Petite Floret Seedlings 🌱 | A Visit to Blooms on the Hill

Morning, it's Amber, Blooms on the Hill, and it's sunny, hence the hat. I just thought I'd do a really quick, let's have a look at my day as it's starting to open, and but specifically just the floret seedlings. So I've got some petite florets that are open. Annie, stop barking. Apologies for that. Little puppy hustles come out and makes the other dogs bark. They're really annoying. So mine are very slow, my dahlias to open, and I've probably talked about this, but we are up that little bit higher, and it's very frustrating looking at other flower farmers in Gippsland, and they've all got dahlias, and they're all selling dahlias, and I'm still waiting for my dahlias, and at least I can grow good peonies. But anyway, it's, they're starting to come, and the plants are getting up. They've had a fair bit of water in the last couple of weeks. Last week I watered quite heavily because there was a lot of hot weather coming, and we had that on the weekend. This week, again, it's going to be about supposedly 32 today, although it's not really too bad now, and it is supposed to heat up a bit, I think to about 35 on the weekend. Not as hot, but that's not sort of outrageous. You get up to about 38, and that you can really notice the difference. But so they've had a bit of a growth, and things are starting to open. There's quite a few buds. I wish they were taller than they are, but anyway, that's how it goes. But I'll show you what I've got. There's a particular one there that's always the first to open, so I'll show you what that one is, and as I said, I've got some petite florets that are opening, and there's some really, really good ones. They're really interesting. I don't know how they'll make us cuts, but they're really sweet, and I certainly, like, would keep them because they're just so cute. So, and this first one's one of my favorites. This is one I grew from seed, and this is its, I'm thinking it's its third year, and I named this one after my daughter. It's a really pretty pink. I reckon it might look a little more purpley pink in this video, but it's actually a lovely, it's a lovely pink, and it's got tiny little gold tips on the edges of the leaves, which is really, sorry, the leaves, the petals. This year, it's actually quite an early one, and there's a lot of buds. So I was able to plant, I think, about 15 of these. For some reason, these ones are shorter, and I put in 10. So Imogen Elsie, that's her, and look, I'm thinking that, you know, eventually, I think this is one that it's throwing up really good stems. It's still doing the same thing each year, so that would be a good one that, you know, I could sell. We've been quite happy that it's going to keep coming back true to that. So I really, it's lovely, nice size, nice ball shape, works really well in bouquets. Oh, this one here, look, it's got a wiggly stem. That's unusual. The ones that are opening up for me, this is Sweetheart. That's a pink and white one, and Corabel Astrid is opening up for me as well. So that's been another early one. Zooming up here, I'm about to put my sprinkler on. Now, the one that's opened early is Clarithora. People love this one. They always want to buy this as a tuber. I've always found that it does this, so it's down facing. The very first flower has been upward facing, but I've always found it's done that for me. So I've never actually really loved it as a cut, but, you know, we'll see what it does this season. I've also got Floralee Toffee has opened up earlier, and it's interesting because Loralee from Floralee, I've heard her say a few times that Floralee Toffee, which she bred, is always one of her firsts as well. So it's another early variety. This one's looking about to open. I'm not too sure which white one it is. I've got all my white ones in this first outside row, and then it's the pinks. Actually, I think from this end, it goes white pink, so blushy, and then it heads down to pink, and, you know, it's kind of all in order. It should be, but I'm not too sure what this massive one is here. Rycroft Peace, that could be it. It could be Rycroft Peace, and then this other white one that's come out early. Well, not early compared to everybody else, but this is a little angel. This is a cute little pom. You've got to have a pom if you're going to have weddings because they're great for buttonholes. That's super sweet. Another one I've got in my orange row. This is Floralee Angostura. Love this one. It's not that big. It's got the orange with the touches of pink. Sometimes it's more pink than orange, but it's always a blend. Sometimes you get like a straight, well, sometimes you get a straight orange, but look this one here, little pink bud. It's really fun, this one. Get this one, mix of the colours as well. So that one's great, and that orange, it's a nice orange. Cosmos is going really well. I've taken on an employee as such. It's my, one of my boys. He's 15, and I've been teaching him the ropes, and the first few, the first thing I've, we've been going through is how to deadhead. He's so cute. He calls it beheading. So he's been beheading my Cosmos and my Scabiosa, and yesterday I taught him how to harvest straw flowers and how to know when they're ready. So that was fun. He harvested some of those, and then he also harvested some of my zinnias, and I got him to choose the colours to make up some bouquets. So he picked three colours to go in each bouquet, and he does beautiful drawings. He does lovely cartoons. He's so clever. He's such an amazing drawer. So I thought, well, look, he should be good at putting colours together, since he's an artist, and he did. He did a really, really good job. So that was exciting. So he, I taught him how to do the wiggle test with the zinnias down there, and you know, that was great. So yeah, that was really, really good. Anyway, back to my, oh, this one's been a bit ravaged. So these are my petite florets. It's sort of a single aisle, because I was kind of trying to fit in, you know, next to this lot, and then this lot was over here, and then it does branch out to two aisles. Now these ones along here are new varieties, so it'll be interesting to see what they do. They're new varieties, just of tubers I bought, but these ones here are more florets. So I'll show you these from here. Some of them are a bit crazy, because they've just been attacked by the weather a bit, but I'm, and I need to do a bit of the deadheading, but I'm getting some nice colours, and a lot of those little interesting little twizzly middle petals that you get with the colorettes. Florette, when she shows hers in videos and all, what have you, she gets a lot of that as well. So look at this little sweet one. That's gorgeous. That's been one that's opened just in the last couple of days. Love that. That's really nice. This one here's similar. That one's gone over a bit too far, but look at the inside petals in that, and it's got little inside yellow ones too. Oh wow. That's fascinating. Look at that. They're such a nice cut. That's gorgeous too. Here's one. It's got those little inside petals too. Hasn't really opened up fully. There's a bit of a demented one, but that one there, really interesting colour, real raspberry sort of red. So we'll see how they go, and there's quite a lot of buds on that one. Here's another one. This one's a bit more purpley pink. I'm being chewed on a bit that one, but here's another better one. Once again, really interesting, you know, extra petals on the inside. Here's another one. A bit more orangey with a whole, a bit of an anemone type going on in the centre. These have really just started to open up now, like a whole lot of them. He's a bit funny. This one's good. We've got a bee. That's a very pretty pale pink. Slightly different shade on the same plant, obviously. Once again, those inner petals. Here's one. Here's another new one. That's different. There we go. A bit of lemon, a bit of fluffy in the centre. Oh, look at this one. Check him out. You're unusual. Very anemone cross craziness going on there. Love that one too. Here's a real single. So that one's obviously going to throw up, that kind of thing. Obviously wouldn't make a great pup, but pretty. I wouldn't probably keep it, but this is, oh, here's another good one. The bee. That's actually got, you probably can't see too well, but very lemon, a thick lemon stripe in the middle of the petal and then white on the edges. And then it's got those little twizzles in the centre here. That's interesting. Yeah. What are you? Now this is actually a variety. I think this is Christie, Christie Starlight. So that's an actual bought variety. This is a seedling. That's different. This is my end row of dahlias next to the Amaranth. Oh, there's a big tall piece just there. This, these are ones I had some leftover tubers, which I threw in the ground. A lot of them are Carlos watermelon, which are really big, beautiful, like the size of cafe au lait, but like a real deep pink. And they're great. So I threw in some extra ones in here because I just had the space. This other row here does also have some seedlings. I can't remember which ones are the bees choice. They might be up further, but I don't know. Anyway, here's another seedling with a bee. I like that one, obviously a nice open face. It's a little bit uninteresting in terms of, you know, fluffy seedlings and stuff, but it's nice. Oh, here's a good one. Another lovely, this is a really pretty pink. That's actually sort of quite ballerina-y pink, and then a little darker in the middle. I hope it comes out well in the video, but the lovely fluffy center and all these extra petals. I'm going to have to start tagging them and taking some photos as well. This was the first one that opened. This one here, that's lovely too. Those little twizzles in the center. They're so cute. So, so cute. I have to do a bit of, there's another deadheading bit that needs to happen. And there's that white one back again, the white one from the start. So these have been a bit munted on the end, chewed on. That petal's been a bit burnt. So that one's been munched on there as well, but that's once again got those inner little petals as well. So they're super cute. So yeah, I'm really happy so far. I thought I'd just, you know, show you so far. I'll be able to show you again once they all start opening up better and hopefully plants get taller. Mine aren't so big because they didn't get a lot of water at the start. It's always another one of those tasks. It's once we get the irrigation down, it's going to make such a difference. Can't wait for that. But it's just one of those things, like it's like the rest of my farm. It's everything's getting done gradually as time and money allows. And you know, it's the same with everybody. So it's another project that we'll get to. In the meantime, it's okay. We're dealing with it. We're going to put the sprinkler on again. And yeah, hopefully we get a lot more beauties that come out. So the tasks from here with these is to just continue to like document them. Just taking, you know, advice and inspiration from Aaron from Floret. I really think that like these, like you forget, you don't remember what they've been like. So take some photos, write some notes, tag them. And that's actually a good thing to do with your other ones that when they open up is to, you like to tag them because tags fade. But it's just so like when you dig them up, they all look the same once they're cut back. So these definitely need to be tagged and take some photos. I'll save them on my computer, make some notes and make sure that I know which ones I want to keep. So this would be another thing to do for the future too, is once they are dug up is to make sure that they're stored really well. These ones would be a shame to lose something that's grown from a seed because you know, these one-off varieties, you just don't get them back. So anyway, I will go. There's a few things to do today. I'm going to water, put that sprinkler going. I'm going to water up in my flower patch since we've got a bit of heat, as I said, a bit of heat and some flies are coming. So that's what we're going to do. I want to make a new garden bed as well. I've got a spot on the east wall of my little garden shed that I want to put. I've still got compost left and I want to make a spot for some hydrangea because I was just watching the sun a couple of days ago and the shade that was created behind that garden shed once the sun gets way over in the west. So there's a fair bit area there that I can put some hydrangea in. I've always struggled with hydrangea, putting it in. Where do I put it? I've got one under a plum tree, but other than that, I really struggle for shade. So I've got to get my husband to build me a bit of a shade cloth thing because the stems sell really well to florists. They can charge a fair bit. I think it's like $20 for five stems and I love them in arrangements. They just bulk things out. The foliage is fantastic. So yeah, that's probably maybe not today's task. Now it's heating up a bit, but we'll see. Anyway, have a good rest of the week. Today is Thursday. Thursday, good grief. I've got a farmer's market on Saturday out in Chiralgon, which it's a lovely shaded spot and it's a really good market because it's very busy. I did very well in December, although it was just before Christmas, but hopefully we'll have another really good day. And yeah, so we might do a bit of filming on some market prep, perhaps, probably. I'll catch up with you later on. See ya. Just a PS, this is Melinda A. This is always one that flowers early for me. So a little anemone type, which is kind of cute. Oh, and I think that one's the same one. Yes. I've got a few of those.