Archive | Tulips

A Floral Review of 2019

After the rush and blur of Christmas and before the New Year begins, it’s a good time to stop and take stock of all that happened over the past year.

Foxgloves in the Learning Garden at Green and Gorgeous

My review at the end of each year is of course always in flowers –  I like to look back at both the triumphs and the failures. I must confess it is incredible how I struggle to remember it all by the time we get to December. Fortunately taking pictures most days is a great way of record keeping, so I thought I would share a few of my favourite pictures through the season and reflect on what I could tweak to have more triumphs and less failures in 2020. Of course that is with a big caveat – all my knowledge and experience can be scuppered by the increasing challenges of our weather. How to sustain a flower farm with prolonged periods of wet or dry weather putting a lot of stress on the plants is something we are all having to adapt to fast to stay in business. Sustainability will be my keyword for 2020 and ways to keep both myself and Green and Gorgeous thriving.

Our Spring got off to a good start with all of our flowering bulbs doing well just in time for our busiest Mother’s Day ever, which was a wonderful way to open our Farm Gate Sales for the season.

I was really impressed by the outdoor tulips which were just as good as the polytunnel grown varieties. I think planting them in raised beds next to the tunnel meant they benefited from the tunnel’s radiated warmth giving just as good stem length but a longer flowering period. I couldn’t resist planting more in the Autumn so there will be a Tulip class looking at both growing and arranging to make the most of the harvest in April.

The mild Winter and dry Spring meant the plants were stressed and succumbed to the worst infestation of black fly I had ever seen. Flowering shrubs like Viburnum opulus were unusable and the only thing which would remedy it was rain. Thanks to our irrigation system we could keep everything else going and with a decent enough stem length to cut.

The rain finally came and by the bucket load, flowers were picked in full waterproofs and dried off in the greenhouse.

The Sweet Peas flourished in the tunnel, I always find early flowering indoor varieties so much more reliable and longer in flower than the Spencer types which seem to come in to flower just as we get a hot, dry spell. I am considering not growing them next year but it is hard to let go of beauties like this striped variety called Nimbus. I think a position that only receives sun for half the day would make a big difference.

One of the most triumphant flowers of 2019 was the Foxglove, both biennial and the summer flowering Camelot series. Not only were they premium quality but I sold or arranged almost every stem. I can only class something as a success if it ticks both boxes.

I was so excited to see our second rose tunnel come into flower with lots of new varieties to trial buy (not pick – hands off until 2020!).  We will be celebrating with a Rose class in June, as part of our Floral Favourites this year.

Perennials were a big subject this year with an ever-increasing range thanks to visits to specialist plant fairs and plantswomen like Jane Edmonds. They are one of my strategies for creating a resilient and sustainable business, as they are generally more tolerant to weather extremes and of course as I celebrate my 50th birthday next week a little easier to look after and basically less knackering! They will also keep me interested as there seems to be a never-ending list of varieties to discover. If you are interested in learning more I will be running a Garden Masterclass through Gardens Illustrated in July.

Dahlias were good this year and plentiful with 500 in the ground and over 50 varieties. They were at their best for a magazine shoot with Clive Nichols and then an early frost at the beginning of September put a bit of a downer on things. Flower farming really is about the highs and lows (Celsius!) with some hasty covering not really being up to the job.

However, after some brutal cutting back they returned with a final flourish in the last days of summer.

Dahlia drama at the end of the season

To round the season off the Chrysanthemums really did us proud this year, by having them all in the tunnels even the early outdoor varieties they stayed in good condition and allowed me to continue arranging for events right through November. Each year I add to my collection carefully saving the ones I have so I can generate new plants from basal cutting in the early Spring.

All of this beauty and general flower hustle and bustle has helped me through a tough year on the personal front with much bereavement. Thanks to the flowers and my wonderful team and customers I felt enormously supported through it all. I put everything I have into caring for our rather large garden/flower farm and in times of need I know I can step into it and feel that care returned to me.

Best wishes for 2020 and another decade of Great British flowers,

Rachel

 

Making the Cut….in House and Garden

 

It was this time last year whilst pruning the roses that I got a call from Clare Foster, garden editor for House and Garden. She asked if I was interested in working with her on a 6 month series about growing flowers for cutting – each issue would be filled with information about what to grow for a continual supply of flowers for the house from April through to September, which are the best varieties for cutting, when and how to complete tasks and ideas for how to arrange what you have produced .

The garden photographer Eva Nemeth had been commissioned to work on the images and over the next few months she paid regular visits to the farm to capture the rapid succession of horticultural tasks, flowers, floral designs and created some gorgeous flat lays to illustrate my favourite seasonal pickings. Eva took so many beautiful images that I thought it was a shame not to show more of them in a blog to run alongside each monthly installment. It also seemed like a good opportunity to talk a bit more about what we get up to throughout the season.

April is often considered the start of the cut flower growing season but I find March a more realistic month to get started. There is plenty of cutting back and pruning to do if you are growing perennials, shrubs and roses for cutting. These will all need a good mulch afterwards with well rotted manure or compost. It is important to get this job done earlier before buds start to break into leaf and new growth starts to sprout from the ground.

I tend to do most of my perennial and shrub planting in March. There is plenty of moisture around for the roots to get established before the warmer months.

I always earmark my older more congested perennials for lifting and dividing at this time, this year the focus is on my large collection of phlox, I am saving this job for the attendees on the Propagation Masterclass who will be taking some healthy clumps home with them.

March is also when things start to get busy in the greenhouse. If you are lucky enough to have one it is a good time to sow a whole host of annuals (both hardy and half hardy) plus perennials which you would like to see flowering in their first year. I grow many of my favourite perennials from seed including scabious, Eryngium, delphiniums and Achillea, it saves a lot of money and is many germinate varieties germinate very easily. Sowing will continue into April with some of the hardy annuals that dislike root disturbance being sown directly outside.

Just as things start to get busy with growing tasks it is time to start picking all the flowering bulbs that were planted between September and November.

The Anemones are in flower first and once they start they come thick and fast, producing stem after stem from each corm. To find out more about how to grow them have a look at my post here.

The tulips follow close behind, I pull them  and lift bulbs and all, clearing the bed as I go for the next crop – more about growing tulips in my cultivated palette series here.

Narcissus are flowering in our field and in my pots, I love showing off the more delicate varieties this way and I find they last longer in a pot than tulips.

To accompany all these spring beauties April is an ideal time to go foraging, I cut from our surrounding native hedge and orchard, carefully selecting the branches that will create the shape I want in my arrangements. The emerging leaves of hazel and hawthorn accompanied by blossoming branches are my favourites.

No April arrangement would be complete without a hellebore or two, by now they are setting seed and this ripening gives them a much longer vase life.

The Cultivated Palette Series – Tulips

CW__7564

I have decided to make this post short and sweet because that is how my tulips are this year! Our record breaking mild winter did not give the bulbs the cooling period they need for good stem length. Ideally they require a good 12-14 weeks ‘cold period’ to produce quality cutting stems. I think I will try to order the bulbs as early as possible this year and store them in our chiller to pre-cool them before planting in November, if and only if it is cold enough.

Anyway, looking back at taller years, here are some of the varieties and cultivation methods I use for luscious blooms to grace my March and April floral work.

CW__7548

I opt to grow the majority of my tulips under cover which normally results in better stem length as they get slightly drawn and unblemished perfect petals. Planting them closely together also helps, no more than 10 cm apart. The only downside to this being if we get a warm spell in April (which any normal person would be very happy about) as it tends to make them all come at once, early, middle and late cultivars.

IMG_9914

I often get gasps of horror when people watch me harvesting tulips as I just pull them out, bulb and all.

Green & Gorgeous - March - 060

The bulb is then cut off and composted and so it becomes an annual (albeit expensive) crop.

Green & Gorgeous - March - 061

There are many advantages to growing them this way; even more stem length as you get the extra bit under the ground, bulbs are dibbed in shallowly so no trenches or backbreaking work, the ground is cleared and ready for the next annual crop and it means you get to try new varieties every year!

CW__9197 (2)

Talking of varieties I am a sucker for anything with ‘new’ written next to it but I do have some reliable favourites that I grow year on year. My favourite groups are peony/double and viridiflora types.

I always start the season with lots of ‘Verona’ a pale yellow peony tulip with decent stem length for an early double type and such a long vase life.

IMG_4070

These are closely followed by ‘Blue Diamond’ an unusual antique, puce colour and two classics ‘Angelique’ and ‘Mont Tacoma’.

Green & Gorgeous - March - 140

The recently introduced ‘La Belle Epoque’ rounds off the season with a mouthwatering colour combination of coffee and peachy pink.

CW__7580 (1)

The viridiflora types are characterized by a green stripe on the the petals. My favourite is ‘Spring Green’ because they go with anything and are effortlessly stylish. This pink variety ‘Greenland’ has been paired with a coral single late variety called ‘Menton’ and pear blossom.

Green & Gorgeous - April - 086

For stem length, Lily-flowered varieties are worth trying. Their pointed petal tips and hourglass shape bring a contrasting elegance to the fuller peony and parrot types. They tend to flower a bit later as well giving some succession to the tulip harvest.

CW__9189

Floppy Parrot tulips are definitely happier in my tunnels where they are sheltered from heavy Spring showers. Black Parrot is great for a sophisticated look and Flaming Parrot or Apricot for some Dutch Master decadence.

CW__7705

To source your tulips and see a whole host of other varieties I would recommend looking at Peter Nyssen or Gee Tee.

They both supply good quality and reasonably priced bulbs, which is important if you are going to use them as an annual in your cutting beds.

CW__7637 (1)

When conditioning tulips I just put a couple of inches of water in the bucket, I find if they are immersed in deep water it ruins the leaves.

Photographs (mostly) by Clare West.

 

Next up will be my favourite Spring flower – Ranunculus.