Lisianthus Celeb Series

September 7, 2025 Fawn Rueckert

The Celeb series has some of the largest blooms I’ve ever seen on lisianthus and they are sooo incredibly ruffled. This was my first year growing any of the Celeb series on our farm and they are here to stay! The Celeb series varies from 24-36” plus inches. There are varieties in bloomtime groups 1 through 3. We grew 7 of the 40 or so varieties available. They also seem to be sturdier than others because of their thick ruffled petals.

Celeb Mint Green 2

We’ll start the one I was least impressed with, Celeb Mint Green. I had wanted to try some green lisianthus since I saw some gorgeous ones at a Utah Flower Day event. They were so unique! The entire reason for growing the Mint green was for the color and they ended up being a white lisi with a green center. Not what was pictured at all! Growth habit was good, flower was well formed, but it was still a let down. If you’ve got a good recommendation for a true green lisianthus, I’d love to hear it in the comments.

Celeb Rouge 1

When our order for Celeb Honey Pink seed was canceled I choose Celeb Rouge as a replacement based on the slightly warmer tones in the breeders photos. Like the Celeb Mint green the photos were not a good representation of the varieties true color. But!!!! I did really like this one. It is incredible similiar to Corelli Rose, but the flowers are a little larger and it’s a group one so if you are looking for a classic pink lisi to stagger bloomtime, you could grow them both. Dark centered with a very slight deepening of color on the edges of the petals.

If you like this, you might like: Corelli Rose

Celeb Beige Neo 1

Beige Neo was one of the first to bloom and one of the tallest of the 29 varieties we grew this year. The color is mix of beige with blush, definitely a color I think of as a florist color. If you grow for weddings or floral designers this is one to grow. Dark centered.

Celeb Aurora Pink 1

Maybe because I grow so many dark centered varieties Aurora Pink seems like such a breath of fresh air. Its a warm blush with touches of cream and light green, almost opalescent. It’s a good blending flower, looking great with both pinks and peaches.

Celeb Grape 2

One of my new favorites! Celeb Grape is a warmer lavender than Mariachi Lavender or Megalo Orchid. It has big round ruffly blooms and is very prolific, like all the Celeb varieties. It definitely stands out in a sea of pink and apricot lisi.

Celeb Queen 2

While all the Celeb varieties have big blooms, Celeb Queen has the largest blooms I’ve ever seen on a lisianthus. They have true main character energy. And they really are the perfect blush with a burgundy center. In one of the photos you can see the size difference between Corelli Rose, Mariachi Carmine and Celeb Queen. It’s common to have 4 inch blossoms on these babies.

If you like this, you might like: Corelli Light Pink, Voyage First Love

Celeb Apricot 2

My favorite lisies are always the Apricot ones so it’s no surprise that I loved these ones too. Celeb Apricot has a very round form, almost carnation like. It’s color is similiar to Voyage Apricot only a little more yellow than pink leaning. They hold up exceptionally well in the vase and seem to have even more petals than other Celeb varieties.

If you like this, you might like: Voyage Apricot

If you’ve grown any of the Celeb lisianthus and have one to recommend I’d love to hear about it in the comments. We are going to be growing Celeb Honey Pink, Metallic blue, and Blue Chateau next season.

Best Garden Yet: September Edition.

September 1, 2025 Fawn Rueckert

September might be my very favorite month in the garden! The weather is mild without all the drama of springtime fluctuations, the bees are humming along and geese are beginning to head south. The dahlias are typically hitting their stride, and the fall blooming perennials are showing up to add something new to our late season bouquets. It is the best time to soak up the last full month of garden abundance.

If we spend a little extra time in the garden this month next spring becomes easier, here are some tasks to consider.

Outside

Weed. Catching those weeds before they go to seed means you’ll have less to contend with in the spring. It’s also easier when the ground is soft from autumn rain storms.
Deadhead. If I let all my self sowing plants go to town I would have a mess in the spring. I make sure to remove any spent old blooms in areas that I do not want more of that plant. I’ll leave a selective few for reseeding.
Collect seeds. While you are deadheading save some of those ripe seed head to either share or sow in next years garden. Here are some of favorite seeds to collect- Rudbeckia triloba, Silene Blushing Lanterns, Milkweeds, Ammi (Queen Anne’s Lace), Nicandra (Apple of Peru), Bell’s of Ireland, Lovage, Celosia, Zinnia, Cosmos, Chocolate Lace flower. Keep in mind that if harvesting seeds from a hybrid your seeds may not produce the same exact flower next year. I like to buy my hybrid seed new each year so that i have consistent results from my favorite cut flowers.
Divide and transplant mature perennials. Maybe a plant has out grown it’s space, or maybe you just really love it and want more of it for your yard or maybe you just want to move it to a new spot, which ever it is September is one of the best times to dig and divide plants. They are less likely to get heat stressed and if done early enough their roots can settle in before the cold times come.
- To do this dig a circle a few inches out from the perimeter of the plant with a shovel or digging fork.
- Once you’ve dug all the way around, begin lefting the shovel or fork to prying the plant from the ground, trying to take as much of the roots as possible.
- Once the roots are loose, lift the plant out of the hole and take a good look at it. If there are lots of healthy roots you can divide the plant into several sections. Typically the bigger the sections the sooner you’ll get a bigger, blooming plant.
- A handy rule is to divide spring and summer blooming plants in the fall, but wait for spring to divide fall bloomers.
Clear out any diseased annuals. Powdery mildew always hits this time of year. The spores overwinter on plant material left in the garden, so the better we clean up the less disease pressure we will hopefully have next year. Cleaning up before the frost hits means the plants are less crumbly and easy to remove in my opinion.
Prep any empty space for next year. Your spring self will thank you! You can also sow some winter kill cover crop. That way it germs and grows until it gets killed by the frost, making a nice mulch for the rest of winter. Some winter killed options, such as oats, field peas, oilseed radish, and mustard can grow late into the fall, enduring several hard frosts. Others, such as buckwheat, Sudan grass, and pearl millet have less frost tolerance and will die off earlier as temperatures drop below freezing.

Inside

Take notes. Write down your observations in your garden journal or a note app in you phone. Did you love a certain variety? Did you realize your irrigation needed adjustments? Did you notice when a pest moved in and that you need to spray eariler next year? Did you run out of filler or focals at a certain time? Write it alllll down! You can spend sometime researching this fall and winter and make a note of adjustments on your calendar for next season.
Prep for any preorders. Snuck Flowers at Snuck Farm opens for preordering of spring seedlings on October 1st. Also some dahlia growers do a preorder for tubers in the fall. Knowing what you’d like to try and how much space you have will help order just what you need.
Double check any bulb or peony orders so you can make sure to prep your spaces before they arrive.
Hang up some extra bunches of flowers for drying. Celosia, gomphrena, statice, and strawflowers are all good flowers to try. Hang them upside in a warm dark space, most garages make an excellent spot.

Seeds to Start

You can direct sow any winter hardy “cool flowers” pretty much anytime now til the ground freezes, they’ll come up when the temps are right for them. I like to fall plant nigella, ammi, larkspur, bells of Ireland, chocolate lace flower, bachelor buttons, agrostemma, and bupleurum.
It’s also a good time to transplant any cool season seedlings like pansies, snapdragons, feverfew.

I hope you enjoy your September in the garden!!

Best Garden yet: February edition

February 5, 2025 Fawn Rueckert

February always feels like the month between us and spring. However, there's lots of fun Garden related things we can do in February.

Like starting seeds! This comes with a warning though. Don't get ahead of yourself, this is not the time to start everything willy-nilly. With the greenhouse program that I run, we start hundreds of thousands of seeds over about 6 months. Each seed does the best when started at just the right time for it to thrive when planted.

Outside- Inevitably we have a few warmer days in February. Use these days to do the following

Water your bulbs and any low tunnels that you have, I like to wait until we have a night above freezing to do this. Also give any newly planted perennials a nice drink if we have a drier winter.
Take measurements for any new garden beds that you want to create if you haven't yet.
Towards the end of the month it gets safe to start pruning. I like to start with my berries and roses.
Take note of any perennials that you want to divide. It's a little early to start dividing, but having it on your plan makes it easier to remember next month
Inventory any irrigation issues. I planted a bunch of peonies in the fall and they will all need new drip irrigation. Getting numbers on that makes it easier to order what I need so I am ready to go when the weather gets good.
Take a sample of your soil if the ground is not frozen.

Inside

Look over any of January's tasks and see if you have any you still need to do.

Set up your seeds starting area. Success starts with the right tools. A heat mat with a thermostat and lights will make you a hundred times more successful. They don’t need to be expensive or fancy, my heat mat and thermostat are from Amazon and I used shop lights from a big box store when I used to start seeds at home
Organize your seeds- see this post here
Make a timeline for when you need to start each variety of seed. Write down the quantity you want to start, how many weeks they need to get to transplant size and the ideal transplant date you're shooting for. Remember if you use the soil blocking seed starting method, to shave off a little of your time to transplant.
Get plant sales on your calendar. At Snuck Farm in Pleasant Grove we have one for cool season plants on April 12th and warm season on May 10th. We will have so many fun cut flower varieties to choose from! I’m especially excited for the hellebore varieties we have growing.
Order supplies for things like irrigation, and pest control so that you have them when you need them.

Seeds to start

Any cold Hardy flowers that you want to plant out in March can be started now. Things like snapdragons, scabiosa, rudbeckia, feverfew, cynoglossum, agrostemma, straw flower, winged everlasting, sweet Annie, foxgloves, godetia, monarda, and dianthus.
Cold hardy vegetables like cabbage, broccoli and kale can be started indoors now.
And there is definitely still time to get those direct sown cold hardy seeds out in the garden. Bupleurum, bells of Ireland, larkspur, Ammi, agrostemma, chocolate lace flower, nigella, bachelor buttons, icelandic poppies, and saponaria
Some direct sown vegetables that are appropriate to put out in February are garden peas and sugar snap peas if the ground can be worked. Cilantro tossed out now will come up when it is ready.

See you in March!