I’m definitely more comfortable being behind the camera than in front of it but wanted to take you on a walk through my big dahlia patch out front of my house so I can explain those little organza baggies all over my plants that make my neighbors so curious (or they just think I’m insane😂). Trying to get as much weeding done as I can during this cool spell- can you say Alleve??🫠 Enjoy the last bit of this respite before real summer comes back next week🥵.
Do you cover your dahlia blooms or spray them with something or have another way to deal with pests ruing your blooms? I’d love more ideas!
#karpendiemblooms #atlurbanflowerfarm #atlantaorganicflowers #buylocalatlanta #atlantaflowers #grownnotflownatlanta #floretclassof2022 #flowerfarmerflorist #dahliadaze🌺
Dahlias, phlox, lisianthus, zinnias, scabiosa, snapdragons, butterfly bush, Dara and citronella geranium foliage😍. A special bouquet to celebrate a very special woman completing a long journey to become a pediatric surgeon. We are so proud of you @ninabence and wish you all the best as you start the next step of your career in WI!
#karpendiemblooms #atlurbanflowerfarm #atlantaorganicflowers #buylocalatlanta #atlantaflowers #grownnotflownatlanta #floretclassof2022 #flowerfarmerflorist #atlantaflowers
Um, just asking for a friend. Maybe don’t pummel the dahlias quite so much, just perhaps? Space out the rain into days and not months? Just a suggestion 🫠 love flower farmers/growers everywhere 💕
#karpendiemblooms #atlurbanflowerfarm #atlantaorganicflowers #buylocalatlanta #atlantaflowers #grownnotflownatlanta #flowerfarmerflorist #mothernaturewaters
Beauty in the Fade. I’ve said this in prior years. The hydrangea season seems to go by so quickly, especially for the mopheads or big leaf hydrangeas. But I lead the heads on to age so I can enjoy the change in color and intensity, eventually in late fall and winter those dried heads provide food for the birds and spaces for insects to live for the winter. Lately I’ve been feeling a bit like these hydrangeas, feeling the changing seasons of life a little. Hard to deny as I enter my last year in the 50s that’s it’s happening, no matter what I wish or how hard I push. So these flowers remind me to appreciate all the stages of life and of my flowers.
Bouquet ingredients: faded Penny Mac hydrangea, Lisianthus from @farmerbaileyplugs Roseann Brown and Voyage Light Apricot, dahlias Grandma’s Hug, Ferncliff Copper, Labyrinth, Totally Tangerine.
#karpendiemblooms #atlurbanflowerfarm #atlantaflowers #atlantaorganicflowers #buylocalatlanta #atlantaflowers #grownnotflownatlanta #farmerbaileyplugs #flowerfarmerflorist
To say it’s been a hard last week is an understatement. ICU of any sort is, well, intensive by definition but taking care of babies and children puts that on another level. Extreme levels of support require special skills and pose unique risks to these patients. We accept those risks, as do the families, in an effort to save their child. But when things happen that we don’t expect, or have never experienced (even after 27 years of doing this) we rely on the help of others to come to our aid and help with our patient’s care. These flowers were for two of my colleagues who rushed in to help me in the middle of the night, to lend a hand and do what they do best. They don’t see it as anything but what we all do as part of our jobs. We do our best, we fight until the end and we put all our heart and soul into doing the best for our patients. But sometimes that is so extraordinary that a little thanks such as this is so well deserved.
#karpendiemblooms #nicudoctors #atlurbanflowerfarm #atlantaorganicflowers #ecmoteam #flowerfarmerflorist
Hydrangea Primer Part 1: Hydrangea macrophylla
Hydrangea macrophylla:
AKA French or Big Leaf Hydrangea- native to southeast Japan and Southern China
The flowers of this genre may form mopheads or lacecaps and range from light pink to red, light blue to cobalt blue and lilac to dark purple. They are sensitive to soil pH and will be more blue at pH less than 6.5, more pink at pH >7 and more purple in between, although white hydrangeas do not exhibit this tendency as they have none of this pigment. You can manipulate this coloring by amending the soil with lime for pinker flowers or sulfur, aluminum sulfate or just coffee grounds for bluer flowers.
Pruning Hydrangea macropylla:
Blooms on old wood, prune after blooming in late summer but not after September as buds for next season have started to set. Do NOT hard pune in the spring or you will lose your blooms for that year! If you leave the dried blooms on the bush over winter (nice to leave for the birds and insects), you may prune off the bloom head and back to the next set of buds below. Hydrangeas have opposing bud nodes so cut straight across (not at an angle) just above a set of buds. To encourage new growth and more blooms, remove ¼ of the oldest, woodiest stems and any stems that are clearly deadeach year - I usually do this in winter or very early spring. If you need to do more drastic pruning for size, it is best done in summer after the shrub blooms so it has time to set new buds on the remaining branches before the fall.
Hydrangea flowers can change color, depending the pH of the soil (white hydrangeas do not change color, however). Alkaline soil will produce pink blooms; acidic soil will produce blue blooms. To make soil more alkaline for pinker blooms, add dolomitic lime to the soil. For bluer flowers, add soil sulfur or aluminum sulfate. These products can be found at a garden center, complete with directions for use. A free way to make soil acidic is to save coffee grounds and egg shells from the kitchen
#karpendiemblooms #atlurbanflowerfar
I’ve been pretty quiet here and there’s been no flowers out on the cart for a bit between my daughter’s graduation and being on in the NICU- it’s been a busy time! Some early summer loveliness for one of my favorite NNPs who wanted something to brighten her busy week and make her home smell of flowers. This early summer bouquet was a “walkabout” the garden and a random assortment of things I found lovely around the yard. How many can you identify? While I was taking these pictures, a hummingbird came to sample them and was quite put out when I took them away to leave for work😂
That’s one of the main differences between grocery store and most florist sold flowers- they’re not local and they don’t have great scent! They’ve traveled often across the world, picked many days to more than a week before and they’re bred for long stems but have lost their scent. Flowers from a local flower farmer have likely just been picked and have all the unique scent each one was mean to to have- the super sugary scent of butterfly bush, the fresh scent of mums, the citrus of lemon balm, the subtle scent of fresh hydrangeas. Find yourself a local grower and indulge your nose in some of this sweetness AND beauty! Locally grown, hummingbird approved😁.
#karpendiemblooms #atlurbanflowerfarm #atlantaorganicflowers #buylocalatlanta #atlantaflowers #grownnotflownatlanta #floretclassof2022 #flowerfarmerflorist
Happy birthday Mom!
Some birthday love for my sweet mom who is 94 today. She was born in the worst of the Great Depression in 1930. Now as a neonatologist, her birth story is fascinating to me. My grandmother was carrying identical twin girls and developed severe eclampsia and had a Cesarean section (in 1930😱) to save her life. The twins were a little over 4.5lb each and were sent home with my grandfather who had never had children before. His mother helped out and they put them in shoe boxes on the oven door with the pilot light to keep them warm and in dresser drawers soon after snuggled in with socks and warm cloths surrounding them.
They were truly identical- so much so that the godparents picked up the wrong babies on christening day. Even my grandparents would argue much later in life looking at photo albums about who was whom. I had a defining event as a toddler thinking I was sitting on my mother’s lap when another one came out of the house holding a tray of food and I realized this wasn’t my mother- vivid memory even today😂!
My mom and her twin have both been afflicted with Alzheimer’s (her twin predeceased her a few years ago) and it does make the neonatologist in me wonder if their in utero environment with growth restriction and eclampsia affected the way their brains developed. Knowing the answer to this does not alleviate the grief I feel that my mother isn’t really with us in the same way and that my last “real” conversation with her was almost a decade ago. I miss the mother I knew and cherish the one I still have. Love you Mom- Happy 94th Birthday 💕
#karpendiemblooms #atlurbanflowerfarm #atlantaorganicflowers #buylocalatlanta #atlantaflowers #grownnotflownatlanta #floretclassof2022 #flowerfarmerflorist
A special birthday bouquet for the wife of one of my Boy Scout leader friends. It was such a privilege to create something lovely for her special day and we wish her a wonderful birthday month! Life’s too short to celebrate for one day! Happy birthday @letsrolllobsters !!🎂🍾💐
#karpendiemblooms #atlurbanflowerfarm #atlantaorganicflowers #buylocalatlanta #atlantaflowers #grownnotflownatlanta #floretclassof2022 #flowerfarmerflorist #birthdaybouquet #localflowers
#karpendiemblooms #atlurbanflowerfarm #atlantaorganicflowers #anemones #springflowers #buylocalatlanta #atlantaflowers #grownnotflownatlanta #floretclassof2022 #flowerfarmerflorist
Christmas morning snowshoe in the French Alps. The weather was perfect for a guided hike through the snowy woods with amazing views all around. The peace and tranquillity made it the perfect place to spend this special morning with my kids. Happy Christmas 🎄!
These arrangements may not be very Christmasy but they are the last of the 2023 season going out to some very special people. I want to thank all the people who have supported my little farm this past year- I’ve met the kindest, most interesting people and look forward to an even bigger and better growing season in 2024! I’ll be opening CSA (community supported agriculture) subscriptions so you can guarantee you get in on these gorgeous flowers- once a month, bi-weekly or even weekly if you’re a big fan! I’m working on the website over the holidays to make this more streamlined so look out for that announcement!
As my kids (and I) get older, I find I cherish time and experiences with them more than presents, things. Their present this year is a family Christmas together in Geneva and Chamonix, France. Maybe they’ll be great snow and we’ll ski a little, maybe revere won’t. But we’ll cook, play games, do puzzles and just snuggle in together someplace truly amazing and enjoy the true meaning of Christmas together! I do feel a bit sorry for my poor dog/house/farm sitter for all the seedlings she’ll have to water in the basement while I’m gone😂. Seriously, though, not having to decorate this year and participate in the crazy shopping/party planning of the holidays has truly been freeing. This may be our new normal as my big kids are launching into the world in their careers and time becomes the most precious gift of all.
I wish each and every one of you a lovely, healthy, happy holiday and look forward to more beautiful flowers in the new year!
#karpendiemblooms #atlurbanflowerfarm #atlantaorganicflowers #buylocalatlanta #atlantaflowers #floretclassof2022 #flowerfarmerflorist
A gorgeous moody fall bouquet for a very special birthday today filled with fragrant heirloom mums, honey Dijon and peachy pink roses, celosia, strawflowers and tarragon flowers (the little yellow ones) which add amazing scent! Don’t let those late Fall/December birthdays get lost in the holiday shuffle- let us create something to make their day extra special! DM me to place an order!
#fallbirthdays #decemberbirthdays
#karpendiemblooms #atlurbanflowerfarm #atlantaorganicflowers #buylocalatlanta #atlantaflowers #flowerfarmerflorist
The weather her in GA is still so lovely- 60-70/45-55 which has kept the dahlias and now heirlooms mums cranking out blooms😍. I’m trying to give those dahlias as much time in the sun and warm weather to plump up those tubers so I can save/expand my stock this year.
After lots of recent travel, I’m finally home for a stretch until the holidays and can start on some many urgent garden tasks- getting the drip irrigation for the beds put together, cleaning out the zinnia bed, starting the ranuncs and anemones and getting the cool weather flowers in. I know I’m behind and it stresses me out but there’s only so much time in a day and I need to give myself grace. Today is getting a silage tarp down to expand the front dahlia bed so I can get in 400 dahlias next year - small I know by many people’s standards but this is an urban micro-farm for sure😂!
What’s in your to-do list this weekend? Whatever it is, enjoy this pretty weather!
#karpendiemblooms #atlurbanflowerfarm #atlantaorganicflowers #buylocalatlanta #atlantaflowers #grownnotflownatlanta #floretclassof2022 #flowerfarmerflorist #dahliadaze🌺 #heirloommums
