Nothing Like Flowers To Balance Winter's Gray Days!

 

So all y'all know I'm a pumpkin farmer... and that I write wonderful books! 

SHAMELESS PLUG! AVAILABLE FOR PREORDER NOW! 

"Faced with a decades-old mistake, can she find forgiveness?"

After a fire devastates her hometown, Dr. Jess Bristol returns to save her mother’s clinic—and comes face-to-face with her high school sweetheart. Over twenty years ago, Jess helped put Shane Stone in jail…and later learned he was innocent. Now they must work together to restore their town. Though Shane has put his past behind him, can the adoptive single father forgive the woman he once loved?

I LOVE A GREAT ROMANCE!!!!! SIGH..... Okay, back to what's going on here this week!

I also grow gorgeous chrysanthemums for our fall market and what started out as a fairly small number (800 the first year I tried it and I didn't kill anything. I was PSYCHED!) 

Yep, that's me in my summertime glory, watering 1400 mums by hand! :) As daunting as that sounds, by doing this, I (or my trusty helpers) can see if a plant is in distress, if I'm having a bug problem, if the leaves are tinging yellow or red.... and then I take Dr. Ruthy action to make them happy and healthy again! I have learned so much!!!!!

then grew to 1400...

Then 1600....

And for next year, we're looking at 2200 or so because we sold out in 2020 (so this was one amazing thing in 2020, right???? Happy farm????) and I want to do a special September promo for Breast Cancer Awareness to honor my beautiful friend Lisa...

And I need enough flowers to make it work and to last into late October.

So 600 more flowers is a lot of watering and feeding when you do it by hand. 

I may have heard a couple of minor complaints... and shocked looks.... and faces, aghast! (I love using words like "aghast"!!!!) But if my projections are anywhere near true, then we need to be ready, so I'm going all in like on a great poker hand!

Of course we want pinks for the Breast Cancer Awareness weekends: 

And all colors for a really big "splash" to make folks smile!

Look at those colors! We make people so happy because we grow hundreds of flowers in dozens of colors and blends and it just makes folks smile. And when they smile, I smile! 

And we have a "Farm Chic" section with all of the lighter colored mums and of course, a perennial favorite, our "Rustic" mum display!

So that's what's going on at the farm this week... it seems easy, right? 

This is where the math comes into play because mums bloom based on length of day so I have to know what week they're projected to bloom (from week 36 through week 42 and this is different down south because their day lengths are different from ours) and then order them to be planted enough ahead of time for them to be perfect for the weeks in question.

:)  

That smiley face is because this is easier said than done! One year the early ones blossomed two weeks ahead of schedule... and last year, they were all about 12 days behind schedule (which isn't as bad, folks will still buy them then... but if they're too early, then folks lose the blossom time at their house. And we want them to love, love, love the flowers!)

So it's always got a measure of risk, but everything worth doing comes with a measure of risk. No risk, no reward!

I still have Christmas things to pack away but I had other jobs that needed me this week, so I'm going to let lights linger a while.... because it's mighty dark at this latitude in January and February and I think our neighborhood, our town and our country could use some extra light.

Wishing you all the very best!

Ruth Logan Herne is a multi-published inspirational author with a somewhat bossy nature and a really great smile which she loves to flash because folks are way too grumpy sometimes and a shared smile is a wonderful thing. She manages a pumpkin farm in Western New York, has a flock of kids and grandkids and is absolutely loving life.... because God is good! And we are blessed... find Ruthy on Facebook where she likes to boss folks around, visit her website ruthloganherne.com or email Ruthy directly at loganherne@gmail.com. She'd love to chat with you!