Hi friends,

   The crew is back from their 2 week break and progress is afoot.  The last greenhouse beds have finally been planted with our new secret, possibly awesome, possibly meh variety of a favorite flower.  We’re excited to see which it turns out to be, but we’re also excited to have completed our Fall plantings of our tunnels.  Much later than normal, but we had a tough time germinating them so the whole process was delayed.  Anywho.  The tunnels are fully planted and we are pleased.  

   We’ve actually been harvesting anemones here and there for the last few weeks and even the occasional ranunculus, but aren’t quite ready to start shipping.  We’re gifting early blooms to friends and family and keeping a few for ourselves and frequently marveling at the magic of anemones.  I wish they were more productive for us, because they are certainly a lovely flower, but try as we might, they never grow prolifically for us.  So, we’ll just enjoy them as a special treat and offer them in smaller numbers in the same spirit.  March Subscription members will be first priority for receiving anemones.  They tend to peter out by April, so may not be included in that month’s subscription, though it will have other delights not found in March.

The Magic of Anemones

   Flower shipping may timidly begin in a few weeks and start to pick up steam in February when Kali comes back (Yaaayyy to Kali coming back!!!).   Poppy stems are poking up, but growing slow with this cold.  Everyone keeps telling me it's not a cold winter and that may be true for daytime temps, but we’ve been at or below freezing just about every night for weeks and the forecast appears to be getting even colder, so all that has the effect of slowing down flower production.   I’m fine with that.  We’re still trying to catch our breath over here and get other work done to prepare for the coming year.

   Speaking of which, we’ve been getting our dahlias squared away after clearing some space in the basement so the crew could have a warm place to work out of the wind.  They’ve been carefully dividing thousands of dahlia tubers in preparation for our upcoming sale of our favorite, most productive varieties that thrive in southern conditions. Sign up for our wait list and be notified when they become available!

Our Dahlia Cleaning Center

   Our mum cuttings project is coming along nicely as well.  While the crew was on break, Mandy and I finished the retrofit of the propagation house.  It’s all built out with tons of 4 tiered racks, new electrical, new oscillating fans, rows of LED grow lights set to timers which extend day length to the exact duration of the length of day when our first shipments start (April 8th), so that they can grow as much as possible until then without being stimulated to flower.  Our ultimate goal is to be able to stimulate as much growth as possible on the mother plants in order to be able to increase our offerings, but for now, we wait and watch and feed and water and make sure we can easily fulfill all of our current orders before we promise anymore. 

Our Prop House All Lit Up At Night

   If you missed out on our sale and would like to be on the waitlist for any updates of added inventory, you can sign up here. We hope to have updated inventory by February on our site as well as Farmer Bailey. Our flower farming friends at Harmony Harvest have just listed their mum cuttings for sale as well as Clara Joyce. Both have a great selection. 

   We are putting out a call for applications shortly for a spring position on the farm.  We are looking for a hardy, good spirited, smart, and highly organized person to head up our mum cutting program in addition to pitching in with other farm tasks.  The role will be full-time from February through the end of May.  If you know someone that fits that bill, have them keep an eye on our Instagram account for notification that applications have gone live, or if you are that person, keep an eye out for an announcement through our email list.  It's important that we provide the best cuttings possible to our customers, so it’s important that we get the best person for the job we can find.  We’ll get the application created and uploaded as soon as we get a moment, so keep an eye out.
-Steve