Each month when I sit down and start writing I have to look through my photos on my phone to jog my memory and remind myself what was happening on the farm.
July was all about the sweet peas, which I am not sad about! I just love them, I have grown them for about 20 years now - way before I was a flower farmer. Despite the heat that has been relentless around here, the sweet peas have coped remarkably well. As I write this letter they are still blooming and are at least 7 feet tall in some varieties. I have all but stopped harvesting them - apart from the occasional bunch for my bedroom. Now I will let them set seed and over the next few weeks harvest the seeds and store them for next year. Sweet pea seeds are hard to come by in the United States - I grow mainly the Spencer variety, making sure they have long stems and are heavily scented - what is a sweet pea without that delicious scent? In years gone by I was easily able to have them shipped from England but that has been changed due to the hoops with customs that the growers have to jump through so I have decided that I am going to save my own seed this year and just possible introduce one or two new varieties.
The annuals field is now in full swing which means creating bouquets twice a week for Town & Country Markets, it is always a race in the early mornings to beat the heat at the moment. I am loving the beauty that comes out of this field, and sometimes I have to stop and remember that each one of those plants we started by seed and then hand planted into the ground.
My new Drying Room has almost been completed, a few pieces will make it complete but I have already started to hang so many bunches of flowers up to dry. One of my new favorites that I have grown this year is Helipterum also known as Paper Daisy. They are a dainty little flower of pinks and whites and as their name would lead you to believe they have a papery texture which makes them a perfect flower to dry. I am also growing some beautiful shades of statice this year - this is another flower that I did not particularly care for years ago but now seeing the different shades of color, it is a must have for my fresh flower bouquets and drying room. Of course there are strawflowers and this year and I have so many more colors - last year I overdid it a little with the vintage white!
The dahlia field….it is looking great but it seems to be taking FOREVER to bloom. I have spoken to many of my flower farming friends in this area and everyone is in the same boat. They took off well but then the growing slowed right down, due to the continued heat. Every time I go to the field I see more blooms appearing and there are plenty of buds, so very soon it should be a field of color. The other thing that is appearing in my dahlia field is deer…..by the looks of it they are not even using the path way but going down the middle of the rows, so I another job on the endless list is to also the corral the ends of each row so they can’t walk down there. Deer typically don’t eat dahlias, and I am hoping it stays that way.
That’s it for now. Enjoy your August and whatever you have planned.