January 2023 Updates

Happy New Year!

Let’s kick this blog back up with updates on what we’re doing this month. Ideally, I’ll do a monthly update to give you all a behind the scenes look at how we get our flowers blooming, and how they end up in your hands!

January in Minnesota is still pretty cold, but we’re warming things up in our seed starting room (aka my home office). It’s set up with two wire rack shelving units (moveable), grow lights, heat mats, and lots and lots of seeds.

I soil block the majority of my seed starts, to save space and to prevent damping off. Damping off will kill the seedlings quick - it’s when the moisture of the soil is too high, and can cause fungal infections. Soil blocking also gives the opportunity of actually getting your hands in the dirt, when it’s too cold outside to actually plant. Check out the previous blog post on soil blocking to learn more!

Right now, my focus is on “cool flowers”. Cool flowers are types that can handle a good amount of low temperatures, and I aim to plant these seedlings outside in late March. This weekend, I started bachelor’s buttons, columbine, dianthus and snapdragons. Bachelor’s buttons and snapdragons were some of my top favorites last year, so I definitely want to get a jump on these. Columbine and dianthus are new to me this year, and we’ll see if they turn out to be keepers!

I’ve also begun to wake up my dahlia tubers, for two main reasons. One, I want to take as many cuttings as I can (you can typically take up to 5-8 cuttings from one tuber and it should still grow once in the ground) to grow my stock, especially for varieties that are hard to get in dahlia sales. Two, my storage system is not what I’d like it to be, and I don’t want to lose a lot of tubers. Dahlia tubers can get a little finicky, and storage can be done many ways. This is my second season storing dahlia tubers over the winter, and I wrap them in plastic wrap by variety, and then store them in plastic bins in our heated garage. With different humidity and temperature levels throughout the winter, certain types might not last. Right now the hardest to sort varieties are waking up in my home office, and we should be seeing lots of cuttings within the next month or so.

Another big focus this month is succession planting. Succession planting is essentially a way to ensure there are enough blooms of different flowers to last throughout the season. This is especially important for flowers that are one - and - done, like bupleurum. Bupleurum was very hard for me last year to grow, so this year I am focusing on starting it early and hopefully will end up with a big crop this season. It’s a wonderful filler for bouquets, and that means more to go around for everyone!

Seed starting can be intimidating, but planning how many seeds to start and when helps a lot. I typically group my seeds by cool vs hot (planting before the last frost vs planting after the last frost), whether they need light or darkness to germinate, and the temperature needed for germination. My tray of snapdragons, columbine, dianthus and bachelor’s buttons works well as they all need light, and germinate between 60-70 degrees. I keep a thermometer in my home office so that I can keep an eye on the temperature and humidity levels, and use a heat mat or not. This tray (300 soil blocks) will not be on a heat mat, and I should see sprouts within one to two weeks!

Last month’s eucalyptus and lisianthus starts are doing extremely well so far, and it’s so nice to see some green while we’re surrounded by snow. Eucalyptus won’t be planted out until after the last frost, but these starts will allow us to cut earlier and more often! Lisianthus take a long time to reach maturity, and with a shorter growing season than our friends to the south, we need as much of a head start as we can get!

In the next few days, I’ll be moving the tulip bulbs into the home office to hopefully have them ready for Valentine’s Day! They’ve been in a cool, high humidity spot for the past 16 weeks, so let’s keep our fingers crossed that this works!

Can’t wait to bloom with you all!

Laura