Pictures

Our first Passion Flower bloom.

Last fall I dug up all the Passion Flower vines I had growing throughout the gardens.  One of the plants I cut back and brought indoors and let it grow in a south facing window all winter.  It did great and rewarded us with it's first flower a couple of days ago.  They are pretty spectacular.  The other plants were placed in our insulated, unheated garage. Unfortunately they did not survive the winter.  I am rooting cuttings to increase my volume of plants as I plan to use a lot of vines in my floral arrangements this summer.  

The above are the floral arrangements I created at week 2 & 3 of the Floral Design Class.

The first photo is a Naturalistic Japanese Garden (modern twist on Ikebana).

The second photo we were to create a Crescent shaped arrangement.

The classes are proving to be very challenging, but I am loving working with fresh flowers again.

At this time we are busy seeding, transplanting and potting up tubers and bareroot plants we are receiving from our orders we placed in December of 2012.  The weather is still very cold for this time of year so we have not opened up the greenhouses yet.  All of the seedlings are under grow lights in the basement and garage.  Eventually we will run out of room and we will have to start using the greenhouse.  Should have enough room for another week or two, then the hardier plants will be moved out.

Few more photos taken by Memories by Mandy from the 2012 growing season....

Crocosmia Limpopo

Gomphrena  Fireworks

Zinnia Zahara Rose

Dahlia Fuschiana

May Happenings

May is really a wonderful month.  Everything in nature is so busy.  The trees, shrubs and perennials are all signaled to start growing with the warm weather.  The birds are busy building nests and finding mates.  The sky is very active in our yard right now, with all the different birds flying about.  It so nice to have some company in the yard.
The greenhouses are really filling up, so we are starting to adjust some of the annuals to the higher light levels outdoors.  Every day we allow them to bask in the full sun for a little longer.  Soon they will be tolerant of the sun for the entire day and at the end of May we will start planting them in the ground.  We have halted seeding for now as we received some much appreciated moisture this past weekend, so in a few days we can continue with that schedule.
Today we are showcasing a couple of annuals we have available this year for sales at the Saskatoon Farmer's Market.  The first is a vine called Blue Passion Flower.  It is very fast growing with exotic looking flowers.  It is great for pots or beds and grows up to 12'.  Allow it to grow in full sun for best flowering.  Hardy to Zone 6.

Passiflora caerulea

Pennisetum Fireworks

Another annual we have is the Proven Winners Fireworks grass.  Grows to 24-30" tall and is variegated with reds, pinks and greens.  Likes full sun and can be grown in the landscape or in a pot.

This weekend at the Saskatoon Farmers Market we are going to have some interesting gifts for Mother's Day.  They will include our hypertufa containers potted up with succulents or herbs, decorative containers, rubber boots,  vinyl records re-purposed into plant containers, and the most fun item will be a pair of red high heels all planted up.  Stop by early to check it all out.  We will be selling the pepper and tomato plants along with celery plants, annual flowers, dahlias, shrubs, lots of new perennials and our selection of culinary herbs.   I will be posting pictures of our unusual plantings available on our facebook page this week.  Search Mistik Acres and like our page.  We will be participating in the Sunday market this weekend, but we will be outside due to a celebration all about Mom's, taking place indoors from 11:30-2:30.  Pamper yourself or your Mom with a mini manicure, massage, facial or yoga instruction.  There will be live entertainment and lots of food.