Happy Friday y’all!

It’s been a lovely week out here. Some afternoons have climbed into “too hot and muggy” territory, but outside of that it has been beautiful. Mornings have been cool, dewy, and welcoming, with a slight breeze carrying us blissfully through the lunch hour. Evenings in the shade have been magical to be outside working. The crew is taking the day off, so it’s just you and the leaves and the birds as you go about your chores in the perfect weather.

Mandy physically cannot be indoors if the weather is anything other than terrible, so she’s always working on something outside “after” work, and I do all the peony harvesting 3 times a day for about 6 weeks, which ensures that I’m forced out into the delight of twilight each night to take in the majesty of it all and remember how lucky I am to live here.

The garden roses are so pretty and fragrant right now! We sourced our southern heirloom roses from Antique Rose Emporium.

There’s honeysuckle growing wild all over the place and a deep inhalation of its flowers sends me into a state of blissful chills. It grows on the fence next to the peonies, so I don’t miss it each day. The garden roses aren’t to be missed either at that time, and I make sure to get a nose full of the various varieties and their unique and soothing fragrance as I’m walking by with an armful of peonies grown from nearby bushes. The scent of those peonies when open are just as intoxicating. We don’t normally have flowers in the house, but I’ve been putting a few stems of roses and peonies bedside lately, so we can enjoy all those good feels I get out in the fields, while we’re sleeping.

Harvesting peonies in the dark is magical!

Wednesday evening, we had a rare night out to dinner with friends, so I missed the evening harvest. If you miss a harvest and they fully bloom, you can no longer ship them to customers, and the peonies are so important for folks to send to their moms next week that we decided to put on headlamps and harvest in the dark when we got home. It was so amazing. It made us want to switch to night shift. The sky was dark and clear. The stars and planets punctuated, constellations pronounced, moon just a sliver of a smile, and the night air felt like a series of tiny blessings on our exposed skin. The world was calm and beautiful. The flowers were saved just in time.

Peony Gift Boxes for Mother's Day!

As I mentioned, most of our flowers had a short season, so we won’t have Mother’s Day bouquets available, but we do have some gorgeous peonies bundles, nicely wrapped, in a gift box, with a handwritten note that we’ll be shipping out, so hop on that quickly as supplies are limited.  We keep planting more, but it takes years for peonies to get productive, so our ability to meet demand isn’t quite there yet.

Company party with an epic bocce ball tournament!

Last Friday we had a company party and some new bocce ball champions were crowned. Kali and Naomi ended the years long winning streak of Naw and Marry and are now walking around heads high, with the occasional bicep flex to remind us who the apex players are. Congratulations on your win!

Mandy in her happy place, mowing cover crop!

The cover crop in the fields is coming down as we begin the process of preparation for dahlia planting. Mandy adores this process. I saw the fear in her eyes as I drove the tractor across the farm with the flail mower attached. She was terrified I would rob her of the joy of mowing down the six foot tall blend of winter rye and crimson clover. I would never. It brings her so much joy.

After mowing, she’ll rototill all that finely chopped green matter back into the soil to add organic matter and nutrients to the soil. We’ll let it break down over time and feed the beneficial microorganisms in the soil, then make beds for our dahlia tubers.

Our dahlia tubers grow well in the South (& other places too)!

Speaking of dahlia plantings, we just restocked the dahlia tubers on our website.  The varieties we sell are the varieties we’ve discovered to be the best for southern growers.  They tolerate the heat and humidity the best of the thousand or so varieties we’ve tried in the last 14 years.  They’re also beautiful and productive, so if you’re ramping up a southern flower farm and want to try your hand at dahlias, these are the ones for you.  They’re great for other regions as well, so don’t feel like they are not for you if you’re up north or out west, but southern growers can’t pull off all the varieties that the rest of you can, so we make sure to call out to our sweaty compatriots with some hope and good news.

As a reminder, we do recommend a later planting for southern growers. Late May through June is ideal for avoiding heat stress and massive pest population growth. If you follow this trajectory, you’ll have very healthy plants producing beautiful flowers with minimal pest pressure in late August-mid October. They’ll be smaller plants, but way more successful than if you planted earlier. Planting earlier results in thrip infestations and issues with Japanese Beetles, tarnished plant bugs, and a host of other undesirables.

So many mums ready to ship!

Our mum production is going strong!  I guess word is getting out about these varieties, because a certain someone from the Magnolia Network just had her garden designer buy up a bunch of them.  So join us all on the heirloom mum train and build your collection! We’ve actually got a new variety available!  Bess Witt!   Photos and description can be found in the Ready To Ship section of our website.

Farm Store is open this weekend for all your Mother's Day flower and gift needs!

Most of our team is off today, taking advantage of a slower week and catching up on relaxation and I’m just flitting about tying up some loose ends around the farm, so if you reach out via email, we will get back to you on Monday.

The Farm Store is open and don’t forget to pop over to Neat Pieces Antiques in Carlton.  We stopped by to catch up with Mr. Jimmy last weekend and it was just as delightful as it always is.  Coolest place in Madison County.

Be well and have a great weekend!

Steve