Important Updates for the Holiday Season

The Bulb Shop Is Open!

We’re thrilled to announce that our bulb shop is officially open at www.purpletuteur.com! Browse our curated selection of beautiful amaryllis, paperwhites, daffodils, tulips, and peonies, all chosen to bring vibrant color and fragrance to your home and garden this season. Whether you’re looking for holiday blooms or planning ahead for spring, we have something special for everyone. PLEASE NOTE: Local delivery and pick up only for these items. Deliveries are made on Tuesdays and Fridays. Deliveries will begin on 11/15, assuming everything in your order has arrived by then. (Everything is due in the week of 11/11). Farm pick up is available on the following dates from 10:30-12:30. November 20,23,27 and December 4,7,14. If these dates don’t work, please contact us and we will try to accommodate you.

For both pick up and delivery, we will notify you when your order is ready.

Come See Us at the Blythewood Farmers Market Holiday Market!

On another note, we unfortunately have to cancel our Holiday Open House due to a recent water pipe burst in the farmhouse. With repairs underway and water being turned off periodically, it’s best to hold off on hosting events at the farm for now. However, we will still offer pick-up for online orders—just plan accordingly around the bathroom limitations!

We’re excited to announce that we’ll be at the Blythewood Farmers Market Holiday Artisan Market on November 23rd from 10:00 am - 3:00 pm. instead. Come by and see us there to pick up some of your holiday favorites!

Visit www.purpletuteur.com now to explore our full collection and place your orders before they sell out.

2025 Subscriptions

Our 2025 Subscriptions will be available for purchase starting 11/11/2024. Get your holiday gift shopping done or give yourself the gift of wellness with fresh flowers. Watch for our email update!

Thank you for all your support of our small farm. We are grateful and honored to serve you.

Best,

Linda

Winter Bulb Season is Here!

Hello Flower Friends,

I’m excited to bring you some wonderful news – our fall bulbs have arrived in the U.S., and many are already at the farm! While we’re updating the website and preparing for orders to go live by Wednesday, here’s a quick preview of what’s available and how to make the most of these beautiful blooms in the South.

Amaryllis

Amaryllis bulbs are a wintertime favorite, known for their stunning, trumpet-shaped blooms and bold colors that brighten up indoor spaces during the colder months. Our selection includes vibrant reds, delicate pinks, pure whites, and other striking hues. These low-maintenance bulbs are easy to grow indoors, bringing life and beauty to any room with minimal effort.

Early/ Holiday Bloomers

Amaryllis typically bloom 6-8 weeks after planting, making them a perfect choice for holiday décor or as a thoughtful gift. With blooms that can reach up to 10 inches across, each flower makes a big impact. Amaryllis are also long-lasting, with individual blooms lasting several weeks and bulbs often producing multiple flower stalks. For an extended display, stagger planting times to enjoy these gorgeous flowers all winter long.

 Paperwhites

We’re pleased to offer Paperwhite NIR, an especially fragrant variety perfect for brightening up indoor spaces. With elegant, pure white blooms, Paperwhite NIR grows quickly and requires no chilling period. As easy-to-grow indoor bulbs, they only need 3-4 weeks to bloom, filling your home with their signature sweet fragrance. Perfect for holiday decorating or as a thoughtful gift, these bulbs are a favorite for their simplicity and beauty.

Daffodils

We’re delighted to offer daffodils again with two varieties that flourish in Southern gardens:

• Bridal Crown – Known for its soft, creamy-white petals and yellow centers, Bridal Crown has a lovely, multi-layered bloom structure and a captivating fragrance. It’s a great choice for Southern gardeners looking for both beauty and scent.

• Peaches and Cream – With ivory white petals and delicate pale peach cups, Peaches and Cream is an enticing large-cupped daffodil. Its soft color palette blends effortlessly into any garden, making it ideal for spring displays. These easy-to-grow daffodils are excellent for naturalizing and make perfect cut flowers.

Tulips

Growing tulips in the South requires a bit of extra care, as our winters aren’t cold enough for the bulbs to thrive naturally. Our tulips have been pre-chilled to ensure they bloom beautifully in spring. Here are this season’s stunning options:

• Mango Charm – This warm-toned tulip has rich, sunset hues of orange with hints of pink, creating a tropical focal point in garden beds or pots. It’s perfect for adding a lively pop of color to cut arrangements.

• Negrita – A deep, velvety purple tulip, Negrita pairs beautifully with Mango Charm. Its moody, dramatic hue adds elegance and depth to any display, offering a modern, high-impact spring look.

Tip: Growing tulips in pots can give them an extra chill since above-ground temps are cooler than soil temperatures.

 Peonies

We’re delighted to offer an early-season herbaceous peony that thrive in warmer climates. Sunny Girl is a standout with its rare pastel yellow blooms, perfect for adding a cheerful touch to the garden and as a beautiful cut flower. Its large, eye-catching flowers are sure to be a favorite!

For more detailed growing tips on peonies in warmer climates, check out our blog post here.

Stay tuned as we prepare the website for orders, and feel free to reach out with any questions. Happy planting, and here’s to a gorgeous season of blooms! 🌷

Our Fall Bulb Sale Starts Today!

We are excited to bring you our selection of spring blooming Anemone and Ranunculus bulbs!

These are the same bulbs that we grow at the farm, so you can be assured that they are appropriate for our climate. Growing instructions are included with your order.

We can ship your bulb order anywhere in the United States.  We will start shipping orders in mid-October.  

Here is the link to our website. Happy shopping!

ANEMONE

These are longer stemmed varieties and make excellent cut flowers. They have stems of 10 - 12 inches vs. the landscape de Caan varieties with 6 inch stems that are widely available.

There are two blue varieties that are not yet posted for the sale. I am waiting for them to arrive before I add them to the store.

Growing instructions are included with your purchase. You can also check out our blog post on growing ranunculus and anemone here.

RANUNCULUS

These are longer stemmed varieties and make excellent cut flowers. They grow well in pots or in the ground. Growing instructions are included with your purchase. You can also check out our blog post on growing ranunculus and anemone here.

NARCISSUS / DAFFODILS

We are not planning to offer daffodils this year. We are looking for a new supplier.

PEONIES/AMARYLLIS/PAPERWHITES/TULIPS

The peonies, amaryllis and paperwhites are not available for this sale. We hope to have them later in the year. There has been serious flooding in Holland both this past summer and the summer before causing damage to some of these crops. This, combined with the longshoremen’s strike, will create shortages. Will we have all of these? We sure hope so!

Bulb Forcing Class Update

Hi All,

Spring is another week closer! Flowers are beginning to show up on the farm, and the weather this week looks fabulous.  We’re excited to get the season off the ground.

Class Update

The class on Forcing Bulbs for Winter Blooms has been rescheduled to Saturday March 9th from 10 am until noon. I appreciate everyone’s patience with the date change since I got sick and things had to move. In this class, we do a deep dive into how to prepare your bulbs for early bloom, covering those that have to be chilled and amaryllis and paperwhites, which do not. Then you will have access to prepared bulbs that we have been cooling since November to make your own bulb garden to take home.  Grab a friend and join us! We’d love to have you. Light refreshments will be served.

For the details and to sign up, follow this link:

https://www.purpletuteur.com/aboutourclasses

That’s it for now.

Best,

Linda

Want Your Amaryllis to Rebloom for The Holidays? Start now!

Now that school is back in session and the weather is beginning to cool off, it won’t be a minute before the holidays are upon us. Now is the time to do what is needed to get your amaryllis ready for their show.

Amaryllis need a dormant period to build that bloom inside the bulb. We can easily facilitate it by taking just a few simple steps now and a little prep closer to the holidays.

1. Bring your bulb in from outside or away from the window and let the soil dry out for a couple of days. The leaves should be long and green, from a season of green growth, helping the plant absorb solar energy. In this example, a new bulb has formed. Cut its leaves too. It may need another year before it is big enough to bloom.

2.  After the soil is dry to the touch, cut the leaves to within an inch of the bulb. After the cut, store the bulb for 8 to 12 weeks somewhere dark and cool, preferably at 50 F. Do not freeze the bulb and do not water it. No water at all for the 8 to 12 weeks.

That’s it until 8-12 weeks from now! Simple, right?  Now mark you calendar for the date you plan to take the bulb out of dormancy, to remind you to do it.

Then What?

When you take your bulb out of the dark, refresh the potting soil and add a little bulb food to the soil. You may have to stuff the roots back into the pot, but that’s OK. They like being pot bound. Remember to leave one third of the bulb exposed.

Give it a good deep watering. Put it in a warm sunny place. Do not water it again until you see new green growth.

Once the new growth has started, water when the soil dries out. In a few weeks, buds will push out of the bulb and the bloom cycle begins again!

Top Tips for Growing Peonies in the South

We all have certain flowers that connect us to happy memories. Peonies do that for me, so naturally I wanted to grow them on the farm. In our hot and humid climate, I tried a couple of times with limited success. Perseverance pays off and we have 3-year-old plants on the verge of blooming for the first time!

Here are a few tips for growing peonies here in the Midlands:

1.       Peonies are expensive to purchase but they will live a very long time. Many people have told me that they have dug up the plants from their grandparent’s house and moved them to their own yard.  For our climate, select early season varieties. They need to bloom before the heat really sets in.

2.       Grow them in a raised bed or a pot. They need to be exposed to as much cold air as possible. Something above ground will stay cooler.

3.       Put them in full sun. They need sun to bloom well.

4.       They need a mixture of soil, minerals and compost. Mushroom compost is recommended since many other types of compost include pine bark and it carries something in it that makes peonies more vulnerable to disease.

5.       Bare roots are the best value. Find the biggest ones with the most eyes.  Plant them so that the tops are just one inch below the surface. If they are planted too deeply, they won’t bloom since this insulates them from the cold. In colder climates, they are planted deeper.

6.       If you purchase bare roots, expect to wait three years for flowers. They will not have any blooms the first year. They need their energy to develop a good root system. The second year, they may have some blooms but it is recommended that you deadhead them so that they can continue to focus on their roots. The third year will bring on the flowers.

7.       There are potted plants available at some of the local nurseries. These are good too but the selection is more limited. Expect to have a transition year in your garden if you plant a potted plant. They may need a year to adjust and you may not have blooms the first year so don’t give up.

8.       Each year add a thin layer of compost and some minerals (I use Azomite) to nourish them. Don’t put down a thick layer because you don’t want to bury the tuber.

9.       After the bloom period, I put some shade over them so that the foliage stays healthy longer, providing more energy for next year.  Expect the foliage to look ratty after the heat sets in. Everyone’s plants look less than lovely.

10.   When you do cut the foliage back, don’t put it in your compost pile. Throw it away as it may carry disease.

What tips do you have on growing peonies? I would love to hear them!

If you want to order from a specialty nursery, I highly recommend Peony’s Envy (https://peonysenvy.com). They are so helpful and they have a great deal of information on their website if you want more education on these beauties.

We will be including our peonies in our subscriptions while they last. We still have a few Spring to Summer spaces available. Sign up at https://www.purpletuteur.com/subscription-information.

Happy Gardening!

This is Ranunculus

Ranunculus (Anemone Coronaria) is commonly known as Buttercup. The corms (bulbs) come in yellow, orange, pink, red and white. Known as the “rose of spring”, the flower is shaped like a rose.  

Ranunculus starts blooming in mid-March in Columbia. If you want to add them to your garden, they are a perfect partner to anemone. The growing conditions are the same. The ranunculus corms can survive our winters in the ground. They do best when the daytime temps are in the mid-60’s and the nights are in the 40’s. They will keep blooming until the daytime temps are consistently in the 70’s. After the heat comes on, they fade away until November or so.  Then they green up and take up the sun until the March blooms appear.

Ranunculus blooms need protection from the rain. Each plant will bloom several times while in season, so even if a flower gets drenched, all is not lost. Just deadhead it and wait for the next one.

In addition to these there is a variety known as butterfly ranunculus. These are more of a spray form and the flowers have wax coated petals that give them a shimmer. They come in soft pinks, yellows and a pale salmon color (pictured). From Italy, these are fairly new to the United States. Only two wholesalers can distribute them here which makes them more expensive.  We are growing some for the first time this year and experiencing some problems but still hopeful that some will make it into spring bouquets.

There is a proper time to cut every flower in order to maximize its vase life.  For ranunculus, the right time is when the flower petals are barely open. When properly cut, they will last a good week in a vase.  

What do you think of ranunculus?

Thanks to all of you who have ordered your subscriptions. Although the spring season is sold out, we still have some available for the spring to summer season. You can sign up on our website, www.purpletuteur.com.

As always, we appreciate all the love and support you show us here at our farm. It keeps us motivated to try and bring you the best and most beautiful blooms.

Many thanks,

Linda 

This is Anemone

We are about a week away from getting enough blooms to begin delivery! Thanks to all who have signed up. We have just a couple of spots left for Friday delivery for the early spring season.

 This is the first in a series of blogs introducing some of the flowers we grow.

Anemone (Anemone Coronaria) is a late winter/early spring bloomer for us in Columbia. The corms (bulbs) come in many colors and in single double flower forms. In addition to the longer stemmed varieties that we use for cut flowers, there are short-stemmed versions that are nice to have in the garden.   

All types can survive our winters in the ground but the flowers don’t do well in the rain. If you don’t have time to be concerned about every bloom, you simply dead head those that have gotten wet. Otherwise, you can grow them under cover to protect them from our wet spring weather. Each plant will bloom several times while “in season”, so even if a flower gets drenched, all is not lost.

Anemone does best when the daytime temps are in the mid-60’s and the nights are in the 40’s. This translates to March for us. They will keep blooming until the daytime temps are consistently in the 70’s. After the heat comes on, they fade away until November or so.  Then they green up and take up the sun until the March blooms.

There is a proper time to cut every flower in order to maximize its vase life.  For Anemones, the right time is when the collar under the bloom is about a half an inch from the base of the bloom. They may wilt if you cut them sooner.  When properly cut, they will last a good week in a vase.

If you are thinking that you knew of anemone as another flower, you are right. There is a shrub-like perennial called Japanese Anemone (Anemone hupehensis). The blooms look very similar to the bulb form but they bloom in a spray in the fall.  This is why botanists revert to Latin names for flowers. Many common names apply to multiple plants but each has its own unique Latin name.  

What do you think of this flower? Have you grown it? Is there another flower that you like to see this time of year?

I hope you are as excited for Spring as I am!

Best,

Linda

The Holidays are Coming!

Wow! We have had such a busy year at the farm. So many infrastructure projects are done which allows us to provide you with more flowers over a longer season. There is much to tell about all that has been accomplished but that will have to wait until winter arrives and things finally slow down. For now, we are in the season of Amaryllis and Paperwhites!

Ednie Photos

For growing instructions, see our blog post here:  https://www.purpletuteur.com/blog/2019/10/31/amaryllis-and-paperwhites

We have bulbs and forcing kits again this year. We have again searched out larger bulbs and more unusual varieties to make available to you in Columbia.  You can order them from our website and select a day to pick them up at the farm.  See our selection here: https://www.purpletuteur.com/garden-bulbs

We will also have a selection for sale at the Jingle and Mingle event held Thursday, December 10 at The Lake Murray Visitor's Center (2184 North Lake Dr. Columbia, SC 29212), 4-7pm. If you live out that way, you will also be able to pre-order online and pick up at the Visitor’s Center during the event.

 Thank you so much for all the support you have given us this year. It means so much and keeps us going.

Wishing you many blessings over the holiday season,

Linda