Tag Archives | courses

Growing cut flowers course – the spring season

 

Last month saw the final growing cut flower day for the spring season. So I thought it was a good time for a sum up. The dates ran through March and April, on either a Wednesday or a Sunday and we were very lucky to have gorgeous weather for all five of them. I have had about seventy people, sixty eight women and two men. Come on guys where are you all? People came from all over the country to attend, which was both flattering and slightly pressurising. But I have had some really flattering feedback so I am now taking bookings for September dates (posted on the courses page).

 

It has been really interesting to hear about everyone's burgeoning cutting gardens from a raised bed in the city to a few acres in a walled garden on a country estate. Experience has ranged from complete beginners to people with allotments already growing their own veg to professional gardeners sent by the boss. There have also been a surprising number of people (mainly florists) wanting to set up something similar to us, no one too nearby thankfully.

 

Everyone seemed genuinely in awe at the area we tend with two full time people (myself and my partner Ashley) plus our wonderful part-time volunteers Irene and Sally. It is partly down to hard graft and no social life but I do try to demonstrate techniques to make the growing and harvesting of flowers less labour intensive. Another aim of the course is to show people how to plan for a continual supply of flowers throughout the season without any wasteful gluts or flowerless gaps…always a challenge, especially with the extreme weather we've been having. My shiny new projector and screen has done a great job in showing the highlights of the year, favourite flowers selected for their productivity, low maintenance, colour, scent and what I call nostalgic value. Lastly I try to demonstrate the cultural difference between flowers picked from a border and those destined to be a cut flower to rival anything bought in the shops.

 

Of course the main objective is to have fun and go away feeling inspired with a few seedlings to make a start and a hand tied bouquet to spur you on.  One of the highlights of the day was our home cooked lunch made with produce from the garden. A few people have asked for the Spinach Pie recipe which comes from my neighbour Vicky's book 'The Kitchen Manual'. If any of you are planning to come to our open day Vicky will be serving up her marvellous cakes, scones and ice cream. I will ask her to have a few copies of her book available too.

 

 Spinach Pie

I use Nigel Slater's recipe for the pastry (180g plain flour to 100g butter and a splash of cold water), this is baked for about 15 mins and cooled.

 The filling ingredients are combined in a blender:

 1 onion peeled and quartered

500g spinach chopped

½ tsp salt

freshly ground pepper to taste

1 cup cottage cheese

100g feta cheese

1 cup grated cheddar cheese

4 – 5 eggs

a small amount freshly grated nutmeg

 Pour the mixture into the pastry case and bake for 40 – 45mins at 180 C. It is good eaten hot or cold.

 

Here are a few pics of from one of the days

 

Growing course spring 001 

Pricking out half hardy annuals to take home.

 

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Putting together a hand tied bouquet in the flower studio.

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A beautiful combination of ranunculus and honesty.

 

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Getting the aquapac (cellophane bubble with water reservoir) for the long journey home.

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Three weddings and a course

 What a busy week, with three weddings to start the season off, all with different colour schemes thank goodness. It has been an anxious time with the heat pushing everything on so quickly, but everyone seemed more than happy with their various combinations of ranunculus, tulips, anemones, honesty, apple blossom, muscari, narcissi, sorbus and euphorbia.

Anna Baldwin 14th May 022

 

  Anna Baldwin 14th May 024

 

Helen Zwadski and arranging course 003 

The narcissi we planted in the field have been so useful this week, I used a different variety for each wedding; Avalanche for the yellow theme, Thalia for the white and Silver Chimes for the pinks/creams. It is amazing what you can do with a tractor and a potato planter; I think the tulips will get the same treatment this autumn. The ranunculus are peaking with some heads the size of peonies, they are one of the only flowers I find hard to pick! But pick I did, a couple of hundred for our first arranging course today, there will be more info about that from Jo in the next blog.

Now I am just praying for a grey, rainy day to slow things down and water in all those perennials I divided back in March , plus the annuals we are planting out now…. I do sound like a grumpy farmer.

Other exciting news:  the mail order boxes have arrived, finishing touches are being made to the shopping page and I hope to be taking orders for gorgeous ranunculus bouquets like this very shortly.

 

Helen Zwadski and arranging course 096 

 

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A Happy Hen

Finally, after months of winter waiting, I managed to get my hands on some flowers and do some arranging. The season has kicked off for me with a Hen party workshop in a Tudor Manor house near Peppard in South Oxfordshire. The bride, Anna Baldwin has ordered buckets of flowers to arrange herself for her wedding in April, so her chief bridesmaid invited me along to host a morning floristry workshop. As we began Anna announced she'd be keeping her eye out for those who would make the floristry dream team on The Big Day….no Pressure then Ladies!! Joking aside, it was really relaxed and everyone enjoyed themselves. There was some pretty hot arranging going on too.

  Hen1   Hen zero 
 

During the workshop we created a spring posy, flowers in a tea cup and a corsage. I took along some anemones, tulips, muscari and scented narcissi. As for foliage, we had Viburnum tinus and variegated Pittosporum. I would say the anemones were the main attraction. It's been a hard winter and there have been a few losses in the garden, so the rows of anemones that have popped up in the polytunnel bring extra cheer with them.

 It was a great way to start the season, so thank you ladies, especially Flo who supplied me with coffee and cake.

Jo Wise

 

  Hen2   Hen 3 an a half 

 

Hen3 

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