Dahlia Beach

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Mildred500 said:
I am so interested to find this thread. I’ve been following her for a little while as the farm is in a bit where I take my kids to soft play! At first I really liked the idea, I grow dahlias myself in the garden so would be nice to see fields of them! I am no expert in growing and actually forgot to dig up a lot of my tubers last winter….. but mine are all huge and have been out for weeks so I was a bit confused when she said hers aren’t doing very well? We have had the same weather!
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Welcome! I think the majority of us here are flower lovers, which is why she gets on our nerves so much 😂
 
I’ve always been a big supporter of women in business, it’s something I’ve never personally had the balls to do myself but then I have no experience so would defo bankrupt myself! So I really wanted to love and support this one, but she’s really making a hash of it and doesn’t sound like she’s focusing much time on the customers and team that have supported her
 
Confused.
So, two fields very close to each other. One in full flower with (according to Andi) “millions of flowers” and the other field - a lack of flowers.
But she says it was the awful weather that’s to blame for lack of flowers at PYO? So it rained all the time and no sun on one field but all good on the other field that has loads of flowers??
Or maybe it was the late planting maybe? And maybe the late pinching out just 4 weeks ago?
Let’s be honest, it wasn’t the weather was it…that just clearly isn’t true!
 
Had tickets booked for the Sunday 20th August - a week before we were ‘invited’ to the launch party on the 19th as ‘we must have missed it on the website’ (she hadn’t put it on the website, we originally wanted to go on the Saturday but it said it wasn’t open until the Sunday). She cancelled it and so rebooked for 10th September - just had another email that all tickets are cancelled for another 3 weeks as the dahlias won’t be ready until mid September - she definitely did herself over with that late planting 🙄🙄🙄
 
I think she’ll have lots requesting refunds if bookings from 20th august were moved to September 10th and then put off to end September.

It appears the Farm’s infrastructure wasn’t ready to open last weekend, never mind the lack of flowers. Notice there was no ‘dahlia installation’ either.

Her mistake was planting the dahlias far too late, not starting them off in pots first, allowing the dahlias to become choked with weeds and pinched them out far too late -at that stage she shouldn’t have pinched out at all. We all know the summer has been awful weather-wise and while my own dahlias haven’t been abundant as other years, and some varieties slow to flower, I’ve been cutting dahlias since mid July.
 
Just watching her latest batch of stories, had to stop and pop on:
What on EARTH does she mean ‘people that show up early or at 10 can just help, they can sweep the bus’
What?! If I paid for an event and showed up to pick flowers with my mum or someone and then got handed a broom I would tell her to shove it up her arse!
The entitlement of this woman is astounding!
 
Slip slip knit said:
Gosh this is a blow along with being banned from the shows as well isn’t it. If the whole sale field is thriving why isn’t she doing the London markets again? And what about the mail order flowers? And what is the wholesale field actually for if neither of those?
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This is what I don't understand, all very fishy 🤔
 
There’s so many elements I’m confused by it all!

Wasn’t she moaning about being banned from a show and planting dahlias for that show? So there’s ‘extras’ going spare?

Unless the wholesale field is also not great and she’s fudging it. I also find it interesting the announcement about the PYO is on her grid, I only dip in and out of her stories so missed it until I saw here.

My Farmer Gracy dahlias (which I planted out late!) are gorgeous and going really well, thanks for for recommendations!
 
Cheesefiend said:
Shes an absolute tit show.

She planted late,pinched late, didnt look after them and now has no flowers and no income stream. And the leaky bus.. just a mess!
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The leaky bus really said it all, it’s all image over substance!
So your bus is bright pink and looks good on Instagram but all the stock on it gets damaged when it rains?

My first thoughts on delivering classes on the top deck…..what if it rains? My second thought was it will be too hot up there if it’s sunny. Again it looks good but surely a big gazebo with a table under it would be more suitable in all weathers? There really isn’t a lot of space up there to be comfortable to move around.

*I picked up some dahlia tubers from the garden centre, last minute in the sale. Think I paid £1 for three, wasn’t sure if I had left it too late to plant but took a chance as they were cheap. They are all in bloom, might post a pick of my colour combination because they are beautiful.
 

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It’s very unfortunate but I think from her posts she pinched out her dahlias mid July in the pyo field which was far too late to remove the main growth stem, especially given lack of sunshine since. The pinching out should have been done weeks earlier or not at all since she was late enough direct planting that field. Hopefully, there won’t be early Frosts now!

All she can do at this stage is reserve a spot at any market she can/find places to sell bouquets from her wholesale field and try again next year with a firm plan of what she can achieve comfortably and stick with it rather than jumping from one thing to another. Give uo on her dream of a family empire and work on what she can do herself.
 
AutumnDays said:
It’s very unfortunate but I think from her posts she pinched out her dahlias mid July in the pyo field which was far too late to remove the main growth stem, especially given lack of sunshine since. The pinching out should have been done weeks earlier or not at all since she was late enough direct planting that field. Hopefully, there won’t be early Frosts now!

All she can do at this stage is reserve a spot at any market she can/find places to sell bouquets from her wholesale field and try again next year with a firm plan of what she can achieve comfortably and stick with it rather than jumping from one thing to another. Give uo on her dream of a family empire and work on what she can do herself.
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If she moves the PYO dates to September is there a risk that they still won’t bloom as needed to create a PYO income?
 
I wonder if this shows how much Eve was running things last year ie planting, pinching weeding the pyo last year considering how tits up it’s gone this year. She’s got that massive double decker bus she can’t drive but perhaps it would have been better to get a van she could transport her flowers to market in instead of a back drop for the gram?
 
There may not be as many blooms as she would like/need. She cut out the main growth stem mid-July if I remember correctly. Growth has been poor since then because of rain and lack of sunshine.

She planted the tubers in that field too late, direct sowed rather than starting them off in pots earlier under cover, then seemed to let the weeds take over and weeded and pinched out too late. Also, not sure if she mulched/fertilised the field as it would have probably needed something after last year’s crop.

Unless she has a few full-time staff that knows what they are doing, she can’t manage to Plant and successfully grow a pyo field, a wholesale field - (made more difficult by being in two different locations) selling her tuber boxes and other merchandise, attending three or four shows a year, market/flower stands ,her reels courses, planning franchising, etc, etc. And then is there much of a profit to be had by employing full time permanent staff.

She might be wise to concentrate on the pyo field with a few drills for market/florist sales and she wouldn’t be as overwhelmed - having to take a few steps back/time out every few weeks isn’t healthy. Accept it won’t be an empire, her DH will need to keep his own career and she possibly could make a modest income which allows her the family time she craves.
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Starry_eyed_pie said:
Not shocked at all as it is all she does, but I did watch with disbelief when the bus was leaking, a member of the public was holding the bucket and Andie was just filming away!!!

Idk why she thinks she is a mega boss babe! She is the definition of 'over promise, under deliver'.
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I wonder how much she has spent on that overhaul on the bus this year and how much it’s cost to date ? Maybe Millets won’t allow or maybe there would be planning issues but a portacabin or a large wooden garden shed or even a marquee would be better . Could still all be decked out in pink, etc, but be waterproof and warm, especially during autumn weather.
 
I have a friend’s mum that lives locally to Millets and has done for about 50 years, her husband was a gardener in the local area, she says their nights are getting quite chilly in the valley at the moment, and that’s usually a sign of early frosts (not scientific of course, but sometimes I trust older gardeners who have worked the land for years). I think her growing season is going to be cut short in a matter of weeks, not months.
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AutumnDays said:
There may not be as many blooms as she would like/need. She cut out the main growth stem mid-July if I remember correctly. Growth has been poor since then because of rain and lack of sunshine.

She planted the tubers in that field too late, direct sowed rather than starting them off in pots earlier under cover, then seemed to let the weeds take over and weeded and pinched out too late. Also, not sure if she mulched/fertilised the field as it would have probably needed something after last year’s crop.

Unless she has a few full-time staff that knows what they are doing, she can’t manage to Plant and successfully grow a pyo field, a wholesale field - (made more difficult by being in two different locations) selling her tuber boxes and other merchandise, attending three or four shows a year, market/flower stands ,her reels courses, planning franchising, etc, etc. And then is there much of a profit to be had by employing full time permanent staff.

She might be wise to concentrate on the pyo field with a few drills for market/florist sales and she wouldn’t be as overwhelmed - having to take a few steps back/time out every few weeks isn’t healthy. Accept it won’t be an empire, her DH will need to keep his own career and she possibly could make a modest income which allows her the family time she craves.
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I wonder how much she has spent on that overhaul on the bus this year and how much it’s cost to date ? Maybe Millets won’t allow or maybe there would be planning issues but a portacabin or a large wooden garden shed or even a marquee would be better . Could still all be decked out in pink, etc, but be waterproof and warm, especially during autumn weather.
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If you were millets watching this tit show would you be keen to build structures for her business? 😬
 
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