Happy Friday Y’all!

There’s excitement brewing out here! We had our first warm day. I had my first mosquito bite. The forecast has all warm days and nights. The Icelandic poppy tunnel is full of stems that this warmth will push into fully being. The sleepy and cold stunted ranunculus, butterfly ranunculus, daffodils, Italian poppies, hellebores, and anemones will truly begin to wake up in time for spring. Our new hires have all been out for a visit and met with all of us and toured the farm. Systems that were nebulously forming in our minds for months are now taking real shape and the mild trepidation permeating through our farm this winter seems to have turned into high spirits for everyone around here. I can’t put my finger on exactly why, but if I were forced to try, I’d say it’s as though Sisyphus suddenly and unexpectedly found a friend had joined him and the promise of reaching the top began to feel not only possible, but manageable, and dare I say, enjoyable. I may eat those words… as soon as today for all I know, but even if I do, the last few days have been great and I’m grateful.

I am in the middle of a project that could be the thing that bites me in the rump, but if my designs are correct, I should avoid major issues. Fingers crossed. 2 weeks back, I found a rotted post at the gable end of the barn. Upon further inspection, I discovered that the whole gable end was sufficiently rotten. To compound matters, it is the end of the building that shares a wall with the flower studio. It also has a shed roofed tool room attached. The roof peak is bolted directly to the rotten portion of barn that needs to be completely removed and replaced. I did take a one day class on structural engineering 20 years ago, so let's hope that took.

As I was in the rafters yesterday, removing 20+ years of landscape fabric, shade cloth, well pumps, animal carriers, insulation, and god knows what else, I lifted some material and was greeted by needle shaped teeth and hissing and fur and immediately jumped a good bit, fortunate to not fall through the rafters….though the kerfuffle did knock the shop vac through the rafters and cracked it on the bricks below. At a safer distance, I got another look at the hissing creature who I now shared uncomfortable space with and saw it was a possum. I spent the next hour trying to coax it out of my work area, so I could have enough room to start the carpentry.

As time passed, it nestled into some vines 2 feet from the top of the ladder I climbed up and down all day and though I was defenseless with arms full of tools and lumber as it dangled close to my head, we developed a rapport and I grew in affection for it. I chatted soothingly with it to minimize its distress if at all possible, aware that I had completely altered its home and it was most certainly scared and stressed. It seemed to settle into the situation and know that I wasn’t an immediate threat, so that felt good. If all goes well, it will have the opportunity to cozy up again soon.

Dahlia lovers!  It is your time!  The crew has spent many days in the basement, dividing, organizing, and counting our dahlia tubers and we have our numbers together for what we’ll plant, but more importantly, for what you can plant.  Today is your last day to get on the dahlia tuber wait list and for those who are on it, you’ll get a full week of priority access starting tomorrow morning!  We did sell out last year, so don’t dilly dally daily on the darling dahlias until there’s a dang dearth of delights.  Get in on the front end.  For those of you new to us and dahlias, our whole thing is that we grow and sell varieties of dahlias that do well in the south and can tolerate our levels of heat and humidity. We’ve spent over a decade trialing hundreds of varieties and selected only the best.  We’ve done the work for you, so you don’t have to reinvent the wheel.  In addition to heat, disease, and pest tolerance, they are also long stemmed, high yielding, beautiful, and perfect for anyone with a market garden/farm, or who just wants the beauty of dahlias in their garden and hasn’t been able to make it work before.  Of course, I can’t say they’ll grow all the way down in the Florida panhandle, but in our zone, where most dahlias fail, these varieties are champs.

L: Naw cleaning the dahlias. R: Our new fave, Breezy

We’re adding a new variety that Mandy created and named after her mom whose nickname is Breezy.  It’s okay as a cut flower (single variety), but great as a garden variety. First to bloom, tall, strong, and the last to go down.  She’s always the life of the party. One of its amazing features is that it’s an absolute magnet for monarch butterflies.  The last two years we’ve grown a stand of it, we’ve had hundreds of monarchs flittering about in them for weeks on end.  It’s magical.  They’ll visit the other dahlias, but not like this.  For some reason, they looooove them some Breezy.  We do too.  For those of you writing about Valentine's day, we aren’t doing bouquets.  The winter was too cold.  We should have some poppies available, but I imagine they’ll sell out immediately when we list them, so you might have some luck there, but no guarantees.  I’ve said it before, but our spring flower subscription is a fantastic option if you really wanna shower someone with love and beauty, beyond just the one day of mandatory gifting.  You can gift your loved one a whole month of flowers (March or April).  Each week they’ll get a different bundle of our favorite spring flowers that will last the whole week, so the whole month is filled with beauty and variety.  And now they can even cater it to their floral preferences as we give them options in the selection process.  If you order soon enough, you’ll get a physical card with the gift description to give them, so they have something to receive and hold and remind them how awesome they are and also how awesome you are.I gotta go visit my possum and hopefully fix the barn.  I hope you have a great weekend!Steve