febuary – Shropshire flowers

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.

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.

Autumn sown corncockle and Ammi hardening off.

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.

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!

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!

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

Tag: febuary

February seed sowing and the garden this week.

Valentines Giveaway and Stanton Lacy Snowdrops.