March on the farm...

Is it even a newsletter if I don’t talk about the weather?! OK but seriously, why is March now colder than February…I am remiss in writing, dividing, planting, cleaning up…Etc. The story of my farming life! But somehow it usually all gets done.

This year in an effort to make my life a smidge easier, I am ONLY offering a grower’s choice mix of dahlia tubers in boxes of 5. If a variety isn’t marked in the box you receive , I am happy to ID later in the season — I would guess that I will be able to include 4 out of 5 ID’d varieties plus one from my mix up pile (it happens folks). There is a strong chance that the boxes will include some more coveted varieties including Apple Blossom, Rock Run Ashley or Peaches N Cream, all of which sell for upwards of $14.00 + elsewhere so this is really a steal! All of the tubers we sell are the result of what we grow right here - We are not re-selling anything. All are planted, cared for, dug, stored and divided by yours truly! We can ship (it has gotten very expensive!) and we are also happy to welcome you out to the farm by appointment to pick up your tubers. We get large donations of bubble wrap all year round and use it to lovingly pack each box that goes out by USPS.

We have gotten our poppies into the ground, and continue to clean up rows to make room for the many trays of plants piling up in the greenhouse. Can’t wait to start sharing the beauty of the season with you all so soon!

Some of what is on the docket this month:

• Planting out the stock, snaps, yarrow and delphinium once they are hardened off

• Speaking at a meeting of the Frederick Gardening Club about one of my favorite subjects - Seed Starting!!!

• Continuing to start so many seeds - Gomphrena, Basil, Tomatoes and Peppers for the veg garden, grasses, and later in the month our first rounds of celosia, cosmos and zinnias

• Tune-ups on some of the farm equipment and making sure we have plenty of weed whacking string, gas, irrigation parts, fabric, etc for the season

• Our vet will come out to do annual checkups on our Livestock Guard Dogs, Belle and Sugar (they are a little too wild for the vet office at this point — IYKYK haha)

• Peony field cleanup (if you like a good before and after, this is a great volunteer opportunity ;) )

• Hopefully some tuber shipping!

Pastel Stock Mathiola

Thanks as always for your support, encouragement and flower enthusiasm! I love hearing from you and am counting down to spring!

February - Let's get the (FLOWER) show on the road!

Excitedly welcoming February and hoping it goes quick ;)

As promised, here is my icelandic poppy primer! Poppies are one of spring’s special gifts. Everyone who encounters these delicate treasures can’t seem to get over them. They look almost like aliens before shedding their skins and opening up to a 4 petaled translucent gem, usually in a bold color with an even bolder yellow center. They have a surprisinly long vase life and while some of their spring friends (anemones and ranunculus I’m looking at you) can’t take the heat in May, poppies historically bloom through the month making them a fairly long lasting cut and come again plant in our field.

Photo by Alton Marsh

While they are super cold hardy, they can be quite finicky to start. Their root systems are incredibly fragile, and they don’t like to be disturbed. I used to order in plugs (the only plant I ordered in!) but finally cracked the code on starting my own and wanted to share how I do it as I’ve had some requests! I’ve started them as early as November in my heated greenhouse; this year I got them going in January and they are growing faster than I remembered. I started them in large soil blocks, surface sow, and water both by bottom soaking the tray in water and by misting them a couple of times over the week. The seeds are VERY small which is why I prefer the larger soil blocks to the minis - The larger blocks have larger dibble holes for the seed to sit in so they don’t wash away…

The tray is placed on a heat mat in the greenhouse with a dome for as much of the day as is possible (if its sunny you will need to remove the dome during the day as it will quickly get too hot!) until germination is complete; once they are up, they are removed from the heat, dome removed, and they grow on until I can find a good dry stretch of weather to plant them out in March here in Maryland. It takes a couple of weeks for the true leaves to appear but again, they seem to be growing fast now that we are seeing longer days. I have a couple of trays at various stages of growth - sharing photos below. I do cover them with frost cloth once planted out since the temp swings can still be so extreme but they are quite cold tolerant.

When I’ve tried starting these babies under lights, I experienced damping off issues. I tried sprinkling cinnamon which can help with that, but I honestly think just having a fan on for air circulation would have helped. I have the same issue with snapdragons inside, and so now start them in the greenhouse as well with great success - but I digress!

I hope this helps! I do the same for breadseed poppies and have 100% germination - those seeds are much larger and easier to see, but very similar in terms of what they like - heat at the beginning to aid in germination, followed by cool (the greenhouse is kept at around 55 at night, and can get quite warm during the day depending on our weather of course).

2023 CSA (Community Supported Agriculture)

At this time, we are offering a monthly CSA for on-farm pickup only. If you have come to expect the big bodacious bouquets we built in the past - just order two ;) This year’s bouquets will be scaled down a bit but still beautiful and generous. We really value our CSA members and hope this doesn’t deter too many of you from supporting the farm in this way. We also anticipate being flush with flowers at different points during the season when we will offer pop-up deliveries. These subscriptions make pretty special gifts for your Valentine, or for anyone - yourself included (I can send you a gift certificate via PDF if you’d like)!

The monthly bouquets will feautre our seasonal flowers beginning in May with peonies, June (what I affectionately call spike season), July brings the heat lovers, August brings the lisianthus (if you haven’t experienced lisianthus you are in for a treat!) and then September brings the dahlias in all their colorful goodness. It’s really fun to go through the growing season with us and to see all of the goodness that can be grown here on our Maryland farm!

Buying a subscription helps us in a lot of ways and is a huge encouraging boost to this farmer in the dead of winter, when there aren’t fresh local seasonal flowers to offer for the biggest floral holiday on the calendar (who decided Valentine’s Day should be in February, anyway?!).

If you would like to be a host site for a monthly CSA drop off, I’d love to chat with you! I'd need 5 subscribers in your area and your willingness to have my flower-loving subscribers stop by your house or business once a month (this could be a pretty great client gift / way to stay in touch with clients if you asked me…). We’d decide on the dates up front at a mutually convenient time.

Wondering what a CSA subscription is? CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture. When you become a member, you are buying a "Share" of the flowers we grow - It helps me plan for and invest in the upcoming season - Seeds, soil, structures, supplies etc. I really put a lot of thought and effort into making my bouquets beautiful and unique in the most creative color schemes…I included a couple of photos above of past years bouquets!

Thanks, as always, for reading, writing, commenting and encouraging this farmer!

Happy New Year from Belle Blooms Farm!

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Happy New Year! We are experiencing an incredibly warm January - It feels almost like a trick, since I know it is still winter and that things can (and will) change on a dime, but I’m enjoying the reprieve after a cold and windy December. Currently starting seeds in our heated greenhouse (Stock, Snaps, Delphinium, several types of Poppies including Lauren’s Grape, lots of Foxglove, Rudbeckia and Yarrow this week). I also planted a raised bed of ranunculus in the greenhouse and am experimenting with some crate growing to see if we can force some earlier blooms to hit Mother’s Day…To be continued!

I am starting to work through some of the many crates of dahlia tuber clumps, dividing and tucking them away to continue hibernating for the next few months. It is a dirty job, and can be hard on the eyes, but the end result in seeing just how much they multiply is super gratifying.

I am also finalizing my cut flower-to-go crop plans and am excited about the lineup! Zinnias, cosmos and celosia, gomphrena and nicotiana, straflower and scabiosa along with grasses and some new adds - Going to give statice a try in the gardens this year, and hopefully some foxglove if germination rates continue as they have. You can check out these offerings here - PINK and PEACH - and if you have any questions, let me know! Here are some of the varieties that will be included in this year’s gardens…

I have had several people reach out in the past to volunteer on the farm, and I do plan to have a couple of volunteer days this spring where you can sign up for a time slot to help plant for a couple of hours…Keep an eye out for this opportunity!

Icelandic poppies

A question I often hear is - Is this your slow season? Truthfully, it doesn’t ever feel slow on the farrm. While the pace is different in January, and being inside the greenhouse is one of my most favorite things - It’s warm and toasty and brimming with new life, green and lush - there is always a to-do list. Filling the pellet stove (an every other day chore), carrying crates full of heavy dahlia clumps back and forth from the cooler to the greenhouse, starting seeds, ordering supplies, and of course picking up messes. I prefer to leave fall cleanup to spring, simply because the birds enjoy the the fruits of my “lazyness” - The bird life in my field is incredibly active and it’s fun to have them around. I’m also always tweaking the crop plan, checking the weather (haha!), reading and catching up on podcasts! While a snow storm brings it’s own set of challenges, I sure would love to have one nice snow this year…A farmer can dream!

Next month I’ll be sharing some photos of 2022 bouquets and my plans for getting flowers out into the local flower-loving community this season. Until then, I hope you enjoy perusing seed catalogs and garden planning - or just taking a nap and dreaming of Spring!

Lauren’s Grape Poppy

A little bit of this, a little bit of that...

Greetings from the farm! LOTS and lots happening around here right now - Here’s a little overview!

• Still digging tubers - Peaches n’ cream is up next, and then Apple Blossom - I have big sections of both of these beauties and am excited to see how tuber production has been going underground!

• Getting ready to re-cover my heated greenhouse space - I am told it is the best feeling and I’m excited for a clean and fresh start to a new growing season!

• Goal-setting and thinking through what 2023 will look like - less is more is what I keep telling myself!

• Meeting with my fellow Monocacy Valley Flower Coop growers to plan plan plan what things will look like there, too…(This is some of my most favorite time spent!)

• Ordering seeds! Currently most excited about trying “Apricotta” Cosmos - How about you? Trying anything new in 2023? I am a total seed addict so trying to reallyyyyy lean into less is more here haha!

• Harvesting all the greens, drying orange slices and foraging for pine cones - It’s wreath season!

• Getting my daily dose of our goat kids! They are so darn cute!

Cutting all the greens for wreath season! It smells SO good in my car after a session like this!!!

Our Cut Flower gardens-to-go for 2023 in both PINK and PEACH collections are now LIVE! These have easily climbed to the top of my favorite things we offer from the farm for lots of reasons - I love the feedback I get from our customers (especially when they share photos…See below and keep them coming!) and I love sharing a little bit of the magic from my greenhouse, knowing that our plants are growing + thriving in your home gardens. I love that so many of our customers come back every year. Pickup week is the best - Slightly insane but also insanely fun to visit with you - there’s not much better than geeking out over gardening! We will once again be offering these kits - a tray of 30 curated plants in two color schemes (peach and pink) - that include many of our tried and true favorite cut and come again varieties - zinnias, cosmos, gomphrena, celosia, nicotiana, scabiosa, strawflower…

Here is some feedback from the summer of 2022…

“We had a great summer enjoying all of the flowers and dahlias…”

“I took this picture to show you how well the flowers from your farm…turned out, but this beautiful butterfly chose that moment to show how much he likes them too. Your instructions were especially helpful…”

“I am loving them too (zinnias). Thank you for setting up those boxes of flowers. My sister also got one of the boxes and hers are doing very well.”

All of this to say - These gardens make GREAT gifts - Very creative and something fun to look forward to in the new year…Purchasing now is a great way to support the farm in the long off-season when we don’t have much to sell but expenses are still very present. I am happy to send you a card for gifting if you do decide to buy a tray as a gift! As always, thank you for your support!

I promise the dahlia tuber dividing post is forthcoming, as is the “how I start poppies” post just as soon as the greenhouse is re-covered :) Thanks for reading and encouraging and loving local flowers! Happy Thanksgiving!

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Dahlia digging and storage

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There are a ton of resources out there that go over the ins and outs of digging, dividing and storing dahlia tubers. This is my way and does NOT mean you are doing it wrong, or that you should make a change - It’s just what works for me. I will update the dividing section once I have a chance to take some photos.

I start off by cutting back all of the plant material so that just a little bit of the stalk is showing…I have tried a TON of tools and last season I bought myself one of these electric pruners (my dad has since gotten 2 more of them for jobs around the farm and as a gift for a farmer friend who prunes A LOT of Christmas Trees every year at his tree farm). It has become by far a top 5 tool for me this season. If you are a small scale grower you don’t need fancy tools for five clumps - Keep in mind I grow thousands of dahlias - but it has truly been a game changer!

I usually dig my tubers using a 4 tine gardening fork. My soil is fairly clay-like and this works for me - you could also use a large garden shovel. I work my way all around the tuber clump, loosening the soil before lifting. If you are too hasty, the tubers will break, usually right at the neck (which will ruin them) or they will snap in half (not as bad but still can lead to storage issues).

I will go down a whole row at a time, making sure my labels and variety markings are super crystal clear, and dig and pull all the clumps out, laying them on solid ground to dry off a bit to leave as much of the soil in the field as possible. I’ll come back a few hours later and brush off as much soil as I can get off. I do NOT wash my clumps. They go straight into bulb crates and then into my cooler, with multiple labels on each crate in case something falls off or gets lost heading from field to workshop.

These guys had too much soil left on them but sometimes you gotta move fast!

One important thing to remember is you cannot place these crates directly on concrete. The moisture will get sucked right out of the tubers (overnight, literally). I put down sheets of insulation in my cooler and then put one empty crate at the bottom of each stack. Yes it takes a lot of crates! I aim to keep my cooler between 40-50 degrees which right now in November when it’s 77* is easy, but come Jan-Feb is tricky. A little space heater and air circulation helps - I run a fan and if I see any sign of mold from all the moisture from the soil and tubers, I may run a dehumidifier. Some people run humidifier - it just depends on your conditions. I have tried attic storage in the past and it was not ideal.

When it comes time to divide, I brush off the dried up dirt (it usually comes right off as it has had plenty of time to sit) and get to it. My favorite tool for this task are these Zenport scissors - They stay sharp and are strong enough to fight through even the biggest tubers.

Once divided, it is important to let the cut portion of the tuber heal and dry before putting them back into storage which at this point is plastic tubs full of vermiculite. I usually let them sit for 24-48 hours and then place them in their bins.

Now after all of this writing, I’m going to tell you (especially the local home gardeners who get tubers from me) - If you are in my zone or a bit warmer, you likely will have some success overwintering your dahlias. Cut them back, cover with a thick layer of leaves and if you are super on the ball, a layer of plastic - this would be to prevent too much water from getting to them and freezing them. Storing them is way harder than leaving them in the ground as the temp and humidity have to be right for them not to mold, shrivel, freeze, rot etc. The downside from overwintering is that if you decide to dig in a few years the clumps will be ginormous!

Happy to answer questions and I will post more photos of the dividing process once I get to it - soon, very soon!

Thanks for reading!

How is it November!?

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It feels like every time I write here I mention how intense farming is - HAHA! It really is true. The season got off to a super bumpy start with crazy spring temp fluctuations which led to some crop failures (my ranunculus and anemones were a complete loss) - not a cheap flower to grow, and definitely a hard hit to take in the spring at a time when everyone is anxious for flowers.

Thankfully the poppies were spectacular and I had something to work with come late April, early May! This was my first season starting my own Icelandic poppies - They sure are tricky from seed! I sourced from Johnny’s (they call it Champagne Bubbles) and I really appreciated the chance to grow individual colors. I usually order plugs (Farmer Bailey or Henk at Onings) and plant out in November but timing has to be perfect and I’m not always great at that part of fall farming…I plan to write an overview of how I started them in the coming weeks.

Icelandic Poppies

Next came peony season which I always describe as fast and furious, blink and you’ll miss it, buckle your seatbelt insanity. I am glued to the farm for two weeks, harvesting multiple times a day and storing, counting and grading stems. It is beautiful and insane!

“Normie” peony

Spring pastel stock matthiola

Next up was stock, foxglove and delphinium among other things…All the really good stuff that late spring brings…

Then we hit summer. I’ve never had such a rough and quite frankly bad crop of zinnias, mostly my fault in terms of where and how I planted them…The Japanese Beetles did a number, weeds really took hold and I opted to not plant into fabric (OOPS), I never got them staked etc. On the flip side, the strawflower were amazingly prolific and beautiful. Will be greatly increasing production of this forgiving, multi use plant (can be used fresh or dried!)

White Strawflower

Peach strawflower

American Basketflower (Centaurea americana)

July brought new flowers to admire - Including this new-to-me American basket flower, which I believe also comes in purple. This workhorse cranked blooms for a solid month, was so prolific and tall with many branching stems, and the pollinators LOVED it - I will definitely grow again. I got several DM’s from designers wanting to work with it after I posted on Instagram! It adds a lovely texture and the creamy white color blends with almost everything.

My next succession of zinnias which began blooming in late August was quite healthy and prolific, thank goodness. I have my go-to’s - The Queen series (especially Green!!!), Zinderella Peach, and Benary Salmon. I also tried a pink cupcake mix that was a hit, as well as a packet of the Dawn Creek breeding mix - Wow they are doing some amazing work and I sure hope some of the seed I saved will bloom in similar shades. Here are a few zinnia pixx…

Another total winner for me this year was Celosia, specifically the specialty varieties from Floret - Plume shaped, in lovely light pastel shades - I sold as many as I offered to designers and tried to incorporate them for texture into all my bouquets. The colors are so good and I am excited to see how my seed saving goes with these varieties as well.

It was a very strange year for me, dahlia wise. Late to get them into the ground, I felt like I was constantly behind - The burgundies started blooming right as we had our (early) first frost, so they were basically a total loss - hopefully tuber production didn’t suffer.

New varieties that knocked my socks off were…

Coseytown Gale - Can’t say enough good about this new variety introduced by Coseytown Flowers. Tall strong stems (and lots of them), gorgeous color, Cranked from mid August to frost consistently. I hope she makes good tubers which I think is one of LeeAnne’s criteria (the breeder).

Salmon Runner - I sourced from Fivefork Farm and loved loved loved this flower - The color changed mid-late September from peachy pink to dark reddish pink. Strong tall stems, consistent producer, bugs didn’t bother with it much, blended nicely with fall colors. A real keeper!

Anne Hyde - not new to me, but I took the best care of it this season and it flourished. I love the shape and color, it adds a lot of texture when paired with ball-shaped dahlias, and cranks stems. I will take better care of this one in 2023!

Coseytown Gale dahlia

Salmon Runner dahlia

Anne Hyde dahlia

So much more to come in the coming weeks, this post is long enough! Thanks for following along!

April news from the farm

I spent the latter part of March planting out so many babies! There are a lot of flowers that don’t mind and even thrive in cool weather — Some that even NEED cool to either germinate at all, or to grow strong roots to be able to produce. There is a book called COOL FLOWERS by Lisa Mason Ziegler that is super helpful in learning more about the concept. I have had success over the years with fall planted Snapdragons, Dianthus, Yarrow, Rudbeckia, Larkspur, Foxglove, Poppies and Bupleurum. For the record, Dara and Strawflower have NOT done well for me (too cold at my farm in Frederick, Maryland - zone 7a). For me the biggest challenges with fall plantings are - Having bed space prepped in a timely fashion, starting seeds at the appropriate time for fall planting, and having the time to actually plant the babies out, as fall can be the busiest time for me on the farm because besides the abundance of flowers, once frost hits I have so much digging to do to lift dahlias and get the farm buttoned up before the cold moves in and I no longer want to be outside. One of my many goals in 2022 is to prep my field early enough to get a good start. This means I am actually planning for 2023 now! It’s a lot to wrap my head around but I want to do better and have flowers earlier next year! I would love to hear what you’ve had success (and failures) with overwintering in the comments below (please tell us where you are located when you share).

A sea of overwintered Rudbeckia and Larkspur on the verge of exploding into bloom

Overwintered larkspur

There is so much that goes into field production, especially overwintering hardy annuals. One year I made the mistake of using white landscape fabric thinking that it would keep the plants cool in spring since they are cool lovers. What it actually did was allow the light through to provide the perfect storm for weeds to thrive, pushing the fabric up as they grew. I lost 5 rows of babies (most direct seeded hence why they could not out compete the weeds). Lessons learned! I have since tried to reuse the white fabric for ranunculus, anemones and poppies, all of which really fizzle when we jump from spring to summer in the span of 3 days every May. I actually layer the white on top of black fabric when I do this (you can also paint the white so the underside is dark - but who has time for that!?!!?).

When overwintering, you have to play the cover/uncover game…Air flow is important and since these plants like cool weather, on those 60-70 degree days that pop up randomly over the winter, the plants can overheat quickly. I rarely have to water in winter except if it’s super dry and I’m planting out baby seedlings. This year I am trying the no till method of growing in carboard covered with a thick layer of compost and those babies require way more water…Will report back on this once I see how it goes! I’m learning as I go, mostly from Jennie Love (Love n’ Fresh Flowers).

Larkspur

2022 Cut Flower gardens-to-go

I’m gearing up for May plant pickups, mostly the cut flower gardens-to-go. The timing for starting those babies is a little different from starting for my own field production as I want the starts to be a hefty enough size to give home gardeners a good head start. There are still a couple of each color left in the store, I expect to sell out so don’t wait til the last minute!

This season I am making a big effort to dry more flowers for winter projects - Wreaths, florist sales and crafting/experimenting. I just purchased a super cool flower press and am beyond excited to try it out! And I am planning for an entire row of Strawflowers for both cuts and for drying. Stay tuned for those photos, Strawflower comes in a total rainbow of colors and can be used for so many fun things!!! I’ve snagged a bunch of different packs including an “Creamy White” ivory variety from Johnnys, and a rainbow mix from Baker Creek.

Thanks, as always, for reading and being here! Can’t wait for armloads of flowers and to share them with you here and in real life!

March news from the farm

Greetings from the farm! So happy to report progress on lots of fronts since my last note. February was very productive — The Greenhouse is bursting at the seems, quite literally the plastic is on it’s very last leg and will need to be replaced in 2022, plus the contents are growing and thriving and many trays are ready to be planted out. The field is taking shape with lots of beautiful things to come this season. I’ve finally gotten some anemones planted, with the rest to go in along with all my ranunculus over the next week. Everything was pre-sprouted so we should have some April blooms! Next up to be planted out will be the delphinium and foxglove, as well as lots of direct sowing of cool loving annuals. It’s not too late for you local home gardeners to sow some cool loving flower seeds in your gardens - ammi + nigella, (and dill and bronze fennel for the caterpillars) do well for me when direct sown in late winter. You may even be able to get a nice crop of larkspur (but hurry on that one!)

I am picking up 100 bare-root thornless raspberry bushes next month and have to prep the space where they will be planted - they have to get into the ground immediately for best results (planting things on time is, ahem, not my best quality). In the fall I planted a whole hedgerow of ninebark in a lovely chartreuse color that I couldn’t be more excited about. These plantings will provide a huge amount of foliage for my bouquets and wholesale market - I’ve honestly been lacking steady reliable foliage for a while. I’m excited to see how they grow, and to continue investing in perennials!

I’ve heard from some of you about volunteering and will be sending a note about a March weekend volunteer day to do some field clean up - If you’d like to know when this is scheduled, please reach out!

My motto for this season has been DO THE WORK and I’m trying!

Photo by Amanda Summers Photography

My tuber store is open and there are a few varieties left - Dahlia mania is real!!! Thank you for buying tubers from me - I can’t wait to see you grow this season!

Pink Cut Flower Garden to-go

CUT FLOWER GARDENS TO-GO

I’m once again offering cut flower gardens to-go for pickup in early May. I have two options - one peach, one pink - with a ton of variety. The trays will hold 32 plants, including Zinnias, Cosmos, Strawflower, Delphinium, Echinacea, Gomphrena, Nicotiana, Feverfew and more. You do not need a lot of space for these gardens, most of the plants can be planted as close as 6 - 9” apart. They make a lovely gift - to yourself, or to a loved one!

“All of my seedlings did really well and were the gift that keeps on giving.” — M.O.

“My mom got me your peach cut and come again flower garden in 2021 and we absolutely loved it!” —K.B.

I am excited to report back in April and to have some flowers to share by then, hopefully, too! My official countdown to spring is in full effect - 6 days , flower lovers!

Thanks, as always, for reading!