Memory Lane Farm

How many happy coincidences do you have before you wonder if they are not coincidences at all?

What are the odds that of the dozen different varieties of squash and pumpkins that we grow the two that were really needed for the fall that didn’t germinate where the exact two ones that started growing out of the compost heap?! 😊

Yes we have had our share of failures and disappointments but the “happy coincidences” just keep stacking up.

I’m not sure if our late planted squash and pumpkins will get a chance to produce much. I was hoping one of the pumpkin types would still work for our fall arrangements if they did produce anything.
Last week I was thinking that we would have to find a farm to buy our small white and orange pumpkins from. This wouldn’t have been too bad but we like to sell what we grow.

And then to see those trouper pumpkin plants with small orange and white pumpkins was a such a joy!!🥹

Every day I’m beyond grateful for this flower farming life knowing that God has our back through wins and fails. 🥰

We are not the only ones working hard in the flower field!! ❤️

So many bees, butterflies and birds are finding a little haven in our flower field. We have so many flowers left for them to enjoy after we have harvested. (Or before we get a chance to harvest!)
We have seen hummingbirds but they are too quick for us to get videos of unfortunately.
Some other butterflies that have come for a visit have been beautiful. 🥰

Definitely one of the joys of flower farming!

& what to do about them!!

Here’s the list of the dirty flowers that we have growing in our flower field right now (that we know of). We didn’t feature Dahlias because we don’t have any blooming just yet - but they are a dirty flower!

You really gotta watch out for the Snapdragons, branching Sunflowers, and Daffodils because - in addition to the stems that break down in the water - they have a sap or enzyme that is detrimental to other flowers!

When we first cut our daffodils, they stay in a separate bucket for a few hours before they get put into a bouquet.

Less than 1/4 tsp of bleach in your 1 litre or vase water will make all the difference!!

I didn’t have the heart to compost these tulip bulbs just in case they were still viable!

Flower farmers treat tulips like annuals. The bulb is usually harvested with the rest of the flower as this provides the longest stem length possible as well as allowing the tulips to be dry stored in a cooler or fridge.

Sometimes when I would pull out the flower, the bulb would snap off and be left in the soil. These bulbs will not produce flowers the following year because without the foliage there is no way to replenish the bulb.

But on some occasions I purposely did not pick the tulip if it blew open too quickly or it wasn’t a perfect tulip. These are the ones I’m hoping to dig up and replant in my garden. If they happen to grow into beautiful tulips I will be thrilled!! ❤️🌷

We have a new shipment of 4000 bulbs coming in October but we will never get to enjoy the majority of them as they are harvested at “colour crack” stage and not “full bloom” stage.

By doing this bit of work now, we may have more spring colour to enjoy!! I’m very excited to see if this works! 🥰

A few years ago, I couldn’t imagine that I’d get to call this work!! 💕

The varieties of flowers and colours in the flower field right now is incredible!

We try to have basic bouquets recipes to follow. This makes the bouquet making a little easier but as second year flower farmers we don’t have it as efficient as it could be. 😅 We’re self-taught and we go more off of feel than following the “rules” so becoming efficient this will take some time and planning!

We want our bouquets to be unique and whimsical and this is so much easier when we get to work with all of our own fresh farm grown flowers. 🌸🥰

Stop by our flower stand today to grab a Bouquet or Posy for yourself or a loved one! We’ll be open all day Saturday and Sunday from 9am-7pm 💐

17074 66ave Cloverdale BC
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Have a wonderful weekend!!😊

Despite the troubles we are having with the Dahlias, thankfully all of the other flowers in our field are blooming beautifully! This keeps our spirits up!
Just to see the flowers and our customers reactions to our bouquets keeps the joy of flower farming alive! 🥰

Beware of Killer Manure!!!
We will never ever get mushroom manure, straw, or soil that has cow or horse manure in it, brought onto our flower farm. It may be contaminated with a long lasting herbicide like Grazon.

So much time and effort went into picking all 300 varieties of Dahlias this year. Some varieties had more than one and we ended up with over 400 carefully curated varieties that would be great in our MemoryLane bouquets from July until our Canadian Thanksgiving.
When we noticed our Dahlias starting to harden and deform for a second year in a row I almost started to cry!!
Last year we did our upmost to save the Dahlias but most were too poisoned and didn’t make it.

This year I had started all of our Dahlias in pots because we were still putting in drainage in the Dahlias area.
All of the Dahlias were beautiful bushy, no gall or viruses. (One we previously threw out as it had looked suspect. Perhaps a virus).
We planted these healthy Dahlias in the field and waited for flowers that never came.

Again beware of killer manure!!! Please google it before you buy manure.

It does not take much herbicide in the soil to negatively impact Dahlias and many other flowers.
We have once again transplanted all of our Dahlias in the middle of July to new, manure free rows. They had only been in the poisoned ground a few weeks and were not showing as much damage as last year’s. We are very hopeful that our plan will work! 😊

If you are wondering why we didn’t plant directly into our soil, it is because we have mostly very hard clay and that mixed with our abundant autumn rain would lead to rotted Dahlias tubers.

One week later from transplanting and we have got our first Dahlia!!! A small and struggling Wine Eyed Jill but what a trooper!! ❤️
It is gorgeous and so precious to me. I felt quite emotional in the last clip.

Now we baby them along, pray and wait for more blooms!! 🥰

This is the lazy gardeners way of planting Zinnias!

The zinnia seeds were all gathered without a lot of effort last year but because they were not culled to get the best viable seeds the germination rate wasn’t great. (I tried one seed tray in the spring)

But clearly by adding a huge quantity of the seeds, I managed to get a huge amount of Zinnias!

I need to quickly thin the zinnia patch and then eagerly await for the blooms. I will definitely keep you updated so you can see what type of Zinnias appear. 😊

If you have a pot, you can grow these cut flowers!!

Zinnias come in a huge range of colours, they’re super hearty, & have beautiful blooms 🌸 It’s so satisfying to grow them because they produce so many flowers with such minimal effort!

We absolutely love them & they’re a necessary component for our bouquets✨ Plus they have a great vase life!

Just keep picking them & they will keep blooming right into the fall 💕

I just ate my first apple of the season and it was delicious!! 🍎 We never get them this early!!

This variety is called Gravenstein. It is crisp and sweet with a little tang. Just perfect ❤️

Windfall apples are just the apples that have fallen to the ground. If we collect them quick enough they won’t get nibbled on by critters. There are so many apples that we can choose the freshly fallen, non bruised, ripe apples.
Last year we gave away so many apples and it looks like it will be the same this year. We eat them fresh, make pies and crumbles, and make juice for apple jelly!

To have them in July when we are still getting plums off of the plum tree is such a treat!! 🥰