February has been colder and frostier than the rest of the winter put together so far. But that's ok, because we're now almost at the end, and it's light when i get out of bed in the morning, and when i collect my son from School, so all's well with the world.

I am feeling the spring wake up call this week.

There are Anemones starting to flower in the polytunnel.

The tulips are just starting to poke through the ground

and we've been busy as ever making beds and weeding.

I know that my no-dig beds are something i get asked the most questions about , - so here it is again.

When we first started, we stripped turf off the field, and then put on a good layer of Progrow compost to plant into. We thought we needed lovely grass paths in between the beds, but actually they just created a whole load of work, mowing, and edging, and seeding themselves into the beds.

So last year we set about filling in almost all the grass paths with additional beds.

We lay cardboard (with the plastic packing tape taken off, - that takes the longest!) onto the grass, and cover it in the middle with a thick layer of well rotted manure (provided by our lovely field neighbours in East Clandon) and then a decent layer of Progrow compost, and ensuring we make some bark chip paths on either side for us to walk on.

Within a couple of months, what looks like a funeral pyre, has settled down and become a lovely rich bed to plant annuals in, and by the following year, you wouldn't know where the added matter ends and the soil begins thanks to lots of earthworm work (unless you find packing tape that you didn't take off the cardboard)

Things are starting to grow, but our (far too) friendly wildlife have been in for their normal spring visit, (anyone want rabbit or venison?) so as we need a far lower attrition rate on our crops this year, we're resorting to covering everything at munching stage with Environmesh.

So far* It seems to be working

It does seem to mean that at the moment vast swathes of the field are covered in either plastic (keeping the weeds at bay) or Environmesh (protecting our newly planted crops) I'm hoping by the time of our first open days in April, the plants will be big enough to withstand the onslaught and i'll be able to take photos that don't make us look like a garage sale.

However blank the field seems though, there are corners of the farm and my garden that have lovely flowers already, so i'll leave you for now with a montage of some of the  British Grown Flower displays that we've done this month.

It's that time of year when all keen gardeners are waiting for the off.....

Our seeds are sitting there yelling at us to sow them, but experience has told us that actually waiting is a good thing to do. That until the light levels are higher, and the days are longer, they won't germinate well, and if they do they'll sit there and rot, or be thin and etiolated.

All of this is true, and there are many many years that i've started seed sowing on a sunny day in January, and sown the same things in the 2nd week of March as nothing germinated at all.

But there are a few things that it's worth getting your propagators ready for early, and clearing your sunniest windowsills in their honour, - and these in my opinion are they.

Antirrhinum

Now i'll admit that before i started Flower farming, I wasn't a fan of Snapdragons,  but i was told i really needed to be able to offer them to my florists, so in my first year i bought plugs of White Admiral because i missed the seed sowing window. They were amazing, and i was still picking them in October. So from then i've grown more each year. I sow these in a seed tray, because they are easy to prick out, and don't mind root disturbance. Those in the picture were sown on 13th February last year and were flowering by the beginning of July, - and only finished flowering in early September.

Larkspur

I have no luck with Larkspur if i sow them later in the season. My most successful ones are always those from an Autumn sowing, but i love them, and so do my florists, so i need a succession. Putting the seeds in the freezer for a few days, and then sowing them early seems to work for me. You do have to make sure there are no slugs in your greenhouse or propagator tho'. They can smell larkspur seedlings at 100m.

Iceland Poppies

A surprise success story for me has been Iceland poppies. These loved being in the polytunnel overwinter, but the rodents/slugs/ something loved them too so by spring i only had 8 plants left, so i sowed more seed in early February. They worked great, germinated quickly and grew despite the low light levels and the fact i had no room left in the propagator for them. I've just had single colour seed of pink and white arrive, so they'll be sown tomorrow to go with my mixed colours that are already in the polytunnel.

Gypsophila Covent Garden

I can never grow enough of this, I sell out as soon as it's ready. I'm trying about 10 times as much this season, and i'm putting it outside, but under protection of environmesh. A sowing in the next 2 weeks will almost catch up with the Autumn sown ones, and should be flowering by Mid June (following tailwind and lack of rabbit nibbling permitting)

Cynoglossum Pink and Blue

I've only had really good flowering from this at either end of the season. My really early sowing is ready by June, - my late May sowing is blooming in September, but 2 years running anything i've sown between March and late May has been stunted even if the seedlings have germinated well. They are an amazing filler though, so i'm sure i'll try again, but my main sowing will be made tomorrow!

I'll also be trying Ageratum, more Cornflowers and Amaranthus,  but they'll be 2nd successions of them going in at the beginning of March.  This lot should be enough to whet my appetite (and fill my propagator)

Here's looking forward to the beginning of the seed sowing season.

If you'd like to learn how to Sow Seeds and take cuttings to make your own cut flower patch, there are still a couple of places left on each of my

Early Spring Workshops

So it's February, the evenings are starting to get a little bit lighter (i could still see when i did pick up at 5.15pm today) and by the end of the month i'll be able to start sowing seeds again. The Middle of the month brings Valentine's Day (and half term - already!) which heralds the start of my Floristry season again. Well normally it does, i've actually been producing flowers and foliage all through January, thanks to the mild conditions.

Anyway Valentines. I guess i've been lucky to be with my Hubby for ages. We don't do luvvy duvvy,  but we do (with a few forgetful exceptions) do Valentines day. A card, - usually a lovely meal in, sometimes a present, or a plant, but not in the past, flowers.

And here's the reasons why

1) The air miles

The Roses that are sold on Valentine's day aren't growing in England in February. They may come via the markets in Holland, but they didn't begin their journey in a glasshouse there. They'll have been flown from Columbia, or Ecuador, or India or Kenya. There's more about the flower trade in those countries in this article

2) The packaging

Your single Rose will most likely come in a plastic tube, your bouquet of flowers in an Aquapack. But all of that non biodegradable plastic wrapping gets thrown in the bin the minute your flowers get home and arranged in a vase. What a waste.

3) The cost

It's the one day of the year when other colour roses are defunct, not wanted, cast aside, - of course the markets will put up the prices on the thing that everyone must have, - that's a free trade economy. The markets put the price up, so the retailers have to or they don't make any money. - The downside is, suddenly flowers cost a lot more than the rest of the year

4) Getting the same as everyone else

If everyone else is having Red Roses, are you special if you get them too?

5) The compost bin

Of course in order for those buds to get on the plane, and last until the day that you want them, they need chemical assistance. Fungicides & pesticides sprayed on them before they board, so that no bugs/ diseases are brought here.  Plus Silver Nitrate that the stems are dipped in to ensure they last the Journey (unfortunately this also mummifies the flowers, and as it's no longer decomposing, it won't give off any scent) This all means that the flowers have to go in the bin, rather than the compost heap when they've finished.

But now, for those of you near me in Surrey or if you've got a local British Flowers grower, there is another way, and you can do something different for Valentine's day.

We've ensured that our flowers and gifts have

• No Air miles, and few van miles
• No Plastic packaging, all our displays are presented in vases with tissue and paper wrapping
• The Cost is the same as flowers the rest of the year
• You'll have something different from everyone else
• And when they finally decompose naturally after giving off their intended scent, you can put them on the compost heap.

So now you can send flowers (and there will be some in my house ) More details here

We work with some wonderfully talented florists, and i'll be highlighting some of them over the coming months, but this week i've been going through the wedding enquiries that have been coming in, AND, looking back at some of the email conversations that i had with some of last year's brides, and my Question this week is

"Should you DIY your wedding flowers?"

It's a big trend at the moment and Georgie Newbery's new book "Grow your own Wedding Flowers" will i'm sure encourage even more to try.

But if you have your own wedding happening in the next year or two, or you've been asked to grow flowers for your son, daughter or friend, there are a few things to take into account.

Have you grown flowers for cutting before?

If you have, and you know what date you've sown seeds, and what date they've flowered, then great. It also means that you've probably already got a greenhouse/ polytunnel / growhouse to get seedlings going in, and you've already got fleece/environmesh / cloches to protect crops, and maybe some already self sown seedlings coming up from last year.

Is the Wedding in the 2nd half of the year?

Weddings from late July onwards are a lot easier to grow for.  An April or May wedding will need Bulbs and Biennials that have been sown/planted the summer/autumn before. A June or early July wedding will need Hardy Annuals, and Biennials sown the previous May to September. However from late July onwards, it is possible to sow Hardy and Half hardy annuals in the spring and have them flowering later the same year 

Is the bride willing to have any choice of flowers in her bouquet?

To get perfect flowers you need to grow lots, (think of the greenhouse full of Chrysanthemums for the showman to get 3 perfect blooms.) To get perfect flowers for a date in a year requires previous knowledge of flowering dates, and successional sowing so that there is a row of blooms at the right time. If the bride is willing to have whatever flowers are looking wonderful on the day of the wedding, then that makes things a lot easier.

Have you arranged bridal flowers before?

3 years after starting the flower farm, after making many bouquets each week, going on lots of workshops, and having one to one sessions with trained florists, i'm just about ready to make displays for brides on the most important day of their life. You may have arranged wonderful flowers for the house, and the church, but have you done it under pressure before?

Is your idea of an ideal evening crafting with friends? 

If you want to spend the last evening of your single life without a care in the world and with a glass of wine in your hand, then it might be a good idea to delegate some of your preparations, because the day before the wedding is when the flowers need to be made up. The more decorations you have to prepare, the higher the likelihood that it will infringe on the relaxing and enjoying time.

But if you answered Yes to all of the Questions, then I think you should DIY your wedding flowers, - you have a lot of ideal skills, and i'm sure you'll have lots of fun and create lots of memories doing it.

I will however leave you with a Quote from one of my last year's brides.

She had done 2 grow your own cut flower workshops with me, she'd bought a small polytunnel to protect her seedlings, and she'd been planning and planting and weeding for 9 months.

5 days before the wedding I received

"You have helped me so much with your workshops for my wedding so far I'm just hoping you can help a bit more. 

My flowers are budding if not flowering I'm hopeful I'll have some but probably not enough. If at all possible I would like to have one of your buckets of flowers to add to mine. "

and 2 days before the wedding, when we were confirming the theme for the flower bucket

"my life has become ridiculously manic!!! If anyone suggests doing everything themselves for their wedding I would tell them not too!!!!"

If you're ignoring this advice then here is some additional information that you may need

Plantpassion Options for DIY flowers

Growing your own flowers workshop

Gypsophila alternatives

March Seedsowing

Grow your own flowers for September wedding

Dahlias for cut flowers

There are always flowers for those that want to see them - Henri Matisse

I just want to say, right here at the beginning, that i'm not against imports....

Our Island can't grow all the things that we want all year round.

I love avocados, the occasional mango, and a Christmas tub of pecan nuts, and none of them grow here, - but you won't find me buying Strawberries outside of the summer months, Asparagus is a May/ June treat, Beans are just for August and September, and Apples will be soft and squidgy after February.

In exactly the same way that British Food is available all year round, Just not everything, every month. There are British Flowers available all year round.

If you want seasonal flowers, you have to be aware that you need to want what's available at that time - whatever that is.

If you want a particular flower for your special occasion, you have to either

a) have your special occasion at the right time for that flower

or

b) use an imported flower

Want to know when the right time of year is for your special occasion flower?

email me - Claire@plantpassion.co.uk

or follow my instagram , facebook and pinterest feeds to see what's in season all year round

Happy New Year to you.

After a full 8 days of lie ins, FAR too much food, and a lovely rest, i'm really ready to get on with 2016.

They say that you learn from your mistakes, so this year my resolution is not to put down a path without putting wet newspaper underneath it first.

I'm aiming for paths with no weeds.

Over the last few years, we've been refining our methods of bed building, This is our No Dig Philosophy Article and in 2015, the plastic that we put down over winter meant that we had clear ground to make the new beds in spring. - Although the mounds of manure and compost that we grew in were great for the plants, and thick enough to mean that minimal weeds came through, we made a big mistake on the paths, and just used woodchip on the soil.

By the end of the season when we removed the spent Half hardy annuals from these beds, the beds were practically weed free, the paths however were a different matter. Even in this photo, you can see grass and weeds starting to come through.

We've found that Newspaper, if soaked first, makes an excellent mulch. It's free, sustainable, doesn't cause as much compaction to the soil structure as the mypex or silage sheeting, and is easy to lay. The paths were we used it for in the perennial area have been easy to top up this year.

As the area we're growing in expands, we need to use every method we can to be productive, so i'm hoping this resolution will go a long way towards that in 2016.

I'm not a Bling type of girl.

Big Jewellery isn't my style, my earrings are small gold hoops, and there isn't enough gold and silver in our house to warrant any thief making an effort to find my jewellery box.

When it comes to Christmas decorations it's the same. The Christmas tree is decorated with novelties not shiny things. Our favourite baubles are those from the song the 12 days of Christmas, - no glitter there.

So it's hardly surprising that when it comes to Christmas wreaths, i'm a natural decoration fan.

The field and garden may look bare at this time of the year, but it's amazing what i've found to adorn the wreaths.

The foliage can make a pretty good display on it's own. I've used Rosemary and Ivy plus Senicio and Pittosprorum along with my conifer selection.

and for colour and interest, Chillis, Apples, Crabapples, and Rosehips add a bit of colour, with Eucalyptus bark, Clematis seedheads, Honesty, Dried Sedum, Nigella, and pine cones adding texture.

There are even flowers to be had in the middle of winter. The last few Eryngium, some Hydrangea heads, Anemones from the Field, Viburnum from the garden, and Narsissus from the Polytunnel, will be added with lots of local foliage, and Tulips from Lincolnshire and Sussex Alstromerias next week for Christmas flowers.

Plenty of British Flowers to be had whatever the time of year.

I hope that your Christmas Season is a merry one, that there is Scent in your houses, for the festive period.

I've just had the most amazing couple of days traveling to Northern Ireland.

I was there as a guest of DARDNI who support Cut Flower and Foliage Growers in Northern Ireland with free courses, information and a full time advisor. (first hit of Jealousy bug, advice, help and support from a government organisation!)

(View out over the Mourne Mountains from Moorfield Flower farm)

After a very early start on Tuesday morning, my taxi, flight, pickup from the airport at Belfast City, and the IT all worked perfectly, and by 9.15am, i was ready to teach the "Business of selling Flowers" to 15 Northern Irish Flower growers at the beautiful campus of Greenmount College in Antrim in Northern Ireland.

There was a wide range of participants:  from those just thinking of starting up, to several commercial growers supplying supermarkets. The morning was spent on Business terminology,  (thank you Mark for the Turnover is Vanity, Profit is Sanity phrase, i'll use that from now on) Markets for selling and what attributes you needed for each.

We talked about knowing your strong points, and what your weak points are (so that you can give customers realistic expectations) and we looked at Costs, Expenses and the P word - PROFIT.

After a lunch in the college canteen I got a wonderful walk in round the college walled gardens, while the growers held their NIFFA meeting (that's the NI equivalent of Flowers from the Farm) I'm afraid the weather wasn't conducive to taking photos, but I was amazed at how much was still flowering in the sheltered gardens, - Penstomens, Roses, Hydrangeas, Hesperanthera, plus amazing seed heads and Rose hips. (the picture is of Rosa Virginiana at Kilcoan Gardens)

Our Afternoon session was mostly about Low Cost, No Cost Marketing methods. Ways to make sure that all your target audience have heard of you not 1 but 8-15 times, which is what is thought to be the point at which people are mostly likely to think about buying from you.

We finished off the afternoon session with some information about keeping customers and getting them to spend more, before they got a chance to start their 2016 plans taking into account what they'd learnt.

Wednesday was a day of inspiration for me. As I was taken to 2 growers with very different flower farms.

1st was Lesley from Moorfield Flowers We were welcomed with fantastic farmhouse hospitality, and bacon butties. The Photo at the top of this post is the amazing view out of Lesley's back door. She grows Flowers for Florists, the Farm Gate, and then there is a whole field of paeonies that go off to superior supermarkets. We talked shrubs, paeonies, polytunnels (Jealousy bug again, there are 2 massive polytunnels at Moorfield Flowers, which still have lots of colour in them!) and selling to florists, and we had to be reminded to stop talking so that we could move on to our next grower.

We then had a wonderful drive up through the countryside of Northern Ireland to the top tip, just across the water from Scotland. Kilcoan Gardens is near Larne, and being coastal is windswept, but mild. There are rarely frosts. We were again met with fantastic hospitality - Coffee and Lemon drizzle cake this time.

It's ironic of course that Flower farmers only get to see other flower farms out of season. However having looked at Cherry's website photos i could imagine the borders of the garden in full bloom, and the Polytunnel was already bursting with potential of new plants for next season.

We talked Shelter belts, Foliage, herbs, the difficulties of making the garden look good while being practical for cutting and edibles for decoration.

I've decided i have to go back to take one of Cherry's workshops next year, and her barn unlike mine has natural light, and a view! (Jealousy bug again!)

At both growers we discussed the importance of knowing your varieties. They don't all work for cut flowers. We all have the perennial problem of not enough hours in the day or people to help, but although the soil and conditions were different in Northern Ireland, all the other issues are very similar.

I left with a plastic bag full of mint root cuttings, - they were my first job this morning, and are now potted up in the greenhouse.

Thank you to Mark for organising the whole trip, being my driver and tour guide, and being so supportive of all the NI growers. Thanks to Lesley and Cherry for the tours, i really appreciated your time and insight, and to all the other growers who took part in the workshop, i hope that your 2016 crops are healthy and successful, and you find buyers for everything so your reward is high for all your hard work.

My next English "Business of selling Flowers workshop" is taking place in Surrey on the 18th January more details here

It's blowing a hooley outside while i sit here and write this.  I've taken out a good proportion of the Dahlias today. It's going to get cold at the weekend, and my season for selling Wholesale flowers to florists is well and truly over for 2015.

So which ones were the most popular? Which did i get orders for week after week? Which did i sell more of than anything else?

After going through all my delivery notes, and meticulously working out the data, here are the results.

In 5th place - Dahlias

Cafe au Lait Dahlia, certainly helped that total, although i need to find some Beginning of the week brides to sell them to next year, (Florists take note, there are just as many flowers, just less demand) as i had quite a few that needed picking on a Monday that got wasted.

In 4th Place - Antirrhinum

These amazing Potomac varieties of Antirrhinum have given me an endless succession of blooms since the beginning of July. - I grew some in pots to put on the FFTF Hampton Court display, and they weren't needed, so they've been in my polytunnel ever since. I picked another 3 blooms today, yes they are still going!

The even more amazing thing is that these had 20m of beds, compared to the 60m of Dahlia beds - Result.

In 3rd Place

Cornflowers

This one suprised me a bit, I thought i'd mucked up on the cornflowers, I didn't have as many as the year before, although that meant that we kept up with the picking. A second flush at the beginning of September from self sown and transplanted seedlings helped, as my direct sown May crop didn't come up at all. Blue is the most popular, but White and Pink are still desired for weddings, and the Black was requested specifically on several occasions. Plenty of these already planted (and netted from the rabbits) already.

In 2nd Place - Scabious

When i finished my figures to find out my bestsellers, and i realised that Scabious was that high on the list,  i immediately went out to the greenhouse and pricked out another tray of seedlings, and found another bed on the field to plant them in.

These flowers, loved by bees, florists and me, are available in a large range of colours. It's the pink that eludes me though in germination - must try harder next year.

No 1 - The Top Seller of 2015, - requested the most, and with the best scent of any of the top 5 - Mint

My nine types of mint, mean that there can be scent in bouquets from April to late September, so it's hardly surprising that mint is my bestselling line. Grown in just 6 raised beds, 2.4m x 1.2m that's a productive use of space.

For those of you that just have to know more

in 6th place was Sweet peas

in 7th Hesperis

8th Orlaya Grandiflora

9th Ammi Major

10th Ranunculus

Thank you to all the Surrey Florists who bought my flowers this year, and added to these totals. There will be more of all of them next year.

Details of 2016 Florists open days are here

It's the end of the first week of November. No frost means that there are still Dahlias flowering on my field, although the stem strength is appalling, so they are no longer being cut.

They have however been fantastic this year, with few exceptions, so here is my review of the season, before I forget all the details, and just have the pretty pictures.

In the past, i've always removed all the Dahlias from the ground over winter and stored them, frost free in boxes with sawdust, covered in fleece. But now we've got the the point where there are A LOT of dahlias. So, last year we tried leaving some in. We cut them back at the same time as we removed the others in late November, and mulched them thickly.

Did it work? - Well yes, all the plants came back, although the winter was fairly mild with only 5 or 6 hard frosts, and no longer than a couple of days at a time of frozen ground. This summer, they were some of the first to flower, and they continued flowering throughout the season very prolifically. We tried leaving in Dahlias Evelyn, Preference, Cafe Au Lait, and Jowey Linda.

So you'd do it again? - Well yes and no. Those that we left in the ground definitely had smaller flowers than plants from new tubers, and a lot smaller flowers than those we grew from cuttings. So I wouldn't want to leave the same tubers in the ground for another year. However as a device to save some labour in the Autumn, I would risk it again with other plants that were in their first year. Plus some of my florists commented that the smaller flowers were a lot better size for putting in bouquets

So what about those grown from Tubers, how did they do? - Last year we had so many tubers growing on in pots in the polytunnel, that we didn't have the space or the time to go through them all and do a slug patrol. The consequence was that we had 40 or so plants that weren't worth planting out, because they'd been so badly eaten, that 's a lot of waste.

This year with slightly fewer tubers to pot up, and ensuring we did a slug patrol in mid May, we kept them in better condition. They were all planted out in the last week of May, but weren't flowering fully until the middle of August. Probably suffering from the lack of water this season in June and July. From Tubers, we grew more of the Evelyn, (but most turned out to be something else) Preference, Cafe au Lait and Jowey Linda, but also Karma Naomi, Karma Choc, Karma Lagoon, Karma Serena, Canary Fubuki, Nuit D'ete, Rocco, and Ambition.

This is almost the full range of what we grew

The real success this year though were the new to us varieties, and the ones that we grew from cuttings.

My Birthday present last year was a super dooper propagator,

After making do for years with propagators with no thermostatic controls, this was a fantastic boost to my ability to produce lots of cuttings, early in the season. The only shame being that at Easter I was invited to speak at the RHS London show, by then i'd potted on my cuttings, and moved them to other propagators in the greenhouse, and i forgot to turn it off before i went up to London.  Please learn from my mistake that fried Dahlia cuttings are no good, and i lost 2 trays, so 30 cuttings.

However those that survived made amazing plants

This is Carolina Wagermanns. Sourced from Withypitts Dahlias, this is set to become a firm favourite, and although i only had one tuber to propagate from i managed to get 5 plants, and lots of flowers from it. It teams well with Jowey Linda.

Shooting star is also one from Withypitts. I wasn't keen because it is billed as "yellow" but here teamed with Canary Fubuki and Karma Serena, it looks beautiful

My new varieties from Tubers were (anticlockwise from top left) Dark Spirit, Wine Eyed Jill, Karma Serena and Crazy Love. All good enough to grow again, particularly Crazy love, which Emma Davies took quite a shine to (large amounts of photos of that one)

The propagation from cuttings will also come in handy for this variety, which came to us labelled as Evelyn, but isn't. Anyone know what it is?

So will i grow the same ones again next year?

My pale colours of Cafe au Lait, Evelyn, Preference, Karma Serena, Tu Tu and Waterlily white were all great this year. - With my unknown pink, and Crazy Love that is a brilliant selection. I had a few Sugar diamond last year, which seems to have gone missing and needs to be replaced, and i might need a salmon pom pom to complete the colour set.

The Deep dark colours of Nuit D'ete, Karma Choc, Karma Naomi and Dark Spirit are all fabulous, but a few of the large headed Rip City would be a good addition.

and for the Jewel colours, i'll stick with the bright pink of Karma Lagoon, Jowey Linda, New Baby and Ambition, but i need A purple, and Rocco is too small and too much hard work, - Any suggestions for me?

In the next couple of weeks they'll all be lifted from the ground and stored in the barn, or maybe i'll leave some in the ground........