Happy Thursday! I hope you are well on this lovely June 11th & the weather has been in your favor!

We are facing another day of grey, rain, sun….rinse and repeat!! I’m always amazed at how warm the soil is once I get out there – dodging rain drops to poke a few things in the ground or pull some things out! The weeds have liked this weather more than my blooms, but it will all come together.

I’m encouraged by the growth and the blooms that have arrived so far. I found my steps to be lighter and my breathing a bit easier now that I’ve taken a leap & invested in some already blooming flowers.

So, there’s my confession for the week….here’s the full story….

I’ve been so wrapped up in the fact that nothing seems to be blooming – things that I can use in bigger bouquets, there are some short blooms, but not things I can use for my subscribers. Joe gently suggested that perhaps we find some Snap Dragons to ease the stress a bit, but I thought it was a silly idea – where would we find such a thing and do I really want to “cheat” by “buying” already blooming plants?

That was last week-Thursday I believe.

So the week went on, I thought about it, but didn’t do anything about it. My daughter, her boyfriend and I set out on Sunday to visit a home decor store out in the county now that we are finally in phase 2-we’ve been watching this adorable place sell things on Facebook and just had to go check it out to see what it was all about. You should check it out too-Petals and Bloom is the name of it.

I didn’t set out to find anything, but on our way home we found an innocent enough sign that read “plant sale”….well of course we are going to swing in there and see what’s happening! We followed the sketchy signs, there weren’t many, but we finally came upon what seemed to be a small’ish greenhouse area.

We came upon the grouping of veggie starts, some pretty Dahlia’s in a pot, we were wandering around looking at everything when my daughter stops at the end of the row and says “um, mom….you might not want to come down here”. Of course I walk down and was pleasantly surprised by the expansive selection of every type of flower you can thing of! Pots upon pots upon pots and in the far corner what should I see — beautiful bright Snap Dragons, three feet tall already!!

It is so odd how things just come together. Honestly I still feel a bit guilty for buying them, they aren’t mine….but mine are still only 12 inches tall with no color thanks to our rainy & cooler weather. They are an investment for next year, we will put them in the re-seeding garden, they will come back next year, in addition to some other seeds that I will put out there to come up earlier than the others. I’m not sure if they will have color this time next year, but it’s worth a try. We will work on that space in hopes of providing earlier color. I think we will also invest in more lily’s, that come up before summer flowers. I’ll be doing some research….and crossing my fingers!

I’ve had orders for small bouquets and have happily been able to fill those orders with what I have in my fields, but some things are cycling out so it’s been nice having the addition of the Snap Dragons to bump them up a level.

A few highlights—

• My Soapwort has turned out to be delightful, I think I’ve said it before, but I’ll say it again because I’ve used more of it — I love it & am happy I planted it….I was a bit skeptical about it for a while…but now I am sold on it. I hope it doesn’t cycle out too quickly!
• My Honeywort has turned out to be be just as delightful as last year-though honestly I hated it not too long ago due to it’s fat stocks….but I’ve come around to it, and it’s grown longer-still has fat stocks, but they are so lush and green that how can I hate it for long?
• My Stock is blooming nicely and has been a great addition to the early bouquets. Last year I had three survive, this year I have 10, and I doubted that I was ever going to grow it again, but alas, I’ve surrendered and will certainly grow it again next year, but it’s tricky to grow, I don’t care for it personally, but it certainly looks nice in a bouquet and it’s substantial enough that it’s worth growing.
• Calendula – so much fun to see the color in the field, I love the multi-colored ones and they seem to last longer in a vase. They certainly aren’t for the subscriptions, but they are pretty and I’ve gotten a lot of interest in people wanting to have a Calendula salve making party. I’m up for parties no matter what they are!
• Anemones and Rununcs – they’ve certainly put on a show for me this year, very few Rununcs, but the Anemones steal my heart with their vibrate colors and as the season goes on, their longer stems – they are just not getting long enough to put in smaller bouquets.
• The trough certainly has produced some wonderful blue/purple sage in addition to the yellow lilies. I’m hoping I can find more – they certainly save the day when it comes to putting together bouquet orders. I’m curious as to weather or not they will do as well, the trough is up against the milk house-sheltered a bit more than any other area, so it’s possible even planting out similar or the same plants will not have the same effect. We shall see!
• Sweet Peas have arrived–in full color and fragrance! The patch will bloom in succession since I staggered my planting. My family is super excited about it and I’ve had people asking if I’m going to be selling some–absolutely I am! Funny little flower that Sweet Pea, I was able to sell a substantial amount of seeds from last year, I’ll sell sweet smelling bouquets from the seeds I saved last year, very much a money making situation — lol and by money making I mean at least 170$, but honestly, if we included the time and energy spent harvesting the seeds, counting the seeds, packaging the seeds, planting the seeds, tending to the seedlings….we are in a deep deficit and the crop should be tossed overboard for a complete and total loss! Of course I would never stop growing them, they are for my mom, and they will forever be in my garden-even though I cuss them out at least once or twice a season!!

Thankfully West Coast Pops changed it’s mind about opening!! We are back on for the delivery dates and pick-up location and times! I’ve reached out to all my subscribers this morning. So far everyone is delighted to hear the news and looking forward to the blooms!

Another grand highlight – the best one of all…..My grand kids received their special delivery-so sweet to hear their stories and see their faces! Apparently my son was so excited about the marshmallows I sent that was all he was interested in, hearing about him grabbing those and opening them up right away before the rest of the box was even open brought all the warm fuzzy feelings!

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you are staying safe, happy and healthy! I’m over the air hug situation, sending you warm tight hugs! Chat soon!