Cold Hardy Annuals
My box of anemone and ranunculus corms arrived today! I’m always excited to see it, yet it also feels confusing at the same time. I’m completely immersed in daily dahlia harvests yet I’ve got to start soaking my corms within a few weeks. The constant battle of managing multiple seasons at once is an every day occurrence in the mind of a farmer. How you are ever supposed to just be present I’ll never know?!
I had a consultation this past weekend with a new flower grower and it led me to reflecting on some of the things I just know intuitively now. Things I’ve done for so long that they are second nature. Yet they were learned by long periods of trial, error, and observation. We had a long talk about cold hardy annuals and what were the toughest, how to space them, care for them, etc. So I decided to make a chart highlighting a few of the aspects that I get the most questions about. (Hint: If you click on it, it gets bigger and easier to read. Also if you right click, you can download it.)
Few Notes:
Cold Hardiness:
- 5 - Plants can go to low 20’s with no/little damage
- 4 - Plants can go to mid 20’s with no/little damage
- 3 - Plants can go to high 20’s with no/little damageEase of Growing
- I rated these from the view point of someone who has done some basic gardening and knows the basics of how to care for a plantBloom Season- these are when the flowers usually bloom in Zone 7b, Upstate area of South Carolina
Plant spacing- if you are planting in a raised bed style situation with plants bordering each other. You can plant these as stand alone plants in a landscape style bed.
Cold hardy annuals are really fun plants to try because they will amaze you with how much cold they can take. They are also the best way to have early season color in your yard. You’ll have bouquets long before anyone else in the neighborhood.
Getting the most out of your Dahlias
The weather has finally turned to Fall here in the South. Let’s talk about the queens of Fall— Dahlias!
Miss Amara in the greenhouse
Vase Life
If you’ve ever cut a dahlia and put it in a vase, you know they can be short lived beauties. However they have such a jaw dropping beauty that I don’t mind their lesson in appreciating all beautiful things no matter how fleeting. If you are growing your own, cut early in the morning for best results, late evening if you aren’t an early bird. The sugars in the plant are at their highest in the morning. Never cut in the heat of the day. Place in a cool container of water (make sure your vase is squeaky clean— think “would I drink out of this?”) Then add a bit of flower food. You can buy flower food online from places like Amazon or floral supply sites. Chrysal and Floralife are two popular brands. It comes in liquid or powder form— both work well. You are looking for the one that says “flower food”, not quick dip or holding solution. Maybe that sounds obvious but there are a lot of choices out there.
**After writing this blog post, I got a few questions from other growers and wanted to note that this blog was written for the home grower. Commercial growers have other tools (flower coolers, etc. ) available to them for conditioning. Conditioning dahlias for sale to a wholesaler or florists as a commercial flower grower would be a whole other blog post.
When receiving a bouquet of dahlias, you follow the same procedure. Recut about a 1/2” off the bottom of the stem, place in clean cool water in a clean vase. Dirty vases and dirty water are the enemy of making your flowers last. Change the water every day if you can, at least every other day. Also, recut the stems and add more flower food each time. If your bouquet contains a packet of flower food— you can split it in half if your vase isn’t too big.
Growing Dahlias
A few tips for this time of year if you are growing dahlias. It’s time to stop fertilizing them. You don’t want to generate a lot of new growth. We are mid way through September and from now on out, the plants won’t produce too many new buds. The already formed buds will develop and bloom. You’ll start to see the blooms taper off by mid October. The plant will also be putting a lot of energy into developing tubers. This time of year is when you really want to watch the amount of rain we get. Extreme heavy rains can cause tuber rot and also produce softer tubers that don’t store well. We’ll have a frost by early November most years but as long as your dahlias have been in the ground and growing for at least 120 days, you can dig the tubers before frost. The tubers will be fully formed. So if you don’t relish digging tubers in the cold, you can go for it by late October usually. I’ll post a blog in a few weeks about digging, dividing, and storing tubers.
***If you are a commercial grower, you can do one last fertilization about 6 weeks before your last frost which would be about now in South Carolina. The intense production required by commercially grown plants requires more nutrients than the average backyard dahlia plant.
After the vase
There are a few options for your blooms after you’ve enjoyed them in the vase. You can hang them upside down to dry— the fuller the bloom and brighter the color, the better it dries. Dahlia petals are edible (although I don’t think they taste that great!) But you could style your food for your latest Instagram post with dahlia petal sprinkles. You can also pull the petals off the bloom and make art. I like to deconstruct the flowers and make mandalas, flower quilts or abstract designs. It’s very relaxing!
I hope this helps you to get the most out of your dahlias. If you haven’t gotten a dahlia bouquet from us this year, it’s the perfect time for it. The dahlias will be at their absolute best in the next few weeks. Check out our website for more information.
All the Pretty Dahlias
One of my goals this year was to make sure I got a picture of every dahlia variety I grow. So I’ve been making time for that each week as new varieties come into bloom. I thought I’d share some of them with you. If you want to see more, join me on Instagram live, Monday, Sept 21 at 7pm for a Virtual Tour through the Dahlia Field. Follow me on Instagram @flwrtherapy
Mouse over the image for the variety name.
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!
