Roses




Roses looking beautiful with Summer companions

 

First customer of the day



Lupins, snapdragons, dutch iris and alliums for sale.  This delightful bee is the only customer so far!



Fond Farewell

The remaining tulips in the flower garden are coming to an end but couldn't resist posting some photos taken a few weeks ago.

Tulips on-stage

So difficult to know when plants will flower! These parrot tulips are earlier expected. They have had to take to the stage minus the supporting cast of other tulips which would have made a mixed bouquet. Luckily a little Honesty has saved the day. Must remember to include an understudy in future plans.

Potential posies

Beautiful weather, beautiful flowers. Spring!

 

June flowers and troubling tulips

Time to tell you how the refrigerated tulips did.  Well, they came out of the fridge looking very scary indeed!!!  Limp little things that looked terrible but mould on only a very few (phew!).  I (more or less) followed the advice of  Linda Beutler in Garden to vase: growing and using your own cut flowers who suggests submerging in warm water, recutting stems etc and was amazed by the transformation.  Incredible.  Having said that, I would NOT do it again unless I really had too: way too stressful and those I kept did not age in the way a tulip normally does, never reaching that fully open stage.  Unsurprising, maybe, considering all they'd been subjected to. 

Spring: better late than never

Tulips have arrived and I'm cutting them.  Some are stored in the fridge for a wedding in a couple of weeks but this may not work as humidity may be too low.  I'll let you know. 

Autumn Flowers

Should be out planting bulbs but have to wait in for a delivery so a chance to update the blog.  These photos were taken a couple of weeks ago, before the first frost arrived to totally transform the scene.

Sunshine at last!

Finally, we have had a week of sunny weather and the flower garden is looking lovely. Butterflies on the cornflowers, bees on the drumstick alliums, hay-making on the farm.

The benefits of rain

Rain, rain and more rain. On the minus side, the wind and rain have conspired to flatten the cornflowers. On the plus side, I haven't had to water anything in the flower garden for weeks and this wet spell has doubtless aided the establishment of the roses, peonies and perennial plants.

We've had a visitor to the garden in the shape of a calf. The big gate having been left open, it managed to push down the rabbit netting inside. Thankfully very little damage.

Sweet peas doing well and smelling wonderful, likewise roses.

Rex planted his courgettes on top of my dahlias a while back!!! He didn't realise they were there. Left them in situ. We'll see how they vie for space.

Flowers at last...but not enough to sell

At long last I have some flowers. I had planted only a few tulips to see how they would do so not enough to sell, unfortunately. This autumn, I plan to plant 'Greenland' and the double-late tulip, 'Angelique' (together above left) along with a brighter pink, 'Barcelona', en masse. Also 'Ballerina'. As soon as the tulips finished, Allium 'Purple Sensation' (above right) started to flower. I cut blooms at various stages and am testing to see how well they come out and how long they will last in a vase. I combined them with some peonies from my garden at home (the peony plants in the field being not yet established).The peony foliage is the same bright green as the allium stems. Sweet Williams are almost ready to cut and the wheat is looking promising. Hope to have cornflowers and other annuals to go with it later in the year.

I need to note down the succession of flowering and pare down my planting to better reflect my limited space and time. Went a bit wild this year having a go at all sorts of flowers I've not grown before! Will note down my successes and see that I have a succession of flowers in sufficient quantity to sell in future years!

Rainy days

The recent days of rain have culminated today in a wild storm which is why there is a picture of my dry (and very messy!) greenhouse instead of flowers in a field.  Really I should be tidying it out but instead I have been sitting in front of the logburning stove reading Death comes to Pemberley by P.D.James.  What a beautifully written sequel to Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice.  All the familiar characters rendered superbly and a murder to boot!

If you fancy something a little more plant-oriented, why not try The Flower Farmer: an organic grower's guide to raising and selling cut flowers by Lynn Byczynski or Garden to vase: growing and using your own cut flowers by Linda Beutler.  Both these American publications contain useful information on harvesting and conditioning flowers and are imbued with knowledge and passion.  Less useful when it comes to conditioning but with handy growing advice including a month-by-month to-do list for those of us in the U.K. and fabulous photographs is Gardners' World Flowers by Toby Buckland.  And to see what can be achieved with cut flowers Flower arranging by MarkWelford & Stephen Wicks is the most gorgeous book full of beautiful, creative arrangements.  There is a design using a wire cup cake stand, tea light holders, hydrangeas, roses and peonies which is sublime.

Spring

Spring is here. There are lambs in the fields surrounding the flower garden. Have been busy weeding, digging, sowing hardy annuals and planting perennials such as Astrantia and Alchemilla mollis. Am impatient to realise the vision I have for the garden. Temperamentally ill-suited to this work as I am an impatient person and growing things takes time, of course. Now, where did I put that magic wand?

Polytunnels and Pineapples

Still have a way to go setting up the polytunnel. There will be another, central, bed. Unlike the field, the soil is very poor here and requires a lot of improving. Dug a lot of manure in to create a hotbed. Apparently they did this on Bob the Builder in order to grow pineapples. To which, my response was "Do we want to grow pineapples?" Rex pointed out that other plants can benefit too.

Meanwhile have done the first sowing of hardy annuals outside and sweet peas are coming up in the greenhouse.

Musings on marketing

I am collecting buckets and jugs for tabletop dispay. I'm aiming for a shabby chic look and enamel seemed a practical option (less chance of breakages on a market stall). All of the items in the photo were sourced on ebay. I bought vintage items as I wanted to re-cycle where I could. I've also bought chalkboards and have ordered a banner which can be hung along the front of a table.

Have had to think about colours and fonts instead of seeds and digging. Back in the Autumn, a local IT company helped me to set up the blog and it was great to have input from someone else. It is thanks to them that I have relinquished my addiction to Times New Roman.

All I have to do now is grow some flowers to put in the jugs.

Horse ploughing without a horse

Boxing Day and I finally planted out the Sweet Williams. Probably not the optimum planting time but had to wait until the rabbit-proofing was complete. The weather is still unseasonably mild so, hopefully, I'll get away with it. Our initial purchase of wire mesh proved to be of too short a length to finish the task. Rex told me that it had run out but it would be okay because he had put up a sign saying 'No rabbits beyond this point!' So, that's alright then.

Before we put up the mesh fence (which reduces the space and makes it more difficult to get in and out of the plot) we finished the ploughing. After an abortive attempt with the horse (as soon as she felt the drag behind her, she charged forward with the plough skidding along behind) we finally added a further three beds using the horse plough behind a garden tractor. The horse did succeed in something though. Technically, she was the first flower to appear in the garden as her name is 'Fleur'. And very beautiful she is too.

Getting Started

First post and first ploughed furrow. This was back in the summer. Decided against using the horse as Rex not sure that she would manage a straight line. As it turned out, the tractor didn't either! Rex most unhappy with his efforts as he is something of a perfectionist. Assured him that the flowers wouldn't care and that his efforts were not visible from the road. Managed four gracefully curving beds. Since then have rotavated and planted winter wheat and alliums. Thought the alliums would be safe from the depredations of the sheep which shared the field but the drumstick type popped up almost immediately (whether they always do this or whether it was down to the unusually warm autumn, I don't know). It was a race against time then to stock-proof the section of field. Large animals can't get in now but rabbits still can and do. Bare root roses that were planted recently are suffering as a result but the paeonies we have put in are still safe below ground. Rabbit-proof fencing next on our agenda. Bought a bench to put together so that I can sit and enjoy the flowers. Rex horrified. Apparently farmers don't have benches. I'm beginning to see why.