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?