Tales of the Flower Patch

This year has been an unusual one for growing cut flowers.

Last autumn I trialled a direct sow of hardy annuals (a kind of wild patch). In one way this turned out successfully – something grew. But in another way, not so successful when I ended up with a whole flower bed of Nigella and little else that was described on the seed shaker. The Nigella however looked beautiful in early June and luckily for me one of my weddings had asked for dusky blue flowers which coincided with the abundant display. I was also able to use the pods as these dry really well for Autumn and Winter arrangements. For next year I have decided to sow my hardy annuals in pots and then plant them out in the Spring to ensure I have enough variety of what I need in the early summer.

In addition to the direct sow, I sowed a few Antirrhinums, Clary Sage and Sweet Peas in the Autumn. Then between February and April, I sowed a few more Antirrhinums, Larkspur and my half-hardy annuals. I decided to trial a few different flowers this year, Larkspur, Calendula and Gomphrena which were new to my growing list. The Calendula and Gomphrena were a great success, the Larkspur however did struggle but I’ve decided to give them another try with an Autumn sown batch, fingers crossed they work out better this time round.

The Spring was fairly warm compared to the previous year, the daffodils and tulips felt like they arrived early and their beauty faded too quickly.

Then high summer came, one of the hottest on record – not ideal weather for growing cut flowers. I watered as little as I could get away with but everything really grappled with the extreme heat, apart from the Asters, which love hot dry weather.

Fast forward to October and strangely some of the Dahlias and Cosmos are only just starting to bloom, they are enjoying the cooler temperatures and damper ground conditions which has given them a growth spurt. Once the frosts arrive then I will finish tidying up the flower patch and start preparing the beds for next year. 

It has been a really busy but enjoyable season, one thing I have learnt over the last few years is that no growing year is the same – mother nature is always keeping us on our toes.