A Few Close-ups from the Garden

I seem to never remember to bring a camera to the farm but I did yesterday so I took a few close-ups. This is dahlia 'Cornel'. The flower is about 3" across.

This is a yellow dahlia called 'Hissy Fitz'. It is larger, maybe 4-5 inches across.

A couple Rudbeckia hirta next. The first is the quill petaled 'Chim Chiminee' and the second is a double called 'Autumn Sunset'. Both are quite large, perhaps 3-4 inches across.

Then a couple Benary's Giant zinnias. The first is 'Wine Red'. It is like Benary's Giant Purple except a bit redder and a bit darker. A nice color though I was hoping it would be darker. The second is 'Salmon Rose', one I have not grown before.

Last of all are a couple delphinium pictures. The first is from the 'Misty Mauves' seed strain from Dowdeswell Delphiniums in New Zealand. The 'Misty Mauves' is interesting because the flowers are so doubled. I think the color is really cool, too - the outermost (bottom most?) petals are tipped in pale blue. Also, unlike other delphiniums I grow, this one has almost no contrasting center or 'bee'. The second picture is of 'Aurora', a really nice hybrid delphinium. You can really notice doubling and absence of a bee when you compare the 'Misty Mauves' to the 'Aurora'. All delphinums are gorgeous, or course, but the 'Aurora' looks almost dowdy in comparison to the 'Misty Mauves', especially when view closely like this.

Bouquets for Monday July 27th 2009

A few new flowers this week. The lily below is scented like an oriental lily but has coloring like an asiatic. The orientals usually have only crimson and purple shades of red. This one is called 'Red Dutch'. The bouquet also contains grass 'Purple Majesty', yellow statice, rudbeckia and coreopsis, and zinnias.

One of my customers who received a bouquet like the one below said it was her favorite so far. It contains silver artemesia, blue echinops, white liatris, white lisianthus, blue ageratum, white a blue phlox and white feverfew.

This bouquet is all pink, red and white - kind of like Valentine's Day.

This bouquet contains salmon lisianthus with salmon zinnias, Opus 'Appleblossom' snapdragons and Bells of Ireland. There is also a 'Coral Charm' peony on the right from the fridge.

Fashion Statement for Ken

I don't collect Barbie dolls but I do own one Ken doll, called the "Magic Earring" Ken doll. I bought this particular Ken doll back in the 90s aftter I read about it in (of all places) the Wall Street Journal. He's been sitting in my bathroom ever since.

At any rate, I saw a single floret from a Bells of Ireland on the floor the other day. When I picked it up I noticed that this Bell of Ireland looked a bit like a little elf hat and decided that after 16 years Ken needed a wardrobe update.

Bouquets for Monday July 20th

I took a bunch of pictures this week. I was actually short of flowers because I have almost no heliopsis or gooseneck flowers this year to use as yellow and white fillers. had to use some commercial chrysanthemums but planted new heliopsis this spring and divided the gooseneck flowers today, so I should be OK next year.

The first one combines pink larkspur with purple phlox 'Laura', Bells of Ireland and a big white globe thistle at the top. The salmon sweet william is from the 'Sweet' series, an annual type (first year flowering).

The second one is a standard set of colors - red, orange and yellow. A bit different because of the big dark gold or brown amaranth 'Hot Biscuits' in the center. I am not sure how I feel about amaranths - I like the color of this one but they always look a bit coarse to me. You can also see the first orange zinnia of the year along with a quilled rudbeckia 'Chim Chiminee' on the left. The red flower in the upper right is a crocosima. This bouquet also had centaurea and achillea 'Terra Cotta'

This purple bouquet has the first liatris of the year with a light purple phlox called (I think) 'Blue Boy'. You can see some peonies in there that were cut in the first week of June. I still have a bunch in the fridge and need to use them pretty quickly. The big lily is 'Triumphator'

I wanted to include a picture of this yellow-orange-white bouquet because the delphinium is one of the 'Green Twist' delphiniums I got from Dowdeswell Delphiniums in New Zealand. It is a bit hard to see in the picture but the individual flowers are very double and edged with a bit of green.

Also wanted to include this one because it is a color combination I had not tried before - yellow-orange-green. Kind of fun. The grass spikes you see in some of these are Northern sea oats (Chasmanthium latifolium).

Bouquets for Friday July 10th

I have not been doing a very good job of keeping up this year. I liked this one because it was a color combination I don't use often - all purple and red. The purple phlox with the white eye is 'Laura' and the raspberry colored mondarda is 'Raspberry Wine'. You can also see a couple purple balloon flowers in the upper right. the other flowerrs are larkspurs and a lavender delphinium.

Bouquets for Monday July 6th

A few new flowers for Monday - green Bells of Ireland (Molucella laevis), orange perennial butterfly weed (Asclepias tuberosa). This bouquet combines salmon pink larkspur and clarkia with 'Appleblossom' snapdragon, 'Suncrest' lily and Bells of Ireland.

This second one is all hot colors - bright yellow snapdragons with orange butterfly weed and red monarda.

This third one combines purple larkspur - both the spike and open branched kinds - with an orange lily, orange butterfly weed and a few purple erigeron.

Bouquets for Friday July 3rd

I made a bunch more red-white-blue bouquets for the holiday but I posted pictures of those Monday. Many other people received pink-purple or coral-white bouquets like these on Friday. Most of the flowers have already been used this year. There are purple larkspur, pink phlox, erigeron in the pink-ppurple bouquet and coral and white bicolor snapdragons and clarkia in the white and coral bouquet, along with a coral lily.