How To Draw A Sego Lily

Our Farm
- About
- Contact
Notice Our Flowers
- Shop Our Flowers
- Buckets of Blooms
- Farmers' Markets
Grow with Us
- Workshops
- Blog

"What would y'all plant?" -Warm Season Edition

Terminal Jan I had the risk to present at the Utah Subcontract and Nutrient Briefing. Equally we wrapped up our session someone asked for a list of the x flowers I would abound if I were starting a farm or cutting garden for the first time. What a fun question! I love diverseness and grow way too many types of flowers on our farm, then it was challenging to narrow it down to just 10. Y'all can bank check out my recomendations for cool flavor varieties hither and my favorite starter perennials here.

Today I wanted to share my favorite warm season flowers for beginning time cut flower growers. Warm flavour flowers are those that grow during the frost gratis days of the twelvemonth. Plant them after any threat of frost has passed in your expanse. Hither in the Salt Lake valley we found these varieties around Female parent's day, with another succession (2d planting) nearly a calendar month later.

Sunflowers. These archetype summer flowers are and so happy and cheerful and piece of cake to grow! Place a seed most an inch deep in the soil, gently encompass, h2o information technology in and await. Sunflowers are also one of the fastest crops we abound, usually taking about 50-70 days to bloom depending on the variety.

Top Tips-

Sunflower size tin be controlled by how far autonomously you found your seeds. I plant mine virtually 4-half-dozen inches apart in a grid for perfect bouquet sized blooms
Wait for varieties that are "pollenless" or "pollen costless", these are bred for cutting flowers and won't make a mess on your table cloth, or your customers table fabric if you are growing for others.
My favorite selections are Vincent'south Choice, Procut Plum, and Procut White Nite
If you lot choose a branching type, make sure to give them a lilliputian more than space, about 12 inches, and pinch them when they are 6-12 inches tall.
Cut just equally the first petal begins to lift off the center deejay for longest vase life.

From left to correct: Sunflowers Procut Plum and Vincent's Selection, Procut Plum sunflower at correct harvest phase.

Cosmos. If yous are interested in the wildflower look, these sweet flowers are for you. Simple to abound, they tin can be planted directly in the basis or started inside. Cosmos come mostly in white and diverse shades of pink, although at that place are a handful of apricot, and citrus colored varieties.

Superlative tips-

Compression them when they are about half dozen-12 inches tall
Cut them when the largest bud is just begining to open, the other buds will shortly open up as well. Make your cut deep into the constitute, then that later stems will exist long.
You tin can use the foliage as greenery in your bouquets!
Cosmos are kind similar zucchini, super productive and quick to get past their ideal phase. Plant less than you think you demand for your commencement go round.
Cosmos are very decumbent to powdery mildew. Its e'er the first plant to get it on my subcontract. Be prepared to treat it if powdery mildew is a problem in your garden.
I love the varieties Double Click and Sea Beat for their uniqueness.

Basil. I know, I know, you must be thinking "But that's an herb, not a cutting bloom!" Basil makes a fabulous and piece of cake to grow leafage for your bouquets. It's quick growing and loves the heat. And you can eat the left overs!!

Pinnacle Tips-

Choose your varieties advisedly. Smaller leafed and tall cultivars work best. My favorites to grow are Mrs. Burn'south Lemon, Cinnamon, and Siam Queen Thai Basils.
Unlike growing basils for flavoring food, we want to let the basil blossom. Harvest when the basil is alpine enough and a few of the florets have begun to blossom.
Basil tin can sometime be a little wilty. Harvest in the cool of the morning time or later evening. Permit it sit overnight in bucket, in a cool (not too cold) room. This will allow information technology to fill it's prison cell walls with h2o and resist wilting. Stripping lower leaves off the stem will also help the remaining leaves hydrate amend.

Fall bouquets featuring the night and heavenly scented florets of Siam Queen Basil.

Celosia. This concluding flavour was the season of celosia on our farm. It was and then lush and cute. Celosia comes in a vast assortment of shapes, textures, and colors. Information technology's a unique group of flowers that tin stand up up against our rut filled summers here in Utah.

Top Tips-

Get to know your celosias. There are crested celosia, a.k.a. cockscomb celosia or celosia cristata. Their texture is fun and velvety, the shape they grow in reminds me of body of water coral. Wheat celosia or celosia spicata bears narrow spikes of color that resembles, y'all guessed information technology, wheat. Celosia plumosa sends upward feathery plumes of tiny florets.
Both plumed and wheat celosia are bang-up upright linear additions to bouquets and arrangements. Crested celosia adds a fun texture and a talking point. For Wheat type my pick is Flamingo Plume. The plumed varieties of the Sunday series, especially Orange and Dark Pinkish, are winners, as is Sylphid, an icy lemonade yellowish that blends with both brights and pastels. For crested varieties, I love Cramer'south Burgundy and the Chief series, specifically rose and persimmon.
Celosia is all-time started indoors on a heat mat. Besides needing to exist started indoors, celosia is a very easy crop to grow. I have not seen whatever pests or diseases on celosia on our farm.
Pinch celosia when it is about six-8 inches tall for consistently sized stems. Pinching is especially of import for crested varieties that will blossom on multiple stems. Do non pinch whatsoever varieties that has "single stem" in it's clarification, you'll pinch off it's i bloom.
Celosia will bloom in less than ideal circumstances, but for best blooms requite information technology full sun and consistant water.
Harvest when the blooms have reached the size you desire but before the seeds ripen.

From left to right, Celosia Flamingo Feather, Celosia Cramer's Burgundy, Celosia Sunday Dark Pink and Orangish.

Zinnia. You lot might have been able to guess which flower would be the terminal of our top five, zinnias are a no-brainer for any cut blossom garden. Big, bright, and beautiful, they are like shooting fish in a barrel to grow from seed and bloom over a long season.

Top Tips-

Zinnias can exist started directly in the ground outside or indoors to get a niggling caput first.
Zinnias cannot be shipped, making them a flower unique to locally grown markets.
Harvest when flowers have fully opened and the stalk correct below the flower head has become business firm. Do the jerk test- gently grasp the stem viii-10 down from the bloom and give slight shake, if the flower stalk is potent all the way to the acme information technology is gear up to cut.
Cut deep, particularly your first cut on a plant. I cut down to the lesser iii or 4 branches on the plant. This will insure nice long stems for futurity harvests. Trim off any leaf or side buds for longest vase life.
Watch for powdery mildew, treating it sooner than later tin can protect your crop for the long booty.
Be careful with herbicides, zinnia are super sensitive to herbicide drift. Even a neighbor spraying weeds from 20 feet away can affect them.
Varieties to try - Whatsoever of the Benary's giants, my favorite colors are the salmon rose, deep cherry, orangish, and bright pink. Uproar Rose is affliction resistant and super productive, the blooms are always big and uniform. The Queen serial tin can be a fun novelty.

From left to right, Uproar rose and Benary's Giant Bright Pink, Benary'due south Giant Salmon Rose, Zinnia leaves afflicted by herbicide drift.

At that place you go, my top v warm season varieties to start your cutting garden with. Which will you endeavour this twelvemonth?

What would you lot plant? - Cool Flavour Annual Edition

In the concluding post I talked virtually the best perennials for new growers to try, today I want to tell you about some of my favorite cool season annuals. These lovely blooms are great considering you tin get them started at the finish of winter and establish them out earlier it's too hot. Gotta love those cool leap days in the garden!

A couple things nearly "cool flowers".

-Found them out in the garden 6-eight weeks earlier your last frost date. Here in Northern Utah our last frost date is typically around Mother's Day, and then I do my beginning outdoor planting in mid March.

-If you need to showtime your own seedlings, count dorsum from your planting appointment to figure out when to seed them. For example, if you know information technology takes 5 weeks to abound snapdragons to the size you desire plant out and you lot desire to plant them in mid March you would start them in early February.

-They like it absurd, so don't put them on a estrus mat with zinnias or other warm flowers, one or the other will suffer. I keep my mat around 65 degrees when starting almost cool season flowers.

-Information technology's best to accept your beds prep in the autumn so you don't get held up past rainy conditions that could brand bed prep a dirty mess.

-While they are cold tolerant, it can be a skillful thought to keep some frost cloth on hand to embrace them if the temps dip a little besides cold. Information technology'll help yous sleep better during those inevitable common cold snaps knowing your plant babies have a piffling protection. I similar Agribon 19.

-Direct sown varieties are a corking option if you don't accept infinite to showtime seeds within.

Now for the fun function- the varieties! At that place are a lot to choose from only I recollect the post-obit are a slap-up place to offset.

Nigella

I've never actually "planted" nigella, but I harvest it every yr. Information technology comes back yr subsequently twelvemonth from a wildflower mix that some past owner sprinkled out decades ago. Disturb the soil slightly, cast your seed and give it a low-cal watering and walk away. Information technology'southward that piece of cake. The blooms are usually a lovely light bluish or white and the seed pods that from later are corking to dry for use afterwards. You can even toss your seed out in the fall and they come up through the winter like champs! Cutting when buds are get-go to open or wait til the seedpods form.

2. Snapdragon "Madame Butterfly"

I beloved these frilly, gorgeous flowers! They make a smashing linear shape in bouquets and olfactory property delicious to boot. Snapdragons are best started indoors. They have tiny black seed casing that sometimes become stuck on the new seedling, using a dome over the seedlings and misting them occasionally will assistance with that. The color "Statuary with White" is a coral pink and one of the prettiest I've ever seen. Cut when the bottom third ot the florets are open.

three. Statice "Seeker Serial"

Statice is the unsung hero of the summer bouquet. Non flashy on its ain, it fills out and adds colour to the grouping. I plant information technology twice, in one case in mid March and again in mid April. From these two plantings I accept flowers from late June or early July until frost. Showtime within much like snapdragons. I peculiarly like Seeker Blue and Seeker Light blueish, they make yellows and dandy colors pop. As a bonus, you lot can dry your extra stems in a dark warm space for use later. Cut when the florets are fully open.

4. Bachelor Buttons

These cute "buttons are hands sown straight into the ground in early spring or in the fall. They come in shades of blue, pinkish, white, and purples. Sow several successions a couple weeks apart to have a longer span of blooming. They typically bloom in June and July depending on when they are sown and are even edible! Cutting every bit they are just begining to open.

5. Feverfew "Magic Unmarried"

This is my hands downward favorite variety of feverfew, perfect, tiny, cheerful daisy shaped blossoms with long potent stems. Each stem is a lush cluster of these beautiful little blooms. They fill out an system well and impart lots of charm and whimsy. These tiny seeds are best stared indoors, simply volition gently reseed if happy. I constitute a circular in mid March and another in mid April, they flower in June and July AND if you lot go out them in the ground they volition over winter and flower again, even earlier in June. Cut when near of the flowers on the stem are open.

Just a farmer and her favorite feverfew, "Magic Single"

Many of these flowers will be blooming at the same time as warm annuals that are planted a bit later. Together they make a cute bouquet.

Find my top 5 beginner warm season varieties hither and my 5 favorite beginner perennials hither.

What would you plant? - Perennial Edition

Last weekend at the Utah Food and Subcontract Conference I was asked during my talk to proper noun my top x cut flowers for first flower farmers or cut flower gardeners. I idea it would be fun to respond that same question here, only I plan on sharing my top 15. Yay!! Five extra flowers to talk most!

Let's starting time with my favorite perennials for cut gardens, shall nosotros? Frequently people want to starting time with annuals, but perennials provide a great backbone to your cut flower garden. And because they have a little while longer to go established it'southward a good thought to get them planted sooner than afterwards. Go on in listen there are lots more perennials that brand cracking cutting flowers, merely these detail cultivars are ones I can't imagine not growing.

1. Rudbeckia hirta Prairie Sun

This gloriously happy bloom is similar pure sunshine in a bouquet. Easy to start from seed, it produces blooms from June to September in northern Utah. I love it arrangements with snapdragons and feverfew.

2. Scabiosa "Fama White and Fama Blue"

Also know equally pincushion flower, this is often the first perennial to really getting going and will keep going till frost. Available in blue (a cooler lavender-bluish) and white. These sugariness blossoms can be seed grown or found at local nurseries.

3. Peonies

No thing how you pronounce it, peonies are actually the queen of the cut flower garden. These beautiful focal flowers fill a void in late spring. Double petaled varieties typically terminal longer in a vase than unmarried or semi-double varieties. You can't go wrong with Coral Sunset, Duchesse De Nemours, Shirley Temple, and Sarah Bernhardt for cut blossom gardens.

4. Solidago "Golden Baby"

I l.o.v.due east. goldenrod! It's the little magic touch that gives every bouquet a bit of sparkle. The multifariousness Aureate Baby is a winner because you can offset it from seed and it tends to be more well behaved than other solidagos. It blooms and reblooms June till frost.

5. Sedum "Autumn Joy"

Sedums brand cracking cut flowers, sometimes even rooting in the vase. The play a trick on is to brand sure you cull tall cultivars, at least 18 inches in pinnacle. Autumn Joy is enough tall enough and a beautiful pink that works well with bright summer colors and the richer shades of autumn.

A little bonus note on Leafage

At that place are lots of greenery you lot may already be growing in your yard. If it looks like something that would expect expert in a vase, clip it and bring it inside to exam. Some foliages I similar to use are raspberry leaves, mint, bee balm, and lady's mantle.

A bucketful of raspberry, ladies mantle, and bee balm foliage. — A bucketful of raspberry, ladies drapery, and bee balm leafage.

Hope you enjoy this little list of some of the best perennial cut flowers. Take hold of my warm flavour listing here and my cool flavour list here.

Growing Raspberries Made Easy (Or At Least Easier!)

We dear raspberries at our house. A lot. They might exist our all-time favorite crop. Nosotros had a beautiful little patch at our terminal house and in our electric current yard we have a sixty-foot-long patch of iv different varieties. It's raspberry sky effectually here every belatedly summertime.

But information technology took u.s. three tries before nosotros managed to go them to grow. I mean, they are practically weeds for nearly people, just we totally killed them the first two times we tried. So frustrating! Not ones to give up when there are delicious berries involved, I studied upward and nosotros planted once again. Finally, success! Since then we've had a number of friends come to us for tips on growing berries and I thought I would share those tips here with you.

1. Institute at the right fourth dimension- Early Leap is the best fourth dimension to constitute berries. They aren't affected by snow or common cold, in fact they do better if they tin get established earlier temps start to soar in the summer.

2. Plant in the correct place- Ideally you lot would prep your site in fall, so information technology would already to popular in the plants in Spring. Raspberries like well tuckered, weed free soil and at to the lowest degree a half-day of sunlight. Avoid spots where you've already had raspberries, strawberries, tomatoes, potatoes, eggplants, or peppers. These plants might have left evil pathogens behind that would harm your new plants.

iii. Establish bare root berries- You can observe the widest variety of raspberries bareroot and they settle in faster. Bareroots are unremarkably less expensive, too! And buy them certified disease free from a nursery, don't exist tempted to become them from a neighbour, they could accept diseases.

iv. Plant autumn bearing raspberries, for easiest intendance. Too called primocane or everbearing, they fruit on the newest canes each year (and if those canes are left, volition fruit again the following summer). And then easy to prune, you can simply cut all the canes down to the ground in either late fall or early bound. You tin can have a crop of raspberries the very offset year of planting. Yay for not having to await for two years like you would with summer begetting raspberries.

five.Establish them right- Soak your bare root plants for nigh an hour before planting. Space the canes 18-24 inches apart. Most bare root are shaped like an L, dig a trench for the bottom of the 50, you desire to make certain topmost roots on the plant are covered by about an half inch of soil. Firm the soil really well and h2o in. Berries do all-time with adequate irrigation, we dearest having ours on drip lines.

Ripe Double Gold Raspberries, such pretty and delicious berry. — Ripe Double Gilt Raspberries, such pretty and delicious berry.

Those 5 tips, in my opinion, are the nearly of import when establishing a new raspberry patch. At present for a couple of fun bonus ideas!

*Have fun with the varieties y'all choose. You tin can get regular old red raspberries at the shop, so plant something harder to get like yellow or pink berries. Nosotros accept Anne, a yellow, and Double Gold, a pinkish champagne color, and love them both.

*Find a berry patch nearby and go effort the different varieties. Observe your favorite and order those. That is how we found our two favorite carmine varieties, Caroline, sweet with a scrap of tartness and Joan J, a thorn less raspberry. Just thinking about them is making my mouth water!

*Since this a bloom farm web log, I should tell y'all that raspberry greens are a fabulous cut leafage for arrangements. Even the immature berries are pretty mixed with flowers in a vase. It'due south one of my favorite greeneries to add to bouquets.

Raspberry foliage and summer blooms. — Raspberry leafage and summertime blooms.

I hope these tips help yous find success growing raspberries and then that you lot tin look frontwards to summers bursting with deliciousness!

Gift Ideas for Flower Lovers and Gardeners

It never fails, every Christmas, the Hubs and I start the same conversation-

Me: What do you want for Christmas?

Him: Hmmm, I dunno, what do you want?

Me: Ahhh, I'm not sure…

Ever happen at your firm? Well, hopefully, this list volition give you some ideas for that flower lover or gardener in your life, or maybe some ideas to add to your own list for Santa.

1. A Special Vase- A beautiful bouquet of flowers deserves a beautiful vessel. I personally dear opaque vases considering they give yous a chance to hide floral frogs or chicken wire, those sneaky little bits of help that give you lot a paw arranging blooms merely so. A classic white pitcher is always a win.

Spring lilacs in a classic white pitcher.

ii. Winter is for Reading- Is there anything better than curling up in the centre of winter with a gardening book and dreaming of the Spring to come up? Sounds like heaven to me.

A couple of bully reads that are perfectly gift worthy-

Vegetables Beloved Flowers by Lisa Stonemason Ziegler is a wonderfully insightful book virtually growing both food and flowers hand in hand with nature. Ane of my all-time favorite books.

Floret Subcontract's Cut Flower Garden By Erin Benzakein tells all about starting your own cutting blossom garden, with lots of cute arranging inspiration. Then pretty!

Colour Me Floral: Stunning Monochromatic Arrangements for Every Flavour by Kiana Underwood is a gorgeous inspiration for every flower arranger, novice or proficient.

3. A DIY Floral Arranging kit- Martha Stewart strikes once more with a simple tutorial for putting together a kit with everything you need to make a beautiful arrangement.

4. A Sego Lily Blossom Farm Bouquet Subscription- I am undoubtedly biased, merely this might exist my favorite selection on our listing. Who wouldn't love receiving a always irresolute parade of bloom bouquets all season? Starting in June with snapdragons and bell flowers, and catastrophe in September with Dahlias and sunflowers, our bouquet subscriptions are a gift that keeps giving all flavor long.

Late summer subscription bouquets. — Belatedly summertime subscription bouquets.

5. A Gardener'southward Journal- Gardeners are notorious for trying new things, a new variety here, an experiment there. Having a place to jot down notes can brand remembering details from yr to year much easier. It can be as simple as a pretty notebook or something more detailed like this five year Tape Volume.

vi. A Gift Certificate to Their Favorite Plant Place- Let'due south be honest, one of the most fun things about gardening is finding a gorgeous new plant or seeds to grow. A certificate to their favorite nursery, online or local, is simply the ticket.

seven. A Souvenir of Time and Labor- Sometimes the all-time gift is one y'all cannot buy. I've watched as my neighbor'due south children have given her their time and labor over the years. They've accomplished marvelous things in her garden, building a garden she couldn't have created alone. My own sweet hubby gave me his Labor 24-hour interval this last September, working with me to build an arbor to grace our garden. I couldn't have washed it alone, merely together we built a beautiful matter.

Not just Tulips: five problem solving bulbs to found this Fall

Once, as an enthusiastic young newlywed, I planted what seemed like a ton of bulbs. Every. Single. Day that side by side spring I was checking for sprouts. Nothing, nix, zero came upwardly. I was heartbroken!! Since and so I have happily had the chance to learn a chip more most bulbs and that is what I want to share with you today.

Trouble: ARGH!! The deer (or mole, vole, or other dang critter) ate my tulips, once again.

Problem Solving bulb: Cheery, pest reviled Daffodils

Daffodils for the win!! Daffodils are simply not appetizing to the many hungry critters that tin plague a winter garden. Yous can find daffodils in a range of yellows and whites, and sometimes with orange or peach (usually chosen pink in catalogs) cups. With so many fun shapes and sizes, planting new ones each twelvemonth can be addicting (I want them ALL!), however most will come dorsum year later on twelvemonth, even multiplying when happy. Some of my favorite varieties are "Geranium" a late blooming fragrant cluster of white flowers with gold cups and "Accent", which is white with a apricot colored cup. Encounter also Allium

Problem: Quick, I need colour STAT!!

Problem Solving Seedling: Sweet, bee feeding Crocus to the rescue.

Feb and March are painfully dreary to me. Do y'all get hungry for color at the end of winter too? Try some crocus in your garden! They are among the primeval of bloomers. Blooming in purples, whites, and yellows, these little flowers are too favorites for early foraging bees.

Trouble: I've got the late spring apathetic, apathetic, blahs

Problem Solving Bulbs: Allium and Dutch Iris (yes, a two for one)

Yous know that moment, the tulips are gone, the daffodils are long gone, other than the greening up grass, your thousand looks similar wintertime once again. Boring! Allium and Dutch iris can extend the spring color show, flowering later in May and June. I dearest both these blooms and so much I'yard adding hundreds to the farm this fall. Alliums come in mostly purples, with some harder to discover whites and yellows. Alliums, which are in the onion family unit also repel deer, accept that Bambi! Dutch iris come in a gorgeous array of colors and even make nifty cutting flowers. Expect for both in our bouquets this spring.

Problem: My tulips but bloom one spring then disappear.

Problem solving Seedling: Darwin Tulips

I know, I know, these are tulips but often I hear how someone planted a bunch of tulips, had a beautiful brandish and and so nothing the next twelvemonth. So frustrating! Most tulips are meant to be treated every bit annuals, but in that location are a few types that will consistently come back without any back breaking digging and storing. Look for tulips that are Darwin types, and late doubles, these tulips are keen at lasting at least several years in the garden. My favorites- Salmon Impression (all the Impression series are good), Marit, and Double Negrita.

So tell me, are yous going to try any of these bulbs in your garden? Any favorites I missed?

A Rainbow of Yarrow

One of the true work horses of the early summer garden, yarrow is cracking in the landscape and in flower bouquets. Yarrow comes in a variety of gorgeous colors, (avoid the common white, it tends to be a scrap thuggish), is fast growing, and has low water needs, making it a winner in dry states such as Utah.

Here are a few of my favorites.

Achillea Millefolium 'Paprika'

The very start to bloom in my garden, 'Paprika' starts out a rosy cerise fading eventually to a nifty tan. One plant volition fill a three past three foot spot in your garden. I even have i plant of this diverseness that gets no supplemental irrigation and still blooms beautifully.

Achillea millefolium 'Cerise Queen'

Simply beginning to bloom in late June in our 6a/6b zone, 'Cerise Queen' is a lovely magenta pink that blends well with other candy colored blooms in the early summer garden or vase. Reaching three anxiety tall by three anxiety wide.

Achillea millefolium 'Pomegranate'

Pictures don't do this variety justice, it's a deep burgundy carmine that is hard to discover. Stunning in fall arrangements, since it reblooms in the belatedly summer.

Achillea millefolium 'Tutti Frutti Pineapple Mango'

My very favorite yarrow, information technology is the prettiest peach with sweetness yellowish centers. So delicous! A petty more meaty in size, usually topping out at 2 anxiety.

Achillea filipendulina 'Parker's Gold'

Dissimilar from the previous selections because information technology but blooms one time, it makes up for its curt season with its sunny color, three human foot plus stems, and by lasting for ages in a vase. Its ferny leaf looks lush and full even with very little water.

We take another yarrow that are new to us this year, namely Achillea millifolium Summer Berries mix and achillea ptarmica 'The Pearl' that we can't wait to see bloom. I would love to hear about your favorite varieties. Do you grow yarrow?