Author: Samantha Ritter

Dahlia time is finally here! It’s the best time of year, really.

If you’re a farmer’s market shopper, you’ve probably noticed dahlias starting to sneak their way into your mixed bouquets over the last few weeks.

The dahlias have taken their sweet time maturing this season. It has a lot to do with the drought we’ve been in for months, and also a little to do with the fact that our new field still doesn’t have a working irrigation system. C’est la vie.

But now, behold! The dahlia, in all her glory.

Dahlia Fever – Sea Change Farm and Flower

Dahlias are wonderful flowers that come in a variety of sizes, shapes, and colors. They also possess a remarkable ability to make people lose their $#!+, including me.

Dahlia fever. It’s a thing.

Evidence: we are growing over 100 distinct varieties of dahlias this year, because I cannot stop collecting new ones.

Dahlia Fever – Sea Change Farm and Flower

There are so many different families of dahlias! According to official fancy dahlia authorities, there are 14 different categories for dahlia bloom shapes.

We’re not that fancy, So I’ll tell you about the 4 categories we use when talking about dahlias.

Dahlias grow from sweet-potato-like tubers.

Here in New York, we have to dig up our dahlia tubers each fall and store them safely in a non-freezing place for the winter.

To spruce up your own garden, we’ll have dahlia tubers for sale this winter and next spring. I’m hoping we’ll be able to offer many more varieties than last year, including most if not all of the varieties pictured here.

Dahlias! We love them!

I wish I could show you around our dahlia patch now that they are starting to really show off. Heres a little virtual tour.

Are you also a dahlia fanatic, like me? Do you have a favorite variety? Let me know!

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Hello, Lisi!

This blog post is dedicated to Lisianthus–everybody’s favorite flower that looks like a rose, but is not a rose. In fact, lisianthus are better than roses, because they have no thorns! Among other, nerdier, flower farmer reasons.

In the rose comparison race, lisianthus come out ahead on vase life as well, lasting much longer than garden roses. And while it’s true that your typical supermarket dozen roses may last a long time in the vase, that’s because of chemical preservatives and fungicides–ick.

Lisianthus, on the other hand, can last a solid 7-10 days, even up to two weeks if the stars align (and you change their water out regularly).

These beautiful blooms are native to warm, dry areas in the Southern US and Mexico, where they grow as biennials or short-lived perennials.

Lisianthus don’t survive the winters here in chilly New York, so we grow them as annuals. Since they are technically a biennial, meaning they flower in their second season, lisianthus take a long time to bloom from seed, 6 months or more!

We are growing several new-to-us varieties of Lisianthus this season. One of these is Lisianthus “Doublini,” which has the most adorable miniature blooms, like an old-fashioned spray rose. This one has definitely earned her place in our crop plan for next year.

We trialed some other lovely varieties this year in more pastel colors, like these Esprit Light Pink, and Falda Light Apricot lisianthus. I love them both!

You probably don’t love the heat as much as these Lisi’s do, but hopefully you are getting to soak up some good summer sun this weekend. It will be cool again before we know it.

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Foxgloves are stealing my heart at the farm, so it’s only fitting they should have a post all to themselves.

Tall, dramatic, and smothered in little bell-shaped florets, this year’s foxgloves are just glorious.

This year we’ve been really successful at growing foxgloves. It’s always so satisfying to feel like you’re finally getting it right!

Our wondrous foxglove crop this year started with selecting which varieties to grow.

Foxgloves come in three flavors: annual, biennial, and perennial. They are the only flower that we grow for which this is true.

Annual foxgloves flower their first year, so we can start seeds in late winter and expect a midsummer crop.

We’ve grown annual foxgloves other seasons, and they are quite lovely! The annual foxgloves are smaller, though, and don’t always produce many flowers.

Here at Sea Change Farm, our crops have to earn their field space! And the jury is still out on whether annual foxgloves are “worth it” for us to grow.

Now biennial foxgloves, that’s where it’s at!!

This year’s glorious crop of extra-tall, extra-juicy foxgloves are biennials, meaning they flower in their second year. We’ll start seeds this week for next year’s foxgloves.

Two whole years to get these flowers!!! All right, if we’re being technical, it’s more like 365 days. But seriously, one could produce a human child in that amount of time.

I think these biennial foxgloves are totally worth the wait.

Biennial foxgloves are challenging to grow, because you must get them to survive the winter. Last year 90% of our biennial foxgloves died in the cold. Very sad.

I think the key to overwintering foxgloves is to give them plenty of time in their first summer to settle in, by starting their seeds nice and early (around now).

We also grew our biennial foxgloves in black landscape fabric this season. I’m sure the fabric offered a lot of winter protection and a few degrees of extra warmth. Almost all of them survived!

The last group of foxgloves are perennials, and they overlap with the biennial group.

Many biennial foxgloves could survive multiple winters and perennialize, in theory. My understanding is that they are most predictable when grown as a biennial, though.

I love arranging with foxgloves because they make a big impact with their towering stems. They are wonderful to use in large arrangements and installations.

I’ll be using foxgloves this weekend at a rainbow-themed mountain wedding. And next weekend at a whimsical woodland wedding, too. If they’re still around in 3 weeks’ time, I’ll definitely use our white foxgloves in a classic all-white wedding as well. I can’t get enough of these blooms!

At home, it’s lovely to put a few tall stems of foxglove in a vase on their own, for a simple but striking and architectural arrangement.

Foxgloves have me completely under their spell! How about you?

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