Walking our dog in the sunshine this morning I saw signs of spring everywhere. There were wild flowers pushing their way through the leaf litter in the hedge bottoms. A patch of Cow Parsley was blooming… although their stems were little more than 15cm/6 inches tall. (A period of cold is required to produce long stems on some plants) Even the Honeysuckle and Elder were sending out new leaves in the hedge. It’s way too early!
We have just heard the fantastic news that a friend is getting married in Autumn. She’s chosen a natural theme and would prefer to have locally grown flowers. She would like to stick to a budget and that got me thinking… What flowers would be suitable for the big day? More importantly which flowers can be easily and inexpensively grown by the brides family and friends.
I’ve done a bit more tidying in the garden this afternoon and pruned my Eucalyptus gunnii. It has glaucous round young leaves which are lovely for adding to a vase of flowers. As the plant grows taller the leaves become much bigger and quite elongated. You can encourage the plant to keep producing the immature foliage by pruning so it sends out new shoots and that was my aim today. Some of the stems that I cut off the plant were quite lovely with their long delicate leaves and I didn’t want to just throw them on the compost heap. So I selected a few sprigs then sprinted round the garden in search of something delicate to go with them.
I read a post on Pickin’ Petals Flower Farm blog which offered suggestions for THE TOP FIVE FLOWERS to grow if you want to start a cutting garden. Now Pickin’ Petals is based in Kentucky USA which is a couple of states south and west of New York State. (Think midway between the Great Lakes and Florida) The climate in Kentucky is very different to ours here in the UK and so it follows that their easy flowers are very different to ours too. It got me thinking… which flowers would I suggest for gardeners in the UK? I have already listed my BEST HARDY ANNUALS in a previous post. So here are my recommendations for the Top Five Flowers to grow in the UK for autumn blooms.
I’m still picking sweet Peas. Even in the rain.
This morning I cut some pure white and a beautiful flaked one…
There are some plants I wouldn’t like to be without in my garden. Lathyrus odoratus commonly known as Sweet Peas are right at the top of my list. They were the first seeds I ever sowed in the garden of our first home. Growing them got me started gardening and I have grown them every year since then. If you are new to growing Sweet Peas then please take the hint from me and have a go! They are easy to grow and very hardy so you can’t go wrong.
For In a vase on Monday I’m using an empty jam Jar this week. In my view there’s no need for proper vases all the time, especially for a simple bunch of sweet peas. Sweet peas shout out country style to me. The flowers are the stars I think.
It’s almost the end of August and my annual flowers are still churning out lots of lovely fat buds and beautiful blooms. Particularly striking right now are my Scabious plants. They are in fact short lived perennials but are best treated as hardy annuals… apparently.
Have you ever grown Orlaya? It’s quite new to me – I’ve only grown it for a couple of years yet I am sure that it’s a plant I’ll be growing again.
The cutting garden is still producing flowers by the bucket full which is marvellous as we have lots of celebrations at this time of year… Birthdays, Wedding Anniversaries … you know how it goes. Even if it’s not a big event we still like to give a little gift to the hosts to say “Thanks for having us!” We know that a bunch of home grown flowers goes very well with a bottle of wine or two!