By: Susan Clotfelter, Master Gardener volunteer Mitzi Davis has been a fixture at the Larimer County Farmer’s Market for a decade, selling fresh cut flowers. We talked with Mitzi on a May Saturday as she took a break from working in her garden. You’ll find her on the northwest side of the market, next to Bill the Wine Guy and catty-corner from the Master Gardener booth.
Q: How are you getting ready to sell this season with spring being late?
A: I’ve been planting all of my annuals for my flower beds. One-third of my backyard is a large cutting garden, arranged just like a vegetable garden. I grow probably 25 or 30 different annuals for the market, and a few other things that are perennials. I start most of them indoors from seed. I have a grow-light setup that’s up in the spare bedroom, and I usually start them in March. This year I’m about a week behind in setting them out, but it’s been so crazy with the temperature fluctuating up and down, that I’m a little delayed.
Q: How do you know when it’s safe to set them into the garden?
A: I kind of go by what things are starting to come up on their own. If the volunteers -- the sunflowers, the bells of Ireland, the cosmos -- if they think it’s time to be growing, then it’s usually OK to be putting them out in the garden.
Q: Tell us about some of the blooms that we can expect at your booth this year -- and how the weather affects that.
A: I always have sunflowers, snapdragons, zinnias, azuratum, gomphrena, and larkspur. But some years I may not have a really good selection of flowers until the end of July. Then I’ll go as long as Mother Nature allows me to go. Last year the late hail set me back. But I try and plan something for later in the season -- asters, goldenrod, little pumpkins, Indian corn.
Q: What are your favorite flowers to sell? Are there any new ones this year that you’re really excited about?
A: It’s seasonal. Sometimes I’ll have five buckets of snapdragons. Then they start fading out as the sunflowers and zinnias come in. Those three are my big favorites, and they sort of peak at different times. I do have a couple of new things. I had a few double snapdragons last year and really liked them, so I have more of those; one is called “Madame Butterfly.” And I have a couple new colors of statice, a light blue and a pink. And I don’t usually grow gladiolas, and I’m not growing the big ones, but I am growing the small ones. They’re much better in a vase. So I have a color mix that’s commercial, and I have some in blue and purple and orange and some pastel ones.
Q: So you’re loading how many buckets of flowers for each market?
A: As many as I can fit in my Prius! I was hesitant to buy it; I’d had a Honda CRV. And I thought, “I’m never going to get everything in here.” But I can fit 10 to 12 buckets of flowers during peak season. And if the tall sunflowers can’t fit, my husband will bring those in the Honda Element. He’s there every Saturday and helps me set up and package things up. Then we also have to go shop.
Q: Where do you shop at the market?
A: I look for the vegetables I can’t grow. Corn and melon are the two big ones, because I don’t have the space for them.
Q: And what do you have to do to get ready for market every Saturday?
A: Well, I cut on Fridays. Then I hold the flowers in buckets in the same room I grew them from seed in -- it’s the only room in the house that has air conditioning. Then I usually get up at about 5 a.m. to load up and get ready. But I’m definitely a morning person, so it’s not all that bad.
Q: How are you getting ready to sell this season with spring being late?
A: I’ve been planting all of my annuals for my flower beds. One-third of my backyard is a large cutting garden, arranged just like a vegetable garden. I grow probably 25 or 30 different annuals for the market, and a few other things that are perennials. I start most of them indoors from seed. I have a grow-light setup that’s up in the spare bedroom, and I usually start them in March. This year I’m about a week behind in setting them out, but it’s been so crazy with the temperature fluctuating up and down, that I’m a little delayed.
Q: How do you know when it’s safe to set them into the garden?
A: I kind of go by what things are starting to come up on their own. If the volunteers -- the sunflowers, the bells of Ireland, the cosmos -- if they think it’s time to be growing, then it’s usually OK to be putting them out in the garden.
Q: Tell us about some of the blooms that we can expect at your booth this year -- and how the weather affects that.
A: I always have sunflowers, snapdragons, zinnias, azuratum, gomphrena, and larkspur. But some years I may not have a really good selection of flowers until the end of July. Then I’ll go as long as Mother Nature allows me to go. Last year the late hail set me back. But I try and plan something for later in the season -- asters, goldenrod, little pumpkins, Indian corn.
Q: What are your favorite flowers to sell? Are there any new ones this year that you’re really excited about?
A: It’s seasonal. Sometimes I’ll have five buckets of snapdragons. Then they start fading out as the sunflowers and zinnias come in. Those three are my big favorites, and they sort of peak at different times. I do have a couple of new things. I had a few double snapdragons last year and really liked them, so I have more of those; one is called “Madame Butterfly.” And I have a couple new colors of statice, a light blue and a pink. And I don’t usually grow gladiolas, and I’m not growing the big ones, but I am growing the small ones. They’re much better in a vase. So I have a color mix that’s commercial, and I have some in blue and purple and orange and some pastel ones.
Q: So you’re loading how many buckets of flowers for each market?
A: As many as I can fit in my Prius! I was hesitant to buy it; I’d had a Honda CRV. And I thought, “I’m never going to get everything in here.” But I can fit 10 to 12 buckets of flowers during peak season. And if the tall sunflowers can’t fit, my husband will bring those in the Honda Element. He’s there every Saturday and helps me set up and package things up. Then we also have to go shop.
Q: Where do you shop at the market?
A: I look for the vegetables I can’t grow. Corn and melon are the two big ones, because I don’t have the space for them.
Q: And what do you have to do to get ready for market every Saturday?
A: Well, I cut on Fridays. Then I hold the flowers in buckets in the same room I grew them from seed in -- it’s the only room in the house that has air conditioning. Then I usually get up at about 5 a.m. to load up and get ready. But I’m definitely a morning person, so it’s not all that bad.
Mitzi's flowers and arrangements are truly lovely! Glad she's back for another season!
ReplyDeleteAfter the wedding, we continued to enjoy each of the arrangements – a reminder of a most wonderful wedding. Thank you Kathy, Jason, Sandy, Lynn, Jackie and Mary.
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