It’ll be a short and sweet post this week as it’s been a very busy week- I’ve been longing for a new flower plot to plant for a year or two now. This week I was caught by surprise when a neighbour offered me part of his field to spread into. I’m so excited to have a space separate from my garden that I can use for the sole purpose of producing flowers to cut! It’s a beautiful field with views onto Clee Hill and sheltered by some large yew trees with lots of snowdrops scattered about. The field has been used for horses in the past so the soil is good and rich, though much heavier than ours here on the hill- I look forward to seeing the differences. I’ve been busy this week marking up the space for the first 5 beds and getting some posts in. I’ve also been gathering chicken wire (to keep out rabbits) and cardboard to suppress the weeds. Manure Compost is on order from Mr Mucks and I’m busy sketching up plans for the first 5 no dig beds which I’m hoping to start making in the week ahead.
I’ve ordered 6 Roses , 3 hydrangeas and 4 pittosporum to start my collection of shrubs. I’m hoping to underplant these with geranium and primula candelabra. I’m also planting 1 bed of perennials, 1 bed of dahlias and 2 beds of annuals- mainly varieties that I will use for drying and 1 row of sweet peas.
The new plot- posts in.
In the garden I’ve been carrying on with seed sowing- germination so far is really slow! I’m wondering about investing in some heat mats for next year.
Also in the garden I spent a couple of evenings painting up some old aluminium surveyors poles which I’ve used today to make the frames for my sweet peas, painted in red, white and blue, they will look just the part for the coronation year! I also planted out the sweet peas this afternoon as it’s getting a bit too full in the greenhouse, I’m hoping they will be alright in the cold weather which is forecast!
Sweet pea frames up.Look at those beautiful roots!
Simon has been busy prepping the ground to get some more yew hedging in next week. This will finish off the rose garden very nicely and the backdrop of the yew provides a lovely foil for the fresh shoots on the roses.
Preparing for the yew hedging around the rose garden.
Anyway, that’s all for now, I can’t wait to get going on the field and bring you blog posts on its progress!
Thanks for checking in and have a lovely week, Rebecca
It’s quite exciting being out in the garden at the moment, I enjoy looking for the little signs of life. It makes me so happy to see another of my plants popping up and I tick it off in my mind- it’s made it through the winter. I make the most of being able to easily walk almost the beds remembering what it becomes in mid summer when everything overflows from its place into the paths. Euphorbia is the highlight in the garden this week, it’s zingy green lighting up even the dullest day. We have it on the patio in the boarder where It dazzles in the evening sunlight, it also self seeds into little nooks and crannies with ease.
Euphorbia in the evening sun.
When this blog post is released it will be the last day of February- tomorrow marks the start of meteorological spring though the vernal equinox is on 20th March and this is the date of the start of astronomical spring- astronomical spring is marked by the moment in the year when the Sun is exactly above the equator and day and night are of equal length.
Seed sowing in the greenhouse is now well underway and I’m beginning to harden off the autumn sown sweet peas, corncockle and daucus ready to plant out in the next couple of weeks.
My fancy daffodils which I planted last autumn will be flowing within the next couple of weeks they will be lovely just in time for Mother’s Day and the Tete-a-tetes in the lawn are already beginning to open.
Tête-à-tête and iris reticulata growing in the grass.
My biennials are now putting on some spring growth and so I should have a nice supply of wall flowers and sweet Williams to mix in with the tulips which are at the moment flagging behind, perhaps due to the past month being very dry. April is the start month for my flower subscriptions so these biennials will be filling bouquets in April and May whilst the annuals get going.
Wall flowers and sweet Williams putting on some spring growth.Daffodils and poppies both coming along nicely.
Here’s a list of seeds I’ve sown so far this February and what I plan to sow through March and April. I buy most of my seeds online from Chilterns seeds and a few from Plants of Distinction.
I’ll start with what’s new for me in 2023:
Borlotto beans- a lovely pink speckled bean pod which I though would look great in arrangements
Tagettes, Burning Embers – love the scent of these.
Celosia, Bombay Bronze – a strange furry looking ruffled creature, also good for drying, can’t wait to see this one.
Verbascum, Southern Charm – this one is a perennial and a useful spike shape for my arrangements.
Cosmos, Black Magic- a lovely deep burgundy Cosmos and a perennial too!
Amaranthus – can’t believe this will be my first year of growing this one. Inspired by all the autumn Dahlia bouquets on Instagram last year, looking forward to using it with the Dahlias.
China Asters- after picking them for Stokesay flowers last year I couldn’t not order some for myself, I’m trying King Peach.
Heliptrum humboldtianum – an umbellifer, like yarrow but in bright yellow and again another great one for drying.
What I’ve sown this month and new varieties I’m adding:
Snapdragons – Costa apricot, Potomac ivory white, Potomac orange and Orange wonder.
Cerinthe Purpersans – a filler I grew for the first time last year and now wouldn’t be without.
Panicum and Red millet – very useful annual grasses.
Strawflowers- I’m doing a whole bed of these this year as I want to have more to dry and use them fresh aswell. I’m trying the pomegranate and bright red new this year as I think they’ll be really useful for my Christmas wreaths.
Cosmos- sticking with Purity (the plain white one) as I don’t think you can beat it. Have also sown a few Xsenia, a lovely pale yellow one, but I’m not going all out with the pink ones this year as I think I’ll find the white ones more useful.
Phlox- new varieties for me this year are Ethie Salmon and Promise Peach, very excited about these.
Nigella- of course! Always a fave for me, I plant them in the Dahlia bed and they are done by the time the dahlias get going.
Statice- all the colours!
Rudbeckia- Just the Sahara variety.
Bunny tails- for drying and for fresh.
Ammi- am only growing Visnaga this year as this was my preference from last year. I’m growing Daucus aswell so I’m giving Ammi Majus a miss this year but hoping I won’t regret that decision…
Billy buttons- again for drying and fresh.
Nasturtiums- trying TipTop Rose, very excited about that one.
Calendula, Snow Princess and Canteloupe.
And finally what I’m sowing over the coming months:
Sun Flowers – I can’t be without a just a few of them in the garden as they were the first flower that got me into flower growing. Pro cut white nite, Valentine, Italian green heart, Ms mars and Soluna lemon are the ones I’m trying this year.
Phlox, Strawflower, Statice – I’ll continue sowing these in small batches through till April so I have fresh new plants through the summer.
Lavatera – a lovely delicate trumpet shape flower, a very productive plant.
Scabious
Nicotiana
Euphorbia
Sweet pea varieties I’m growing this year as I think they deserve a list of their own and I’d also love to know any favourites you may have in the comments:
Erewhon
Restormel
Royal crimson
Earl grey
America
Route 66
Henry Thomas
Albutt blue
While I am so looking forward to the spring and the warmer weather I’m clinging on for the moment to these last days of winter and the permission they give to rest, recharge and dream.
Thanks for reading my blog I hope you found some useful information within it. Much Love Rebecca.
The Laskett Garden is one of our favourite and most inspiring gardens to visit locally. It is known for being the most well renowned of formal gardens built in the last half a century, inspired by Italian renaissance gardens and Tudor and Stuart traditions. It was created upon a blank canvas beginning in 1974. What I find most striking about it is its use of sculpture, ornamentation and the feeling of drama and theatre. Its lively and emotive, enchanting and full of energy, joyous, humorous and sometimes sombre. The garden is split into ‘Rooms’ each with a story to tell, it’s a story of the life and marriage of its creators Sir Roy Strong and his late wife Julia who moved to Laskett lane after their marriage in 1971. The garden visit includes a wonderful audio guide in which Sir Roy describes the garden as “The visual expression of a very happy marriage” and that’s certainly evident throughout.
View of The Glade. A gravel garden at the front of the house, with lots of spring flowering bulbs and Daphne fragrance filling the air.
We have visited the gardens numerous times over the years in the summer months when Sir Roy still lived there, but this week we took a trip over to see the garden for a February snow drop event and what a beautiful time we had! The last time we visited, in 2021 Sir Roy Strong had just left Laskett lane and handed the gardens over to Perennial; a charity who’s mission is to help people working in horticulture through tough times. We were excited to see what Perennial had done with the garden as Sir Roy’s views on the garden were always that it should change and evolve, his belief was strong that a garden should not be ‘mummified’. In the audio guide he describes the axe as the gardeners best tool, describing cutting down 40 year old conifers which he had previously planted and later felt were making a part of the garden feel claustrophobic. The garden although completely packed with interest on all levels retains a feel of light, space and air, it has rhythm, it can be likened to a dance. He gave a substantial sum of money to Perennial that the garden should not ‘get stuck’…. After visiting today I can say it’s certainly not stuck, Perennials snowdrop event offered fresh and new surprises beginning right in the fountain court, over a hundred hellebore heads carefully gathered and placed bobbing in the fountain creating the most mesmerising display.
Hellebore heads bobbing in The Fountain Court.
I should give you a very brief background about the garden, its creators and their inspirations. Though you can, if you wish, easily find out so much from the many of Sir Roy’s books and online. Sir Roy Strong is a well known author, he also became director of the national portrait gallery at the age of just 31 and at aged 38 moved to direct the V&A. The garden is peppered with artefacts and memorials which pay tribute to this time in his life, a time in which he obviously looks back on fondly. In fact, you will find in the garden a monument to commemorate his service to the arts; the Shakespeare award, an annual award given to a person in the uk considered to have made the biggest contribution to the arts in that year. His wife, Julia Trevelyan Omen who died in 2003 was a most celebrated tv, theatre, ballet and opera set designer. Her ballet design work included Swan lake and The nutcracker. She was the keen gardener of the two in the beginning but Sir Roy soon caught on and the life work of the two of them plays into the drama of the garden in such a rhythmic and poetic way. There is a good video on YouTube (‘The laskett: The influence of Italy in a late 20th century garden’) where Sir Roy talks about the garden and shows images of how the garden has developed over the years. He talks in depth about where the inspiration from the garden comes from. He talks about layouts of Italian gardens, clipping of the evergreens and personal influences such as the garden of film director Derek Jarman, on the shingle shore near Dungeness, Kent, ‘a garden of found objects.’ And the garden of Ian Hamilton Finlay, ‘Little Sparta’ up in Scotland, ‘a garden of philosophy and ideas.’ You can really see the influences of these gardens at The Laskett yet it is so completely unique. What I love about The Laskett, is that it has been completely built from scratch over a short space of time. You could easily be mistaken in thinking it’s a very old garden, it is encouraging to see what can be achieved in a life time and because of this it makes the garden feel (somewhat) relatable. The garden includes clipped box, beech, pleached limes, clipped yew hedging, topiary avenues, an orchard, a meandering walk through the serpentine garden, grand promenades, elaborate monuments, a large mound, heart felt memorials, water fountains, fancy urns, viewing platforms, obelisks and statues not forgetting the lion from the Houses of Parliament, a nymphaeum nonetheless and oh so much more!
View from Ashton Arbour onto Covent Garden.
It’s scatted with pet memorials and even entire ‘rooms’ dedicated to the memory of beloved pets such as Sir Muffs Parade. The Reverend wenceslas muff so called as he apparently resembled the engravings by artist Wenceslas Holler of the lady’s muff. In Sir Muffs parade, a large mound of earth known runs down one side of the room with Birch trees and spring bulbs on the left of the mound and a lawn and large boarder on the right. You can walk along the mound to view the garden from a different height. In Italian renaissance the mound or upper walk is called the Parnassus. There is a painting by Nicholas Poussin called Apollo and the Muses on Mount Parnassus in which The nine Muses, goddesses of poetic inspiration and the creative arts, surround the god Apollo. If you sit on the bench opposite you can image the Parnassus as a stage and Sir Muff as star of the show entertaining any onlookers of his parade. At the top of this room is a very large clipped yew behind which sits the urn of Sir Muff himself. Again catching you by surprise after the excitement and drama of the Parnassus come the sobriety of this urn and its heartfelt inscriptions. The garden is truly a story of life and in it there is a time for every thing.
Looking back toward Sir Muffs Parade in the shadow of the clipped yew that screens Sir Muffs memorial.
I can’t possibly begin to talk about all the rooms in the garden, and I definitely recommend you go. There are many rooms each with a different character. There is The Rose Garden, The Topiary Garden, an orchard with a Belvedere and a stately walk with pleached limes apparently twice the length of the long walk at Sittinghurst! Running alongside the long walk- named the Elizabeth Tudor avenue you catch glimpses through clipped hedging of a series of mature Witch Hazel trees in yellow. As you find your way over to them they are under planted with lilac and yellow crocuses and snowdrops, the yellow of the trees singing in perfect harmony with the lilac crocuses and snow drops densely planted under them.
Witch Hazel underplanted with Crocuses and Snowdrops.
But we really did save the best till last on this visit. As we approached The Colonnade I was almost moved to tears. Perennial had really made The Colonnade Court shine on this wonderful February day. The entablature of the Colonnade festooned with little glass vases very carefully strung up with three Snowdrops in each little vase all lovingly curated with individual species all labelled with handwritten parcel tags tied around the necks of the vases. It was a joy to be able to walk between them and enjoy the intricacies of the blooms from this new perspective. As if that wasn’t enough the bases of The Colonnade had been skilfully adorned with displays of hellebores. If there was a wedding to be held there it would have been picture perfect. What a testament to what can be achieved with British flowers in February!
The Colonnade adorned with Hellebores and Snowdrops for the February Snowdrop day.
Hello, thank you for checking back for my 3rd blog post! I love February, the sunrises and sunsets have been spectacular and you don’t have to be up at the crack of dawn to see them either which is rather lovely. We have also had some milder weather here the past week, it’s tempting to go in all guns blazing with the seed sowing when the weathers nice but it’s still early so I have just made a little start and I’ll keep inside on the windowsill until they’ve germinated and then kick them out into the green house in a few weeks time. My first batch of Cerinthe, Celosia, Helichrysum and Limonium.
We have been adding to our stock of hellebores so that we can build a good supply of hellebores for years to come. I’ve underplanted the roses with them this week it seemed like a good use of space that while the roses are bare there will be something in their place. I purchased a good haul of them from Twelve Nuns nurseries who do online orders and I was really impressed with them. They looked great quality and came perfectly packed with no plastic packaging either. What a joy! They do take a little while to get established and I chose to go for smaller 9cm pot plants in the end because I’m in no rush and the price difference was significant compared to the larger plants elsewhere, so it’s worth while checking them out if you want to get some winter colour into the garden and if your not in a rush either it may be a good option for you too! To plant them, I dug in plenty of good quality well rotted horse manure compost into the hole and sprinkled some mycorrhizal fungi onto the roots which helps get the root system established quicker. Don’t forget to give them a good water in too.
Hellebores from Twelve Nuns Nurseries and Mycorrhizal Fungi.
We thought it would be a lovely idea to be able to offer ‘Floating Hellebores’ next year in February and April! And hopefully some small bunches of hellebores too. They will mark the start of the cut flower season for us here on Clee Hill. Simon has been busy in the Hot glass workshop producing samples for a range of hand blown Hellebore bowls. Inspired by the colour palette of hellebores at Ashwood nurseries that we saw last week. We have chosen 3 shades which we think are most beautiful and we hope you love them too!
floating hellebore hand blown glass bowls.
We are launching this product by doing a giveaway on our Instagram page. 🥳 Please do check out the Instagram page and be in with a chance of winning one of our handmade Hellebore bowls and a bunch of hellebores to float in it!
Floating Hellebores Instagram giveaway.
The other star of the show at the moment has to be the snow drops doesn’t it !? We don’t have many of them here in our garden, they don’t make good cut flowers but it’s always nice to venture out and see them en masse as they herald in the spring! They only last a few fleeting weeks but they are worth stopping to enjoy. If you don’t live too far from Ludlow then you should certainly plan a visit to St Peter’s at Stanton Lacy, don’t forget to take your flask. The whole church yard is carpeted in snowdrops for the first couple of weeks of February it’s truly something special to see!
Stanton Lacy Snowdrops.Stanton Lacy Snowdrops
Thank you for reading my 3rd blog post. Please, as ever do drop me any comments with your thoughts and ideas of what you’d like me to share here. Check out the give away on Instagram and enjoy the week ahead! With Love Rebecca
Floating Hellebores at Ashwood Nurseries. 4th January 2023.
Last week we took a trip out to a specialist nursery called Ashwood Nurseries, it’s in between Kidderminster and Wolverhampton in the Midlands and lucky for us is pretty local!
We had booked onto one of their Hellebore tours and had a wonderful talk from Steve whose knowledge about these beautiful winter gems was just wonderful! Thanks Steve! We added a few new varieties to our collection, green and deep purple ones almost black, a beautiful yellow double and very elegant white which was very exciting!
Our selection of Hellebores that came home with us.
What a fascinating plant! Originating in the Eastern Alps, Switzerland, Germany and Italy, they are also known as the Christmas rose or Lenten rose, although they flower a little later than Christmas and they are not related to the rose but are actually in the Ranunculus family! (buttercup)
February to April is the best time to see Hellebores in all their glory! On our tour we got to see inside theHellebore growing tunnels which was honesty like stepping into a sweet shop. Hellebores don’t smell but they certainly make up for it in colour! And their colour palette is unlike that of any other plant! I think using them for inspiration for interiors would make for a very tranquil yet jolly room! They come in Pastels but are made rich with deep velvety pinks and blacks sometimes framing the pastels round the edges of the sepals (the correct name for the petals on a hellebore) or veining through them, as in the sweetly named ‘Picotee’ varieties! The photo at the top of this post is a really good overview of the colours available at Ashwood that we saw on our visit and you can see some of those lovely Picotee ones in the mix too!
We were amazed with the careful and dedicated organisation of the breeding programme at Ashwood nurseries. Steve talked about how they have transitioned from dividing and selling by division to growing from seeds. So the tunnels had busy staff on a mission to make new hellebore varieties by looking for closely packed stamens within the centres of the flowers to be sure that the bees hadn’t got to them first! Bee’s LOVE hellebores, as there isn’t so much nectar available to them at this time of year so they make a great source of food! Steve explained you have to be quicker than the bees to select the parent plants! Hellebores at Ashwood Nurseries go through a 3 year cycle from seed pollination before they are ready to sell, as it’s only by this point they can be sure that it’s a good hellebore and that the true flowers are produced.
If you have a hellebore plant or two then you can make yourself a floating hellebore arrangement like in the picture to enjoy for weeks in your home, they last so well! They even work as an arrangement in the garden where they blow across the surface of the water as they are caught on the breeze. It couldn’t be simpler or more beautiful – Cut an inch or two below the flower head and simply float them in your favourite bowl filled with clean water. Experiment and see what bowl works best, ceramic, glass, patterned or plain will all have have different results. I’d love to see what you create! And I’ll share some in next weeks blog post too!
Aren’t Hellebores just such a wonderful way of kicking off the cut flower season?! And how wonderful as a valentines gift would something like the arrangement in the picture be?!? Stay tuned folks we have an idea brewing to share with you in next weeks post!
To me, they do look like rather magical and mysterious plants, not only their colours but the way they emerge from the soil in the coldest darkest days of the year like strange creatures, you can often already see the flower bud as it emerges from the ground as though the flower is coming straight from the dirt. And then, as they develop, their heads are held on almost elasticated looking pedicel (the top part of the stem which holds the flower), and last for weeks and weeks and weeks bending down with each frost and springing back into action as they thaw out as if revitalised and new. Almost how I imagine those brave souls who cold water swim feel after stepping out from their morning ritual. We have found the very best way to appreciate the Hellebore is to put them in pots by our door or you could place them by a window you look out of often, they are a sure way to tell how cold is it out too!
After a bit of research, unsurprisingly it seems there are a great deal of myths, folklore and magical stories related to them, such as river poisoning stories, healing and purging of animals and humans, treatments for nervousness and mental illnesses, the making of ‘black dust’ a deadly sneezing powder made from the roots it’s even been said that powdered hellebore flowers could be thrown up into the air to give the power of invisibility to the person they land on! Anyway I’ll leave you to find out more before I fall down that rabbit hole! If you read this far then thank you! I hope my writing will get better by bringing you new and exciting posts on a weekly basis and I hope to bring you some ideas and ways to enjoy flowers each week. Please do drop me any comments with ideas and suggestions and don’t forget to share your floating hellebore pictures if you give it a go!
I’m going to be announcing my first give away next week, so please check back next Tuesday for that!
Hello and welcome to my little corner of the internet, if you have checked in here to read this, my first ever blog post, then thank you so much! This week has heralded the first of the snow drops and what a welcome sight indeed!
i want to start by saying I don’t know exactly where this whole blogging thing is heading right now but I’m stepping into it to try an and figure it out ‘on the job’. This year I have 2 main goals. 1. If I have the demand for it (please let me know) I hope to try and encourage gardeners and those new to gardening to grow flowers to cut and enjoy indoors, whether that’s just for their home or for a particular event. 2. To grow my customer base by hopefully sharing the beauty of Shropshire grown flowers and convincing a few more people that they can get sooooo much more enjoyment from Shropshire garden grown blooms than their usual supermarket bunches. I’ll explain how in the coming weeks and months, I hope you will come back and learn more with me.
I’d class myself as new to flower farming, 2022 held for me many flower firsts such as my first wedding and first funeral too. It sometimes sounds strange to me to call myself a flower farmer as I have so much to learn still and I grow on such a small scale (less than half an acre) but nonetheless I grow flowers to sell and so that makes me a flower farmer and I love that I’m a small part of something so much bigger- a whole community of British flower farmers, working in harmony with nature and the seasons, treading carefully on the planet, on a mission to spread the joy of British blooms, one happy customer at a time!
So, whats new apart from the snowdrops you ask? I’ve just added subscription flowers to my website and I’m so excited to be able to offer this new for 2023! I’ll be kicking off with the most lavish bunches of fancy tulips, unusual Narsissi varieties, wall flowers in pretty pastel shades and fingers crossed sweet Williams too! This first subscription will be delivered on the first Friday of April! I just can’t wait to get picking!
I’d so appreciate hearing any ideas or suggestions anyone may have for this blog. Are you here for gardening tips, beautiful floristry pictures and ideas, garden progress…I’d really love to know. Even if you’re not sure I’d love to know too!
