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.
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!