Got flowers?

From this year, as noted in my previous post, we're welcoming guests with a cut flower arrangement (prepared by local florist Asso di Fiori). But for those who read "Showtime!" thinking I spend all my time buying fancy stuff for our grounds and lodgings (and laying the occasional stone path) here's a corrective. Poggiosole's olive trees are in bloom and 2025's flowering is abundant. Mid-March through May, as I'm busily setting the stage for our first guests of the season, it's our fruit trees that are putting on a show... for me. As spring unfolds, I spend most of my waking hours immersed in the beauty and vitality of our groves and meadows. The work never lets up but the scents (thistle, mint, wild fennel) and scenery lift the soul.

Our campo basso, freshly mowed

Just the other day I made the below video for a cousin who visited with her daughter in early April. Before heading home, they asked to see an olive, as in on a tree. There was nothing to show then but, although the tiny buds and blooms are not olives yet, there is now:

Olive trees are tardivi: they wake late from winter's slumber and are the last trees on our land to flower. Last, but far from least: our upper and inner grove trees are brimming with mignola this year. Credit Vittorio's expert pruning since 2022, credit abundant rainfall since October, credit a generous application of organic soil fertilizer in January, credit the synergy of all of it. At least 350 of our 550 mature olive trees are set to produce significant quantities of fruit in 2025. Olive flowers are delicate and fleeting. As a grower, as a steward of this land, and as host to those who may have never seen or walked through an olive grove, it's a thrill to see so many.