February news from the farm

Greetings from the farm! Most of January was unusually cold and the fields were covered with snow or ice, so not as much got done outside as I would have liked. February is typically the grayest and coldest month on the farm so we’ll see what this month brings - realllyyyy hoping that the groundhog doesn’t see his shadow! Thankfully I am able to stay toasty warm while still getting healthy doses of Vitamin D inside the greenhouse - Starting seeds and dividing endless crates of dahlias.

In 2021 I had a talented local photographer out to the farm to make photos for some classes he was taking — He shared some of his shots with me and gave me permission to share them here, too - So what you see in this post is (almost all) his work. His name is Alton Marsh and his website is 100% worth a look, especially if you love nature / landscape photography. I have to say it was delightful to share the farm in this way and to have some visits last year, mostly by our CSA customers. It is really fun to see the farm through someone else’s eyes (or, in Alton’s case, lens) and I have been thinking about ways to open the gates on occasion this coming season - Perhaps a photography contest, or a farm tour if I can get over my hope that this will be “the” season the farm looks perfect — haha!!

Poppies - Photo by Alton Marsh

Unicorn Dahlia - Photo by Alton Marsh

On the dahlia tuber front - Still dividing over here, it is a process especially when there are so many other tasks to be completed. I am aiming for the very end of February to launch my store. Excited to share some of our stock with dahlia lovers in the US! Please note that a password won’t be available until the store opens, or, perhaps at all - Still working on those details and how to make sure that past customers + newsletter subscribers get first dibs.

Apple Blossom dahlia up close - Photo by Alton Marsh

I’ve finally written a blog post about how I grow delphinium and you can find it here! It is one of the trickier flowers I grow, as it is slow to germinate and slow to grow on, but it is 100% worth it! Would love to hear from you if you try, or if you have more tips for us!

YOU ARE LOVED (photo by Morgan Patterson/Design by Arney Walker)

Let’s talk about Valentine’s Day for a second, shall we? Some people love it, some people love to hate it. Obviously every day is a good day to say I love you! Locally grown flowers are quite hard to come by in February which means (most of us) miss out on this flower-centric holiday, while imported flowers with a huge footprint make their way here (in many cases, from Columbia - very interesting article). I sure do wish I could grow enough to offer - Maybe someday! But since that is not currently an option, you might consider a CSA subscription — It makes a wonderful “gift that keeps on giving” and I would be happy to send a PDF gift certificate for you to gift to your beloved (or to yourself!) In the meantime, know that you are loved and that soooo many flowers are just around the corner!

Thanks, as always, for reading!

How I grow delphinium from seed

Delphinium can be one of the trickier seeds to germinate - I hear this from a lot of grower friends so I thought I’d share how I do it and things I’ve tried in the past.

When I purchase delphinium seed (and larkspur, too) I immediately store in my freezer. When I am ready to start, I take out of freezer and if I have time, I put the seed into a coffee filter and spray with water lightly and store in a sealed plastic bag for a couple of days (as early as day 3-4 you can see the little tails - those are roots!) until I see some germination happening. This method is way more time consuming as once the seeds are wet they are harder to pick up individually they tend to stick together - but it allows you to plant the germinated seeds only and I find those trays are much more successful long term than if I were to simply sow, cover and wait.

This season I’ve been skipping this step though! It can be fussy and if you have too much water in the bag, the seeds can rot and I sometimes lose track of my timing (always too much on my plate!) and they start opening / put out longer roots which are incredibly easy to damage. Also, with seed shortages and delays, I can’t afford to mess up! So I’ve started sowing in a shallow tray of soil, covering with a thin layer of fine vermiculite, covering with a dome and placing on a heat mat in my heated greenhouse (which stays around 50 at night) at the beginning of January. I used to use soil blocks with Fort Vee mix (Vermont Compost) but these babies tend to stay in trays for up to 3 months and the soil blocks just aren’t deep enought as delphinium puts out long tap roots, so I switched to a ProMix seed starting blend in 72 cell trays. These seeds germinate very sporadically - 10-14 days - and tend to grow quite slowly. I prick out the plants as they develop and pot up. Once the tray has germinated, no more dome!

These are plants that don’t like their crowns to be covered in soil - they can rot that way and their first true leaves (and all new growth) will emerge from that base. They also don’t like wet feet (but need lots of water). I aim to harden off in time to plant out in March and covering with frost cloth really depends on weather - I’ve gotten quite averse to the cover dance and these guys really can tolerate some cold. I am in Adamstown (Frederick) Maryland and these plants come back for me year after year in some cases (with no special fussing or covering). I have planted in partial shade and full sun, in well-drained soil, and they tank in the heat of the summer here in hot and humid Maryland no matter where they are planted, though they may give you another flush in the fall if you continue to weed and water. These are a classic cool flower - they enjoy a period of cool to establish large roots and then when spring comes they will start to take off.

For me, the Belladonna series is much easier to grow than the more expensive hybrid varieties. Cliveden Beauty is by far the easiest and I’ve added Maxima and Casablanca from the Belladonna series to my crop plan too, though their germ is not as reliable. Guardian / Magic Fountains are taller and showier, a little more spendy again with spotty germ for me (that doesn’t stop me, though!) I’d like to order in some special seed from overseas at some point but for now I’m sticking to the basics. I stay away from mixes as I like to know what color I am growing for purposes of bouquet making / having enough of a variety to offer wholesale, but for the home gardener, Botanical Interests puts out a couple of lovely mixes that would be worth trying.

We get occasional extreme winds at my farm as we are in a bit of a valley between two (very small) mountain ranges, so going forward I will be netting my delph to ensure that these very slow flowers give me the most bang for my buck, nothing worse than coming out after a storm to a row of leveled stems that you were planning to harvest!!! As you can imagine, with long hollow stems (sometimes 3 - 4 feet) and lots of florets up top, these plants can get very top heavy. For the home gardener, using a bamboo stake or something similar to tie up plants might make sense.

These flowers for me fall into the cut and come again category though nowhere near as productive as what you think of as traditional cut and come agains, such as zinnias and cosmos. They are interesting to look at, they dry well, the colors are not found in many // any other varieties that I grow so that is the draw for me. Also, I love a good spike!

I will update this post with more photos and welcome any feedback!

Delphinium, freshly sown with a light sprinkling of vermiculite

Delphinium babies showing their first true leaves

Delphinium growing on in the greenhouse - This is the size at which I like to plant out in the field

Magic Fountains delphinium - Lavender with white bee

Magic Fountains delphinium - Dark Blue with white bee - Definitely read purple not blue!!

Delphinium from a mix a couple of years ago - Very very tall and lovely colors!

Was this useful? Should I do more posts like this?

Happy New Year!

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Wishing you a happy and very healthy 2022!

I have to say that writing this and knowing that some of you actually read it makes it totally worth the time! I always hear from people after I send an update and it’s really fun! So thanks :)

Anyone else so ready for a fresh start? December and, if I’m being honest, all of 2021 was a total blur. It seems I am always running a million miles an hour and don’t have much time to stop and smell the roses (hahaha gotta get those puns in!). So in the spirit of goal setting, in 2022 I am hopeful that I can try to slow things down a bit - Not take on so much, not lose my keys so often, have fresh flowers on my dining room table whenever possible, and most of all, take time daily to look around at all I have to be thankful for instead of always beating myself up for whatever fire is burning that day.

I wanted to share a couple of my favorite flowers from 2021 before I forget…

Statice Suworowii

Statice Suworowii - This was a really fun flower to succeed with. It added a lot of texture, the pink color blended well with a wide variety of blooms from my field, and it dries well. I planted out my starts in March (with no cover) here in 7a/7b Adamstown MD - It probably would have appreciated a layer of frost cloth but truly every plant survived and pumped out blooms for a couple of weeks in June before it succumbed to the heat. You can source this from Botanical Interests

Poppy pods

Poppy pods - This has been a long time coming for me in terms of timing and execution. Poppies truly do not like to be transplanted though that is how I grow mine 100% of the time. They also DO NOT LIKE heat! So the sooner they can get into the ground and have a nice long period of cool weather for root development, the better. The bees absolutely loved these flowers (which only last 24 hours on the plant) and then I was rewarded with a couple of weeks of armloads of poppies to sell wholesale and to dry. They will always find a spot in my garden! Another plant that was planted out in March with no cover - Fend for yourselves was my mantra in 2021! You can source these via Baker Creek.

Oklahoma Ivory Zinnia

Oklahoma Ivory Zinnias - I love every color in the Oklahoma series - It is reliable, petite, and pumps out blooms. For some reason it took me a minute to try this color which is a bit harder to find - And I won’t make that mistake again! This color goes with pretty much everything and I am excited to grow more successions over the entirety of the season in 2022. You can source this one via Johnny’s Selected Seeds.

I am always trying new things and trying to keep my bouquets and wholesale offerings fresh and interesting from week to week and month to month. In 2022 I am planning to try growing asters for the first time - They are long-lasting and come in very desirable colors and textures. Trying out new varieties (and, eventually, nailing it!) is one of the things that I love about growing! Is there anything you’d like to see me add to my field?

2021 cottage garden bouquets featuring statice and poppy pods, echinacea, hydrangea, feverfew, yarrow, delphinium, nicotiana, scabiosa and nigella…

Wondering how to see some of these unique flowers up close? I will be offering limited CSA subscriptions in 2022 - You can find the listings here. CSA is an abbreviation for Community Supported Agriculture. When you purchase a "share", you become a member and receive a share of the flowers that I produce each season. By paying for a share before the growing season gets underway, you are supporting me as I plan and invest for the upcoming season. Your membership allows me to purchase seed and supplies and to heat my greenhouse over the winter! CSA members are part of the backbone of our farm - Investing in us in our lean months, with us through the ups and downs of the season and ultimately reaping the rewards of the long wait of the off-season by receiving a hefty, beautiful bouquet for five months during the growing season (our season typically runs late April - early October). Each bouquet will be unique and colorful, using the freshest and most beautiful seasonal blooms from our farm. I am offering delivery based on zones/neighborhoods and if you have any questions about whether your ‘hood falls into one of the zones, please don’t hesitate to reach out to me!

One last thing - I’ve been getting a lot of dahlia tuber inquiries, and really appreciate the interest! I am sorry I don’t always respond quickly, I am a one woman show trying to still dig (!!!), divide, count and store over 2000 plants from my field this year. I hope to launch my tuber store in late February and my newsletter subscribers will be the very first to know! The site will NOT be password protected.

THANK YOU, as always, for reading, writing, encouraging and loving flowers as much as me! May we all enjoy more color and beauty in 2022 and beyond!

Planning for 2022

Warm December greetings + happy holidays to you and yours! Around here I am trying to get the last of the dahlias lifted from the field. I’ve got ranunculus, anemone, delphinium, poppies, foxglove and more started in the greenhouse, and I am in the midst of planning out the 2022 season. We recently had some tree work done (mainly removing some dead and over crowded trees) which has me thinking about what to plant to replace them. I am trying my hand at some cuttings - Crab Apple and willows - but also want to plant some “real” trees. Any suggestions / favorites?

I am often asked what I do in the off-season, but truly there is little downtime! If the ground can be worked, I can plant hardened plants and seeds. Many of our spring flowers actually thrive when planted in the fall as the roots benefit from a cold period - the roots grow deep underground providing a great base for strong plants come spring. The same goes for what is being started in the greenhouse right now…Some plants just take longer to get going, plus I can’t start everything all at once. It makes sense (to me at least!) to get things started every week since I have to heat the greenhouse anyway. So seed starting plus planning, ordering, more planning (haha) and the biggest task of all, dividing dahlias keeps me very busy when it’s cold…

Photo: Amanda Summers Photography

I will once again be selling dahlia tubers. Last year my sale launched at the very end of February; I would love to get going a bit sooner this season and will announce the sale first to my newsletter subscribers to avoid some of the madness that tends to happen around some of these sales! I should have some Peaches n Cream, Rock Run Ashley and Apple Blossom among others to offer. Everything I sell grows well for me in our hot and humid Maryland summers - an important thing to factor into your tuber purchases in my opinion is looking for plants that grow well in your climate, of course the only way you’ll know is if you try :) The tuber page is password protected for now but when the sale opens there will be no password, for those of you who have been asking! Thanks for your interest in my tubers!!!

Photo: Amanda Summers Photography

True confessions: I am also deep into a season of motherhood that is HARD, and as it should, takes precedence over flowers. The farm was my first “baby” and I tend to be a workaholic, which is a terrible trait, truly, so it is hard sometimes to know when/where to take a step back. I am noodling this now, as I am being pulled in too many directions and I am dropping balls. I need a communications director to take what I am thinking and translate it to my customers, however, this gig does not allow for a large hiring budget (insert laughing emoji here!). So, forgive me while I figure it out, make decisions on what to focus on in 2022, and raise an amazing little 3 year old who I am truly grateful to have the opportunity to mother and have tag along for this flower-filled ride. And if you want to volunteer this coming season in some way, let me know! I have had the most amazing volunteer help in 2021 (Kathy and now Melissa and Natalie too!) plus the OG Lezlie and Carrie, all of whom I totally adore, and it’s nice to have the company / help and to share the joy flowers and nature and digging in the dirt bring!

See you in 2022!

Photo: Amanda Summers Photography

Falling into winter...

Where do I start!? The end-of-summer / fall rush always always is more intense than I remember (perhaps writing this will help remind me come 2022!) but I have to take some time before October ends to look back at another amazing, memorable and successful season. A HUGE THANK YOU is in order for so many who helped the farm churn out so much beauty this season! I had amazing help this season - Including a volunteer-turned-friend named Kathy who I looked forward to seeing weekly, a super fun and chill helper Kelsey who has amazing design skills and was always up for anything, my parents who help with so much but most of all with moral support and child care… Another HUGE THANK YOU to my amazing customers who bought CSA subscriptions, bouquets, plants and tubers… To the flower lovers and fellow farmers who answer questions, share knowledge willingly, and cheer on the wins, especially the Monocacy Valley Flower Coop farmily… To the wholesale clients who choose locally grown for events of all shapes, colors and sizes and whom I admire so much… THANK YOU THANK YOU!

Cut + Come again gardens-to-go

I am getting some questions about our cut flower gardens to-go, and wanted to put some info here in case you are wondering about them for 2022…

The gardens will be approx. 30 plants with two options again - a peach and a pink, both include plenty of white, plenty of variety, plenty of texture. I try to always include an echinacea and a delphinium start, both of which should be perennial in our area. Other varieties include zinnias, cosmos, gomphrena, strawflower, celosia and more. The price for 2022 will be $60 for each tray, and we will aim for pickups (only) again around the first and second week’s of May at the farm in Adamstown, MD. They require full sun to thrive!

These trays make wonderful and super creative gifts — I can provide a gift certificate for you if you’d like, which explains what/when/where. The trays come with a printout of instructions about what is included and how to plant/care for them.

If I am being honest, this is one of my favorite things to sell - I hear feedback all season long, often with customer’s sharing photos, and it delights me to grow alongside of you!

Rock Run Ashley dahlia

We are also offering (for the next week or so) a limited number of anemone and ranunculus corms for home gardeners to try out, both in pastel mixes…Our tuber store will open sometime in February - aiming for earlier than last year - and in the meantime if you are local and want to learn how to divide, shoot me a note about volunteering in exchange for some tubers! And finally, I will be changing up our CSA offerings for 2022, stay tuned for more info on that program. It was one of my favorite parts of this season and I’m excited to fine tune it in the off-season!

Peaches n’ Cream dahlias

Thank you again for supporting, buying local, reading and encouraging!

— Morgan

August on the farm

Somehow we skipped right over July...Truthfully July is always a hard month for me - the heat! the bugs! THE WEEDS!!! It’s the month where the season feels like a runaway train. I see my mistakes so crystal clearly. The tubers that didn’t get planted or sold...the beds that didn’t get made in time...the cosmos that didn’t get staked properly…But we always get through it. Thankful for daily pool dips, sometimes in work clothes. Also very thankful for volunteer help (thanks Kathy + Lezlie!!!), a fast getaway to the beach, and my parents who help me with everything from photography to childcare, laundry to seed-starting — you get the picture…The dahlias are quite healthy this year considering the heat and lack of water. For the first time ever I have everything staked and netted prior to anything falling over because of a storm (thanks Kelsey!!!). Hopefully we’ll be swimming in blooms this fall.

Our small CSA has been one of the great delights of my season! I’m enjoying seeing some of you regularly, getting to know you, having some of you out to the farm for walks in the field...I am so glad I decided to try it this season and continue to be so thankful for those of you who trusted me for monthly flowers for yourselves or as a gift to a loved one - thank you thank you for loving our blooms and believing in local flowers!

We will be offering Saturday morning bouquet pickups beginning this week and would love to welcome you out to the farm to grab some color for your world or to share with a loved one! Head over to the shop if you are interested. In the meantime, I’d love to hear from you! If you bought tubers or a cut flower garden from us this spring - How are they doing!? Photos? Feedback? I am planning to finally write that delphinium how-to in the next few weeks - any other flowers giving you a hard time when starting from seed? Anything else you’d like to hear about?
Wishing you a slow, healthy and happy August!

June - a time for "slowing down" - haha

May was more of a whirlwind than ever and I am looking forward to a bit of R + R this June (I say this cheekily!). I am beyond behind in planting but it will all get done - Still over 1000 dahlias to get in the ground (I promise to do a tutorial this coming week!) and lots of summer annuals to sow and to plant. The spring crops were amazing this year - The ranunculus churned out so many more stems than I expected, anemones (a trial for me in 2021) were SO GOOD and will 100% be added to the rotation for next year in larger quantities (vase life was amazing!!!), and the “backup singers” who actually we couldn’t do without - Poppies and Stock in particular - were amazing too. We had a very dry spring and I think that is why we had such great crops. I’m excited to up my game in 2022 to have more blooms earlier in the spring when everyone is hungry for color after a long winter.

I always try to grow as much foxglove as possible because if I was forced to pick one, it is my absolute favorite flower. This year’s crop was my best yet and I have been pleasantly surprised by the different varieties blooming over different weeks depending on when it was planted so that I wasn’t inundated all at once. Biennial “Pink Gin” is a total winner in my book - the color, the height - it’s really special! Already starting more seed for 2022!

Biennial Foxglove “Pink Gin” in its golden hour glory

While it’s sad to see some of these spring “specials” end their run (they really are SO special!), it is also exciting to begin to welcome back some of our favorites to the field - zinnias, cosmos, celosia, echinacea and even some overwintered dahlias will be blooming before you know it!

May was especially fun as I started a new monthly subscription and welcomed my first members with fragrant peony bouquets. I am so excited to offer a way for some of you to join me during the growing season! There’s still time to jump on board with options for delivery or on-farm pickup!

Wishing you an easy transition from the strangest spring (it’s May 29 with a high of 52* today…!!!) to what will hopefully be a lovely, flower-filled and (not to blazing hot - a girl can dream…) June!

May-day!

This spring has been the busiest whirlwind! May is always, predictably our busiest month on the farm. All of the winter planning and spring work comes to a huge crescendo. Every day something new seems to be ready for harvest or needs attention in some way - Weeding, staking, planting…REPEAT!

This week we have been welcoming so many of you to the farm to pick up tubers and cut flower gardens. A huge huge THANK YOU for buying and telling your friends about us! These winter and early spring sales and your faith in me to provide something for you to spend time tending and growing in your own gardens mean so much to me, truly — more than you probably know! I apologize if I’ve been a little frenzied, it definitely feels like the busiest week of the year!

I will be posting instructions on how we grow dahlias here in the next few days! A few questions have popped up about how the cicadas will affect the dahlias. I truly have no idea :) I am not holding back, if that helps answer your question…

We anticipate our peony season eagerly and hope that we will hit Mother’s Day every year. Our early and very colorful coral varieties started just in time and I am so excited to be able to provide a small number of Mother’s Day bouquets for delivery around the area. While this is more last-minute than I’d prefer, I am always at Mother Nature’s whim.

We are off to the races and are so glad you are on board for the ride!