I may be jinxing the whole thing but I think that spring has finally arrived. Sales are slow but steady. A lot of IGCs seem to be playing it safe this year and are either ordering a lot less at a time or just waiting until the weather warms up a little more.
Our availability is getting better every week as more crops get ready. We are somewhat behind on a few items but the majority of our crops are about 1-2 weeks behind in getting ready so the slow start to spring is not impacting our quality. We are probably going to have to skip over a crop of impatiens and go to the next one to keep the best shipping out but so far that is the only items we might dump.
Some crops are just plain confusing. My last crop of 124 petunias has more color than the 2 crops ahead of it. I think we are going to see a few weeks where we have 2-3 crops ready at the same time. I have 2 crops of Wave Petunia baskets and Fuchsia baskets that are the same size and will probably get ready at the same time.
Alternately, I have a crop of New Guinea baskets that was supposed to be ready week 12 that won’t be ready until week 15. So if you are wondering about some items not being ready yet or why there are a lot something on our availability, it’s all because of that cold snap we had in January that impacted the production.
Here is something new. Check out these new colors of Wave Petunias we are trialing – Berry Velour (left), Burgundy Velour (middle) and Red Velour (right).
These pictures don’t do these colors any justice. The pictures above are close ups of the baskets below and as you can see, the picture colors change somewhat due to the camera and lighting. For instance, the basket on the right in the pictures below is the same basket. The Burgundy Velour on the left in the left hand pic is a better representation of the actual Burgundy Velour color, and I think it will be a best selling color in a year or two.
Here are some of next week’s pics.
Here is a short Instagram video of our next crop of #4.5 Fantasia Geraniums.