Happy Friday y’all!

The temps have been dreamy lately. It is unseasonably warm and terribly dry still to the point that a dust storm occurs with every step taken, but from a temperature perspective it's been delightfully pleasant to work outside.

Walking from one task to the other finds us cruising through pockets of scent so powerful, they jolt you into the present moment. The eleagnus and tea olive blooms are fragrant and lovely and will not be ignored, and I’m here for it. Wary of a diva generally, but in this case, I’m a huge fan.

Dahlia season is truly over. The last sweeping harvest of the few remaining blooms happened Wednesday to make a few bundles for the store.

Mum season is trickling in enough to start selling a few in the store and the occasional bundle online, but it has been delayed by a week and a half this year. There is a process with mums called “Heat Delay” wherein ambient temps of 85°F+ and evening temps above 70°F will cause a thermal pause in bud development. Basically the plants are too heat stressed to produce flowers effectively, so even though mums are triggered to flower by day length and not temps…extremely high temps can delay their development. 95°F+ days and 70°F+ nights were our never-ending reality in this bizarro world Groundhog’s Day, and we were all Bill Murray.

Interestingly enough though, this does not really affect disbuds.  We’ve been harvesting those a good 10 days before those same exact varieties that were left in “spray” form (not disbudded).  This basically happens because a stressed plant attempting to conserve energy will restrict resources evenly from 30 flowers on one plant.  But if that same plant has only 3 flowers on it, those 3 points get all the resources and can progress more successfully even in more extreme climates.

If you’re in the same boat (the hot boat) and wondering why your mums are late, don’t worry, it’s only a delay. They should still come in full sized, just a bit later. The only change you might notice is that the overall season may be compressed. Early, mid, and late season harvests may not be as spread out as normal in this scenario.

If you’re in the same boat (the hot boat) and wondering why your mums are late, don’t worry, it’s only a delay. They should still come in full sized, just a bit later. The only change you might notice is that the overall season may be compressed. Early, mid, and late season harvests may not be as spread out as normal in this scenario.

We escaped to Marshall, NC last Thursday and Friday to see Kalen and Aslyn perform on the river.  They run Comer Coffee but are both world class musicians with voices of angels.  It was lovely to be outside at sunset with the river floating by, enjoying a cool beverage and a laugh with Mandy away from work for a minute.  And their music was incredible.  It is rumored that Aslyn may do a performance in conjunction with our mum show on the 14th in downtown Comer.  I’ll update you next week on the final details.

The moment we got back on Saturday evening, Mandy was back in the Farm Store.  She was back in there for most of the day and evening Sunday as well, adding inventory and just prettying up the place, so come on by this weekend and enjoy the vibes and the magical shopping experience.

Oh and by the way, if you wrote in reply to my “A Day in The Life” post a few weeks back, forgive my delayed reply.  I do my best to always reply to folks, but that one triggered a ton of responses, and it took me till last night to find time to reply to everyone.  Thanks for sharing in a laugh at the wild nature of that day and for all your kind words.

Have a great weekend!

Farmer Steve