It's that time of year again, one of my favorite moments, when the roses burst into bloom. I have opened up reservations for you pick roses, and in particular for Mother's Day weekend.
Purchase tickets here!
If this is your first time visiting the you pick field, here is how it works. One reservation purchases one bucket of blooms. We provide a bucket with water for you to keep and take home, gloves and clippers to borrow, and most importantly, a field full of over 500 rose bushes to cut at your whim and delight.
Honestly friends, this is the most joyous way to spend a few hours outside on the farm. During your visit, you are welcome to bring a picnic, walk the fruit orchard, and enjoy some time outdoors. Come join us - peak rose season is from now into July, though some bushes will keep blooming well into the Fall, for California is truly a magical climate.
Reservations here!
Spring Time Rose Care
This is a perfect moment to set up any roses at your home for a season of good health and great flowers. The most important gift to give your shrubs is food. Roses are a metaphor for love because they are hungry and thirsty! We feed our bushes a liquid fish and seaweed blend once a month from now until September. Maxsea and Drammatic are two good brands that can be found at many local garden centers and online as well. It's also a good time to check to make sure your irrigation is working, if you have it. Otherwise, plan on giving your roses a good soak twice a week by hand.
With spring growth also comes spring fungal infections and bugs, for nature must always take a tithe. You might see the leaves of your roses infected with rust, black spot and/or powdery mildew. All of these fungal infections infest plant leaves during the cooler and damper part of spring that now seems behind us for this season. Therefore, you can simply remove infected foliage and your ruses should send out healthy new leaves in replacement.
Insects can be another challenge this time of year, in particular rose aphids. If you see rows of these reddish colored small insects on your rose buds, never fear, simply wash them off with a hose and they will drown.
Summer Fruit Forecast
Oh it's looking so good in the orchard! We really had a goldilocks perfection of a winter - wet, but not too wet- cold, but not too cold. The fruit set on our trees is the best I have ever seen. Now, not to jinx myself here, I am concerned we might be going into a very hot summer with heat waves in the Fall. But for now, I am content to wander the orchard rows and see tiny baby fruits forming everywhere. So exciting! If all goes well, there should be some plums, apricots and figs by the end of June.
Inspiration from Humans & Nature Intertwined
I watched this fantastic interactive documentary about the Pollinators of Slovenia, and I highly recommend it. The film features a group of beekeepers and farmers in this tiny country I know very little about but now want to move to. It's free and nicely divided into bite sized chunks too. One out of three bites of food we eat is grown courtesy of pollinators.
https://emergencemagazine.org/feature/pollinators-of-slovenia/
