisy)
      Robinson’s Mix
Leucanthemum (Shasta Daisy)
      *May Queen
Delphinium
      *belladonna Oriental Sky
      cultorum Aurora F1 Mix
      cultorum Clear Springs Mid-Blue
Echinops ritro (Globe Thistle)
Erigeron speciosus (Fleabane)
      Azure Fairy
      Pink Jewel
Eryngium alpinum (Sea Holly)
      *Blue Star
Malva sylvestris
      *Zebrina
Trollius (Globe flower)
      Golden Queen

Annuals
Ageratum Blue Horizon
Ammi majus
      Graceland
Ammi visnaga
      Green Mist
Anirrhinium (Snapdragon)
      Opus ‘Appleblossom’
      *Opus ‘Bronze’
      *Madame Butterfly Mix
Asclepias curassavica (Butterfly weed)
      *Apollo Yellow
      Silky series Deep Red
Bupleurum rotundifolium
      *Garabaldi
Capsicum (ornamental pepper)
      *Cappa Series Conic WhiteRed
Celosia Century Yellow
Delphinium (larkspur)
      QIS Series
Delphinium consolida Regalis (panticle larkspur)
      Cloud Series
Dianthus x barbatus (1st year flowering sweet William)
      Amazon Neon Rose Magic
      Amazon Neon Duo
Eucalyptus cinerea
      Silver Dollar Tree
Godetia (Satin flower)
      Flamingo Series Red
      Flamingo Series Salmon
      Flamingo Series White
Gomphrena haageana
      Strawberry fields
Gypsophilia elegans (annual baby’s breath) White Elephant
Helianthus Annus (Sunflower)
      *Premier Lemon
      *Orange Mahogony Bicolor
      Pro Cut Lemon
      Pro Cut Orange
      Double Quick Orange
      Sunbeam
      Sunbright
      *Sunrich Lemon
      *Sunrich Gold
      *Sunrich Orange
Iberis amara (Candytuft)
      White Pinnacle
Lisianthus
      *Echo Blue Picotee
      Echo Champagne
      Echo Lavender
      Echo Pink Picotee
      Twinkle Deep blue
      Twinkle blue blush
      *Magic Series mix
      Flamenco mix
      Cinderella White
      Cinderella Pink
      Cinderella Blue
Nigella damascena
      Persian Jewels mix
Phlox drummondi
      Tapestry Mix
Rudbeckia (Black-eyed Susan)
      Cherokee Sunset
      Chim chiminee
      Goldilocks
      Maya
Stock Matthiola (fragrant stocks)
      Anytime Series
Verbena bonariensis ‘Finesse’
Zinna
      Benary's Giant Dahlia BluePoint Series

End of Season Cleanup

The last of the flowers for 2007 were delivered on October 22nd. As much as I love this flower business, it is always a relief to come to the end of a season. Of course, there is still work to do after the last deliveries are finished. Every year I seem to forget that. The last couple days I have cut down everything still standing in the gardens and have been going through and trying to remove all the perennial weeds - thistles, Queen Anne's lace, dandelions, and grasses are the worst ones.

In another week or so I can dig up all the dahlias and store them for the winter. That's usually the last thing I do. Meanwhile I keep weeding and try to prep as many empty beds for next year as I can manage. I would prefer to prep things in the spring but the farm site is low and poorly drained. The soil is usually not workable until pretty late in the spring, later than I need to start putting things in, so I try to do as much as I can now.

The farm now has 105 4'x25' raised beds. I added 21 this year and that will hopefully be about all I will need. The beds are "raised" by virtue of adding 1 or 2 yards of compost when I create them, but they are not held in by anything. Fortunately, I do not need to prep all of these in the fall because more than a third of them contain perennials and spring bulbs. For the ones that do need to be prepped, the procedure is:

• Remove perennial weeds, especially thistles and grasses since they will come back from root fragments.


• Till the bed with my big, bad ass Merry Tiller International


• Cover the bed with about a yard of compost


• Till again


• Re-hill the bed with all the soil the tiller has tossed onto the path.


• Cover the bed with straw to prevent the winter emergence of cold weather weeds like mustards.

Merry Tiller International

The goal is to have a relatively weed-free, prepped bed all ready to go in the spring. Right now there are about 45 prepped (counting the 21 new ones) and another 10 in various stages of being prepped, and probably another 10 that have not been started.

Beds cleaned and prepped for next year

Last Bouquets for 2007

Calendula, a hardy annual

In typical backwards fashion, my first post here is on the last day I'm cutting flowers for 2007. In past years, cold and wet weather has made this a miserable, finger numbing job but this year it is perfect. Sunny and pleasant for me but not so hot that the flowers wilt before I can get them in the bucket. There are still some nice things available for bouquets.

Because this is the last set of bouquets I'm making up this year I get to harvest EVERYTHING and not worry about leaving enough for next time. I'm harvesting all the eucalyptus as filler greens (silvers?). I love that I can grow my own eucalyptus here in Michigan, it seems so exotic. I grow the "Silver Dollar" strain and start the seed indoors under lights in March. By the end of the season they are a little shrub about 2-3 feet tall and wide. If this were a warm climate where it never went much below freezing the plants would become 20 or 30 foot trees.

Eucalyptus at the farm

I've also got pineapple sage. They are not hardy here but the leaves have a great fruity scent and it flowers with scarlet red spikes in October. The flowers aren't that showy but the color is nice.

There are a few dahlias left, too. Usually they are knocked out by frost by now but not this year. We have had frosts - last weekend I had to scrape my car windows on Saturday and Sunday - but for some reason the dahlias survived. After today's harvest I'm going to cut them all to the ground so the tubers can cure for a week or so before I dig them up for winter storage.

Most of the flowers in the bouquets will be chrysanthemums. There are some really great chrysanthemums for cutting that are hardy in Michigan but you have to mail order them. Locally all I can ever find are the cushion chrysanthemums which usually have small flowers and short stems. These are nice in the landscape but for cutting I need longer stems and also want to have a variety of flower sizes and types to keep the bouquets interesting.

Chrysanthemum 'Jonette'


Football Chrysanthemum 'Bronze Giant'


Chrysanthemum 'Sheffield Pink'

The flowers on the football mum 'Bronze Giant', pictured above, are about 4 to 5 inches across. There is another football mum one that is more of a golden color called 'Cheerleader' and a dull pink one I don't like much called 'Quarterback'. The quilled mum 'Jonette' is one of my favorites. Besides the beautiful form it is a buff/cream color which looks good with warm fall colors but can also be combined with pinks and blues. The daisy mum at the bottom, 'Sheffield Pink' is a new one for me this year. I put in a picture of it because it looks so fresh, the blooms are just now opening in late October.