Tuesday, 19 October 2010

Chilly mornings... time to lift Gladioli and sow Sweet Peas

Afternoon,

It's been quite chilly this morning here on the farm, with even a touch of frost first thing.  Mind you we are currently bathed in glorious autumn sunshine.

Today we're busy carefully lifting Gladioli corms and storing them during winter.  We're also watching the Dahlias' final flourish - these light frosts have put and end to the Dahlias flowering so by the end of the week we will be lifting the tubers and storing those away too.  If we were in a milder part of the country we'd just place a good layer of mulch over the Dahlias but here in the Brecon Beacons the winters can a bit too cold and wet, so we lift and store the tubers at this time of the year.

We're also starting to sow the first of our Sweet Peas; these should flower slightly earlier than spring sowings.  We love Sweet Peas here so like to have them flowering as early as possible so we can add them to our bouquets and mixed bunches so everyone can enjoy their gorgeous scent!  Plus, it feels as though summer is really here once the Sweet Peas are blooming on the farm and cutting patch.

We had such wonderful and positive feedback from some of the Sweet Pea varieties we grew this year that we are glad to say that during 2011 there will be even more Sweet Peas.  So in 2011 you can expect to see the same mauve'y blue highly scented Sweet Peas that we trialed this year, as well as our usual favourites.

There's also a small mountain of Allium seeds that we need to sow - that will be a job one afternoon this week in the shelter of the poly tunnel.  Helen and I went round earlier this week saving seed and then cutting Allium heads as we will be adding them to our natural Christmas decoration packs that will be available for despatch in December.  We'll start taking pre orders for our natural decoration packs in Mid November so keep an eye on the website www.breconblooms.com for further details.

On the Twitter front.... it's been almost a week since we bit the bullet.  Last time we checked we had 20 followers so we're thinking how to celebrate reaching the big 100 milestone.  Maybe we'll send a free bunch of blooms to the 100th follower and another bunch to the first of our followers and customers to respond to one of our Tweets.  Don't worry we wont leave our Facebook friends out.  More details to follow as and when we get closer to the 100 milestone.  You can follow us at twitter.com/BreconBlooms

Had better get back to the site and check to see if any Chrysanthemums need staking - they've just said on the weather forecast that we can expect some gusts of wind at the weekend and our lovely Chrysanths and flowering their socks off at the moment.  Be a shame for them to get knocked over in the wind.

Keep Bloomin

Cathy

www.breconblooms.com

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