Lavender Rose Farms Blog |
 English Lavender - Hidcote. Starting to bloom. June 2019 Due to the cold, wet spring 2019 lavender production is behind. We usually have harvested by now. Unfortunately, it may be several weeks to a month behind depending on weather. We will post updates as to when the harvest comes in. The English lavender are budding but just not quite ready for harvest, but it will be soon. The intermediates, which were hardest hit by the cold, wet spring, are still trying to recover. Some have recovered and are starting to bud, others are still just getting a little green, and we have removed over 40 plants so far and are in process of replacing. This means our harvest will not be as robust as last year. We are also switching over to more English lavender than intermediate on replacement plants. We have replaced about 6 Phenomenal plants with Phenomenal. However, English lavender is much hardier for our growing regions and winters. It also survived the cold, wet spring in much better shape than our other lavenders. So, I was able to obtain Royal Velvet plants - a particular Engilsh variety I have found hard to find in my area of SE Mi - and I should have these in July sometime. They make lovely bouquets and also great culinary lavender. July is beyond our usual planting window, but it should be fine as the English varieties are hardier. I have planted English as late as August and September and they have survived the winter. The switch over to more English lavender will mean that starting after this season, our floral design will incorporate more of the English variety mixed in with the Grosso or long-stemmed we usually use. I think this will be a good change as the English lavender has a more vibrant color. I have used long-stemmed in the past for floral design because it's longer and buds are bigger and sturdier. However, the color and scent is usually far superior, in my opinion, with the English lavender. Since English is significantly smaller in length and size I intend to do a mix of Grosso and English together in bouquets. English lavender can also be used as a culinary lavender, which is an added bonus. Those fallen buds, collect them and you can use them in lavender tea, in recipes, or lemonade. We also will beginning to sell tins of our culinary lavender with the increase in English lavender plants and production next season. The varieties we use of English are Hidocote and Royal Velvet (starting this season) . They are a lovely deep purple color. We also have Melissa which is a light lavender and some tend towards pink. We also have some Folgate lavender plants. I have added some pictures below to show you some fresh cuts of each type and dried bouquet examples. Hover over each picture and it will show you the type of lavender.
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 It's wedding season! I have been busy for the past couple of months and still taking orders! I wanted to share some of the photos I have received. Remember to send in your photos from your wedding or event! We love to see our floral design at the actual event (and other products). You can send them to me at my email elaine@lavenderosefarms.com or upload them to our Etsy shop as part of your review of the item you purchased. Lastly, you can send them to me through private message through our Facebook page. How do I use your photos? First, I will give credit to the photographer if you provide their name. Professional photography tends to have a watermark to identify the studio or photographer so of course that's the easiest way to post them. If they are your own personal photos that's fine too. I will watermark with Lavender Rose Farms watermark on bottom. This is just so it identifies the photograph and prevents anyone from using your photo without permission. If you would like photo credit just send me the name of the person who took the photo andI will post the photo credit with the picture. Where will they post? I post them on our listing on the Etsy shop. When you purchase our floral design there is a carousel of 10 photos for each design. I love to post wedding photos as well as my own photos of the floral design so potential clients can see how the floral design will look at an actual wedding or event. Your photo may be featured as our profile or cover photo on our Facebook page and on our Etsy shop profile/cover photo, and also on our floral design page of our website! So keep them coming! I love, love, love seeing these photos! Thank you!!  Lavender & Flower Update: The English lavender is recovering well after the extremely rainy spring. It has been said this is a once in 100-year event to see this much rain. Some of the English varieties already have buds! The intermediate Lavenders are still in transition and I plan to replace almost 70 plants. I have a wonderful new variety coming in called Royal Velvet (this is an English or augustifolia). I have been wanting this one for a couple of years and have been unable to find it locally. Shout out to Victor's Lavender in Washington State. I should have this at the end of June! Normally, that is a bit late for us to be planting; however, since everything is so behind and we are still getting some rains I think later planting will work fine. Our plants to expand the Monarch and cutting gardens are on hold. We cannot get the tractor out into the fields as they are too consistently wet. So have replanted the existing Monarch field where the annual zinnas were last year. The Wildflower section (perennial) has come on strong this year. Double if not triple the size! So many new wildflowers coming up I didn't see last year including daisies. I just love it! |
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