Happy Friday! I’ve been enjoying my first week of vacation….a few doctor appointments here and there a few errands, lots of outside time, lots of playing with the flowers, and some naps even! It’s been super nice…the summer will go by quickly with lots to do and never enough time to do it!

Happenings in the garden are plenty!!

Zinnia’s have popped, displaying the most amazing array of color, sizes, patterns and textures!

My Honeywort leafs are turning an amazing blue hue at the tops.

The Orlaya has shown an extra talent of not only being a pretty flower with petals, but a very interesting bouquet addition when all the petals have fallen off giving us a pretty green star look!

The Corn Cockle-(pleasantly surprised I have purple mixed in with the Ocean Pearl) -are such a lovely piece of perfection! Long stems, petite blossoms-and such pretty smooth petals!

The Godetia plants are thriving & a beautiful salmon color!! Super thick stocks, and will bloom even after snipped & placed in water!!

The Stock have come and gone, they did not do super well, those that tried, did a decent job, but will definitely need to rethink them for next year. Perhaps they were stunted due to their being in their seedling tray too long, maybe next year consider starting them a bit and of course buying more of them if I really want to have many of them. They are an early flower and are one and done, I think I had around 25 or so of them, so it’s not a huge surprise they are cycling out. If I were any sort of a gardener, I would have popped Zinnia seeds in seed trays a month ago to prepare for this event, but I never did. I could pop seeds in the ground….we will see where I land.

My Carnation….the one’s I planted January 27th….that didn’t do super well, struggled and I fought with….yeah, those….they finally made an appearance! It was tiny, but mighty – orange in color with burgundy tips! Very pretty! I’m hoping the other 30 or so will also show their pretty faces.

My Amarath is amazingly strong, tall, bushy and a stunning dark burgundy color.

My Chinese-Forget-Me-Nots are popping with color!

My Strawflowers are doing wonderful at showing off colors and textures!

I have three volunteer Sunflowers peeping their heads out.

My Queen Anne’s Lace is in full swing, as is the variety that grows along side of the road, so I feel kind of silly for being excited about it growing so well in my garden, but it isn’t the same I know.

My Snap Dragons are strangely all white, but honestly, I didn’t even want to grow them, but I’m certainly glad that I did, and I will be sure to do more next year.

The Bells of Ireland are an interesting flower – very strange actually and a little pokey – as in sharp at points!

The Chrysanthemums, Tri-Color Daisy starting coming on and I was disgusted with their color and shape, thankfully I waited and wasn’t irritated enough to rip them all out – turns out the early bloomers kind of had a bit of a defect to them!! Goofy things! They are actually kind of fun, and do well in vases. I’m surprised they bloomed already.

The Cosmos are doing rather well, very hardy and very happy – most of them… Oddly the red – Velvette – that I purchased doesn’t age well on the bush or in a vase. It’s rather odd how quickly they fade. The Xenia came on early and strong, very pretty color and had a neat way of aging, starting out as one color and then turning another as it aged, but didn’t look old and ragged. The Cupcake Blush are amazingly fun, as well as the SeaShell mix – sweet large heads, fun colors!

The Sweet Peas are starting to give me seed pods already, I went through and marked them all by color so I can be sure to get a variety when I collect seeds in a month or so.

My Victorian Dahlia’s already gave me a bloom also – very pretty orange with a bright yellow center.

Sadly my Globe Amaranth are not doing so hot…not entirely sure why really. I have one that made it, they were slow growing, perhaps they had some competition with shade from the Honeywort?

My Celosia is still touch and go. I certainly didn’t have much to start with, and I certainly don’t have much now. I’ve lost some due to just being pulled out when pulling weeds – such a bummer when you are trying to make room for them, but they get pulled out when you pull a clump of weeds, so frustrating!

I’ve discovered a few things. Floret pictures on her seed collections are very misleading – take note, never trust pictures – I should have known that, but I didn’t pay attention, I mostly bought the seed collections to have something that matched and I could make bouquets out of, I need to trust myself more. One of the seed collections I couldn’t plant two of the flowers until late May due to having to be direct seeded, so obviously they are not going to be ready at the same time as the ones I planted in the green house, so they aren’t even going to be in a bouquet together…putting things like that together next year will be important. I’ve also discovered I need more filler….not sure what type of filler, but something more….I’ll poke around and see what I can figure out.

I’ve sold 4 subscriptions, 7 bouquets, and a few stems here and there. It’s only June 28th…..!! I’ve started 2 of my subscriptions early since there were so many flowers! Still a good 2 months worth of Summer left to see how things sell and what happens with the bouquet subscriptions.

I tried a flower buffet at the end of the driveway, not a whole lot of success there, but it was Monday when I put it out, and honestly Summer is just getting started, and my signs haven’t been at the end of the road, so I will reload it this weekend, be sure my signs are out and see how it goes. Oddly the news paper advertisement hasn’t brought much business or much traffic to the blog. Next month they are having a specific section on road side stands, so we will see if things increase in July. Their paper was about a week and a half late this month, maybe July will be more on time?

I’ve had phone calls about weddings in July, one lady needed stems for a 12 foot arbor, she came out to visit the place and see what she could find. She said she would keep in touch, super nice lady, we had a lovely visit in the garden. The other lady was calling for a friend, and said she would pass on my information. I have some people coming out Saturday to get stems for a Bridal shower they are throwing on Sunday. I also had a lady ask about stems for her daughters 4th birthday party, she has a few avenues to check out and a trip to take, she said she would get back to me. Everything will all fall into place when needed. When one things falls apart, another is there to take it’s place, it’s just how life is!

I’ve met a lovely young lady who also started growing and selling flowers this year, we visited her garden last night, very much a delight to meet someone who loves to garden and loves to share. Some of the people I’ve come across have been a bit insular and frankly rude, but she was neither – so refreshing!

I think that’s enough for now! Thanks for stopping by, hope you have a wonderful weekend!