Tulips as Cut Flowers

A new year. A new project.

Since I have this flower obsession it only makes sense to share it with others who love fresh flowers. It is a laborious project that my back can surely tell you about. Many tulips were lovingly put in the ground (sounds so simple) with compost added then covered again. They went on a hillside so drainage wouldn't be a problem when our Spring rains come. The temperatures are in the teens here so the roots should be growing 8 inches below the soil as the soil temperature is warmer there. Hidden but very busy.

The months of March, April and May they will be dug out with bulbs attached, hosed off and stored in a 38-40 F cooler til market days or florists call. The reason the bulbs are left attached is they have a long storage life until you actually cut them from the bulb and add to a floral arrangement. You will also get longer stem length. Many start showing color at the same time so this helps the grower, me, have a little more time to sell them. 

The tulips that will be available are all billowy doubles that you don't see for sale in your grocery store. These are luxurious and look like peonies. Real showstoppers. Can't wait to share photos with you.

A note here about adding bonemeal. If you are planting with a cat or dog helping they will go bananas over the bonemeal. I used in some beds and didn't in the others for that reason. I think it just as wise to sprinkle fertilizer on the soil when the tulips first start poking up through the ground in the Spring. 

Watch how the Smithsonian gardeners plant tulips here. That soil in the video looks completely different than mine. 

596https://www.smithsonianchannel.com/videos/400-tulips-in-20-minutes/15596

Westie Aceo Illustrations

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It's Fall but we are thinking about Spring already. Thinking about seeds and bulbs and all things green and beautiful. Leaves float and twirl some days and other days the wind whips them by. Mother Nature is playful one day and strict the next hurrying them on their way. I want to get as many oak leaves as I can in the compost pile.

This year I am noticing how beautiful the Korean Dogwoods trees are coloring up now. Some trees here are almost fully decloaked but not the Dogwoods. It's November and they are center stage! They bloom later than the other dogwoods in the Spring and I cannot think of anything negative about them.

We have wood for the fire. Let the wind howl and bring on the seed catalogs!

(Still trying for one aceo painting a day.)      

Chartreuse Flowers

We fill the gas tank. We fill the grocery cart. And today I got these fresh flowers to fill my eyes with. Aren't the colors hot? I have always liked chartreuse. This one ornamental mum is heavenly. Paired with hot pink and a deeper rose color like the carmine carnations...over the top beautiful. Soon peonies will be blooming the same deep rose color and hot pink roses will climb the trellis. Hostas the same chartreuse color will fill the beds. Before then we might get some colder weather. Oh well, that will delight the delphiniums!

Color combinations

My favorite color combinations include

pink, red, orange and a purple or violet!

The above are so soft and sweet

on my sweater...

Take the same colors

a little bolder...

Aren't they still gorgeous?
These flowers look brilliant

in a white room.

I guarantee it!

Connecting with:

French Country Cottage

English Style Cottage Garden at My Fingertips

Pop up gardening book!

I feel like Cinderella when I open it.

From above they are just as pretty!

When you open the pages they spring to life

which is what we are waiting for outside.

Books like this were first made in the 1800's

but this one is fairly recent

I picked it up at Goodwill

It has provided lots of inspiration and dreaming

The soft colors of roses, delphiniums and other

cottage flowers make my heart pitter patter faster

Isn't this just dreamy?

Someone has already cut flowers for me!

No deer or groundhogs in this garden

Just flowers and sunshine.

I've collected a few of these books

from the outside you can't tell

what suprises will justle about when

you open the book.

I am still a kid at heart

With a drawer full of seeds to plant

and some in the refrigerator too!

Connecting with Pink Saturday

and Maleviks Rose Garden

Peony Seedlings Grown Outdoors

While walking along the side of our house in the grass I noticed some miniature burgundy red leaves splashed here and there in the green gass along the borders. I let these single pink peonies go to seed in the summer and then come looking for the seedlings early spring. I do collect some seeds, too, but, they are still in a package unplanted. Nature does a fabulous job sprouting your seeds all by itself while we keep warm inside.

I had to go back to the shed and get a shovel to collect the "gold" that I had found. Go deep about 5-inches under the seedlings. The seedlings are only about 2-inches tall now. I premixed some plastic pots (recycled) with compost and loamy soil and sat the whole shovelful on top adding more soil around the edges. These little seedlings don't like to sit in water so I just drizzled a little on sparingly to settle the soil.

You might remember that I mentioned about dreaming of having fields of peonies. Dreams do not fall in your lap. You have to work toward them and I am at least 20 plants closer to that dream.

Peony Planting

Some people are living their gardening/farming dreams. In Michigan Bridgewater Nurseries grows fields of peonies that are sold for June weddings. They are fresh cut and then shipped by the dozens overnight to all areas of the United States to individuals like you and me. Thirty six dollars a dozen plus Express USPS shipping. No middle man involved only the post office handles them between grower and buyer. Every year they plant "a couple hundred more varieties" of peonies.

I am in love with the idea of the cut flower growing business. I can't afford to plant fields, (I am very capable of dreaming about the notion) but I did plant a Felix Crouse peony today... in the rain. This root had so many eyes on it and many shoots already coming up. We plant them only 2-inches deep with compost and sheep manure.

I like the rich red-pink color of Felix Crouse. I planted them in semi shade near our star magnolia tree. Planting them in several different locations...such as semi shade and full sun means a longer period of blooms. Those in full sun will bloom first and then a few weeks later the semi shade areas bloom. Get the vases ready!

A very nice website for peony enthusiasts here. Also visit the American Peony Society for lots of information.

Another favorite peony of mine is Bowl of Beauty. My picture of it's beauty on flickr.