Costoluto Genovese, Berkley Tie Dye, Purple Cherokee, Chocolate Chestnut, Black Beauty, and Chocolate Sprinkles, oh my!

It’s finally here.  I don’t think I’ve ever been so excited about a concert.  I made Cary Ann some flowers… wish me luck in getting them to her.

Update:  The show was amazing. I fell into her eyes, and in them, I saw fire mixed with music...

I love the Queeny series of Zinnias with their unusual colors, from popping lime green to Victorian rose.

Zinnias, yarrow, snapdragons, and the tips of fringe flower branches.

So I made her some flowers. It’s my love language.

We can’t really have flowers in the house as our cats are flower lovers. They never saw a flower that they did not want to eat. We have one spot on the mantel were they don’t bother them —

Some seven or so years ago, I was looking for a place to go for a birthday dinner that was BYOB… because we make the best margaritas.  We have been hardcore fans of Fiesta Mexicana ever since.

On this July 4, I wanted to shower this wonderful immigrant-owned business with flowers.

Before…

A crock of posies at every table… and for the staff!

Our Resident Expert turned 68 today.

We were a half-hour from home when I realized I’d left it behind.  So sad!

A Mock Orange (Philadelphus) bough to scent the porch

Acanthus (Bear’s Britches), Columbine ‘McKanna’s Giants’, Cinnamon Fern, Foxglove about to show some color, cover crop of field peas, Siberian Wallflower, Geranium, Baptisia, Peony, and Amsonia (Blue Star)

Twenty heirloom tomato plants and more were sold by 10 am… and $217 was raised for the Civil Right Trip. So far. 😉

The back beds. Greens behind the bunny fence; onions under the straw, and leaf-mold covers the bed where I’ll plant potatoes this weekend. Oh, and in the back of the far bed, a tumble of field peas from a winter cover crop trial. The deer seem happy that I took the cover off…

Our Resident Expert captured the first bloom.

My first snowdrops ever. Crocus, emerging hyacinths and daffodils.

We had a fiercely cold winter, so I was surprised to find that so many Lisianthus had overwintered.

And the dear have been everywhere.

The first seedling for 2026!

Ammi, Helichrysum, Artichoke, Abelia, Loropetalum, and Eucalyptus

Bouquets are $12, where 10.50 goes directly to the Civil Rights Trip, and 1.50 goes to the grower. When there is produce available, all of the pay-as-you-are-able funds are donated, and the same goes for tips, keeping-the-change, or, well, donations. Financial documentation is available upon request.

For the 2025 growing season:

• Gross Sales: $2412
• Donation to the Civil Rights Trip: $2169
• Seed money (literally!): $243

This nearly ties our second-highest grossing year yet!

Past years:

• 2024: $1848
• 2023: $2485 (Last sale 11/3; our first frost came wonderfully late)
• 2022: $1680
• 2021: $1150
• 2020: No sales due to COVID, but my neighbors sure saw a lot of flowers on their doorsteps 😉
• 2019: $800
• 2018: $400+

Just a few bouquets from the garden, and the Parents’ Association donated some gorgeous Hydrangea and roses.

Bye-bye flowers! (A lot of ya’ll, anyway.)

I signed up for a another seed trial (seedlinked.com), despite the disappointing results from the tomato trial. (Gonna stick with my favorites next year!) As soon as I seeded the bed, a fox dug a big hole. Glad for row covers!

Introduced new “mini bouquets” this week — in yogurt crocks that a lovely neighbor saves for me.

A Professional Day at school… so few costumers (but lots of good work going on!)

When I looked across the flower beds Thursday morning, I hardly saw any color after Tuesday’s harvest… but then…

And finally, I got to share some tomatoes! Chocolate Sprinkles are my favorite.

Flowers for a Guud Yontif

I can’t tell you how much my heart sings when we sell out of flowers. Twenty-three bouquets today!

What to pick at the end of a hot day that won’t flop? Ninebark, Celosia, and Zinnias!

A whopping 21 bouquets today… Sold out! Thank you, Patrons!

A striking plant while living and after…

Euphorbia marginata or Snow on the mountain is the plant I am most asked about when people see it in a bouquet.

Here it is earlier in the year… in mid-August.

A sampling…

It’s ON, People! =)

No time for photos of the finished product…

The variety is Una Hartsock’s Beefsteak, which I’m growing as part of a seed trial for SeedLinked. What a beast! I like my tomatoes acidic and spicy (think Chocolate Sprinkles); this one doesn’t have a very exciting flavor to me, but she’ll be giving us a lot of big fruits.

I’ve just learned that the misshapen bottoms on tomatoes are described as catfacing.

To set everyone who comes by in a good mood?

Flowers in the boot!

Yup. Right here in Baltimore CITY. That’s right, we’re in the city, and the deer are ravaging the garden. I’ve been growing tomatoes here since we moved in 2017, and the deer have never touched them. Until now. We even have to chase them out of the yard in the middle of the day. Poor things should be bedded down. It’s a darn good thing they’re so beautiful…

PSA: If you are also having issues with deer in the city, please visit this site about Baltimore’s Deer Program. They want to hear from us.

In the news: WBAL, 7/17/25, Baltimore Brew 8/1/25, The Baltimore Banner, 8/1/25

Once upon a time, I bought a case of flower foam, before knowing how yucky it is, environmentally speaking. So now, I can either die with it in my basement or use it…

Lisianthus, Zinnias, Coleus, Celosia, Asters, Buddleia, and Euonymus… in my mother’s pedestal bowl.

The garden is really popping, but school hasn’t started yet for selling bouquets. What to do?! Flower-bomb people!

Bright bouquet: Zinnias, Celosia, Rudbeckia, Snapdragons, Amaranth, Buddleia, Euonymus

Purple bouquet: Asters, Lisianthus, Dianthus, Snapdragons, Salpiglossis, Mahogany Hibiscus, Buddleia, Amaranth

I picked up some freebies on Craigslist, and came back around to drop these babies on folks’ porches, texting, “You’ve been flower bombed!” OK, we kept one. 😉

I wanted to make a big bouquet for our end-of- the-year faculty meetings. It just barely fit in my car.

Today would have been my father’s 100th birthday.

His favorite flower: Roses

His favorite dessert: Lemon meringue pie

His favorite color: Blue

His favorite daughter: Me!

I finally gave up on trying to grow my beloved delphinium in this area; it’s just too hot for them.  Now, the foxgloves make my heart sing.  Pink Gin for sure and Camelot Rose,  I think…

The weather forecast called for grey skies for several days, so I planted out a few trays of seedlings that had not been hardened off to the sun. And then the sun came out. And stayed out. For days. Saved by the shade cloth!