Jamie and Renardo started full time harvesting bunches today. So far, we were able to harvest Cosmos, Zinnias, Forget me nots, Dianthus, Statice, Sunflowers, Cleomes, Annual Lupin, French Poppy (new this year). Soon, Xavier and Demitry will join them to harvest and bunch as we have more flowers ready. Until then, they are busy helping me finish up Greenhouse spring and summer production, starting on fall plantings and planting all the lilies. You can expect lilies to be in the Market by 8AM. 9AM at the latest. We grow 18 crops of lilies every year and still have 3 more to plant and I did an increase of plants comparing to last year! So, looks like lilies until the end of September will be plentiful every day.
Field bunches depends on what we have left the day before, as they harvest fresh for the trucks in the morning as needed. Sometimes the bunches do show up at the market around 8AM-10AM or 12:30PM. Hard to know however, as weather and number of people available to harvest are also factors on the number of bunches. Usually by mid to end of July we have a good number of flowers bunches available all the time.
On exciting new things, I always look for new things and varieties to add to the fields & Greenhouses. Tons of research happens on how to get better next year! That’s what I pretty much do after the 4th of July until February; research new things, planning and ordering so we have a smooth, successful season. With all the challenges of the Greenhouse in the past few years, we had to take a step back from researching and exploring new varieties and processes. Recently though, the hard work and dedication of our amazing, strong team of farmers led by Jamie (can’t say enough how great he is) has allowed me the chance to explore more of the cut flower world. We started a small perennial section this year that will be good to harvest next year; we even have more space to increase the number of plants and I will work on that soon! The perennial garden has Phlox, Echinacea, Baptisia, Anemones, Astilbe and Achillea. They are located at the small field by the barn. We planted 300 more peonies last year which was a success, though I can’t harvest for 2 years (1 more to go). With the peonies we have so far (70% planted by Dorothy many, many years ago, with a small addition by Pete) we are usually able to harvest around 45 bunches per year. They are located out in the back roll out. Dahlias and Gladiolas are back and healthy, and are usually are good to harvest by mid-July, beginning of August and are in the same place by the small field. New for greenhouse flowers are Calla Lilies, and they look amazing! Four full weeks later and Jamie is still harvesting lots of them! Dave Bartlett also loves them and asked for more and earlier plantings for next year. We are also trying Lisianthus; very, very slow growing flowers that love heat, making them a more difficult variety for us to grow but the flowers are gorgeous. We did grow them (8 years ago?) but had to let it go since they bloom late, and we didn’t have enough staff or time to take care of them. We think the first batch will be ready in about 2 to 3 weeks, fingers crossed.
One experiment we did last year and didn’t go so well is Farm grown lavender. we planted along the wall in the front, but they died during the winter. We are determined though! We are trying them again this year and expect to have fresh, farm grown lavender bunches next year. We also planted for the first-time sweet peas along the wall, but that needs a lot of improvement. Not sure if we will harvest any of the ones we have for retail as they don’t have a long vase-life, we are still experimenting, which is a whole lot of fun in itself!
-Fernanda Longo
-edited by Leah Mojer