Author | Lightnews

Mike W 👨‍🌾🌱🌷🐝

@cutflowergrower.bsky.social

420 followers 700 following 1.4K posts

"To Garden is believe in tomorrow" -Audrey Hepburn 🌱 ⚘️🌺central Florida UnGardener for Wellbeing🌼🌸 👨‍🌾🌻🌷🐞🦋🐝 2 🐕 & 1 🐈, Mindfulness🧘‍♀️, Musicals🎭, Open Minded💭💡, Always Evolving💫❤️‍🔥 Humor & Truth Renew Me 🤪⚖️✨️🐦‍🔥 "Our one true Nationality is Mankind." 🇱🇷 -HG Wells

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Mike W 👨‍🌾🌱🌷🐝 @cutflowergrower.bsky.social · Mar 23

Hi #bluesky family! I'd like to introduce you to Checkers & Julie #dogs and Jasmine #cats My 3 reasons to go on living, no matter what--they're my obligations; I adore them; they keep me sane; I'm #blessed. Everyday simple pleasures.
#phonephotography #simplepleasures #animals #furbabies

Checkers (white cocker spaniel - poodle mix, male) & Julie (Italian Greyhound -- Mexican Chihuahua mix, female) both 4 1/2 years old in 2024 taken by Woofgang Bakery & Grooming's Tori.

Jasmine (female) 13 years old here 2024 with Julie in background, sitting comfortably on my bed. Queen of the castle indeed!

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Mike W 👨‍🌾🌱🌷🐝 @cutflowergrower.bsky.social · 14d

Checkersntodaybatbthebgroomers and afterwards, posing for the camera
#dogsofbluesky

Mike W 👨‍🌾🌱🌷🐝 @cutflowergrower.bsky.social · 14d

The offending 4 bags, already much drier under my covered lanai
#gardening ##organic-gardening #dahlias

3 weeks has gone by for the most part and with 1 rotted out, I'm quarantined the offending grow bags

Mike W 👨‍🌾🌱🌷🐝 @cutflowergrower.bsky.social · 14d

Today's progress: a 5th grow bags has a new sprout I found just 1" under the soil. The 2 largest dahlias are growing lateral stems at quite a rate, after 7 days of nothing happened following pinching them
#gardening #dahlias ##organic-gardening

5 grow bags of dahlias definitely growing

The white mark is the newest found sprouts to breach the soil

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Mike W 👨‍🌾🌱🌷🐝 @cutflowergrower.bsky.social · 14d

How will I reconcile if that soil can be dried & reused and even more unavoidable is the offending grow bags. How do I clean it & sanitize the insides? Soap and water from the hose and then run through the washing machine? I'm in Virgin territory here with grow bags.
#gardening #organic-gardening

Mike W 👨‍🌾🌱🌷🐝 @cutflowergrower.bsky.social · 14d

A4 remaining grow bags under the covered lanai, that way no more rain and any sprouting will occur if it's meant to be. Disgusting thing to feel 6" down into a grow bags to have your fingers get submerged in a tuber so rotted, it was nearly gelatinous. And the smell
#gardening #organic-gardening

Mike W 👨‍🌾🌱🌷🐝 @cutflowergrower.bsky.social · 14d

Today I learned the grow bags 3 weeks from tuber planting without sprouts yet have all rotted & remained soaking wet. I found 1 sprouts in 1 of the bags, but daily downpours that form puddles which act as moisture wicks for the grow bags has caused me to isolate the
#gardening #organic-gardening

Mike W 👨‍🌾🌱🌷🐝 @cutflowergrower.bsky.social · 14d

will instantly cause Black burns on the leaves where applied, this being Orlando, FL zone 10a. I hope insecticidal soap works to smooth the eggs and any living worms. But thanks for the advice.

Mike W 👨‍🌾🌱🌷🐝 @cutflowergrower.bsky.social · 14d

and not a health concern that the dahlias will suffer from. But boy do I have an ecosystem completely out of whack since ladybugs died 12 hours after being delivered and parasitic wasps are unwilling to hang around when no pests are out feeding. And need oil, any oil based horticultural product

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Mike W 👨‍🌾🌱🌷🐝 @cutflowergrower.bsky.social · 14d

The only problem is the leaf miner larvae dropped into my hand, but other than that, there's no cuts in the underside of the leaves nor are any insects visible under the leaf. Only the trail of slime is drags behind itself and progressively more eaten from the leaf. Resources say it's ornamental

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Mike W 👨‍🌾🌱🌷🐝 @cutflowergrower.bsky.social · 14d

MATCHMAKER, MATCHMAKER, MAKE ME A MATCH!!
ITS YENTA!
#dogsofbluesky #gardening

Julienwearing the bandana Checkers got at grooming today

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Mike W 👨‍🌾🌱🌷🐝 @cutflowergrower.bsky.social · 15d

Now with the vermiculite the consistency of a wet sponge rung out, both the larger bowl and square dish have Anemone corms and Ranunculus aviv and Tecolote Ranunculus corms pressed gently into it and covered with another 1.5" of vermiculite sprayed moist and lightly covered for humidity.
#gardening

at right, the 2 glass preserves are placed in the fridge at 45° and kept in dark, with their plastic see thru lids lightly affixed to create humidity but not be airtight thus preventing the exchange of gases

a glass bowl and glass square, food preserving dishes, repurposed for pre sprouting with vermiculite

Mike W 👨‍🌾🌱🌷🐝 @cutflowergrower.bsky.social · 15d

I'm really enjoying seeing the whole Lantana camara covered in blooms. Theyve become such a deep magenta now.
#gardening #organic-gardening #Lantana #flowers #flowerreport #bloomscrolling

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Mike W 👨‍🌾🌱🌷🐝 @cutflowergrower.bsky.social · 15d

After 4.5 hours, the Anemone corm went from shriveled raisinette to looking like a spinning top. The Tecolote Ranunculus corms are nice and swollen. Now they sit and air dry for 2 hours before planting in vermiculite to pre sprout.
#gardening #organic-gardening #Ranunculus #anemone #corms

Fat and full the Tecolote Ranunculus corms looks healthy

Mike W 👨‍🌾🌱🌷🐝 @cutflowergrower.bsky.social · 16d

Does anyone have a budget-conscuous way to organically rid Dahlias of leaf miners that burrow btwn my leaves,laid eggs, and their larvae are feeding?
#dahlia #dahlias #organic-gardening #gardening #dailydahlia #organic #organicfarming #insectpests #leafminer

White trails of leaf miner larvae on young dahlia leaves with a bite taken out of the bottom middle leaf

White trails of leaf miner larvae on young dahlia leaves

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Mike W 👨‍🌾🌱🌷🐝 @cutflowergrower.bsky.social · 16d

My bathroom is my temporary workspace. 5 glass bowls with water over them. I'm refilling the water every 45 minutes, as I have the extra rooting hormone to spare.
#gardening #organic-gardening #Ranunculus #AnemoneDeCaen

The pellets are Anemone corms, the smallest corms are Ranunculus aviv and the 2 larger corms are Tecolote Ranunculus.

Mike W 👨‍🌾🌱🌷🐝 @cutflowergrower.bsky.social · 16d

My garden in the beginning of the season, today, 10/7/2025. I'm and UnGardener, that is gardening in September thru mid June with Summers off
#gardening #organic-gardening #FloridaGardener #cutflowers #succulents #Agastache #Lantana #OrientalLily #ShastaDaisy #TrumpetVine

Flowering end of a stem on the Yellow Trumpet Vine

My succulent bed with Abbeydore Pink Sedum. 3 variegated Kalanchoe, and a Mother Aloe aborescens and her four 1 year old stem offsets

Just dead 1 month ago. Shasta Daisy making a rebound strong and healthy

With and dwarf Oriental Lily in the background, 2 potted Lantana camara 'Bloomify' & an Agastache hybrida 'Blue Bayou'

Mike W 👨‍🌾🌱🌷🐝 @cutflowergrower.bsky.social · 16d

I also picked up a trick. 1/2 tsp of Rooting Hormone powder, the kind used for stem cuttings, and for each bowl of water used to soak the corms & they absorb the hormone really well. It helps a lot with pre sprout but also if just planting afterwards, its a ganechanger.
#gardening #organic-gardening

Mike W 👨‍🌾🌱🌷🐝 @cutflowergrower.bsky.social · 16d

bottle and check every 3 days to ensure still moist. Inside the fridge, its dark and a constant 45°. Once the Anemone corms give their tops & bottoms up, I carefully reorient them from their sides to the correct up and down & continue for the remainder of the 14 days.
#gardening #organic-gardening

Mike W 👨‍🌾🌱🌷🐝 @cutflowergrower.bsky.social · 16d

In a 6" glass square 3" deep, I use 2" of moistened vermiculite to pre sprout the Anemone De Caen corms and Ranunculus corms. They get pressed 1.5" deep and covered by enough vermiculite only over each corm to cover their tops completely. I then moisten with a spray
#gardening #organic-gardening

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Mike W 👨‍🌾🌱🌷🐝 @cutflowergrower.bsky.social · 16d

Soaking and pre sprouting my Ranunculus Mix, Ranunculus Cafe Au Lait, and Tecolote Ranunculus Picotee Mix, White. Red & Pink cultivars plus Anemone De Caen. This is 1/5 successive plantings, to begin 10/21 after pre sprout has finished
#gardening #organic-gardening #Ranunculus #AnemoneDeCaen

5 small bowls containing Anemone De Caen corms, Ranunculus Cafe Au Lait corms, Ranunculus Mix corms, Tecolote Ranunculus Picotee Mix corms and a combo of 2 each- Tecolote Ranunculus White, Red & Pink dried

Mike W 👨‍🌾🌱🌷🐝 @cutflowergrower.bsky.social · 16d

My #dahlias thusfar to have sprouted in 7 gallon (and one accidental 5 gallon) grow bags. I decided to not label the cultivars to add to the excitement of what's going to greet me upon the opening of the 1st bloom.
#gardening #organic-gardening #dailydahlia #containergardening #zone10a

Mike W 👨‍🌾🌱🌷🐝 @cutflowergrower.bsky.social · 16d

Good morning Bluesky! Have a great Tuesday.
#dogsofbluesky

Mike W 👨‍🌾🌱🌷🐝 @cutflowergrower.bsky.social · 16d

Worst is that being cocky and sloppy I removed all cultivar labels to be surprised at flowering. Now I regret all this. Such is life. These bags and soil can dry out and be used for my seeds and ranunculus/anemone corms.
#gardening #organic-gardening #dahlias

This final dahlia was noticed when I went to take the pictures today. Not sprouted this morning, this is 1 to look out for

Mike W 👨‍🌾🌱🌷🐝 @cutflowergrower.bsky.social · 16d

the tubers' bodies and exposing the necks and crowns, all had started pushing sprouts from small eyes. But being from my earlier acquiring , mishandling them in storage b4 finally securing viability in vermiculite took time and I don't have any extras
#gardening #organic-gardening #dahlias

This dahlia sprouted 4 days ago and was accidentally planted in a 5 gallon grow bag. But i remember this was Rebecca's World.

This dahlia sprouted 2 days ago. Very small but moving fast as the weather cools to 85° days

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Mike W 👨‍🌾🌱🌷🐝 @cutflowergrower.bsky.social · 16d

I'm a bit bummed as those whom I feared smothered were my only remaining Kelvin Floodlight and Nick Sr tubers which were heavily damaged during shipment. I also really wanted 2 cultivars whom have yet to surface but had awoke in shallow soil covering just
#gardening #organic-gardening #dahlias

This is a thinner, whispier stemmed dahlia that's begun taking off growing. 2 stems were pinched 7 days ago and the 3rd today, and has avoided the leaf miner until noticing small damage today. But its leaves are small to begin with!

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