I have extended my cutting patch this year, adding two new raised beds. I got a little bit overexcited by my new space and went on a spending spree with the marvellous Chiltern Seeds (whose catalogue of pure flower porn inspired a whole post of its own, Flowergasm!) You might have thought that two varieties each of…
Category: Cut Flowers
Cutting flowers for the kitchen table is one of the kindest things I can do for myself or for the people I love. Here you can see a few of my favourite picks.
Vintage Silk
As you may have noticed, I have a thing for bright and deeply saturated colour. But I have other weaknesses too. Back in autumn I was seduced by a certain supplier of tulip bulbs and gave into temptation. I decided to try some sun-faded tones: vintage silk alongside my usual velvet and satin. I selected…
EMERGENCY RESCUE!
The foul weather (swirling winds, torrential rain) meant I had to perform an emergency rescue on my tulips. These poor things were in danger of getting their necks broken. So was I. The rescue situation explains why some blooms are already at their creative peak (see my post from yesterday, Aging Beauties). Here is good old ‘Ballerina’:…
Opening to the Sun!
Something magical happened on Saturday: the sun came out! And stayed out! You could hear gardeners around the country stampeding to their back doors to get their wellies on! But once I’d had a little potter around, a bit of weeding here and there, I decided I just had to sit in the sun. Here,…
My fantasy dahlia garden
Greed. Isn’t it wonderful? Is there a word for people like me? Do I need to go into rehab? Do I need an intervention? For my birthday last year I was bought a book called ‘Dahlias’ by Andy Vernon. It is like the crack cocaine of the gardening books. I can’t get enough. I need more. …
My fingers are tingling with magic!
I wasn’t even going to write a post today. But then I read this blog post from ‘Sharpen your Spades’: Sowing Broad Beans – A great crop for beginners. and the photos of the fingers in the compost made me need my greenhouse, and the compost and the seed-trays right now. So off I dashed, with my…
We’re on a break.
You meet. Your eyes lock, you catch your breath a little as your heart skips a beat. You look away, flustered. You look back. Falling in love with a flower can be a heady experience. And this is what happened with me and Helenium ‘Moerheim Beauty’. I loved everything about it. The frilly flamenco skirts…
