Making a case for Perennials

I grow mostly annuals here on the farm, along with a nice Peony collection, some woody shrubs such as Ninebark and Viburnum, and rounding out with a sprinkling of Perennials which I want to share about because as I’ve been cleaning up their sections on the farm, I have been patting myself on the back a bit for taking the time to plant them in years past and thought you might want to know what grows well here in Frederick, Maryland - zone 7a. One of the things I love the most about most of these plants is that they bloom at the same time every year - which is very nice to “rely on” when most of farming is very unpredictable. They also seem to be drought tolerant which can be so helpful as our weather patterns have become so unpredictable.

Echinacea - I have started most of my collection from seed, but also bought in some of the juicy cantaloupe variety which I honestly felt underperformed for me even when given a special spot in the landscape. I’ve grown too many varieties to count at this point, but the stand outs would be White Swan and Mellow Yellows. Green Twister was also fun but it turns out I had a hard time figuring out how to use it in my bouquets. These plants definitely need 12” spacing'; they really beef up in years 2, 3 and now even year four for some of them. I love them all year long - they bloom for a long period of time for me and are long lasting; I can sell / use the pods fresh or dried; and their seed feeds the birds in the winter. I don’t clean up the spent stems until this time of year so they are wonderful habitats for overwintering bugs. I try to start some every year as it seems like I lose a few plants each winter (no rhyme or reason to the loss). I grow in landscape fabric because #weeds but have to make the holes larger for these plants each spring to allow the new growth to find the sun. Botanical Interests, Johnnys and Baker Creek Heirloom seeds all have interesting varieties you can try at home. They are a bit sporadic in germinating and this is one of the few seeds I still grow under lights, they seem to like a consistent temperature the greenhouse just can’t provide.

Mellow Yellow Echinacea grown at Belle Blooms Farm

Green Twister Echinacea grown at Belle Blooms Farm

White Swan Echinacea grown at Belle Blooms Farm

Echinops / Globe Thistle - These are second year flowering, and can be easy to start from seed though slow growing - I would recommend buying plugs. They come in White and Blue (I wish I had more blue!!) They get quite large / tall; so give them enough space so as they mature they have space. Another one that is wonderful both fresh and dried - I even dried the short side stems and have used every single bloom this winter in wreath work. They really can be prickly so gloves are recommended. My daughter sprinkled spent blooms all over the yard on nice winter days and it turns out they self sow READILY - I dug up 15 plants she grew for me and am so delighted to keep expanding this patch. Highly recommend!

Yarrow - I LOVE YARROW!!! I can’t say enough about these blooms. First of all the foliage is like a million feathers, and its so fun to see these clumps of green in an empty field. They are so easy to grow from seed and come in so many good colors. They flower the first year for me…Second year plants are incredibly productive. I’ve tried Colorado mix, Summer Berries and this year, Cloth of Gold which is a bright yellow I plan to use for drying (the others can be hit or miss for me on the drying front). I highly recommend staking / netting these plants especially if you have a lot of them - they are prolific and will topple. They should be harvested EARLY in the morning and put right into the cooler for conditioning and are amazing in bouquets - long vase life, lovely colors. I love this flower.

Rudbeckia “Henry Eilers” - I invested in these after seeing so many lovely bouquets using them - They are very different to most Rudbeckias and while I haven’t harvested them yet, I am so so excited to have an entire row of them in my landscape.' This is a variety that is grown from cuttings so no seeds - but I thought I would mention it here as everyone I know who grows it absolutely loves it.

Feverfew - Belle Blooms Farm

Feverfew - This is a wonderful filler in bouquets and another I just learned can be used dried. I love finding a patch of these that survived our winter with no protection and have had them live a few years - again, coming back very strong in the second year. I plant a new batch each season which extends the harvest as the new succession will bloom a little later in the season. I consider feverfew a short lived perennial here, I’ve never kept in one spot more than 3 seasons but I know many of my cut garden clients tell me their’s come back year after year as well.

Do you have a plant or flower that comes back every year that you think I should know about? Please share!!! I love learning about new varieties and trying new things!

LAST CHANCE! You have until the end of April to place cut-flower garden to go orders! If you have any questions about this offering, please reach out. The plants are looking amazing and I’m excited to grow them along side you this season!

Happy spring!

Want to Grow Your Own?

Greetings from the farm! The forecast is looking promising and I’ve started hardening off plants in preparation for planting out in the field! Its my favorite time of the year - Seeing the tiniest seeds sprout, shed their coats and turn green, some of them following the sun all day. They grow stronger and start putting out true leaves (those are the leaves I recognize) and all of a sudden, the greenhouse goes from all soil to all green almost overnight.

Baby Strawflower in the greenhouse

Sowing seeds is one of my very favorite parts of farming, and a few years ago I started offering cut flower gardens to go, so that home gardeners could try their hands at growing the same varieties I have great success with at the farm, without having to buy 20+ seed packets. It is a big undertaking and one I truly LOVE - I get to see the same faces every spring, hear from you during the season (the best is seeing your garden photos) and connect with you about our mutual love of growing and nurturing plants to bloom.

A photo from one of my garden to go clients during the growing season - She nailed it!

This year I am simplifying things and just offering one tray vs. two color ways. It will be a mix of pinks, purples, peaches, yellows and whites that will compliment each other and give you lots to cut and enjoy — and plenty of blooms for the pollinators, too. Plants will include zinnias, cosmos, strawflower, celosia, gomphrena and more.

If you’ve been curious about trying out one of these gardens, I hope you will give it a go. The plants can be spaced quite closely together, or spread out in your garden if you are looking for splashes of color and texture throughout. The plants are really easy to grow and most thrive when cut and will keep churning out blooms all summer. I am also available to answer questions during the growing season - I really love hearing from you!

The trays will be available for pickup mid-May, and make a wonderful and creative gift - I have a gift certificate ready to email you should you need one! A link to purchase a garden-to-go can be found here!

Also - I’ve been getting some dahlia tuber inquiries, and my short answer is I am undecided about offering grab bags this season - I will be making a decision by the end of this month once I get through dividing and checking on counts. Stay tuned!

Happy Growing!

Buzz buzz BUZZ -- An Interview with our Beekeeper!

In 2023 we welcomed our beekeeper, Becca, to the farm. We’d always loved the idea of having bees but no one wanted to take on the responsibility. When a mom from my daughter’s preschool approached us about the possibility it was an enthusiastic and automatic YES.

Becca always has a smile on her face and a (bee) fact up her sleeve. We’ve all learned so much in just a year from her about these special creatures with a fascinating structure of working harmoniously towards a common goal, and we’ve benefitted from their sweet work in the form of delicious honey. Besides the treat of eating HOT honey right out of the comb on a warm July day, it is a treat to see the honey bees buzzing in our field, busy busy collecting pollen to take back to the hives. They work fast and furiously. They love (LOVE) poppies, just as I do. They are harmless if respected (and will let you know when you aren’t being respectful, HAHA!) I have a wasp allergy and healthy fear, and have no problem working alongside the honeybees all day every day.

As an aside, often our customers and friends of the farm assume that bees are beneficial to our flowers. As a cut flower grower, the opposite is actually true. Bees pollinating our flowers can cause them to open faster before the perfect harvest stage (which is not ideal). However, we grow SO MANY flowers that there is more than enough to sacrifice for the sake of the bees. Some growers use the bees to pollinate their dahlias, zinnias, celosias and other flowers because they are aiming for cross pollination to create new varieties.

I sat down with Becca to ask her a few questions about beekeeping this week (and snapped a few shots last summer of her working with them) and am delighted to share a little from our chat with you!

Becca, how did you get started with beekeeping? I grew up on a farm and was exposed briefly to beekeeping at a young age. I stopped at an FCBA (Frederick County Beekeepers Association) booth at the Great Frederick Fair and in 2023 took a class they offered to earn a beekeeping certificate. It’s a really great organization and they offer a lot of classes! You can check them out here

What is the name of your company and where did you come up with it? “Bee Still & Know Honey Co.” It’s from a bible verse (Psalm 46:10) and I love a good bee pun.

How do you stay calm around the bees? I always read that they sense your energy. I have ADHD and in order to be the safest and best beekeeper I can be, I need to slow down and know what I am doing. This keeps the bees and me as safe and happy as possible. I do rely on my equipment during the dearth (when nectar flow lessens) because the bees can become a little more feisty. The bees definitely feed off of my energy! If I do get stung, I stay calm and keep moving.

Do you think the bees have a favorite flower in our fields? Actually yes — They really seemed to love the dahlias. There is not much food available in the fall and they seemed to be in a frenzy in your dahlia patch. I will add that the hive I had at your farm was *VERY* chill compared to other hives I have seen - I attributed that to having such diverse food sources throughout the season.

Between Climate Change and all of the farm development we are seeing, what is the biggest danger to the honeybee? Pesticides are one of the biggest threats, up there with habitat loss, pathogens, climate change and invasive species. Bees can travel up to 25 square miles so even if you aren't spraying pesticides at your farm, the distance they can travel leaves them susceptible. Climate change translates to a change in the bee’s season, but they are very adaptable, however they aren’t getting the food they need early in the season and so I do often have to help by supplementing for them.

Are bees as important as we hear about all the time? They are incredibly important to our ecosystem. Approximately 90% of the plants we grow require pollinators to help with reproduction — and Honey Bees are responsible for approximately 80% of that pollination. A decrease in pollinators = a decrease in food production. Our world would be much less colorful and much hungrier without bees!

What are you making? Honey! It’s unusual to get a measurable amount of honey in your first season but we harvested about 40 gallons and are really enjoying it. In 2024 I am looking to harvest at least double that so if all goes well we should have some to sell. We are also harvesting some beeswax and will be harvesting propolis this season - it’s an anti-microbial, but honey is our primary focus.

Becca, it is a joy to host you at the farm, and we are excited to keep working alongside these busy bees (and welcome the rest of your hives) in 2024!

Video of bees coming in and out of beehive at Belle Blooms Farm

Photo of a drone (male bee) emerging from his cell - Photo provided by Becca at Bee Still & Know Honey Co.

Three cheers for Cosmos!

Happy 2024! Excited to be back in action at the farm and planning and plotting for the season ahead after a longer than expected winter break.

I always do a season recap (which is in my drafts) but today I’m focusing on what has become one of my most reliable crops, the unassuming Cosmos. Cosmos are delightful both in the landscape and as a cut flower crop. Many cut flower growers give up on them — and I am all for assessing what works (and doesn’t) in your own situation. But I want to make a pitch for those of you thinking of dropping Cosmos. The usual reasons I see them not working for growers are keeping up with deadheading, and the need for netting (two very valid reasons!) But planting extra successions and picking reliable varieties are two ways to make them work in your crop plan. Pinch for (many) more stems, and netting is the only reliable way in my field to keep them upright in the event of a big summer storm.

I’ve seen some stunning work with Cosmos as the star of the show in bridal work by Sophie Felts and ahem, JLO featured them en masse at her wedding to Ben…Just saying! There is also a designer named TJ McGrath who designs with them in lovely and creative ways - Check him out on Instagram here!

Cosmos are so elegant and ethereal - They add a lot of movement to arrangements and I especially love how they stop you in your tracks when they are cut at the proper stage (bud cracking) and used in a bouquet — all of a sudden they pop open and surprise you!

I tried Apricotta in 2023 for the first time and they were an insanely unique, lovely color - iridescent pink almost - They were prolific and good sellers. Very hard to photograph but I finally got a good shot at the end of my season!

Apricotta Cosmos - Belle Blooms Farm

Rubenza are tried and true, reliable bloomers and popular especially in fall - They will always have a spot in my field!

Rubenza Cosmos - Belle Blooms Farm

My most favorite varieties are tied - Afternoon White is amazing with it’s tall straight sturdy stems and reliably perfect white blooms (the Versailles series is comparable). I find they reliably last 6 - 7 days, and if cut at that cracking bud stage as early as Sunday before a Saturday event they will hold perfectly in the cooler, opening slowly over the course of the week. This allows me to move many bunches from a patch of 200 plants during the course of a week, and still have plenty to use for my own bouquet work.

I also love love love the Cupcake series - They are a smidge more unpredictable with weaker stems and variable bloom size, but they are SO incredibly unique and my designers really love them, so I try to always grow them. This year I planted a late fall succession of both Afternoon White and Cupcake, and Cupcake took 2-3 weeks longer to bloom - both were pinched - which was actually great as it extended that last succession and now I know.

Do you have a favorite variety you think I should know about? Or, have you seen them in use either in the garden or in design work somewhere we should know about? Please share — I’d love to hear from you!

A visit to Coseytown!

I have been an admirer of LeeAnn Huber at Coseytown Flowers for a long time - She is a dahlia breeder who lives in Pennsylvania, close enough to our farm here in Adamstown that our growing conditions are very similar. She is business savvy, had a great eye for color, and the varieties she is breeding to bring to market are desirable to me as a cut flower grower because she focuses on good tuber producers, strong and long stems (good bloom to stem attachment) and blooms with a long vase life. She is also very virus conscientious - there are lots of yucky viruses that spread in dahlias via cuttings and pests, and LeeAnn offers education both on Instagram and via her online classroom and is very careful about what she sends out into the world.

Her tuber sales each winter sell out in minutes, which is awesome for her (a bummer for me as I missed out on a couple of varieties I would LOVE to grow - here’s hoping for this year’s sale!) which shows you how coveted her Coseytown line of dahlias is. Longwood Gardens has been growing some of her varieties for a couple of years now (this is a big deal!) Have I ever talked about what a gem Longwood is? If you’ve never been, it’s close enough from our area here in Frederick for a day trip and SO worth it (an overnight stay would also be worth it - I can’t recommend The Inn at Whitewing Farm enough, the food scene in Kennett Square is amazing and if you are a flower / plant lover, stop by WorKS on the weekend to shop at Mara Tyler from The Farm at Oxford too!) There is not a bad time of year to visit Longwood because they have a giant conservatory that is full of interesting species that would brighten even the dreariest winter day (hello, orchids!) Their holiday displays are creative and unique and quite simply, stunning. They grow blue poppies in the winter! I could go on and on - But just promise me, you’ll put it on your must see list!

Anyway I digress. In 2022 I got my hands on 5 Coseytown Gale dahlia tubers which I quickly fell in love with. They were generous with both flower stems during the season, and tuber production. This year I grew about 40 plants which in the height of dahlia season were PUMPING blooms out; most weeks I sold out of them in wholesale. They are a lovely blender color (a lot of LeeAnn’s dahlias are) which I find photograph really nicely…

Coseytown Gale dahlia

Last year at the end of the season I won LeeAnn’s hashtag contest - I posted a picture of Coseytown Gale during the growing season with the hashtag #coseytowndahlias and after frost she picked my name out of a hat to win 5 tubers from her private collection. She sent me an interesting mix of tubers including Aubergine which quickly jumped to the top of my fave list this season - An anemone form in such a lovely purple color - so special and different, and prolific! She also shared Orange Globe which was not orange until this last week when the weather turned colder - It is the largest ball shaped dahlia I’ve ever seen - A very interesting and special bloom. Thank you for the gifted tubers, LeeAnn - I would never have picked these out for myself and am so glad I got to grow them out / add them to my crop plan for the future!!!

LeeAnn was so nice to invite me out to her farm this past September when it was flush in flowers, and so my sidekick and I took a rare field trip in our busy season to go visit Coseytown. LeeAnn has two distinct separate fields - one is all seedlings - I turned into a fly trap walking in that field because my mouth was open the entire time seeing all of the future possibilities - colors and textures and plant habit…and hearing about culling which is a huge part of what LeeAnn does. Some were in their second year of “watching” and some were brand new and blooming for the first time every day. What an adventure to get to walk those fields daily and observe! One of my favorite thing about farming is trying new varieties every year (only a couple at a time) so to start 100’s of dahlias from seed every year and not know what you are going to get is a total dream! She let’s the bees do all of the pollinating work and they are doing a great job ;)

The other field is focused on tuber production for recent and upcoming product launches. I am also a sucker for seeing long rows of a variety en masse, so it was a real treat to walk those rows, and to see some upcoming Coseytown intros, talk names and say a little prayer that I’m lucky enough to get my hands on some of these beauties in the future (I’m looking at you, 24 Karat!)

One other interesting thing about walking LeeAnn’s fields was the lack of deadheading. I focus a lot on keeping spent blooms cut back from my plants to encourage new blooms, while one of her goals is dahlia seed production, so all of those spent blooms will be collected before frost to save seed for sale and growing on for future Coseytown varieties. Very cool to see all of this in action!

While we ended up talking more than photographing, I was able to snap some photos of a couple of varieties she is keeping an eye on, and some tried and true blooms that were stunning in her field and am excited to share them with you here!

I don’t want to sound too dramatic, but I have been dreaming about this bloom weekly since I saw it literally GLOWING in the Coseytown field.

Coseytown Sugar Berry

Coseytown Sugar Berry

Coseytown Mason

LeeAnn’s dahlia fields at Coseytown Flowers are a total dream

Coseytown dahlia seedling

Coseytown dahlia seedling

Rhubarb & Custard

Coseytown dahlia seedling - I don’t think I’ve ever seen 5 bees on one bloom!

I would love to hear from you if you are saving seed (not just from dahlias!) as I am just starting to dip my toe into this fun and rewarding part of growing. Hope you are enjoying this mild and mostly lovely fall, and I look forward to writing more in my “off season” - If there are things you’d like to hear about, please let me know, I truly love hearing from you!

Heading into September!

While summer is not officially over, most mornings and evenings feel much cooler than the dog days of July and for that I am so thankful! July makes most farmers I know want to throw in the towel a couple of times…This summer especially, given the extreme lack of rain which = more work keeping plants alive. The weeds seem to thrive in July and the field feels like its slowly being enveloped by towering amaranth (the bad kind), grasses (the bad kinds), and tangling vines (the bad kinds). I seem to forget every year how important it is to cut down rows of spent blooms because something always takes precedence. I’m spending this week with heavy duty weed wackers and LOTS of piles to move!

Every year I set goals for the farm and this year included drying more flowers, growing more strawflower, saving more seed from the most special and beautiful zinnias (I’m looking at you, Dawn Creek Farm!) and growing more cosmos (always more cosmos!!!) You can read more about the varieties I love below, but first, let’s talk about one last goal that is about to come to fruition!

I have been dreaming of hosting a workshop on the farm for about 10 years (seriously) and this October it’s coming true in the form of a bundle dying workshop with Kristin Arzt. Kristin is a natural dyer, educator, gardener and designer and I am certain it will be a FUN day to remember. You can read more about it and sign up here. I hope you will consider joining us this October! (photos below used with permission from Kristin Arzt).

The strawflower has been going strong since June and gets added to almost every bouquet that leaves the farm…I’m expecially in love with Raspberry Rose which hopefully will be back in stock soon at Johnny’s! All of these varieties dry with no color loss. Very excited to use them in wreath work this fall!

My cosmos have been much slower than all of the other heat lovers this fall but they are looking good heading into wedding season. Every year I fall more in love with cosmos - they are the cheeriest and most whimsical additions to a bouquet and they really dance in the garden. My favorite white is “Afternoon White”, which is similar to Versailles. Next season I plan to try Fizzy White after seeing Madgie’s lovely blooms at M & M Plants. I also love the Cupcake series and have some in blush planted and starting to bud…While the Double Click series is full of lovely colors and texture, I find their heads very droopy and didn’t grow them this season - Definitely missed Bicolor Purple and Rose Bon Bon so will probably bring them back in small numbers next year but these other varieties really beat the double clicks in terms of stem strength and make a lot more sense for my customers.

Afternoon White Cosmos

A new addition to the field this season was Apricotta and it has been very popular! I love the variation in coloring and the fun centers some of them have, I just wish the stems were stronger. Will def. grow again!

The Dawn Creek Farm zinnias are incredibly lovely - Really perfect for wedding work but also lovely planted en masse. The colors all play nicely together and I feel comfortable selling them as a mix (not something I usually do). I saved seed last year with mixed results - overall I have been very happy with that selection and will do it again this year. I am learning when it comes to seed saving - I try to isolate the colors I like by using organza bags and will do a better job of marking them this season so I know what colors I hope to save (come February the bags of seeds all look the same, with no clues left behind as to color!) I am so excited to continue to cheer the Dawn Creek crew on and support them by donating to buy seeds from them every year as well. You can too!

Dawn Creek Farm zinnias grown at Belle Blooms Farm

The dahlias usually take center stage in the fall and I will for sure be documenting the new and returning favorites in my field to share here. Thanks as always for reading and supporting the farm! It means a lot!

P.S. - Did you know I have a small Etsy shop? Planning to add more items in the coming months - Anything you want to see offered? I’m all ears!

P.P.S. - Offering grab and go bouquets this Saturday at the farm! Headed to a cookout for Labor Day? Don’t go empty handed!

June on the farm

Greetings from the farm! It has been a strange season so far - beautiful, of course, but also unusually cool with a few hot days sprinkled in; DRY (like dry dry!) Planting has felt like we are in the desert…Thankfully we have a strong well and drip irrigation set up to water, and we are looking at lots of rain heading in which the flowers and this farmer will love…

But enough about the weather! Some of our spring crops have been the nicest of my farming career - Fragrant snapdragons with looooong stems and vibrant colors…

The Icelandic poppies were spectacular! They are very hardy but don’t fare well in the rain, so the lack of rain really helped to keep them perfect…I only wish I had more of them - Will be growing yellow, scarlet and pink along with the orange next year!

Orange Icelandic poppies

I am happy to report our overwintered dahlias have started pumping out blooms! I anticipate they will not appreciate the oppressive July heat, but I am excited to have them for a few weeks and then to see them again come fall. I left in a big patch of orange, and a big patch of Peaches N’ Cream.

Peaches N’ Cream Dahlias

This week we are swimming in Delphinium! It’s so special…I decided to just grow one color of this variety (and a couple of others) and it sure makes for a striking row…

A row of Delphinium ready to burst into bloom

Magic Fountains “Sky Blue” Delphinium

As we move into the heat of the summer, we will continue to offer grab and go bouquets for on-farm pickup and hope to get out and make some deliveries too. If you would like flowers, feel free to reach out to me!

Wishing you a fun, flower-filled summer!

May on the farm

The farm is really shaping up and it’s exciting to see how much work we’ve been able to accomplish over the last month. We are about 2 weeks ahead of where we were last year - I know I mention weather every time I write, but it has truly been bonkers…There is so much anticipation for the first blooms of the season! We have some ambitious poppies starting up, and the peony bloom has begun. It’s a daily race around two peony fields, cutting at least three times a day and then heading into the cooler to store them away. The ranunculus in the greenhouse are almost done blooming; the statice “suworowii” is budding up along with some lavender Snapdragons I’m particularly excited about. Soon the daily rhythms of the farm will include significant harvesting, bunching, and bouquet making along with the normal stuff - keeping up with weeding, succession planting and flipping / cover cropping beds…

Besides starting to harvest, planting and seed sowing, I am cleaning up messes leftover from 2022 and looking ahead to add to the Monocacy Valley Flower Coop availability each week.

Pink Ranunculus

Things exciting me right now:

• Seeing how happy the thornless raspberries I planted last year are this season — I planted them for the foliage but I have to admit I am pretty excited to make some jam, too!

• Harvesting the first Viburnum since planting it a few years ago…It is a lovely lime green color similar to hydrangea but earlier and smaller — it goes with everything spring has to offer.

• New baby chicks - two new-to-us varieties of Marans and Brahmas plus a random bonus chick that reminds me of our first year on the farm when we were sent a bonus chick I called Gimmick, a steady double yolk producer who was blind in one eye. I learned some lessons from that hen - It turns out, gimmicks aren’t always tricks! Anyway, looking forward to eggs from these girls later this summer, but until then it’s fun to have babies on the farm in the spring.

• Sending the last of the cut-flower gardens to-go out the door and finishing up packing up tubers!

An old picture of that sweet hen, Gimmick - You can see her blind eye clearly in this photo!

Mother’s Day is almost here! Our CSA bouquet subscription makes a lovely gift - 5 bouquets, picked up monthly on the farm will take your loved one through our season. From peonies in May, line flowers in June (snapdragons, delphinium, foxglove and statice), Zinnias and the heat lovers in July, Lisianthus in August and Dahlias in September, this is a thoughtful, unique gift. I can send you a gift certificate and there is still time to schedule your first bouquet pickup for this weekend!

Peony-filled bouquet

Wishing you perfect planting weather with gentle rain to follow!