It's Ag and Art Weekend and Our Dahlia Growing Workshop is Coming Up Too

AG and ART weekend has arrived!

The Ag and Art Tour of Richland County is this weekend. We are a host farm and are looking forward to having visitors out between 9 am and 4 pm on Saturday and Sunday. I will be doing guided tours at 11 am and 2 pm each day. You are also free to stroll through the flower field on your own.

This year we will have a few plants and some dahlia tubers for sale along with our market bouquets.

Market Bouquets                          $20

Dahlia Tubers                                $10

Brown Eyed Susans                       $5

Agastache                                      $5

Lemon Basil                                  $2.50

There are also some very interesting artisans coming out to show their talents. They will also have items available for sale, so be sure to leave room in your vehicle for take home items!

It looks like we will have great weather this weekend, so we hope you can find the time to come by!

Growing Dahlias – On Farm workshop

Registration for this class is now open on our website.

If you want to add something to your garden that produces an abundance of flowers, consider dahlias. Now is a great time to get them started in the Midlands. Come learn what is involved in growing your own during our on-farm class.

Class is held from 10 am - 12 noon on either Wednesday June 19th or Saturday June 22nd

Choose the date that you want to attend when you sign up. Registration deadline is June 15th.

The training begins with a presentation, followed by a walkthrough of the dahlia beds on the farm, including a demonstration of some of the growing techniques that will make your dahlias produce their best blooms.

What we will cover :

Dahlia classifications and Variety selection considerations, Growing conditions, Planting, Tending, Common Pests and Diseases, Harvesting, and After Season Care

Here’s what you’ll take home:

A handout of the material covered

Two dahlia tubers from our farm stock to plant in your own garden

Maximum attendees per class is 10.  Students must be 18 years or older to participate. No refunds after registering, but transfers of your seat to a friend are encouraged if you cannot attend.

We reserve the right to reschedule or cancel in case of severe weather or illness. Students will get as much advanced notice as possible. Refunds will be issued if Purple Tuteur Farm decides to cancel a class.

 That about wraps it up for today. Flowers are a joy in our lives. We thank you for supporting our efforts to get them out to the community.

Best,

Linda

October on the Farm - Dahlias and Mums

Farm Update

Happy Halloween!

Farmers are surprisingly busy in the fall. Seasons converge. We’re busy wrapping up the fall harvest, getting the beds prepared and planted for spring, getting the spring bulb sales delivered and preparing for our holiday offerings too.

Temperatures are forecasted to be in the low 30’s at night this week, which is pretty much a guarantee that the dahlias and the rest of the summer annuals will be done. This is the average first frost date for our area, so statistically speaking, we are on our normal schedule.  

Here are a few highlights from our fall season.

Dahlias

The dahlias were a lot of fun to grow this year, and we hope that you enjoyed some of them. We doubled the number of tubers we planted and grew several new (to us) varieties along with some old favorites. It is always fun to find something new and beautiful, that does well in our warm climate. Here are some of our favorites for the year.

Clockwise from top left: Totally Tangerine, Mr. Franz, Genova, Labyrinth Two Tone

Totally Tangerine is an anemone form dahlia. The plant is small, so good for a pot. It produces a large number of 2 inch blooms.

Mr. Franz is a waterlily form. The blooms are 4-6 inches and the petals are peach and yellow.

Genova is a small ball form dahlia. The plant produces many flowers. The size makes them easy to use in arrangements.

Labyrinth Two Tone is a lavender and white dinnerplate dahlia. They are typically smaller than a dinnerplate in our summer heat. This makes them good for arranging. This is a recent release from the same breeder that brought us the Labyrinth dahlia.

This last one is called Babylon Bronze. It does well in our heat. As the season’s days got shorter, it grew much larger and had petals that were more yellow than bronze.  These are hard to use in bouquets or arrangements, so I took them home! A few blooms for the farmer to enjoy at the end of the season.

We’re trying to keep a few dahlias going in the hoop house, so we’ll see how that works out.

We will be selling dahlia tubers in early 2024. This will give us room in the field to add a few new ones and expand the quantities of the ones that do well in our climate.  

Heirloom Mums

This year we are also growing heirloom mums for the first time. They generally bloom after the dahlias and their blooms are triggered by shorter days. Heirloom mums come in many shapes and sizes. We’ve just started with three to see how they do. So far, so good. This one is called Crimson Tide. More updates will be coming on these interesting flowers.

Heirloom mum Crimson Tide

Spring Blooming Bulbs

Thank you for those who have ordered their bulbs. We are getting things delivered/ready for farm pick up as the bulbs arrive from Holland. Shipping from Holland is a long and complex process, so the providers are not the best at keeping a predictable schedule. We have everything now except for the tulips. They are supposed to arrive next week, so we will get them to everyone as soon as we can.

The most important thing to remember is that we have the luxury of planting all of these now through January in our glorious climate. Just keep the bulbs cool and dry until you are ready to get them into the ground.

Holiday Shop

This year we will have bulbs, bulb gardens and greens bouquets available for purchase on the website and at our holiday open house at the farm on December 2nd.  

In addition to a large variety of amaryllis in various sizes, we will have extra-large paperwhites. These are 17cm, which means that they are some of the largest available. Larger bulbs provide larger and more flowers. Here is a photo showing a standard daffodil bulb next to one of the paperwhite bulbs.  

More information to come in our next email update.

Standard Cum Laude daffodil on the left, our extra large paperwhite

Announcing our Growing Dahlias On-Farm Workshop

Dahlias are one of the fall’s best flowers and now is the time to get them growing in the Midlands.

Come learn what is involved in growing your own during our on-farm class.

Class is held from 10 am - 12 noon on either Wednesday June 21st or Saturday June 24th

Choose the date that you want to attend when you sign up on our website.

The training begins with a presentation, followed by a walkthrough of the dahlia beds on the farm, including a demonstration of some of the growing techniques that will make your dahlias produce their best blooms.

What we will cover:

·       Dahlia classifications

·       Variety selection considerations

·       Growing conditions

·       Planting

·       Tending

·       Common Pests and Diseases

·       Harvesting

·       After Season Care

Here’s what you’ll take home:

·       A handout of the material covered

·       Two dahlia tubers from our farm stock to plant in your own garden

Maximum attendees per class is 10.  Students must be 18 years or older to participate. No refunds after registering, but transfers of your seat to a friend are encouraged if you cannot attend.

We reserve the right to reschedule or cancel in case of severe weather or illness. Students will get as much advanced notice as possible. Refunds will be issued if Purple Tuteur Farm decides to cancel a class.

For more information and to register for the class, Class Registration