HARVESTING DAHLIAS / CLIENT SHADE GARDEN DESIGN

On this episode we continue to harvest dahlias from our blooming field gardens. We take a peek at a massive shade garden Shelley installed for her sister. I share a share drone shot of the farm filmed by Blake. We look at Sunflowers and Zinnias.

This is far too many colors for my mind to consume this early in the morning. Holy smokes, lady. Think we have enough Dalia? What is Yeah, I I’m I’m really I don’t know. Wow. Success we’ve ever had in a year and it was a bad year. We just got 2 in of rain yesterday. I am I’m so thankful. I know you’re thankful because dragging that hose around here. Yeah. I’m tired of being in the water, boy. Yeah. I mean it it’s literally been it’s been so dry. But now I now all the weeds will be happy. Oh my god. We have DAS. Yeah. It’s like these things just exploded in the last couple of days. No, I mean they’ve been exploding. Really? Not not to this extent, but this is just because I haven’t harvested. If I was here harvesting instead of being homesick, then I would I mean I’m behind is what this is. But it’ll make for a beautiful dator. Definitely not don’t won’t have a shortage of blooms. I don’t think unless the frost hits us, of course. So, do you think these need to be fertilized again? Cuz they seem to be doing awful well without it. Well, I think they’re doing well because we were we started off fertilizing, but at this point, like we’re heading into October now, so I don’t think so. The the weather’s going to start cooling down, and I’d rather them put effort into making tubers at this point. So, I know it says in the long range forecast that next week we might get temperatures down in the low30s. Oh my god. It would be my luck that the tour weekend will be a frost. But you know what? I can’t imagine that we would have a frost that early. Although I did say that about the October 15th one last year. Hey, this is a twofer. Um, so I guess you know what? Nothing would surprise me to be honest, but I would appreciate it if mother nature I mean 34 that’s pushing it. That’s cold. And I can’t imagine that we’re going to get much um you know, production out of a 34°ree couple of nights. This is gorgeous, this one. I’m sure we’ll be out here covering everything with bed sheets. What is this? So, are we prepared for the frost this time? Are we prepared? Like, do we have the ready? Does that count? Do we have enough blankets to keep your flower buds warm? You would have to pound post in to drape. I mean, we’re not. It is what it is. I’m not I’m not I’m not going out of my way to cover things. I’m It is what it is. Beautiful. If you tell me to pound post, I’ll tell you to pound sand. Yeah. Well, that’s that’s the option, though. Like so we couldn’t just like put like a light cheesecloth or something on top of this cheesecloth or what do you call it? Frost cloth. Frost cloth. Um wow. See this guy fell over. I’m just taking his whole branch off. Darn. What is this one? I want to say this is um Hamari. Go. Oh, no. I know it’s an H cuz it’s in this row. It might be Hamilton Lillian. I think that’s what it is. I don’t I don’t see any Hamari golds, but that would be my guess for both of these. Holy crap. Like, that’s just magnificent. As a matter of fact, I did see that someone said you can harvest at this stage and they’ll continue to open. We’re going to do a little trial cuz I don’t know that I believe it, but that’s what we’ve always been told. But this woman claims that she harvests at like this stage and they open. So, let’s do it. So, you’re going to harvest some at what stage would you call that? It’s just not fully open like like they tell you to. They tell you to harvest when they’re pretty open because they don’t open anymore in the vase. But she’s saying otherwise. So who is they? Who’s the top I mean everybody if you research anything you’ll see they say don’t you know you harvest when they’re fully open. Fuette has it on their website. Any Dalia site harvest when the flowers are you know open. Oh this is see this this looks beautiful but it’s already past peak. But that’s beautiful. Um that’s just the that’s just what they tell you to do. Beautiful. Hello. Will you want to come home with me? Sure. Um, so I think I need about 12 people out here helping me. Yeah, I’d say. Wow. I’d help you, but I got to go to work. Just glorious though. Really? You don’t I you can you can film, but you can’t help. Well, I had to document all these colors. This is insane. Like really, folks. My wife knows how to grow. Well, we did it right this year. So, well, live and learn, right? And if we did it this year in a drought, imagine what will happen if we have some normaly around here. Well, then we’d be weeding. That is the one good thing about the drought. I’ve only had to mow like four times this year. So, but I think I’ve spent more time watering. My god, I got to get out here and clean these up. Beautiful. God, is this not just the most gorgeous way? Who is this? Bella Luna. You know what? I wasn’t really thrilled with Bella Luna last year. Like, she was like, “Okay, this year, man.” You know what? You know what’s funny? So, one observation that I have just in general is that a lot of the things that are really blowing me away this year, the Fond Hubers, Mayor Jane, um, Bella Luna, all of the KAS, I bought them last year. So, in in spring of 2024, I purchased most of the ones that are blowing me away. And last year they did they did okay like they bloomed but the plants were kind of short and whatever. This year is the second year I’m growing them and they are literally knocking it out of the park almost everything like and you know I really scaled up last year. So I grew them and I we didn’t have like a bang up year like if I compare this year to last year like last year was pretty awful. Um, but I can tell you this is like second year of having the tubers or cutings. Maybe they just got used to the crappy soil and they’re learning to adjust and now they’re like, “Oh, she actually helped us out this year by amending soil and feeding us.” And, you know, I I definitely notice a difference in the second year I grow something like after I acquire it. So, wow. Like, look at this thing. Is it possible they were just showing off for the water boy? You know, I have been spending a lot of time around it. If they if they’re showing off for you to get a little drink, a little watering, a little attention, Yeah. go for it. I talk to him often. I told you. I have a little Dalia on the side. Oh, Carrie Blue. Okay, so this is a new one for me this year and it hasn’t bloomed yet and I see it now. Let me go get it because I am trying to identify also new ones. Oh, see these are little past cakes. But god, that’s beautiful. Just beautiful. I think I just want to have fields of flowers. That’s all. It’s too bad you need money in this world. I I would just be one happy person till the day I die, I feel like. Look at this beauty. Hello. A little sword on me, but Carrie blue. This is a water water lily. So beautiful. Um, this is a water lily. This must be Kelgate Anne, which honestly has never really done great for me. Not even worth really showing at this point. Although, she’s also suffering a little like I don’t know what that is exactly, but we may hack her back. Um, a lot of this just needs to be cut back. Holy cow. So, Karma Cross Barrel. This is beautiful. I love this one. And she’s just got it now a spray of flowers. But see that? It’s pink and it’s got purple tips and it’s got dark stems. Lots of fun traits. And I am going to scale down my varieties. I’m going to grow more DAS but all but less varieties. Does that make sense? I’m going to definitely like scale down like the varieties cuz see how I have like four of each and then some I have six and eight of. I I like having all like I like having a half a row of the same thing because if I need to go through and harvest 30, I’m going to like I can do it. Um so that’s my plan. That’s so pretty. Pink and purple and whites. Oh my god, we’re running a special today. I’m telling you. I’m going to literally just stock the store with dalas and people are getting giant amounts of them. Huge. Like this is so pretty. I might put this in an arrangement in the store. That’s the other thing I like doing now. Just making some eh. But I’m not going to. I don’t have the time. I take I also have to go to work today. Yeah, I know. I’ve been telling myself, oh, you’ll be able to stay here full time and then I take on jobs. I am putting in a massive, let’s see, the perimeter. We measured the perimeter of this garden. I’m putting it at my sister’s. So, she hired me to put a garden in and she wanted a massive perennial garden similar to mine. It’s twice the size of mine at home. like it’s insane. Um, but I’ve been working on that and just finished it on Tuesday before the rain. There was a mad rush to get it in, but brought in 22 yards of soil um because she has crappy soil like everyone else in this town. And um built it up and made the meandering border and planted. We went plant shopping. Boy, did we plant shop. So, it was it’s exciting, but we got it in. Wait till you see if she if she allows me to share it. I will show you the size of this garden. It’s insane. It’s almost twice the size of our shade garden. Yeah, it’s it’s like 200 The parameter is 200 feet. Like when you go up one side and down the other, I have a little wheel thing that I measure with. So, was it her idea or your idea? Like, how did you come up with the She she approached me about it and said, “Hey, she’s been wanting to do it for years.” Her husband was like, “She has been talking about this for a decade.” Okay. Um he has no idea what he just got himself into. Yeah, I know. Well, it’s funny because he’s like, he was asking me about the mulch and he’s like, “Is the mulch as heavy as the soil?” And I’m like, “Oh, we’re not going to need 22 yards of mulch. we’ll need like 3 yards of mulch just to top dress for the winter, but it’s much lighter. So, he was like, “Okay.” Cuz it was a it was a team effort. And boy, we had Blake there, Emma was there, um just doing so much to get it done and ready. It was it was a I mean, we were there till late hours trying to just make headway. And plus, we wanted everything in before October because that’s when, you know, now the weather’s going to cool. We want the roots to establish and we want it to really kind of hunker down and put some new roots in because frost heaves do not do magical things for roots when they’re exposed. So, we are going to mulch it in and we’re going to get all of our final final uh things in. Like I I used bone meal like we’re planting with we’re doing it all like correctly by the book. So, it is costing a fortune, but I hope like I can’t wait to show you it next year cuz I I I am thrilled. Like, it looks great already and it’s not even in bloom. So, I predict your sister will be calling you to weed it. No, she said she’s going to take care of it and she’s been wanting to do it and I don’t know. We’ll see. We will see. We’ll see how big the drive is to keep her keep her in there. Um, you know, a lot of people don’t realize it’s like you put everything in, there’s no weeds when you get there. That is not going to fly. Um, and what you know, she’s like, “Oh, I don’t have, you know, we were talking about pests and she’s like, I don’t have Japanese beetles.” I’m like, “You will.” I’m like, “You just planted about 200 feet of why they would want to be here.” Um, so yeah, I think people sometimes also are like, you know, oh, this is going to be great. Everything’s going to be perfect. But you’re going to she’s going to run into issues. I mean, everybody everybody’s season is always different. You always have some pest or some mother nature fiasco. I don’t know which one to do next. The husband is the one who’s going to be running into issues when he has to go out and help her every day on it. Yeah. See, my calan is actually striped. It’s like pink and striped. And I thought it was kind of weather related, but this is horrible. I’m actually going to cut this back. I don’t like that at all. Anyway, I would love to hang out with you all morning here and cut these beautiful dalas, but you’re too busy talking about your future plans to Hi ho. Hi ho. It’s off to work I go. Don’t quit your day job. Oh, I won’t. I’ll be here tonight. Bright and early. So, we we’re coming back today, right? We’re going to be here tonight. We only have a I have things to do tonight. But you do? Yeah. Oh, Jake has a job tonight. And so we’re going to ins him to the job and then tomorrow he will be working. So I kind of I won’t be here much. All right. Well, I’ll be here myself then. I guess now I can start taking care of uh getting the place ready for this farm tour. Um you need to find the nuts and bolts for my movie. that too. Get that thing out of my way. All right, we’ll check in with you later. Can’t wait. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. All right, I’ll make a couple of these. I got to run though. You have any other brights? Um, you may have a few brights down at the barn garden in that doll patch. I forget about that one. Those talas are looking good. They’re coming back. Yeah, they should actually They’re going to be later than these guys cuz they had a late start. I know people are going to get Dalia fatigue here because I have Dalia fatigue. That’s all we have now are Dalia. Dalia. Dalia. Yeah, we have sunflowers actually. I know. But and coming. We have so many varieties of Dalia that it’s uh it’s incredible this year to see how well they have done with everything they’ve had to deal with. Yeah. But you’ve really you’ve really treated them well. Like if it wasn’t for you, I don’t think we’d be in this situation. I mean, granted, I planted properly, but your your care has really pitched in. Oh, this is beautiful. Bloom umbrella. Oh, I love it. Well, even though I have a lot of dalas, you’re still my number one dalia. Yeah. Oh, I’ll definitely grow more of these next year. Well, it is nice when you grow multiples of one variety though to have like more of the same to pull from every time. See, those are kind of short still. I like I like the taller. Well, it’s also hard too when you have so many that bloom at the same time. How do you get rid of half of this stuff? You can’t really not in your first year of business. Well, in a in a half year of opening, like, you know, it’s not like we’re here full time. So, hopefully that’ll change coming up. Yes. We definitely have the stock to be open full time. I mean, these are just nonstop. These guys, I remember when I was like, “Oh my god, I have five at one time on a plant.” And now look at this. Like, this is one plant. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10, like on one plant. Can’t really get more production than that. So, no, I’m proud of you. You did great. Well, we did great. Well, yeah, I guess. But you are the brains behind the operation. Well, now when I say, “No, we have to do this.” And you’ll be like, “Does it really matter if we” And then you’ll be like, “Yeah, it actually really does.” Yeah, exactly. I mean, that’s what I was thinking that I’m going to learn from this experience. It’s beautiful. Learn to listen to my wife. Well, doesn’t matter. You’re going to hear me anyway. Yes. I haven’t found a pair of earplugs that work yet. No. And you won’t. I don’t think I will. The voice just pierces right through them in a sense. I think it does more damage. It condenses it. Oh, bummer. If I have known that one was done, I wouldn’t have clipped all the buds. So, I think literally if you were here to harvest dalas, you would be here for probably 2 days, right? Oh, yeah. I mean, I harvested yesterday, I harvested the night before, and I’m harvesting now. And I’m still like, we’re still blowing open. But it’s fine cuz a lot of this is just going to blow open. It’s going to look gorgeous for the tour. So, yes, we do have a tour next week, folks. Yes. Come have some some drinks and some refreshments and walk around this place. You’ll literally love it. It will not be such a mess as it is right now. I know. I’m going to be here all week doing groundskeeping. And if you’re if you’re not from the area, there is Chattam Fest that is happening same day right 10 minutes from here um from 11 to 4 and they have like lots of vendors. It’s basically like a big street fair. So, come check that out. They do lots of fun stuff. I’ll have flowers on Main Street there, too. So, that’s exciting. All right, I’m going to go make arrangements. All right, sounds good. See you there. Can you grab that bucket? Yes. All the way at the end. Definitely good. I have a good gauge now of like Nope. I don’t like that. I’m going to go with red cuz I just love red. Yep, that’s the one. So, where do you think your eye for color came from? Cuz isn’t your father colorblind? Bob? No. You know what Bob spelled backwards is? Bob. But how do you figure out what colors go with what? Just I don’t know. Trial and error. Yes. I’m just trying to give all these young inspiring florists some advice that they can take to become successful. Well, there’s a lot of other people out there that probably make arrangements better than I do. Well, I don’t believe so. That’s one right. I like I like the fall color vibe. Yeah. I walked around and went into local farm stores yesterday and none of them really even had anything close to what you have to offer here. Well, that’s cuz they don’t have dollas for some reason. And if even if they did, they don’t have the ones I grow that is that it does help solidify like the my reason for buying the unique and the rare stuff like you know paying a little a lot extra for the better varieties and more like wow varieties and I don’t care if I’m the only one that’s like wow it’s worth it to me because That’s just like so pretty. That’s wow right there. Yeah, that’s it is. So, and these are the ones, the bright ones that are selling. Yes. I probably asked you this before, but how many different varieties of Dalia are there? They’re unlimited at this point. Everybody seems to be a hybridizer and releasing their own varieties. I know because if you went on characteristics just by looking at this pale alone, it’s like, wait a minute, what happened? You know, they look different. I’m still a big fan of the Zenas, though. I don’t think they got much love this year. Well, feel free to go snuggle up. Well, maybe I’ll make my own bouquet. Good. Then you’ll stop bringing it up. Well, I think you should throw a few Zenia bouquets out there and see what happens. You know, go cut them. I will just go cut them then. So, how far do I cut them? Like, you see me make bouquets all the time. So, I can’t I can’t damage them, right? You Yeah, you can. Well, come on now. You can. I mean, I don’t know. What do you want? So, if I go cut what, like 30 of them, maybe? Sure. You’ll make a bouquet. You won’t get mad. You’re not going to go out there and inspect. I I not really. It’s more like for the bees at this point. This is not working. Well, we do have a farm tour next week, so What’s the point? I’m not We probably do want it to look pretty. Now you’re catching on. Yeah. Maybe I’ll leave it be. Less work for me. That’s looking great. Feeling confident. Yeah. You probably have enough to make three bouquets today. I don’t have the time to do that. I’m literally late already. I know. My wife is constantly running around doing things. She’s going to another flower farm today. It’s like all these flower farmers are friends. Why Why wouldn’t we be? I don’t know. You think sometimes it’s not like all of us painters are buddies and we help each other out. Oh, and that’s your problem. Well, it’s a dog eat dog world out there, but I guess you all belong amongst the wild flowers and peace on earth. I like it. Would you have something you could be doing? I don’t know. like saving a little barn or mowing or weeding or maybe I’m kind of in a trance between the beauty of you and the bouquets. I’m just like in awe over here. It’s all right. I I don’t like Well, I don’t like you just standing there like it’s annoying me. Like you’re just you’re like a supervisor and I don’t like it. Well, all right. Look at me as an audience of someone that’s enjoying it. Pretend it’s a workshop. All right, you’re kind of walking away. I didn’t really get a good view of that thing. All right, folks. Well, there you have it. A quick little uh bouquet show today. Oh my god. Well, you sold several bouquets today. Twice today. I know. This is my favorite one. Coral, burgundy, and purple. There’s some red sunflowers in there, too, as a surprise. I need to get water. It looks beautiful. You want to see what I have in the cooler for the shoot? Sure. Literally insane. Well, it’s not insane. It’s just crazy. Whoa. So I have this which I had to get at another um flower farm but this is hot biscuits amaranth some cosmos cafe olay in the giant pink some mustardy and cream colored dalas queen anslay some moody dalas hairy balls is that hairy balls finally wow they are hairy hairy balls and lifelike um some clatus seed heads This is for my um my horizontal compost arrangement. Giant white zen dalas. Giant baragolds gfrina blue glitter arenium. Yeah, that’s Whoa. Hey, now. Now get out. No. Wait a minute. Watch out. Don’t hit my bucket. Well, I almost kicked the bucket. Oh, so now that’s what I’m doing. Now I’m going to go Oh, god. I have clippers. So, what are you doing now? I’m going to go get black sunflowers. Oh, all right. Well, I’m going to go to work. I’m going to do something else probably. So, yeah. I’ll join you later. So, maybe I can use this stuff. Maybe No, like this guy wants this right here. Right here. So, I would consider that a black sunflower, right? Close enough. I just want it to look dark. And I just have to take the petals off. Wow. Who knew there was a market for petalless sunflowers? You know what? I bet you I can do that. He’s going to be amazed. Oh my god. So, most of these sunflowers look like they’re past peak somewhat. That’s great. That’s exactly what I need. Oh my god, he’s going to Hey, excuse me. He’s going to crap. Oh my god, he’s going to be thrilled. Beep beep. Hi. Hi. Oh, I’m in one of those like just I just want to go home and sleep modes. Now you know how I feel. Show me some of these Zenas. Oh my god. You show yourself. I know. I just You know, I asked you this morning to make me a zenia bouquet. I want to see it tonight at dinner time. When are we open till today? Now, this is a Zenia. That looks like a Dalia. Hello. I’m busy. You’re You’re always busy. This thing over here, that’s a Zenia. Looks like a Dalia. It’s fat. Look, monarch right next to you. Oh, beautiful. You know where else there was monarchs? Up on the zenyas in the flower field. So, can you answer the question? No. Why? Actually, this is beautiful, too. This would work. I bet you he would love these. Uh, she’s distracted by this uh project she has. I have a photo shoot. Another photo shoot. The New York Times. Yeah, this guy, you know, his cottage is just so worthy of the New York Times. Every two weeks they’re doing photo shoots. I know. This is only the second time he’s had a photographer there. But this one, he has to be over the top, he says. Yeah. So, I’m sure over the top it is, bud. Yeah, just like my bill. Your bill is never over the top. That’s the problem. So, what do you have to come up with for this? I need black. the blacks on all of the Oh my god, he’s going to be thrilled. I’m actually going to go harvest these. Oh, yeah. Yes. He sent me a picture of this little compost with black with some black face sunflowers, but they’re basically the actual, you know, where the seeds grow without the petals. And I’m like I’m like I have never seen a sunflower like that. I said unless they pulled the petals off. And sure enough, I’m like, come out here. I’m like, okay, so that’s what they did. They pulled the petals off. So, I can do that and I have some that are past feet. So, wonderful. Who knew that that was something you could do? I didn’t even know people wanted that. Yes. I think you put my jeans on this morning. What are you trying to say? Just kidding. No. What are you trying to say? I’m just used to seeing you wearing tight jeans. So, I don’t do like wearing tight jeans. I I didn’t Oh my god. This is what I need to do. I need clean hands. Oh my god. And it’s tall. He is going to love me. I need weeds. I do. I need a bucket. All right. Get me a bucket with water. See, you’re tired, too. I’m tired of uh It rhymes with two. It starts with Y and ends with you. So, yeah. Good for you. Figure it out. Buy a vow. That before you signed up. Yeah. I’d like to buy a vow. An O. I thought you were going to say I’d like to buy a vow. I No. Oh, you. Yeah. You owe me. Ah, get my own bucket. Yeah. Getting your bucket is not on my bucket list.