The last fresh-cut bouquets of the year. Groton and Newton both sold out.
Our last fresh market, the first frost on the way, a high tunnel that is fighting us, and what the seed heads in your garden will actually give you next year.
FROM THE FIELD
We closed out the fresh-cut market season by selling out at both Groton and Newton. Thank you to everyone who came by, waited in line, and carried a bucket of dahlias to the car. For a first season, ending on two empty tables is about as good as it gets.
Frost is setting in next week. The last dahlias are still pushing through, and we will cut every one we can before the cold takes them. Almost everything else has already died back or gone to seed. The zinnia and cosmos rows that carried us all summer are brown stems and dry seed heads now, which is exactly what this issue is about.
The struggle: we are in the middle of building the high tunnel, and it has been harder than we expected. Old steel, new ground, and a lot of measuring twice. It is slow going, but it is going, and it is the reason for the news below.
IN THE CART THIS WEEK
✽ Dahlias: the last flush before frost
✽ Everything else: gone to seed, and we are saving it
✽ Dried bouquets: back at market next week
✽ Seeds: back at market next week
🌱 Where we will be
No markets this weekend. We are taking a week to cut the last dahlias, hang flowers to dry, and keep building the tunnel.
We will be back in a week with dried flower bouquets, seeds, and 2027 Flower Share memberships. Days and locations are on our markets page.
DRIED BOUQUETS • SEEDS • 2027 SHARES
WE HEARD YOU
All season, the same question came across the market table: will you have flowers for Mother's Day?
Next year the answer is yes. The high tunnel will hold our first batch of tulips, ranunculus, anemones, and stock, plus a handful of our early summer varieties, so we will have spring flowers in time for Mother's Day.
In May, expect straight bunches of premium varieties: an armful of one flower, done well. Our mixed bouquets come back in mid to late June, once the field catches up.
Next spring, the tunnel buys us a head start of about two months.
🌱 Saving seed: what you will actually get next year
Right now your garden is full of free seed. Whether that seed gives you the same flower next summer comes down to one question: is the plant open pollinated or a hybrid?
1. Open pollinated: you get the same flower back
Open-pollinated varieties (heirlooms are one kind) are stable. Grow them from their own seed and the next generation looks like the parent. These are the plants worth saving from.
2. F1 hybrid: you get a surprise
An F1 hybrid is a deliberate cross between two different parent lines. The first generation is uniform and vigorous. Its seed is not. The next generation reshuffles the parents' traits, so the plants come up mixed and drifting back toward one parent or the other. Some seed from hybrids will not sprout at all. If the parental packet from last year says F1 or hybrid, treat saved seed as an experiment, not a plan.
3. The bees do not read the labels
Zinnias, cosmos, sunflowers, and calendula are all pollinated by insects, and different varieties of the same flower cross freely. Seed Savers Exchange suggests about a quarter mile between cosmos varieties and half a mile for zinnias and sunflowers to keep them pure. In a home garden with three zinnia colors side by side, your saved seed will be a mix. Often a lovely one.
4. Dahlias never come true
Every dahlia seed is a brand-new variety. That is why named dahlias are grown from tubers, which are clones.
Do this before frost: pick fully dry seed heads on a dry afternoon, from your best plants, and finish drying them indoors before they go into a labeled paper envelope. If you’re interested in reading more about seed saving: click here to continue reading online.
WEB-ONLY DEEP DIVE
Seed saving, one layer deeper
This part did not make it into the email. It is here for anyone who wants to go out with an envelope this weekend and do it properly.
Why hybrid seed scatters
Plant breeders make an F1 hybrid by crossing two inbred parent lines that are each very uniform but very different from each other. Every F1 plant gets one set of genes from each parent, so the whole crop comes up identical and usually more vigorous than either parent. That vigor lasts exactly one generation.
When an F1 plant sets seed, those two sets of genes get shuffled. The University of Missouri uses a simple tomato example: cross a red line with a pink line and every F1 fruit is red, but save seed from those red plants and roughly one in four of the next generation comes up pink. Real flower traits like stem length, color, and vigor are controlled by many genes at once, so the shuffle is far messier than three to one.
A practical note on cut sunflowers: many of the pollenless varieties grown for bouquets are F1 hybrids. They can still set seed if pollen arrives from another sunflower nearby, but what grows from it is anyone's guess.
Reading a seed head
Zinnias. You can pick petals from fresh heads as well as browning heads. The seed sits at the base of each petal, a flat arrowhead shape. Pull the head apart over a bowl and blow off the chaff. Let the seed dry fully before storing.
Cosmos. The seeds are long dark needles that ripen fast and blow away. Cut the whole head as soon as the needles darken.
Calendula. Curled, crescent-shaped seeds that drop quickly once ripe. Seed Savers notes you can pick them slightly early and finish drying them indoors.
Sunflowers. Let the head dry down on the stalk, then tie a paper bag over it to beat the birds and finish drying inside.
Celosia and snapdragons. Both hold many tiny seeds. For celosia, cut heads once seed starts to drop and hang them in a dry, airy spot. For snapdragons, cut the stalk when about two-thirds of the capsules are ripe and shake them out.
Why frost matters
Seed has to finish maturing on the plant. A seed head that is still green when a hard frost hits often will not finish, and immature seed tends not to sprout. If you are in our corner of New Hampshire, this weekend is the window. Anything already dry and brown is fair game; anything still soft is a gamble.
Choose your parents
Saving seed is also breeding, whether you mean it to be or not. Save from the plants you liked best: the longest stems, the best color, the ones that kept producing. Skip the stunted, the diseased, and the off-types. Do that for a few years with an open-pollinated variety and it starts to adapt to your own garden.
Drying and storing
Spread seed on a plate or screen indoors for a week or two until it is fully dry. Store it in paper envelopes, not plastic, labeled with the flower, the color, and the year. Keep it somewhere cool, dark, and dry. Many flower seeds stay good for several years stored that way.
Test before you trust it
Before you start seeds in late winter, run a quick germination test. Fold ten seeds into a damp paper towel, slip it into a bag, and keep it warm. After a week or so, count what sprouted. Seven out of ten means roughly seventy percent germination, so sow a little thicker to make up for it.
One last caution
Some modern varieties are protected by plant variety protection or patents. Saving seed for your own garden is generally a different matter from selling it, so if you ever plan to sell or share widely, check the packet or the seed company first.
End of the deep dive. Back to the field.
A FEW FROM THE LAST CUTS
Coral zinnias, one of the last good buckets
Cosmos, now mostly seed heads
Zinnias and dahlias from the final weeks
Dusty miller, which shrugs off a light frost
For the last two weeks, Field Notes readers have had first pick. As of this afternoon, the same link is public. There are sixty shares for the whole year, split across four tiers. Sixty is what two people can grow, cut, and hand-tie well every week.
When a tier sells out, it closes and a waitlist goes up in its place. If you have been meaning to get to it, today is the day to do it.
Full Season
$200 now, $395 on Feb 1
Seventeen weeks, mid-May through the end of September, skipping July. Three extra stems every week, plus a free hat and two extra bouquets.
Half Season
$304 at checkout
Eight weeks, August through the end of September. Peak dahlia, sunflower, zinnia, and celosia.
Your deposit does not sit in an account. It goes straight into the bulbs, corms, and seed we order this fall and winter, the tulips and ranunculus included. Reserving early is how you decide what goes in the ground.
Questions about a tier or a pickup location? Just reply. It comes straight to us.
And come say hi on Instagram (@hardyhillfarms).
Warmly,
the Hardy Hill Farms family