Can you believe it’s July?! I’m having a hard time wrapping my mind around it. It’s been raining so much here — every day another inch or three — that it feels like the farm is suddenly in the tropics. The flowers are not terribly happy about this abrupt climate change. The field is very soggy.
The farmer is very soggy.

The only flowers that seem to be loving all this moisture are the dahlias. They require a lot of water to grow their massive stems and leaves. The ones in the hoop house have been blooming for a couple weeks now. But yesterday I got the first decent harvest off the outside dahlias. Aren’t they lovely? ‘Frost Nip’ is actually a dinner plate dahlia with blooms as wide as my hand. The very large buds are the size of a standard dahlia and were the inspiration for this week’s Seasonal Bouquet Project design. Don’t you just love their purple center with white frosty tips? They pair beautifully with the dusky lavender of the ‘Opus’ snapdragons.

The first week of July is typically the peak of the flower season at our farm, seeing the biggest harvests and the greatest diversity of blooms for any one week of the year. I’m not sure that will be the case this year after 12 inches of rain in just about the same number of days. Fingers crossed for a rebound after the storm clouds clear! And the humidity drops! I’m tired of living in a sauna!