The right place at the right time.
Hello!
This week, I am well and truly resting up and drying out from three soggy market days in a row.
It was so great to see so many of you there – the pre-season Pop-Up with Licking Creek Farm and Blackwater Alcoves last Friday was a proper soaking success; ArtSpring on Saturday rewarded everyone’s patience with a warm sunny afternoon; and Sunday afternoon’s pop-up in Canaan Valley was relaxing, albeit wet again.
The Monday holiday was a welcome day off.
So, what does a flower farmer do on a day off? She becomes a gardener! (Especially after a week of binge-watching the Chelsea Flower Show!) She putters. No priority tasks, no spreadsheets, no bouquet recipes. Just whatever catches her eye and fancy.
Which included tugging on more weeds than I want to admit. With all this rain, the weeds are coming on strong. I take heart that if they are growing, so are the flowers. After all, isn’t a weed just “a flower in the wrong place”?
It’s now time to be “pinching” many seedlings. By removing the tender growing tip of a young plant's main stem at the right time, the plant redirects its energy into growing side branches. This results in a bushier, fuller plant with sturdier stems. And more flowers!
And also to be doing the “Chelsea chop.” (In England, it’s done in late May/early June after the Chelsea Flower Show, hence the name. Here in the mountains, for some plants now is the time, while for others there may still be a wait.) This is the counterintuitive task of cutting back a third to half of certain plants while they are growing to stimulate bushier, sturdier growth and prevent them becoming too tall and flopping over. OK, it may delay blooming, but ultimately there will be more, better flowers!
These tasks are not for the faint-hearted. It takes some gumption to pinch a seedling that started its life when the days were short and cold, or chop a plant that has made it through a long, cold winter. Sometimes the best thing you can do for a flower is cut it back.
Left to their own devices, some flowers just make a mess of things. I kick myself for not getting in there under the frost cloth two months ago when the bachelor buttons were smaller to give them their proper pinch. I understand why: the ground was cold and wet, the job would have turned my hands numb, and I was still in disbelief anything managed to grow through the winter we had. So instead, I watched them get taller and focused on other tasks. Only to witness the weight of recent rain and wind knock them sideways, break their stems, and leave them lying on their sides. Useless! From now on, the support net gets stretched over the row as soon as the plugs are in the ground.
Humbled, I resolve to be on the lookout for signs of growth and blooms. Harvesting a flower at the right stage maximizes its beauty, fragrance, and vase life. Like this Royal Wedding poppy. Isn’t it beautiful? But the fact that it was blooming in the field means I missed its ideal harvest "cracking stage" when just a sliver of color peeked through the bud.
That’s really what it’s all about: the right flower, the right place, the right time, so you get to enjoy them at their best.
Let there be flowers!
Lizz
PS – Each week brings something new. Mark your calendars!
• Friday, May 29, 4:30-7pm - pop-up with Licking Creek Farm and others, in Davis, across from Big Timber Logging Camp
• Sundays - pop-up, 2:30-5pm in Canaan Valley by the Canaan Valley Garage on Rt 32/Appalachian Highway
• Friday, June 5, 4:30 – Davis Farmers and Artisans Market, opening for the summer, next to Davis Riverside Park, across from Shop’n’Save supermarket