Summertime at Jello Mold Farm

Garden shed at Jello Mold Farm

Here are some more photos from my June visit to Jello Mold Farm.  Lots of gorgeous flowers in bloom.  I never tire of the beauty held in these fertile acres.

Hydrangeas

Poppies

Dahlias (I put my hand in the picture to give you some idea of the size of these giants)

Greenhouses

Crocosmia

Another view

Love-in-a-mist

Lupine

Inside a greenhouse

 

 

Intensely Ordinary

“Do not try to do extraordinary things but do ordinary things with intensity.”
— Emily Carr, from Hundreds and Thousands:The Journals of an Artist

Pen and ink sketches of flowers on color blocks

Pen and ink sketches of flowers on color blocks

 

Dahlias from Jello Mold Farm

Jello Mold Farm’s magnificent dahlias

It’s impossible to say what Diane, Dennis, Andy and the staff at Jello Mold Farm do best, but their dahlias have to be near the top of the list.  How fortunate that the growing season has lasted into early October, so that I could feast my eyes on their riotous glory.  These have to be the most exuberant of blooms, a welcome splash of color in our muted fall landscape.  Enjoy!

 

 

Jeweled Dahlias and More at Volunteer Park

Dahlia at Volunteer Park

“For dahlias give a jewel-like glow to the heart of the autumn garden, they are, in a mass, so resplendent.”
— Susan Hill, The Magic Apple Tree: A Country Year

Volunteer Park Conservatory

I spent a wonderful hour on Sunday wandering around Volunteer Park with my camera.  It was a beautiful, sunny fall day — resplendent — and people were out and about enjoying time with family and friends.  The dahlia garden was an outdoor showcase, but I enjoyed the various plants inside the conservatory, too.

Cacti

Foliage

The Gage Academy of Art was hosting a Drawing Jam in the park, and this time I just looked over the shoulders of the participants rather than taking up sketching myself.  A lost opportunity, really, but I was happy this time just photographing.

Sometimes you just can’t beat a Sunday in the park in Seattle.

Wordless Wednesdays: 12 Views of Dahlias from Jello Mold Farm

A Return to Jello Mold Farm on a Foggy, Fall Day

Jello molds with spider web

While I was in the Skagit Valley, I took a quick side trip to walk the flower fields at Jello Mold Farm.  It was a foggy morning, so instead of photographing in the morning light, I worked under white/gray skies.  But there was a surprising amount of color in the fields this time of year, especially in the dahlia beds.  Our warm weather has extended the growing season.  Here are a few photos from my fall visit:

Dahlia

Monk’s hood with spider web

 

Dahlias in Detail

The late blooming dahlias at Jello Mold Farm seemed especially feminine and sensuous.  I couldn’t stop photographing their soft curves.  When looking through my camera viewfinder, they resembled underwater sea forms.

 

Jello Mold Farm in October

Sign on van, Jello Mold Farm

Harvesting some late dahlias, Jello Mold Farm

On my recent trip to the Skagit Valley, I stopped in at Jello Mold Farm to see what was happening in the flower beds. Not surprisingly, they were harvesting decorative pumpkins and gourds, but their dahlias were still blooming, too (in great numbers).

Pink dahlias

I love the fall color palette with its golden yellows and rich, jewel-like purples and reds.

Shoo Fly, a.k.a. Nicandra physalodes

Rudbeckia hirta ‘Chim Chiminee’

The ‘Queen Lime’ zinnias are still some of my favorites.

And I like to see what other unusual floral fixings catch my eye.

Monkshood, aconitum sp.

The compost heaps grow large at the end of the peak growing season, an emblem of these plants’ life cycles and regeneration.

The Earth at Jello Mold Farm Laughs in Flowers

“The earth laughs in flowers.”
— Ralph Waldo Emerson

“I must have flowers, always, and always.”
— Claude Monet

Truck in the flower fields, Jello Mold Farm

There was so much to see at Jello Mold Farm at this time of year.  It’s a busy time for flower growers.  These Skagit Valley flower fields were bursting with exuberance and beauty.  Zinnias, dahlias, sunflowers, bee balm . . . they all shout “summer!”

Zinnias

The blushing pink of Dahlia ‘Cafe au Lait’

Beds of Scabiosa ‘Dark Knight’

Scabiosa ‘Fama White’ contrasts nicely with the ‘Dark Knight’

Harvested sunflowers at the start of the trek to the warehouse

Bee balm, Monarda ‘Raspberry Wine’

View from the end of the row

Sneezeweed Helenium

Cutting raspberry canes for filler in bouquets

Chestnuts for texture

Seed pods, love-in-a-mist

Love-in-a-mist

And always, flower gardens remind me of time passing . . . for everything there is a season.

The last sweet peas

And the last poppies

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Flower Market in November

“After the leaves have fallen, we return
To a plain sense of things. . . ”
Wallace Stevens

The Seattle Wholesale Growers Market in November

You can see the change of seasons at the Seattle Wholesale Growers Market.  In November, the wild, glorious, rainbow hues of summer blooms have been replaced by the quieter browns and greens of late autumn.  There is an abundance of twigs and branches and dried grasses with seed pods.  And a hint of the holidays in holly sprigs and branches.  The sculptured forms of plants and flowers seem more evident now that your eye is no longer saturated with color.  This has its own beauty.

Holly from J Foss Garden Flowers

Giant balls of dried hydrangea

Buyer with hydrangea

Globe Amaranthus and grasses from Oregon’s Best Specialty Flowers

I love the colors in these dried flowers — don’t know what they are called

Decorating with tree trunks and rounds

Dahlias the size of dinner plates from Jello Mold Farm

This root/bulb looks like an underwater sea creature amidst the orange pumpkins

Lining up purchases on the loading dock, Seattle Wholesale Growers Market

Interior, Seattle Wholesale Growers Market, in November

Broken sprig of holly on the loading dock