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Direct Sowing Sweet Peas into the Fall Garden
When I first starting growing flowers, sweet peas were high up on the list of things that I wanted to grow. I couldn’t help it really, there was so much hype surrounding them. I had heard that they had an enchanting fragrance, and of course, the actual blooms looked so feminine and delicate – two things which I certainly am not. Regardless, I had done enough research to know that they wouldn’t be happy trying to grow and bloom in my hot climate during the summer. The solution was to get a jump start on the season as soon as possible. I had marginal success with the winter sowing method,…
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In Bloom: ‘White Wonder’ Feverfew – Cut Flower Garden
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Sweet Pea and Feverfew Cut Flower Arrangement
One of my absolute favorite parts of growing a cut flower garden is picking them! Today is definitely no exception, as the sweet peas are in full bloom. I couldn’t resist picking a large vase filled with these fragrant blooms before a thunderstorm rolled in. Let’s take a closer look, shall we? I grew several types of sweet pea this year. This lovely blue/lavender color is elegance lavender. These seedlings overwintered in the unheated hoophouse super easily and grew on to be almost 5 feet tall. I’m so glad that I’ve finally gotten better results in growing sweet peas. In this bouquet, I’m also using ‘Delft blue’ nigella or love…
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March Unheated Hoop House Update – Cut Flower Garden
It’s March – Unheated hoop house is finally coming to life! As I’ve already mentioned, it’s been cooler than normal here. That means that the progress in the hoop house is a little behind. Honestly, some of the plants look really bad. Nevertheless, I’m cautiously optimistic. Thanks for reading!
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Winter Sowing Atriplex Orach Seeds in Zone 6/7
I absolutely love orach. Also known as atriplex hortensis, orach is an absolutely amazing green plant. These things seriously come in an insanely stunning range of colors – the lime greens and golds are definitely my favorite. Regardless, when allowed to go to seed, these flowers are perfect additions to the cut flower garden and to cut flower arrangements. After growing these for the first time last year, I was so pleasantly surprised with the results. While I’m still not sure how cold tolerant they are, they definitely are able to withstand some frost and cold temperatures. Plants produced both with winter sowing, as well as when direct sown as…
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February Unheated Hoophouse and Garden Update – Flowers in Hoop House
In my last post, I mentioned that the weather here has been absolutely frigid. Well, a couple days have passed and in true crazy weather fashion, our temperatures are now into the 60s. I should mention that that is very warm for this time of year, as our last frost date is usually at the end of April and into May. Nevertheless, let’s take a quick look at the progress and loss in the unheated hoophouse and in the garden. Before getting into the unheated hoophouse, let’s look around outside. First, the drumstick allium bulbs have started to grow. I know that these are the drumstick alliums because of their…
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Bracing for an Arctic Blast in the Home Garden – Cut Flower Farm and Vegetable Garden / Winter Flowers
Over the past week or so, we’ve been getting absolutely blasted with cold weather and freezing temperatures. Up until now, our winter weather had been relatively mild; something which is very common here in my zone 6b/7 garden. That all changed about two weeks ago, however, when the snow began to fall and the nightly lows starting dipping into the single digits. Let’s take a closer look at our winter flowers. With about eight inches of snow headed in my direction, I started the process of “locking down” the hoophouse, covering the plants with row covers, and hoping that everything would survive. Of course, it couldn’t just snow – we…
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Growing Snapdragons from Seed – Cut Flower Farm
CHECK OUT OUR SOAP SUBSCRIPTION AND 50% OFF SALE! CLICK HERE! I’ve had a long and troubled relationship with snapdragons. Snapdragons have always been one of those flowers that just wouldn’t grow the way I wanted. I’ve seen those “real” flower farms, with rows and rows of tall snapdragons – I wanted that! Over the last four or five seasons, I had tried virtually everything I could think of to grow the best snapdragons possible. I tried sowing snapdragon seeds indoors. While this method does work for many people – especially those with green thumbs – it doesn’t work for me. I don’t own grow lights, and without them, the…
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Sowing German Chamomile in Fall – Frost Hardy Annual Flowers – Cut Flower Farm – Gardening for Beginners
There are a lot of reasons that I absolutely love to grow chamomile. As an extremely easy to grow herb; you can use the flowers for tea, soapmaking, and even as cut flowers for arrangements picked fresh from the garden. Their delicate apple-scented blooms are seriously one of my favorite garden elements. I also appreciate chamomile for their flexibility. Here in my zone, you can plant chamomile in the spring as soon as the soil can be worked. The plants will grow and bloom into the summer, even though it gets hot relatively quickly. However, chamomile really grows best when planted in the fall. Since these plants are very cold…
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Cut Flower Garden Jar Arrangement – Snapdragons and Pansies – Growing Flowers from Seed
What’s that?!?! Are those SNAPDRAGONS?!?! If you’ve been around the blog for awhile, you’ll know that I’m absolutely terrible at growing snapdragons. I’ve tried several times, but something always go wrong. Not this year! I grew actual snapdragons – look, there’s even photographic evidence! This variety isn’t one of those fancier hybrids, but rather came from a package labeled as ‘Tall Mix’. I think I bought it from Baker Creek. I’m so happy with the colors and the size of the blooms. Okay, who am I kidding? I’m so happy that they even bloomed. Here’s hoping that I will be able to duplicate this success next year. I couldn’t resist…
