The Organic Garden - Journal

Organic Summer Dahlias

Often at our local farmer’s market a customer will ask, “what is that pretty pink flower?”.  “Oh, that is a dahlia”
we will answer. “How about that red flower?” “That is also a dahlia” we answer. “But they don’t look alike at all, how can they both be dahlias?”  Amazingly over 50,000 named varieties of dahlias have been hybridized from the original three varieties that were found in the Mexico highlands by Spanish explorers.  So beloved is the dahlia that it now is available in almost every color and shape imaginable. From the gigantic dinner plate dahlias to the orchid and pom pom varieties, dahlias offer an endless array of textures and colors. Dahlias are the quintessential summer flower, requiring lots of warmth and long summer days to coax their blooms to open. And the slightest hint of frost turns the plants into a pile of black mush, graphically displaying this plant’s preference for summer conditions.

 Dahlias have always been a wonderful garden flower, but have often frustrated the gardener who wants to bring their blooms in the house and arrange them in a vase.  All too often the blooms will droop and die within a few hours. All sorts of advice is given to encourage the success of the cut flower dahlia, including burning the bottom of the stem or placing in boiling hot water. After years of trials we have developed a line of dahlias and a method of harvest which yields beautiful cut flower dahlias which confidently last 3-5 days in a vase. We find that time of harvest, quality of water, immediate chilling and careful harvest techniques all add to the success of our dahlias.  We predominately grow water-lily and incurved cactus forms of dahlia because they work best for us and in our opinion are the most beautiful. We are also experimenting with informal decorative dahlias with huge blooms.  We offer our dahlias on our website at www.CaliforniaOrganicFlowers.com  as individual bouquets or in our 12 bunch Dahlia Party Pack which is perfect for decorating a summer party.  

When you receive dahlias from California Organic Flowers, they will come with a packet of flower food. Adding flower food is optional but our tests have shown that it adds a day or two to the vase life of our dahlias.  Flower food basically contains sugar to feed the flowers, an acidifier to help with the uptake of water and a biocide to control bacterial growth in the sugar rich solution. Some customers have had success with their own flower food concoctions of sugar, lemon juice or vinegar and a drop or two of bleach. Upon arrival simply remove your flowers from the box cut an inch of the bottom of the stems and place in a clean container with fresh water and flower food. With in a few hours your dahlias will puff up and shake off any of the crumpled look they they may have acquired  during transit. As with all flowers they will last longer if kept in cool conditions (less than 70 degrees) and out of direct sunlight. Also, changing water every day or two will greatly increase vase life as it reduces the bacterial contamination which can clog flower stems. To view our beautiful Summer Dahlia Collection, go to our Organic Flower Calendar accessible from the home page of our website and look under ‘Summer/Fall Flowers’.
    

You would think with the plethora of advertisements for rose fertilizers and rose pest control compounds, that it would be impossible to grow roses in your garden organically. But worry not, roses are very hardy plants and given a chance to wean themselves of their dependency on chemicals, they will not only survive but will thrive and bloom with very little care.  Roses have humble roots as a wild plant in many parts of the world. They are well adapted to protect themselves from bugs, disease, and of course herbivores.... hence the thorns.  Some varieties of roses, particularly Hybrid Tea Roses, have become a little weaker due to extensive breeding work, but they will still thrive under organic cultivation.
    Soil is the most important part of any organic system. So in order for your roses to thrive we need to give a fair amount of attention to your soil. If your roses are already planted and have been cultivated with chemicals, your soil is probably devoid of beneficial microorganisms as most chemicals are toxic to microorganisms. With already established plantings, add 2-3 inches of good organic compost mixed with one pound of alfalfa meal and one pound of cottonseed meal to the surface of the soil around each rose bush. Use only good quality compost, if it has bark or sticks in it, it is not compost. Look for compost that looks like coffee grounds and smells sweet like a forest floor. There are many composts out there that do more harm than good so buy from a reputable source. The alfalfa meal will add organic matter and growth compounds, and the cottonseed meal will add slow release nitrogen and is slightly acidic which roses love. If your soil is already naturally acidic (high rainfall areas of the Eastern US and pine forested areas)  use canola seed meal instead of cottonseed meal, or just add some ground calcium with your cottonseed meal to buffer the acid.  Now, believe it our not you are going to add this mix to your roses 2 or 3 times a year, and boy are they going to love it! The best time to top dress with this organic compost/fertilizer mix is in the spring before bloom and in the fall before the winter rains begin in earnest.
    The good news, is that with healthy soil your roses will have very few pests. A healthy plant, like a healthy person, is not prone to diseases and is rarely sick. Since you are feeding your plants a good healthy organic meal they will be healthy and strong. What to do if your roses do get some pests? The most common rose pest are aphids. Oh yuck those nasty aphids!  Now, what does everyone do when they see aphids on their roses? Well, they freak out and run around with pesticides and spray the leaves with high pressure hoses. My advice with aphids is simple. Do nothing. In fact be happy that you have aphids, because in an organic system pests attract beneficial insects (think lady bugs) which will voraciously eat up the aphids and then go on to other plants in your garden to find more pests. You see, you want pests in your garden. You want a healthy happy ecosystem doing all the work for you. Once you spray and kill the pests, the beneficial insects will leave and you are left with all the work!  What about aphids spreading disease? Remember, you have healthy plants so they will fight off most diseases, just like a healthy person will survive a few mosquito bites. I know, it is a bit of paradigm shift to allow pests in your garden, but just watch, they will come and go and your roses will be no worse for the experience.  
     There are a zillion ways to prune roses and most methods work well depending on the look you want your rose bushes to have. The one thing I can add is that it helps tremendously to prune your roses so they have adequate air circulation. Fungal diseases breed in humidity, so remove any crossing branches and keep your bushes nice and open and airy.



    So there you have it, feed your roses a good meal twice a year, let the bugs do their thing, and watch your roses thrive like never before. Watch as your spindly chemical dependent plants develop nice green foliage and bloom and grow like mad. And enjoy the natural system which takes care of itself, while you relax in a nice healthy garden and enjoy the show.

 

Spring is a lovely time on the farm. The cold winter rains have quenched our fall plantings of ranunculus, anemone, narcissus, tulips, dutch iris and freesia for many months and now they
are ready to explode with color with the first warmth of the new year. Spring in California is like spring in most of the country, in that it is fickle and sometimes greets us with a sunny smile and at other times sends us scurrying for warm soup.  Most  of our spring flowers require a long cool (but not cold) period of wet weather to slowly develop their roots and foliage to prepare for warm weather blooming.  Like a magicians wand, the warm spring sun encourages the plants to extend their stems and open their buds and reveal the hidden colors that have been hidden in green foliage all winter. As if mother nature knows we need bright colors after the sense dulling colors of winter, spring flowers tend to posses the brightest, purest color of all the year’s flowers.

Ranunculus is a member of the buttercup family which come in a rainbow of brilliant primary colors. Bright red, rich orange, sunny yellow and pure pink radiate from a multi-layered bloom of petals so delicate they look like crepe paper. The delicate petals are  deceiving though as ranunculus are very long lasting once cut and arranged in a vase. We grow a lovely ranunculus that is deep dark red and has a wonderfully subtle rose fragrance. In fact, many times, ranunculus is confused with roses because their shape and fragrance is so similar.

Narcissus is the latin name for the genus of all flowers commonly known as daffodils. But, when the name narcissus is used it usually refers to the little fragrant winter flowers more specifically known as tazzetta narcissus. The most common tazzetta narcissus are the beautiful, but somewhat offensive smelling ‘paper whites’. Since ‘paper whites’ have a ‘some love it, some hate it’  scent,  we focus on growing  the yellow and cream tazzettas which have a lovely fragrance reminiscent of spring hyacinths. Narcissus is best displayed in small clear or silver vases and are perfect for the bedroom or bathroom. I just love the idea of someone in the frigid North East receiving a box of super fragrant Narcissus. Imagine the joyous look on their face when they open the box and are greeted with a blast of that sweet, spicy, earthy fragrance of Narcissus. The perfect cure for the winter doldrums!

Anemone is so beloved on our farm. This lovely member of the buttercup family continues to grow and bloom even when cold rain is falling and the temperatures are struggling to reach 45 degrees. And the colors are so enchanting! The deepest darkest royal purple, dark fire engine red, bright florescent pink, rich merlot and pure white. We ship our anemone ‘in bud’ so that the delicate blooms will not get damaged during shipment. When they arrive they will take 2-3 days to open in a warm room ( they will open very slowly if your  house is less than 60 degrees...burrr!). When anemone open they provide you with a dazzling show!  Anemone is one of the only flowers that will actually grow in the vase getting taller every day (tulips will also do this). Be sure to add water to anemone every day because they drink LOTS of water, sometimes they will empty the vase every day. But they are very forgiving, if they do run out of water and get a bit wilted, just re-cut the stems and put them back in water and they will perk right up.

Tulips are a flower that everyone knows. Native to Central Asia and made popular by the Dutch, tulips are wonderfully simple in form and perfect in contemporary settings. We like to grow the taller more elegant ‘French’ tulips. The Dutch prefer to call them single late tulips and are a bit perplexed as to how the French were able to get their country’s name on
a Dutch bred tulip!  But whatever the name, they have magnificent large blooms with long willowy stems that will announce ‘spring’ to all that are graced by their presence. Tulips will move and grow in a vase creating an ever changing display. Expect tulips to grow in length by 50% during their life in a vase.

Dutch Iris are very popular with our customers at the Chico Farmer’s Market as well as on our website. We sell them in ‘pencil stage’ with just a tip of color showing at the top of the stem. Over the course of several days, the tip enlarges and then unfolds into a dramatic orchid like bloom. Many times a second bloom follows the first creating a long lived display. We grow the classic dark blue iris as well as yellow, and our favorite ‘eye of the tiger’ which has a bronze tongue with royal purple petals and a yellow highlighted throat.... very exotic!

The winner of the award for best fragrance in a spring flower must belong to Freesia. I describe the fragrance as apricot jam with a touch of black pepper. It is a gentle pleasant fragrance which everyone (even the fragrance sensitive folks) seem to enjoy. We only grow bright yellow freesia called ‘dukaat’ because in addition to a having a lovely color, it is
the most fragrant of all the varieties. Freesias have many buds on each stem which bloom in succession creating a
long lasting display.

Spring flowers love cool spring weather and loath the onset of summer. Generally they are only available during February, March and April before the hot days have arrived. So enjoy them while you can, they are Mother Nature’s way of rewarding you for enduring the long grey winter! www.californiaorgnanicflowers.com

Most of the time we plant gardens just to look at them. We go to the nursery and find little 6 packs of garden plants and organize them in the garden to grow and bloom in an artistic pattern. This works well, but it is so hard to bring those beauties inside and put them in a vase when they look so nice outside. With a cutting garden you are not trying to create a perfect landscape, rather you want a garden that will work for you and produce copious amounts of cut flowers. You can place your cutting garden in an unused corner of your yard, out of the way, so you do not feel like it
needs to look perfect.

Why are my plants so short?
You will notice that most of those nursery 6 packs produce neat compact plants with stems too short to make large floral arrangements. What you don’t know is the nursery industry has spun a conspiracy against tall plants. It seems gardeners like nice neat gardens, not sprawling tall plants that require a constant effort to keep them from flopping over in the slightest rain or wind. But, the best cut flowers come from tall plants not ‘dwarf’ plants so commonly found these days.  If you want to find the best cut flower varieties you will have to ask for them by name. They are still out there, but you will probably
have to avoid the big box stores and shop at your local nursery or online.

Here is  our Top 10 list of excellent cut flower varieties:

Dianthus Amazon Series (neon purple, cherry and pink)
I can’t say enough about this plant, it is essentially a 'super charged' sweet william!  It is incredibly hardy, it blooms in very cold weather and blooms all summer even in temperatures above 100 degrees! Bright, showy, tall with handsome foliage. As a cut flower it will last for weeks in a vase. Unlike most Sweet Williams, this dianthus blooms the first year and is perennial rather than biennial.

Rudbeckia Indian Summer:
Big beautiful daisy like black-eyed susan flowers on straight sturdy stems. Blooms all summer, and has excellent vase life. Re-seeds freely but is not invasive. Not really a consistent perennial, but with its re-seeding characteristic it comes back
every year.

Godetia Grace Series:
A spring bloomer only, but what a show! Tall stems that need support. Plant in early spring for late spring/early
summer bloom.

Foxglove (digitalis) Camelot:
Unlike most foxgloves, this series blooms the first year. Tall stems with graceful tubular flowers. Much more tolerant to
heat than most digitialis, blooms most of the summer for us.

Peony Coral Charm:
Expensive and hard to find, but worth every penny!  Magnificent large coral pink blooms which fade to white in the vase. Pick in bud to enjoy the entire show. Peonies take about 3 years to become established enough to where you can start
to cut flowers, so these take some patience.

Freesia Dukaat:
Bright yellow with a lovely fragrance of spicy apricot jam, this spring blooming bulb flower is amongst our favorite on
the farm.  Zone 5 or above only.

Sunflower Sunbeam:
An unusual green centered sunflower with sturdy tall stems. Blooms are medium sized for a sunflower and long lasting making them perfect for bouquets.

Zinnia Uproar Rose:
Tall zinnia with huge purple pink blooms. Ever blooming all summer and long vase life.

Snapdragon Rocket:
Snapdragons are an excellent example of the nursery industry’s desire to dwarf garden plants. Rocket is a superb cut
flower growing 3 feet tall and providing excellent vase life. Remember to provide support.

Larkspur:
A great spring bloomer with long stems. Plant by seed in cool soils. Best to plant in the fall or late winter before soil gets above 60 degrees. Re-seeds freely. Available in purples, pinks and white.

Providing Support:

Okay now that you have found your excellent cut flower varieties and have lovingly planted your garden, don’t forget that they will grow tall and will need support. It is always easier to provide support for your plants before they get tall than to wrestle them after they are blown over.  You can support plants with sturdy bamboo poles, tomato cages or a grid of poly netting. In the cut flower business we use a grid of netting called Hortonova Plastic Trellis (www.groworganic.com)  supported by 4’ pieces of 3/8 inch rebar driven into the ground. You essentially create a horizontal plane of netting for
which the flower stems can grow up through, a bit industrial but very effective. Remember this is not your show garden,
it is your cutting garden, it is okay if it looks a little rough.  The beautiful part will be in vases in your house!

Fertilizers and pests:

Growing flowers organically is easy, in fact most flowers prefer a moderately fertile soil. All those chemical fertilizers are just going to make your plants too tall, weak and susceptible to pests anyway.  Start with well loosened soil mixed with
lots of well decomposed compost. Avoid those ‘pseudo’ composts with lots of bark. Bark is not compost and it will deplete your soil of nutrients. Good quality compost should be the consistency of coffee grounds. In most cases it is best to leave the pests in a cutting garden be. Many of them are beneficial and disrupting the bug/plant ecosystem with bug killers will just create more problems in the end. Be patient, let the critters balance themselves out and have some lemonade, your cut flowers will be better off without all that human intervention. However, you will need to do some weeding after you finish your lemonade. Be sure to pull all weeds, before they bloom and set seeds, to prevent a weed nightmare the next year!

Happy Gardening!

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Flower Care Instructions:

The goal of caring for your flowers is to  provide the hydration and nutrition necessary to allow your flowers to look beautiful and last long.

START WITH:

Water Quality:   In general tap water is just fine, but avoid very hard or salt softened water

Clean Vases: Bacteria is the enemy of flowers, always start with impeccably clean vases. Use bleach to clean vases between uses.

Strip those stems: Leaves breed bacteria, remove all leaves that will be under water before placing flowers in a vase

More Water: Use large vases that hold lots of water. If you stuff many stems in a small quantity of water it will be very hard to keep the water clean and the flowers will not last as long. In our tests a single flower in a vase always out lasts the big mixed bouquet stuffed tightly in a vase

 Keep them Cool:  Keep your flowers in a cool part of the house.

Avoid Direct Sunlight: Flowers love the sun in the field, but once in a vase direct sunlight is very hard on them.

 Flower Food? Most flowers last perfectly well in plain water, but some need some extra sugar to allow them to thrive. We recommend flower food be added to the vase water for Zinnias and Dahlias. (By the way, flower food is mostly sugar with some citric acid to lower water PH and a powdered bleach to prevent bacterial growth in the sugar rich water)

FINISH WITH:

Change the Water: If you wouldn’t drink the water, your flowers won’t either! Some flowers are ‘clean’ (lisianthus, anemone) and will not require many water changes and others (sunflowers, zinnias) are ‘dirty’ and may require daily water changes to keep the water clear.

Re-cut the Stems: After several days it may be hard to keep your vase water clean because the bottom of the flower stems are starting to get soft. Simply cut off the bottom inch or two of stem to get to ‘new’ stem and change the vase water.