Reflections on Growing Flowers
Dahlia
This is my second year growing flowers in the Posh Market Garden. As I haven’t built out the cutting garden section, I’ve been growing most of my flowers in the vegetable patch. The first year the two big things that I learned were diatomaceous earth is a God send for taking out Earwigs which in turn can wipe out your whole Zinnia crop, and that if you are going to grow long spiky plants make sure you stake them as the wind on East Orchard Mesa is wicked! I lost several flowers last year to the wind.
This year I decided to experiment with my planting strategies and tried to grow everything, both veggies and flowers by directly sowing them into the grown. While this worked well for many of my vegetables, the mixed greens especially, it didn’t turn out so well for my flowers. What I am realizing is that by starting them indoors in March, I was able to have more flowers blooming earlier which gave me a longer selling season.. Also the Celosia that I direct sowed didn’t come up at all. This was very unfortunate as I use those flowers as filler, providing both texture and structure to my bouquets. Last year I started them indoors from seeds. With the Celosia not in the picture this year, my flower selection is now down to Zinnias, which are growing gang busters but because their spacing is not right, their blooms are smaller, and Queen Anne’s lace. I also planted Dahlia tubers for the first time, eight in total! I started with a limited quantity because Dahlia tubers are really expensive! Even buying ones on the lower end of the price scale, each one was between $10 - $12! In a nutshell this means I’m not producing enough flowers to sell to outside clients like Restoration Vineyards. This makes me sad because I enjoyed seeing my flowers at their winery and I especially loved when I got to make the floral arrangements for them! Right now, I’m making floral arrangements for myself – never a bad thing, just not very profitable.
In the flower section of the Market Garden, my plan is to have a bed dedicated to Dahlias; different varieties varying in size, shape and texture. My strategy of starting with eight is that at the end of this season, when I dig them up for the winter, I will divide the tubers, which multiple underground as they grow. Each year, I will buy a few more tubers to add to my collection and over time, I will be able to grow an entire bed of them.
The length of the flower beds will vary with five of them being about 30 feet long and five feet wide, three about half that length and one slightly shorter. Each bed will have two rows of flowers. The plan is to have most of them be perennials, so I only need to plant them once. Although there are some annual flowers that will be a must, including Zinnias, Rocket Snapdragons which are the long stem varieties, and the Queen Ann’s Lace. What I learned this year about the latter two flowers is that they self-seed! So, although they are technically annuals, they do have the potential of back again which will save me from having to replant them each year!
With nine beds that means I will have nine different flower varieties which include Zinnias, Snapdragons, Queen Ann’s Lace, and Dahlias. I also want to plant Peonies. I’m considering Celosia again and tossing around the idea of growing Apple Mint for the greenery, however its mint and I’ve learned the hard way that you never want to grow mint in the ground as it spreads like nobodies’ business! So, I need to figure out how to get that in the mix without it taking over the garden. Something else I’m realizing is not all the plants I use in my floral bouquets must be flowers growing in the Market Garden, or in the cutting flower section of the garden.
Since my flowers are so limited this year, I’ve be getting creative in what I cut to make up a flower bouquet. My Dill in the herb garden is starting to go to seed and so it now has lovely yellow flowers that are very delicate in their structure. I’ve also cut some of the Hay that grows along the edge of the beds as it looks a lot like ornamental grass. This in turn got me thinking about landscaping the rest of the property and if I incorporate these types of grasses, I could also use it for my floral arrangements. This strategy could expand my floral arranging options exponentially which is a good thing!
Of course, I still need to figure out what other flower varieties I want to grow in the cutting flower section of the Market Garden. However, another thing I learned this year is I don’t necessarily have to complete each section in one year! This realization, which sounds like a no brainer unless of course you are like me and have a wee bit of OCD in your make up, will allow me time to figure out which flowers I want to grow. The good news is I have a great reference book I can study called “Cut Flower Garden” by Erin Benzakein. She is the founder of Floret Farms and is a true inspiration in the flower growing industry!
These are just some reflections I’ve had thus far, as summer moves onto fall I’m sure I will have more discoveries and learn many more things!
