Succession Planting:

She glanced at me and said, "Well....we aren't gardeners....we are farmers!"

This remark was made to me recently when I exclaimed how it took me years to understand when a crop was ready to be removed or not.

Gardener or farmer....it doesn't matter....when you pour your heart and soul into something....YOU CAN'T JUST LET IT GO!

Thoughts like this run through your mind:" Can that plant give me a few more blooms?" "Is it really ready to be done for the season?" "Maybe I can fix whatever is wrong with the plan.t"

I can remember my first year growing teddy bear sunflowers.....I thought I could preserve the dying blooms. Or maybe get the plant to create more blooms. I can still feel that gripping feeling of wanting to hold on so tightly to what I had invested so much time into growing!

Now, after 5 years, I have come up with a mental triage of what should bloom a little longer and what plant is wasting space and not adding value.

Here is my list:

Is this plant a warm or cool-season flower? When you fade from spring to summer, there will be some flowers that cannot handle the heat. You can tell this by the quality of blooms or lack of blooms. This means take out.

How do they look: When growing flowers for customers....Especially if you are supplying a florist....You want to always be bringing the best quality flowers every time. When a plant at the place to take out its blooms, it will diminish in size, or maybe the stem length will shorten. These are two key signs you might need to pull the plant out. But also keep in mind what the flowers are for.....If they are for arrangements you are putting together, the stem length might not matter.....You know your flowers and can use the short stems where they will work best.

Problems: Are the plants getting diseases more easily??? This is a sure sign, yes, sometimes diseases happen, and we can treat them. Other times our plant is just old and can't fight the problem off as easily as it used to....then it is time to pull it out. Same if you have an insect issue. Sometimes the best thing is to take it out and forget it.

This is just a short checklist I do in my mind when deciding what should come and go.

​Enjoy our market video. ​

Your flower farm.

Kathryn