this week in the garden

we are enjoying the first of the zinnias here on our little flower farm. this past week, we went through and pinched out the tops so they'll start producing more lateral branches and forming larger, more abundant double blooms. these first flowers are so tiny compared to what we'll be getting later in the season, but they're still lovely. these first blooms lasted 8+ days in the vase without any special treatment...i didn't even change their water everyday. hardy little things.

we're also enjoying some of the sunflowers. i must say, they are doing some strange things this year. many of them started flowering when they reached 8" tall - not very useful as cut flowers, but it's so hard to be upset with them when they turn their little grinning faces up at you. the whole sunflower patch decided to stay short this year - they're all producing buds before they've reached 4 feet. after talking with a few other flower farmers about their sunflowers, i've learned that i'm not the only one with stunted sunflowers this year. the lack of water here in california seems to be the culprit - a note i'll be keeping in mind when next year's sunflower season comes around.

amateur flower arranging

i am not a florist. but i do love trying to arrange blooms in pretty ways. a real floral designer recently gifted me with a bunch of clematis stems, so i tried my hand at arranging them alone in a pitcher. i must say, i never really thought much about clematis before, but now i am wanting to order in all kinds of them to grow here in our little flower farm. not many of the varieties grow well in our zone, but there are a few lovely ones that do. do you grow clematis?

dahlia vendor reviews

DAHLIA VENDOR REVIEWS

on may 29, i purchased dahlias from 5 different dahlia vendors. today' i'll be reviewing the 5 companies and comparing their services. of the 5, i would definitely order from 4 of them again, but there is one company that i would not particularly recommend.

the 5 companies i ordered from were:

1. Swan Island Dahlias - i ordered 22 dahlia tubers + 2 bonus tubers from Swan Island Dahlias. of all of the companies i purchased from, i was most impressed with this one. even though i was late in the season for purchasing tubers, they still had a wide selection of varieties available. they shipped my order the same day i ordered it (!), which really impressed me. i ordered on friday, the package arrived on monday and included valuable information for caring for my plants. all tubers arrived in great condition. this company was my favorite to work with. they shipped quickly with a tracking number, were very efficient in their communication, exhibited great customer service, and the tubers arrived healthy. i would definitely recommend purchasing from them and i can hardly wait to purchase from them again early next season! thank you Swan Island Dahlias!!

gitty up dahlia i ordered from swan island dahlias

twilite dahlia i ordered from swan island dahlias

2. Eden Brothers - i ordered 18 tubers + 8 packets of seed from Eden Brothers. i ordered on friday and my package shipped priority mail with a tracking number on tuesday. my box arrived quickly and included bonus packets of seeds. what i really liked about this company is that, instead of shipping single/individual tubers, they shipped clumps of tubers (so 1 clump of tubers = 1 "tuber"). their communication was great. i do wish their tubers were stamped - only because when the dog dug them up, i no longer knew which tuber belonged to which label. so now i have to wait until they bloom to re-label them, which isn't a big deal, but now i do know to mark them when they arrive in the future. still, i would recommend purchasing from them and look forward to ordering from them again. great experience.

cafe au lait dahlia i ordered from edenbrothers.com

edinburgh dahlia i ordered from edenbrothers.com

3. Honken Dahlias - i ordered 3 tubers from Honken Dahlias. i would have purchased more from them, but because i was ordering so late in the season, many of their varieties were already sold out. one of the tubers i ordered ended up actually being sold out, but i was promptly offered my choice of replacement or a refund for that particular tuber. i chose to replace it with another variety that would make a lovely cut flower. i ordered on a friday and my order shipped with a tracking number on monday. even though my order was small, they included a beautiful bonus tuber! this company had quick shipping, great communication and customer service, healthy tubers, and i would order from them again. i do recommend working with them.

miss amara dahlia i ordered from honkendahlias.com

ivanetti dahlia i ordered from honkendahlias

4. Old House Dahlias - i ordered 10 tubers from Old House Dahlias. the only thing i was not thrilled about with this company was the lack of initial communication about my order being processed or shipped. they did not provide a tracking number or let me know that my order had been shipped, so i did not know what to expect. the day i wrote them to ask for an update, though, was the day that my package actually arrived, so they did ship quickly. i just did not know it. i had emailed them to check the status of my order the morning of the day it arrived and they promptly called me (twice, when they could not reach me the first time) to let me know my order had shipped and to make sure i had received the package. so their customer service is excellent, but just be aware they do not provide a tracking number (unless my experience was not the norm). the package did arrive quickly and the tubers looked great! i would order from them again and recommend purchasing from them.

giggles dahlia i ordered from oldhousedahlias

ruskin gypsy dahlia i ordered from oldhousedahlias

5. Dutch Gardens - i ordered 8 tubers from Dutch Gardens. i hate to leave a negative review about any company, but i would not purchase from this company again, nor would i recommend them to anyone. their order processing time is 1-2 weeks, which is much longer than the other 4 companies i ordered from. i had received my packages from all 4 of the other companies and had still not received a shipping confirmation or update from this one. while their tubers did arrive in good condition, this company did not let me know when my order had shipped and did not provide a tracking number. they were slow to reply to my request for a status update too. i will not be purchasing from them again because my experience was exponentially better with the other 4 companies and left me feeling a bit disappointed with the service of this one. i don't recommend purchasing from them. you would receive better and quicker service from one of the other 4 vendors listed above.

mr. optimist dahlia i ordered from dutchgardens

so there you have it! have you purchased from any of these vendors? or do you have another company from which you prefer to order dahlias? leave a comment below or send me an email. i'd love to hear about your experiences with different companies.

much love,
erin

garden journal week 2

GARDEN JOURNAL - WEEK 2

week 2 weather was in the 60s to the low 80s with some overcast days and misty mornings.


day 4 - did not go to the garden space

day 5 - checked the water and refilled the bottom flats of the seed trays as needed. added bone meal to the tuber flats that i had forgotten to include bone meal in on day 3.

day 6 - i don't think i have previously mentioned that the owner of the growing space we are using has a dog that lives there at the space. well, she decided to dig up several of the tuber flats and carry off the tubers. the good thing is, they were not harmed and we were able to recover the tubers. the not-so-great part is that the ones she chose to dig up were the ones that arrived in clumps and did not have the variety names stamped on them. so we will just have to wait until they bloom to be able to re-label them with their correct names. so we went to re-situate them today. some of the sunflowers and zinnias sprouted!

day 7 - the dog dug up more tubers, so we ended up stacking palettes on top of the tables we were using for the seed trays and tuber flats, then placing the trays and flats on top of those so that the dog would no longer be able to reach them. this has been effective so far for keeping the dog away from the plants. we also moved the tables a bit so the trays will receive more sun.

day 8 - the seedlings are looking great and the tubers are starting to show green leaves! some of the tubers are looking quite dry, so i am debating whether or not i should give them a bit of mist or moisture. some sources say to keep them absolutely dry so they won't rot, while other sources say to water thoroughly, so i may have to experiment to see what works best for our situation.

day 9 - did not go to the growing space today

day 10 - i sowed 3 more seed trays today (216 plants) and provided them bottom-water from the bottom trays only. (i did not overhead water these trays as an experiment.) the seeds that i planted in succession (a second batch), i planted based on which varieties had the best germination rate in the first batch i planted. altogether, i planted 42 more sunflowers, 72 more zinnias, 24 rudbeckia, 12 echinacea, 6 Jupiter's beard, 6 butterfly flower, 12 lupine, 6 cosmos, 6 nasturtium, 6 basil, 6 hyssop, 6 tomatoes, 6 borage, and 6 cress. i also planted out the last of the dahlias, as the final box of them came in the mail this week. i still need to add bone meal to this tray of dahlias. also, i gave them a bit of water to see how they do as compared to the ones i have not give water. so for today, 216 plants, plus 8 dahlias were set out. many of the seedlings that were planted last week are doing great, though some have not yet sprouted.

garden journal day 3

GARDEN JOURNAL DAY 3

6-7:30 pm overcast day, 65 degrees

jon went with me to the growing space today. we received 3 more of the packages of tubers and seeds that we had ordered, so we headed over to get the dahlias set out and the seeds sown. i am just waiting on one more shipment of dahlia tubers now and then we will be finished with those until next season.

one of the companies we ordered from sent some pretty impressive tuber clusters! this was new for us since we had been receiving single tubers in other shipments. it was neat to see the difference and get an idea of what our little single tubers will look like in the next couple years.

today, we set out 33 more dahlia tubers. this batch we set out in straight organic garden soil, with no compost. i neglected to bring the organic bone meal with me to the growing space today, so i will have to add that in when i go over there tomorrow.

we also filled 2 more 72-cell seed trays with seed that came in the mail today. that's a total of 144 more plants sown (not counting the dahlias) - 60 more zinnias, 12 more sunflowers, 12 more nigella, plus 12 baby's breath, 24 snapdragons, 12 salvia, and 12 monarda.

happy gardening!