Fall Planting Q&A

I’ve been getting lots of comments and questions about fall planting. So let’s answer some of those.

Lack of Sunshine: The most common comment I hear from people regarding growing (any type of garden) is that they don’t have enough sun. Lack of sunshine can be a common problem especially if you live in an older neighborhood. I remember removing 13 trees from my first home so I could have a small raised bed garden. But here’s the good news— fall planted annuals don’t require loads of sun! If you have an area where the trees drop their leaves over winter, that’s a perfect spot for fall planting. The plants will get plenty of sunshine all winter and when the tree begins to leaf out in the spring, it will naturally shade your plants and keep those cool weather lovers blooming longer. Fall planted annuals are actually a great little hack for those areas that are a little shady the rest of the year.

Cold Weather: Won’t my plants freeze? Fall planted annuals (often known as Cool Flowers) have some unique properties that other annuals don’t. They can survive quite a dramatic temperature swing. By planting in the fall, you give the plants all winter to build robust root systems that will take off when the weather warms in March and give you blooms way before anybody else on the block. You can be the cool kid who takes bouquets to their neighbors for Easter!

Space: Do I need lots of room? No, most of these plants require only 6” of space away from their neighbor. So you can snuggle them in next to your shrubby perennials or even create a container masterpiece. (See our blog for some ideas).

Bloom time: Spring flowers are fun because you can have a lot of variety in a short span of time. From March thru May, you could easily have over 20+ varieties of flowers blooming. Begin with some anemones and ranunculus and then add several of the other plug varieties and you’ll have 3 months worth of blooms.

Are you intrigued yet? We’ve just announced our Grow Your Own Workshop for Spring Flowers. A few years ago we gave a full fledged on the farm version of this but since times are crazy, we’ve condensed the most important parts into a 2 hour online workshop. We’ve also created a Facebook group for participants to grow together throughout the winter where you can ask questions and show off your blooms. So come join us, Sept 29, 7 pm— sign up on the shop page!

Shop our Fall Plant Sale to get your spring blooms!

Why do you buy fresh flowers?

Dahlia Bouquet

I spent some time over the past week asking this question of multiple repeat customers. The first comment out of almost every person's mouth was- happiness! Flowers make me happy, they bring joy! Honestly I'm not sure why I was a little bit surprised. I guess maybe I was expecting some deep existential revelation that I hadn't discovered for myself yet. 

You see, I started dabbling into the realm of selling bouquets to the public about a year and a half ago. Up until that point, I was all wholesale. Selling to florists was easy. It made sense to me. I had a product they needed to run their business. I could supply that product in a high quality manner and with a freshness you just can't find from shipped flowers. It was a no brainer. 

Then I decided to diversify a little bit. I knew what flowers brought to my life. I knew the joy I found in spending hours researching just the right variety or color. The planning process of where it's all going to grow in the field, the soil preparation, seed sowing, planting, tending, and finally the harvest. The process is what intrigues me and fulfills me. But as I began sharing these blooms with the public, I learned about a whole group of people who appreciate the beauty of the results of this process- flower lovers! My florist customers were obviously flower lovers but there were so many others who savored the joy that flowers brought into their lives.

I’ve always kept flowers around my house but mostly it’s a vase or two here and there with stems just thrown in— usually my vases contain my test cases— the new varieties that I need to test vase life. But as I began to see the level of appreciation and joy these flowers brought into other’s lives, it caused me to slow down too. I began to design flowers just for myself. I even kept some of the best stems just for me! I’m a process/goal oriented person- I enjoy figuring it out and the accomplishment is it’s own reward. However, the downside is that you get too wrapped up in all the “goals” you need to accomplish and you forget to celebrate your wins. I forgot to enjoy the harvest of all that hard work. So enjoying my flowers became a version of self care.

Seasonal Bouquet

As I listened to my customers last week, so many shared how flowers have been this bright spot for them over the past few months. They spoke of turning to nature when everything else was horrible. Watching the changing of the seasons through the blooms became a way to know that time was passing even though things seem stuck right now. Several people spoke of how the flowers were a bright spot at the end of a long or hard week- the little push they needed to get to the weekend. Freshness when they were tired and run down. My favorite comment was about how flowers can make your house feel cleaner! I’m a big fan of that one because this farmer rarely has time for a good deep house cleaning.

It’s kinda hard to believe that it’s this simple to find a little happiness in all the crazy of life right now. But just a single bloom can bring so much joy.

My last phone call was with one of my August subscription members. She shared how the flowers reminded her of family members who grew blooms. The flowers brought back beautiful memories. This is true of my life as well. I often think about how much fun it would be to take my grandmother on a tour of my farm! I think it would blow her mind.

So who can you share the joy and happiness of flowers with? Or maybe you need a little for yourself? Being kind to yourself is one of the healthiest things you can do right now. Grab some flowers this week- whether it be a bouquet delivered to your door or picked from your own backyard. Place them in a prominent spot in your house and share them with others. Spread happiness!

Spring Blooming Containers

Don’t have enough room for a cutting garden? Try a cutting container instead. I’ve come up with several good combinations for beautiful spring containers. Definitely plant more than one so you can have one to cut from and one to display on your porch or patio.

Each combo requires a pot that’s at least 12-15” deep and 18-24” in diameter — really the bigger the better but you can use multiple smaller pots. Fill with a good quality potting mix— whatever is available at your local garden center, preferably an organic mix if possible. Potting mixes are designed for good drainage so I recommend those over a straight compost or mixing your own (unless you really know your soil). Most potting mixes already contain fertilizer but if it doesn’t, try a granular fertilizer that has equal parts of nitrogen, potassium and phosphorus (also known as a balanced complete fertilizer).

Our plants come in 6 or 8 plug strips so buying one combo will actually give you enough to plant 2-3 pots. Make one for display, one for cutting and one to give away!

After filling with organic potting mix, space your seedlings 6'“ apart in the pot. Water thoroughly after planting and make sure the plants stay watered well for the first few weeks while they are establishing. During the winter, water when they are dry. If your pots sit in an uncovered area, monitor to make sure they don’t stay constantly wet. We have wet winters in Upstate South Carolina and you are more likely to loose plants to rot than to cold. Moist soil will also help prevent your plants from cold damage but too much water will cause rot. So moist soil not drenched soil!

Alright— ready for our combos?

Combo 1

Anemones and Ranunculus- this will be a long blooming combination with the anemones starting to bloom in March and the ranunculus beginning in April. They’ll bloom together until mid May. Any combination of colors you like. My choices would be hot pink ranunculus and blue anemones or salmon ranunculus and maroon anemones. With this combo, you’ll want to keep cutting off the spent blooms— this will produce more lovely flowers. Feel free to cut blooms for your vase from this container!

Combo 2

Sweet pea tripod trellis- One pack of sweet peas is perfect for planting on a tripod style trellis. My choice of sweet peas would be the blue mix. Plant around the outside edge of the container about 6” or so apart depending on pot size (just space evenly). You can wait until early March before putting up your tripod poles. You’ll want one pole for each plant. Sweetpeas can get tall so think 6-7’ for your poles (Bamboo canes work well). Tie them together at the top. You can also use a flat or ornate style trellis.

Combo 3

Campanula, Blue Anemones, and Magenta Dianthus- Plant 2 of each variety in the pot grouping like plants together. If your pot is not round and you are planting front to back, place the campanula in the back because it’s the tallest and then the dianthus in front of the campanula and the anemone in the very front.

Combo 4

Snapdragons, Tropical Mix Ranunculus, and Coral Dianthus- Plant 2 of each variety in the pot grouping like plants together. Snaps in the back and mix the ranunculus and dianthus in the mid section and front.

Combo 5

Peach Foxglove, Lemon or Cream Ranunculus, and Maroon Anemones- Foxgloves are the tallest here so in the back or center and mix the ranunculus and anemones in front or circling around the foxgloves. 2-3 of each variety depending on pot size.

Combo 6

Lavender Foxglove, Purple Sweetpea Mix, and Pink or Maroon Anemones- You’ll need a flat trellis in the back of your pot - plant sweet peas 6” apart and then plant the foxglove in front of those then the anemones in the very front of the pot— a square pot would work well for this one. All of these 3 require 6” spacing so plant how ever many your pot will hold with the recommended spacing.

Combo 7

Yarrow, Coral Dianthus, and Snapdragons- This pot has some later blooming varieties and will start late April and go through May. All 3 things are pretty tall so I would suggest planting evenly spaced (6”) and position this pot in the back of a grouping of pots.

Combo 8

Salmon Ranunculus, Peach Foxglove, and Pink/peach Sweetpea mix- The ranunculus will bloom first in this mix so position them towards the middle or front. The sweetpeas will need a trellis to climb so plant them towards the back. The foxglove would look nice off to one side or maybe framing the sweetpea trellis.

Combo 9

Magenta Dianthus, Lavender Ranunculus, and Campanula- The tall spires of campanula will make a good tall focal point for the back of the container. Then mix ranunculus and dianthus in the middle and front regions of the container.

Combo 10

Pink Anemones, Snapdragons, and White/Blush Sweetpea- Place a trellis in the back for the sweetpeas, then add the snaps in front of the sweetpeas. The anemones will fit in the front of the container.

Feeling inspired? Take a look through our Fall Plant shop and pick out a winning combo that will produce beautiful blooms all spring! Or contact us with your color needs and we’ll suggest some beautiful combinations sure to make your porch or patio dazzle!

Spring Blooms

Early May is one of the best times for locally grown flowers. All the good stuff intersects in a beautiful 2 week period: peonies, garden roses, sweet peas, ranunculus, poppies and many more. I took my fancy camera into the field the other day to capture some of the beauty and I thought you’d like to see!

White Sweet peas in the tunnel

It’s the first year we’ve had a hoophouse and it has made a massive difference in the quality of our sweet pea crop. Those blooms hold up so much better if they don’t get trashed by every rain storm.

White Campanula

This is campanula or Canterbury Bells. Better known as — “What is that? It’s gorgeous!” I’m still surprised by how many people don’t know this flower. It looks beautiful in an arrangement, a bouquet, and large scale installation pieces. Also, it has a vase life of almost 2 weeks!

White Chantilly Snaps

Chantilly snapdragons are my all time favorite snap! Their open face design makes them seem so much fluffier and I always like anything a little unusual.

Orlaya

This is orlaya, she’s kinda like if Queen Anne’s Lace and a Lacecap Hydrangea had a baby. She’s sweet and delicate looking but with a strong stem. Also this is one of the toughest plants I know in regards to cold hardiness. You sow these in the fall and they grow all winter with no cover and they are just fine!

Abraham Darby Garden Rose

This is Abraham Darby. One of the best peachy pink garden roses. It’s not quite ready for production cutting yet but still one of my favorites to admire!

Purple Clematis

I’ve been working on clematis for about 3 years now and finally have enough of them to share with all my wonderful customers. This is a purple variety that grows in a herbaceous fashion. It grows more like a bush instead of a vine which makes it way easier to cut! You’ll find these in a lot of our Mother’s Day bouquets. They have gorgeous foliage as well as blooms.

Nymphe Peonies

This little cutie is called Nymphe. It’s one of the few peonies I can still identify. Six floods kinda reaks havoc on your markers in a field! She’s a great producer, loads of stems.

Butterfly Ranunculus

These are butterfly ranunculus. We grew them for the first time this year— in lt pink and creamy yellow. They are definitely a keeper- high stem production, don’t seem to mind our heat too much, and totally beautiful!

You’ll find a selection of these beauties and more in our Mother’s Day Bouquets. So ladies, don’t be shy— forward this post onto your special someone and let them know you want locally grown flowers this year!

The story of the little peony field that could....

Four years ago I took stock of our land and found the perfect spot for some peonies. It had good fertile soil, afternoon shade from the big oak tree, and was centrally located to be a beautiful focal point on our farm. So we set our pigs to work clearing the land- this took no time at all because pigs are very quick at plowing. Then I gave the plot a shallow till, hand-built over 400 feet of raised beds, hauled in tons of compost, and then sowed a cover crop to hold the soil until fall planting.

Fall came and I took a weed eater to the cover crop. Our peonies arrived in October along with a sweet treat from our supplier. I planted and then I waited. All winter I stared at a patch of dirt. Finally in early spring, green shoots began to push through and pretty soon the field was awash with green. The weeds got a little out of control but we vowed to do better next year. In fall of 2017 we doubled our planting and then we waited again…

Then winter 2018 came.

The rains began in February and came and came. Little did we know they wouldn’t stop for over a year. The field flooded for the first of 6 times that year. Our field was underwater by about a foot for several hours. All our beautiful compost was carried off never to be seen again. We had a river 20’ wide and 2 feet deep flowing through our field. I’ll admit I kinda freaked out. I pulled out a pump as soon as it was safe and began removing water as fast as I could. But that first flood was just the beginning.

We had 5 more torrential downpours that flooded the field for more than several hours at a time causing the peonies to sit in wet soil for days at a time until it dried out. The flood waters also brought every weed seed for a 10 mile radius (ok maybe I’m exagerating but that’s how it felt - and looked!). We weeded and mulched twice in the spring of 2018 and twice it flooded shortly after and carried off all the mulch. By fall of 2018, I was pretty discouraged about our little peony field. It took a few hours with a weedeater to knock back all the weeds. As I was going through, I kept seeing empty holes where peonies should have been.

So in late fall of 2018, we had a company come in and fix our drainage issues that contributed to the flooding. We put in a road and a few catchment ponds to catch and re-direct run off. But all winter, I wondered what I would see come spring. I feared the worst; I really thought that I had lost around 40-50% of my original planting.

But as the weather warmed and spring came, sprout after sprout began to push it’s way up through that heavy clay soil. Even in the areas with the worst flooding and washout, there are still plants! I definitely lost about 15-20% which is significant when you think about how long of an investment in time you have until harvest of a peony. But I have been absolutely amazed at how many plants are still there and even more so by how many are producing flowers!

But wait— it doesn’t end there. About 10 days into our first year of harvesting, our shade shelter was picked up by 20+ MPH wind gusts and dumped onto our peony field! I’ll admit I kinda freaked out, called my husband to come for help and he thought someone had died! We had to completely dismantle the shelter to move it. I got lucky in that 2/3 of the area where it had landed, I had already harvest 90% of the stems out of that area.

So this Mother’s Day, I am thrilled to have some peonies to share with you. Theses peonies have seen it all. They are strong, resilient, yet tender and sweet smelling kinda like mom. We are mixing our peonies into bouquets of our farm fresh goodness!

We have two specialty bouquets and a seasonal mixed bouquet. Our grand deluxe bouquet is called Ethereal Beauty. She has peonies, garden roses, sweet peas, and snapdragons or campanula. She’s made up of the most luxurious flowers we grow.

Ethereal Beauty Bouquet

We also have a Pink Lady Peony bouquet that includes our two favorite pinks: Nymphe and Monsieur Jules Elle.

Our seasonal bouquets include a mix of peonies, sweet peas, campanula, snapdragons, ranunculus, and many other beauties. This bouquet comes in two sizes.

These bouquets are only available for farm pick up on Saturday, May 11 from 10-12pm. Bouquets must be ordered in advance. There are a very limited number of the Ethereal Beauty and Pink Lady Peony Bouquets so don’t wait!

Can’t make it to the farm? We will also have bouquets available at the Boco Art Show, Wed-Friday located at 2 Meyers Dr, Greenville- doors open at 9am. Also Tandem Creperie and Coffeehouse will have petite bouquets available Thursday through Sunday. If you live in the Greer/Taylors area you can find our flowers at Urban Petals Lifestyle Boutique. They have online ordering available here.