The last day of the year is a fitting time to look back at the past year and share a few favorite photos.
January -February - March
Bulbs like tulips and daffodils start our flower year, along with anemones, poppies and early sweet peas. Our ranunculus crop was mostly a fail this year - so disappointing. Next year I vow to get them rooted better before planting and amend the soil well.
Top row, l to r: Anemone 'Blue-White' is always one of our earliest flowers; tulip 'White Marvel' was a successful variety for us this year; early sweet pea 'Winter Sunshine Light Blue' blooms before the Spencer type sweet peas.
Middle row, l to r: A custom bouquet featuring 'Columbus' tulips and early sweet peas; tulips in our harvest bucket; daffodil 'Brackenhurst' is the brightest thing we grow!
Bottom row, l to r: Wait a minute - maybe these Iceland poppies are the brightest thing we grow; more 'Columbus' tulips; a mixed bouquet featuring 'Blue Diamond' double tulips, the dark purple tulip 'Paul Scherer' and early sweet peas.
April - May - June
Roses! The first flush is always the best, but most roses will repeat several times, blooming right up til Thanksgiving. Snapdragons, sweet peas, rudbeckia and sunflowers come in late spring and all did well this year. We didn't market our sunflowers well this year, but that's a different story.
Top row, l to r: Roses 'Pink Promise' and the hot pink 'Rina Hugo' grow together in our yard, and both are very tall; A trio of 'Ingrid Bergman' red roses.
Middle row, l to r: Rose 'Rina Hugo' combines will with apricot rose 'Just Joey' and gray foliage of dusty miller; Rose 'Sally Holmes' is spectacular in its first flush of blooms - large, single flowers in clusters; sweet peas 'Restormel' and 'Charlie's Angel'.
Bottom row, l to r: Snapdragons, Clarkia and bay combine well in one of our subscription bouquets; Rudbeckia and yellow snapdragons; Sunflower 'Horizon'.
July - August - September
Zinnias! So many colors and forms. The best varieties for us are the Oklahoma series, the Benary's Giant series, Isabellina, Zowie and State Fair. Our filler flowers are celosia, scabiosa and strawflower, plus a few weeks of Shasta daisies for fresh white accents.
Top row, l to r: Zinnia 'Isabellina' is a winner in my book, big blooms of soft buttery-yellow, combined here with Tanacetum and pink 'Oklahoma' zinnias; 'Cupcake' and 'Oklahoma Pink' zinnias combined with snapdragons and purple celosia; Shasta daisies come back every year in our back yard.
Middle row, l to r: Two types of single-stem sunflowers; mixed Benary and Oklahoma zinnias; Zinnia 'Zowie' is surrounded by other zinnias, scabiosa and Rudbeckia.
Bottom row, l to r: Scabiosa 'Oxford Blue' combined with pink statice and our first chrysanthemum of the season, 'Rosedew'; Single-stem sunflowers growing among our mums; mixed bouquet of strawflowers, zinnias, celosia and a bit of bouganvillea for eye-popping color.
October - November
We finished our flower year with heirloom chrysanthemums. Our roses put out one last flush of blooms to mix in with all the mums, and marigolds kept a non-stop marathon of blooms right through November.
Top row, l to r: Roses 'The Lady Gardener' and 'Crocus' alongside hierloom mums; Chrysanthemums 'Seaton's Je'Dore', 'Senkyo Kenshin', 'Rose Maiko' and Klamath Falls'; Rust and pink mums 'Seaton's Toffee', 'Rose Maiko, 'Peter Magnus' and 'King's Delight.'
Bottom row, l to r: Marigolds bloomed beautifully all through the fall - these are 'Coco Gold'; Our fall roses inspired me to paint one; a mix of heirloom mums and rose 'Just Joey.'