I am so glad this hysterical weekend is over! All our pots and plants are retreived from the wedding site, And MOther's DAy is done. We have nothing but buds and welsh poppies left blooming in our yards as everything else went to keep people happy with Mother's DAy bouquets! I did end up with 4 remade remakes of remakes left, LOL. Which I now get to enjoy in my own living room for a few days. THe viridiflora tulips carried us th rough as they seem muchless susceptible to blight. I really enjoyed working with Green VIllage and Dierdre. I Found the light pink rather wishy washy compared to Green Village. THe others I was able to salvage were soome SHirleys and some QUeen of the Night. NOw we are definitely done with tulips for the year and I desparately need to get Glads in the ground! My daughter just got home from College so I Am going to be hiring her for some seasonal help. After months of draught we have had a wet April and it is raining again today. THe weeds are as high as a good sized cow's eye and heading for elephant stage!

I intend to get out today and get more shrubs into the ground. I intended to do it all weekend but was just too busy and in too much pain after the wedding.

I did get my nice man to set up the stand on SUnday for me so I could take it a wee bit slower getting up and that helped a lot with the fbromyalgia pain. HE then spent the day making our 3rd copper arbor that goes on the path through the rose garden so atlast Don Juan and Fourth of July will have a place to meet and mingle! Next year one more arbor in the series will lead into my grass garden and complete the "Tunnel" effect. But I already have atleast 3 other arbor spots in mind, LOL. Not sure thye can wait for one a year at MOther's Day.

Well, think I bets get dressed and enjoy my moments in the cool green damp!

We finally got some much needed rain today just as I was finishing planting some shrubs. I got just over a mile of landscape fabric down last week just as my shrubs started to arrive. So far I've gotten 300 cranberry bush, 100 red winterberry, 100 afterglow winterberry, 100 pee gees hydrangeas and 100 pink diamond hydrangeas int he ground. Tomorrow it will be 100 mock orange and 100 snowball viburnums. The end of the week its gonna be 100 blue muffin viburnums, 100 pussywillows and 800 lilacs. This weekend I plan on rewarding myself by sleeping in and direct seeding my annuals in the afternoon.

Here's an update on the garden hose hooked up to the tailpipe to kill pocket gophers. I have found if you find a new set of mounds with no old ones around, the tunnel system must be pretty small and I have successfully gassed those buggers. However, if there are a bunch of mounds everywhere that look to be connected then there is most likely an extensive underground tunnel system and no matter how much I gassed them it didn't work. At least I know it works on the new ones that come in and try to start trouble, the older bad neighbors are another story. Back to the traps on those I guess.

Time for Tylenol and the pillow,

Good night,

Steve

Well my dahlias, as well as all my lilies, and all the glads, should get planted this week or early next.... although I've got plants of both in the hoophouse a couple feet high. I have so much to do in the next 10 to 14 days it makes my head spin. Whine, moan, whine. I planted 300 strawberry plants today, too, and this weekend transplanted 1,000 tomato plants. We had our first market day Saturday and did well with our tomato plants (we have a specialty thing going- high altitude veggie plants), but no flowers. I think this week I will also bring tulips, and green garlic. My tulips are doing OK -- better than last year. I'm going to surround the whole darn 1,000 square foot bed with hay bales and see if that helps next year, maybe my stems will be longer. But of course, 2 of my nicest tulip colors pretty much are blown for market (Pink Sensation and one other) because they really came into bloom Saturday afternoon, colored up like crazy, and they'll mostly be done by Friday. Oh well- I got a few nice bouquets for the table. With all this rain and snow we got this year, there are some wild weeds out there I don't even recognize-- I think some of them are nice-- I might use them in bouquets. Tulip weed bouquets!

My most exciting new trial flower this year is the Lion's Tail (leonotus something or other). Very poor germination but I've got 12 plants just the same and already 5 inches tall (sown 3 weeks ago maybe). I'm going to try five in the greenhouse and the rest in the field. The flowers are funky and nice.

We had the most beautiful day today-- about 70 degrees and not a cloud in the sky, but the 12,000 foot peaks in the distance are still solid snowy white on the bright blue background- oh it was fantastic. A great day for planting strawberries.

But OH, the weeds!

Kristen

Goshawker,
Would you mind sharing where you got your shrubs? Were they bareroot or potted? Thanks...Ann

Ann,

They were bareroot. I am fortunate enough to have grown up with the Bailey boys of Bailey Nurseries. They are one of the largest wholesale Nurseries in the country. Last year they released the Endless Summer Hydrangea and that one shrub alone made $4 million for them, they are huge. Anyway, they are wholesale only and only sell to folks with a nursery license. Since I know the kids personally, they made an exception for me as long as I spent at least $2000.00, which I did. There is no way I could have afforded to buy this many shrubs at retail prices.

Steve

Thanks, Steve.
I have a nursery license, but can't allocate $2000 on shrubs at this time...Ann

We are getting our April Showers this week, a little late but they are needed! I planned a planting party and cookout for the 14th but it looks like we might need to cancel. I am doing the flowers for my niece's wedding, and she was looking forward to planting the bulbs for the flowers herself.
Good news for me is that school is winding down, only three more exams and two should be fairly easy. Then it will be back to normal, work and plants! I'm looking forward to having more time for staring at the dirt in my gardens, LOL! This week I got my sellers certificate, which was exciting (OK, I'm a dork!). I can't get a State or Fed tax ID # since I don't have employees, but hopefully the certificate will help me get some wholesale prices on stuff!
Next up, Nursery licence! What?? I'm supposed to do this paperwork stuff in the winter??? OHHhhhhhh!! hee hee.
Doesn't everything turning green put you in a good mood? It does for me! I love looking at the trees and seeing them get fuller every day!
Have a fun week! It was my Dad's birthday on the 10th!
Susan

Hi everyone,
Well my first market was great...I sold out- all but one tulip bunch - at our consignment booth...didn't quite have enough to be there all day myself when I needed to be planting! So, after I dropped my items off at market, I went home and planted dianthus and larkspur plugs. I need more though. I also direct seeded Bells of Ireland and interviewed prospective helpers...turned out they didn't want the job, darn...the weeds are growing too fast!

Sunday it poured and the wind blew up some of my paths that I put out in anticipation of being able to plant! (I'm not whining, we need the rain!), but I need to plant!!!! So, I seeded a few things inside and cleaned up my barn a bit and tried to enjoy Mother's Day a bit!

Steve - even though Oregon has great nurseries, I need to find a lilac and viburnum source too! But, probably not $2000 worth this year...how are you planting through the weed cloth? For the larger trees we are digging the hole, rolling out the cloth, cutting "X's" in the cloth, and then planting. For smaller bareroot perennials, that doesn't seem to work quite as well...so small circles or squares does. I'm curious to see how you do it...for so many!!
Wendy

Wendy,

First I double tilled the row about 12 inches deep and 5 feet wide with my 3 point tiller to make the soil nice and fluffy. Then I rolled out the fabric (3 X 300) and punched the edges in the ground with a square edge shovel to hold it down. Then, I took a propane torch and made an X. Then I just dug the holes in the X. Since the soil was already loose it was easy to dig them. I put a little Osmocote time release fetilizer in the bottom of the hole and planted.

Boy, that sure sounded easier typing it than it did actually doing it. I hope your Baptisias are starting to poke their heads up.

Take care,

Steve

Busy day in the garden today. Got most of my lilies out of their gallon pots and into the soil after my son hauled more compost for me. Poked lily tabs in by the previously planted lilies and used up about 200 tabs. Dug 2' high buttercup out of one side of one rose row. It sure liked that cmpost I planted them in! I could grow the best buttercups! Roses look great with big fat buds! Planted more lilies in among them and FINALLY got started on my glads. THese I planted with a little non-organic rose time- release insecticide/fertilizer to banish any thrips who might be lurking.

Planning to go see Scheiners iris garden Sat when we go south to Eugene for my Uncles's 90th birthday.

My garden has not recovered enough fromt the wedding last weekend and MOther's Day to open my stand tomorrow. Got another wedding Sat but it is just a 3-BUCKET WEDDING. Next big one is the following Sat and my partner is leaving on a cruise so I am going to have to solo.....scary thought!

It's Friday night; and, instead of loading the truck for market, I am a zombie medicated on pain killers because I have put my back out. Grrrr. We are calling this the season of, "If it can go wrong, it will....." I figure if I force myself to lie low, in a couple days I will be able to do that which should have been done yesterday. One section of zinnias was planted today. And, DH checks every day to see if the sunflowers that were planted a week ago have germinated. They have not. We did get rain yesterday and parts of today. This is a good thing. Oh, and last week we double planted four rows of Premier Light Yellow right over the top of Double Quick because the stakes were not marked. Nobody is taking ownership of that one. In the big scheme of things, it isn't a big deal. It's actually pretty minor. And, if and when they germinate and grow, it should prove interesting. The little snake continues to reside in the seedling greenhouse. Apparently, it is just happy to be in there. The basil is very happy too. The zinnias were not. It is just always something here on the flower farm............

I can finally see the light at the end of one tunnel. I've only got 195 more shrubs to get in the ground, 150 lilacs and 45 Viburnum Blue muffins. I'm taking a gamble that the florists will like the berries on the Blue muffin. If they don't I'm sure I can use it in boquets. Run a google search and have a look and tell me what you think. We finally got a really nice rain (1.25 inches), that's why I haven't gotten all the shrubs in. That rain made my first planting of Zinnias and Suns germinate, whoo whoo, let the growing begin.

Good luck on doing the wedding solo Lizalilly. Take care of your back Flowerfarmer, there's alot of the season to go.

Steve