Spring Planning for the Flower Garden

Spring is the perfect time to start thinking about your flower garden. Whether you're an experienced gardener or just starting out, there are a few tips and tricks that can help ensure a successful, beautiful display, full of blooms all growing season long. Here are some spring flower garden tips to help you get started with a beautiful flower garden:

Choose the Right Plants: When selecting plants for your garden, it's important to choose ones that are well-suited for your climate and soil type. You can consult with your local nursery or gardening center for recommendations on plants that thrive in your area. Check out our flower, shrub, tree, and ground cover suggestions for each growing zone in our guest contribution for MarthaStewart.com. You can access it here!

Choose Easy to Grow Flowers: We love growing easy to grow flowers, because they give us high impact color and blooms for very little effort. These are also great to look at when you first start a grade, because they’ll help you to build confidence as you grow! Here’s some great ideas via our guest feature in MarthaStewart.com for 12 Easy Annuals for Beginner Gardeners.

Zinnias are Easy to Grow Flowers & attract butterflies at PepperHarrow Flower Farm

Prepare the Soil: Before planting, make sure to prepare the soil by adding compost or other organic matter to improve its texture and nutrient content. This will help your plants grow strong and healthy.

Water Wisely: It's important to water your plants regularly, but be careful not to overwater them. Too much water can lead to root rot and other issues. Check the soil moisture regularly and water as needed.

Provide Enough Sunlight: Most flowering plants require plenty of sunlight to thrive. Make sure to choose a spot in your garden that gets plenty of sunlight throughout the day. We recommend at least 6 hours of sun each day for a plant that requires full sun, part sun or also shade. For shade plants, they just really don’t like a lot of intense sun, dappled is best!

Deadhead Regularly: To encourage your plants to produce more blooms, it's important to deadhead them regularly. This involves removing spent flowers from the plant to promote new growth.

Protect from Pests: Unfortunately, pests and insects can be a problem in any garden. To protect your plants, consider using natural remedies like neem oil or companion planting with herbs like basil and mint, which can repel pests.

We hope these tips help you create a beautiful and thriving spring flower garden! If you need more flower garden inspiration, follow along with us on Instagram via pepperharrow_ or on Facebook: PepperHarrow. And let us know if you have any questions, by commenting below!

XX Jenn and Adam

The GREAT Tulip Harvest of 2023

The Great Tulip Harvest of 2023 at PepperHarrow Flower Farm is sure to go down in history as a remarkable achievement for our team. This year's harvest has been outstanding, with a bountiful crop of vibrant tulips that have delighted the senses and brought joy to all who have had the pleasure of experiencing them.

Growing in our indoor growing space, forcing our tulips through the coldest months, we took our first harvest of tulips for a special pop-up at Des Moines Mercantile at the beginning of April. It was amazing, and we were so humbled, to see the amount of local support for our local flower farm and small business! People came out in force to grab a tulip bouquet to add a sprinkle of joy to their day!

Below is a photo of how the bouquets turned out. We added a few sprigs of willow, which gave them an even prettier look. They sold out the quickest!

tulip Bouquets for pop-up at DSM Mercantile

Right behind out indoor grown tulips, the field grown tulips were ready about two weeks later. They ended up blooming about a week and a half earlier than we expected, because we had a few days in the 80’s (F). Way too warm for this time of year and it made them grow a little more quickly than they normally would have

Once we saw that a few of them were starting to show what we call ‘color crack’, we knew it was time to open our you-cut tulip bouquet experience to the public. It’s a popular on farm experience we get to offer in the spring for people to come out and pick their own tulip bouquet. As an extra benefit, we give them the option to take the bulbs home with them to plant as well. Everyone has an absolute blast!

We welcomed each guest and gave them the run down of how they can harvest tulips. Everyone loved idea of simply pulling them from the ground bulb and all, a fan favorite! There’s something pretty enjoyable about pulling tulips from the lose ground bulb and all!

Field grown tulips at pepperharrow flower farm for you-cut tulip bouquet experience

Once the you-cut tulip bouquet experience was over, we knew it was time to get ALL of the tulips out of the flower field as quickly as possible. The deer pressure is so incredible, we knew we couldn’t leave an ‘all you can eat skittle buffet’ for them. Lol!

When we were within an hour of our last guest arriving, we started pulling all of the tulips from the ground as quickly as possible. Two people = 2,000+ bulbs = 5 tractor loads of tulips into our cooler to give them nice chill time until we sell them in bouquets, which should happen over the next 2-3 weeks. It. Was. Incredible.

We stopped for a few minutes for Adam to capture this remarkable sight of one of our many tractor bucket harvests of tulips. It was a pretty cold night, but the sun was out and the sky looked incredible as the picture was being taken.

Tractor full of tulips harvested over the weekend

You can find these cheery, bold colors over the next few weeks at small retail shops of Des Moines Mercantile, Gateway Market, and for our appearance at the Des Moines’ Downtown Farmer’s Market over the next few weeks.

Reflecting on the Great Tulip Harvest of 2023, we’re left with a sense of pride and accomplishment. We’ve worked tirelessly to bring these beautiful flowers to life, and their hard work had paid off in spades.

For us, the success of this year's harvest was a testament to our love of tulips and our commitment to growing them. We are grateful to our customers for their support and appreciation of the farm's efforts.

Looking ahead to next year's harvest, the team at Pepperharrow Flower Farm is already planning and preparing for what promises to be another spectacular season. We are committed to continuing our tradition of excellence and to bringing the beauty and joy of tulips to as many people as possible.

Happy Growing!

XX Jenn and Adam

Unique and Unusual Flower Varieties to Try in Your Garden

We’re constantly looking to add interest and excitement to our growing practices and into the flower garden. We love planting unique and unusual flower varieties to experiment, try and see how flowers grow that we’ve never grown before. These flowers can add a touch of whimsy and beauty to the garden, and they are sure to be a conversation starter for any locally grown flower lovers!

Here are some unique and unusual flower variety ideas to try in your garden this year:

Black Flowers: All types of black flowers have been popular, because they’re so rare to find in nature. Some of our favorites are Black Night scabiosa, hellebore, dahlias, hollyhocks, iris and petunias, but there are so many different flowers to look at here. We especially love black hollyhocks, because we use them for botanical dyeing.

Double Petunias: These unusual flowers have all of the fragrance of a regular petunia, but they have so many more petals! They are a great choice for adding drama to your garden and are relatively easy to grow.

Blue poppies: These exotic-looking flowers are native to the Himalayas and are known for their bright blue petals. They can be a bit finicky to grow, but their striking appearance is well worth the effort. We first saw these at Longwood Gardens, outside of Philly. They took our breath away with their beauty! We were instantly hooked on trying to get them to grow at the farm.

Gloriosa lilies: These exotic-looking flowers have long, curling petals that come in shades of red, orange, and yellow. They are native to tropical regions and can be grown as annuals in cooler climates.

Flying saucers: This unusual flower is native to South Africa and is known for its unique, saucer-shaped blooms. The flying saucer flower comes in shades of pink, purple, and white and is a great choice for adding a touch of whimsy to your garden.

Linaria The flowers are small, delicate, and come in a range of colors, including pink, purple, yellow, white, and orange. The blooms are arranged in dense, spike-like racemes that rise above the plant's foliage.

Spider lilies: These unusual flowers have long, thin petals and a spidery appearance, hence their name. Spider lilies come in shades of white, pink, and red and are great for adding drama to your garden.

Moonflowers: These fragrant flowers are native to South America and are known for their large, white blooms that open at night. Moonflowers are a great choice for adding a touch of magic to your garden. We’ll talk more about these in a later post about planting a moon garden!

We hope this short list of cool and ‘weird’ flowers excite you to try some new varieties you may never have grown before. Each year we always add a variety or two that’s new and a bit more challenging. New varieties keep us excited as gardeners and plant lovers. Let us know in the comments below if you have any cool varieties we should try out!

XX Jenn and Adam

Creating a Spring Bulb Container Garden

Creating a spring bulb container garden is such a simple way to bring some of the beautiful, early spring blooming flowers to enjoy inside while the weather might not be quite that great. Today, we’ll discuss some of the fun bulbs we force each winter in order to hold classes for attendees to make a spring bulb garden of their own.

Our customers love bulb container gardens, because they are perfect for small spaces, or for those who don't have access to a yard. Also, they’re gorgeous to bring inside to enjoy for a few weeks, before you can turn around and plant them out in your yard. It’s the best of both worlds! Enjoying both fresh flowers and the benefit of planting them to enjoy later.

Daffodils are a classic spring flower that are sure to brighten up any container garden. They come in a variety of colors, including yellow, white, and pink. Daffodils are also one of the easiest bulbs to grow, making them a great option for beginners. We especially love a dwarfed daffodil called Tete a Tete. They’re just perfect for small bulb container gardens.

Tulips are another classic spring flower that are sure to add a pop of color to your container garden. They come in a variety of colors, including red, pink, purple, and white. Tulips also come in a variety of shapes, including single-flowered, double-flowered, and fringed. We especially love double daffodils for our spring bulb container gardens, because they typically stay a little bit shorter than some of the other tulips and have a lovely, subtle fragrance.

Hyacinths are another popular spring flower that come in a variety of colors, including pink, purple, and white. They are known for their strong fragrance, which makes them a great option for container gardens that are close to living spaces. You can’t go wrong with any type of hyacinth, but the bulbs are a little bigger in size, so sticking to just a few for your bulb container garden is a good idea, otherwise you’ll run out of room.

Muscari - Muscari, also known as grape hyacinths, are a popular spring bulb that come in shades of blue, purple, and white. They are known for their grape-like clusters of flowers, which make them a unique addition to any container garden. Adam likes to plant these together in clusters of 3 around the bulb container garden for extra ‘sparkle’.

To top off the bulb garden containers, we love to decoratively adorn with different types of willow. We love curly willow and the gray catkins from standard willow are just gorgeous. Put either/or into the container, or combine both together. You really can’t go wrong!

We also encourage guests to add sphagnum moss, large river rock, or small pea gravel to the top of the bulb container garden. This helps provide a little weight to hold the bulbs in the soil and it provides a pretty decorative addition to complete the look for the garden.

There are so many ways to put together a simple, pretty spring bulb garden and lots of options of bulbs to choose from. From classic flowers like daffodils and tulips, to unique options like muscari, there is something for everyone. Remember to choose bulbs that will thrive in your climate and sunlight conditions, and have fun experimenting with different combinations of flowers!

XX Jenn and Adam

How to Extend the Life of Cut Flowers

There's nothing quite like the beauty and fragrance of fresh-cut flowers, but unfortunately, they don't last forever. However, with a little extra care, you can extend the life of your cut flowers and enjoy them for longer. Here are some tips for keeping your cut flowers looking fresh and vibrant:

-Start with fresh, healthy flowers. The longer a flower has been cut, the shorter the vase live will be. Choose flowers that are just starting to open and avoid those that are wilted or damaged.

-Use a clean, sharp floral snips, knife, or scissors to cut the stems. We always try to cut the stems at an angle, which will encourage them uptake more water and nutrients.

-Remove any leaves/greenery that will be touching or in the water. Leaves that are submerged in water will rot and shorten the life of the flowers, because they will introduce bacteria.

-Use a clean vase and fresh water. Dirty vases and water can harbor bacteria, which can shorten the life of your flowers. Make sure to clean your vase thoroughly and refill it with fresh, cool water.

-Add a floral preservative to the water. Floral preservatives are specially formulated to help flowers last longer by providing them with the nutrients and bacteria inhibitors they need. These can be purchased at florists or craft stores. Alternative sources that also work: 1/2 tsp bleach and 1/2 tsp of sugar. The bleach keeps the water clean and the sugar gives your flowers something to eat. Don’t believe us? Give it a try!

-Keep your flowers out of direct sunlight and away from sources of heat. Flowers will last longer in a cool, well-ventilated location.

-Our #1 recommendation! Re-cut the bottom of the flower stems and change the water every few days. This will help to keep the flowers hydrated, nice and clean. We like to rinse the stems under water to give them an extra rinse, aside from changing the water. Anytime you take your flower stems out of water, always give them a 1mm or so trim at the bottom. When you remove the stems from water, it introduces air bubbles into the stem that blocks water uptake into the stem.

We hope these suggestions help y’all to enjoy your fresh cut blooms MUCH longer! These are all suggestions we give our customers and many have reported their flowers last anywhere from 7-14 days. We always love hearing this and it’s a great testament to local flowers and their vase life.

Are there any tips we missed that y’all would recommend? If so, share them along with us by commenting below.

XX Jenn and Adam