It is no surprise that spring bulbs tend to make the prettiest cut flowers this time of year. I have found that in a cutting patch it works best to plant them around the edges of the beds to avoid the bulbs getting all tangled up in the roots of the annuals later on, and damaged when the annuals are then dug up at the end of the growing season.

The real star performers for me have been the pale scented narcissi, varieties like Thalia, Sir Winston Churchill, Silver Chimes, Geranium and Pheasant Eye. They have the added bonus of smelling lovely too, without the sometimes over- powering scent of the Paperwhites. I have planted them in swathes throughout the garden not just in the cutting patch.

I have underplanted the narcissi this year with grape hyacinths (Muscari) and the cream and blue look great together and the small narcissi and tiny hyacinths are perfect for little posies as gifts or in little glass vases and jars around the house.

Tulips are the other mainstay of blooms this time of year, and in the awful weather some have fared better than others. I have to confess, I am a lazy gardener with minimal storage space and do not lift my tulips after they have gone over. So I never quite know what will have survived year to year, and add some bulbs each November as a precaution.

I have also discovered that in my garden anyway, tulips in pots do not return happily. I always feel slightly miffed with tulips for being so fussy (and horrors of midnight there’s also tulip blight to worry about!), when my lovely daffs and alliums troop on year after year, but then their outrageously elegant silken blooms begin to unfurl in April and all is forgiven once more. I have a weakness for Tulipa ‘Mount Tacoma’ and buy bulbs each year, treating it like an annual. It is a luxury, and I don’t have many, but they are so breathtaking.

The two varieties that have returned best in my borders are Tulipa ‘Spring Green’ and ‘Queen of the Night’, whereas the peony, parrot and ballerina varieties have been much more haphazard. If you grow any tulips that return happily for you, do leave a comment, I’d love to try them. Sarah recommends the viridiflora varieties – with the green flashes on the petals – and certainly my cream and green ‘Spring Green’ tulips bear that out.

If you want to see some fabulous tulip plantings with exciting new varieties and combinations, do visit Perch Hill in the Spring – I did this year and particularly loved the way the tulips were grown interspersed with salad leaves, with beautiful colour combinations resulting. A sort of glammed up cottage garden approach I suppose.

The garden at Ulting Wick in Essex, also has really spectacular tulip displays and has a Spring open day that I hope to get to next year.

The viridiflora tulips, (with the green flash like ‘Spring Green’), not only seem to be fairly reliably perennial but also look fabulous from bud to the drop of last petal and look so elegant in bouquets and arrangement with other spring flowers.

The other perennial plant that has been a fantastic trouper over the last few years is the anemone coronaria – bold and beautiful in the garden and the vase. They are dramatic on their own, but mix well with other flowers and foliage in the vase as well – I really love them!

I am particularly smitten with the single form of the Anemone de Caan series – just soak the odd, knobbley little corms before planting in the autumn for plenty of lime green, curly foliage and stunning flowers for many weeks at a stretch over the spring and summer. The more you snip the flowers, the more seem to bounce back in a cut and come again fashion. They go on producing blooms long after the daffs and tulips have disappeared and I think they are considerable bang for your bucks.

Finally, an honourable mention to the Euphorbias – many sending out shoots of deliciously tangy looking lime coloured florets and providing fantastic foliage this time of year. I once sowed a packet of Euphorbia oblongata around the edges of my cutting patch and although the plants are mean’t to be a short-lived perennial, mine are returning well and self seeding like mad, so I will never have to buy more. They really do set off flowers in a bouquet beautifully – just remember to sear the stems and wear gloves when picking as the milky sap is toxic and can sting.

If you are growing any other spring flowers which cut well, and have managed to flourish in our less that glorious spring weather this year, please share in the comments section, it would be great to add some more flowers to the list.

Happy gardening and thanks for reading.

Desperately in need of a break from my kids and their nearly four weeks of Easter holidays, I booked a trip to New York City. Alone. Having lived there for a couple of years until early 2009 I was eager to get back and visit friends, shop, eat and visit the High Line. I left New York just before the opening of the High Line and it has been on my must-do list ever since. And now I had the chance to visit. Blissfully alone.

Built on a historic freight rail line and elevated above the streets, the High Line is a public park of over two kilometres long snaking above the west side of Manhattan. Walking at such height gives a voyeuristic view into apartments, restaurants, panoramic views of the Hudson River and the classic NYC street scene, yellow taxis and all.

Before it became a garden…

The gardens are beautifully planted with hardy perennials such as hellebores and hostas blended in with both evergreen and deciduous grasses. Splashes of colour come from narcissus and crocuses poking up through the gravel beds.

The drifts of planting and minimal variation make it both elegant and naturalistic. A couple of cafes blend in along the walkway as well as many benches and recliners just to sit and reflect on the views. You do forget you’re in one of the world’s largest cities. That’s the appeal of inner city parks though really.

The first section of the High Line was opened as a public park in 2009 with the second in 2011. Fundraising is currently underway for the final section. The planting is still immature in many sections and I can image that in summer when the plants have fully spread their leaves and blossoms that the colour and variety is spectacular.

While visiting this new tourist must-see I kept thinking about the derelict rail lines and stations around Hoxton, East London, and imagining what could be possible there. Upon my return one of the first things I did was plant a little indoor gravel garden in a tray with miniature plants inspired by those of the High Line…

Thanks for reading,

Every time I go there I get to experience what Sarah’s garden is really like, to sit and eat and talk with her and most fantastically, to watch her in action. And that’s what I want to let you in on in this post… a little bit of the behind-the-scenes stuff!

I arrive at about 10am, ready for a day of filming – it takes me three hours to drive there, as it’s quite a way from the SarahRaven.com offices in Marlborough. I rather wish I lived closer, but it’s definitely worth the trek.

When it comes to filming, we write down a list of videos that we’d like to do, circulate this round each department in the office for their ideas, and then I’ll rework this with Sarah when we know what will be in flower and looking good on the shooting day at Perch Hill. Sarah is a very enthusiastic presenter, and we’ll very easily shoot a whole 2 hours of footage in one day…

It takes a long time to set up the videos – with Sarah fetching all the plants and equipment she needs before shooting, and me trying to find a good location and sussing out shooting angles.

We never rehearse the videos, we literally talk about the idea and start rolling. We stop and start a few times, and we do a couple of retakes, but for the most part Sarah completes in one go. We always want the videos to be natural and fluid, for her to be able to throw in tips and tricks when she thinks of them. Some of our most popular videos are actually taken from the middle of other planned videos – for example, a tour of the vegetable garden turned into ‘Growing Peas in the Veg Garden‘ where she’s talking about her favourite varieties of peas to grow…

Every video is really fun to shoot and I always learn so much. I think my favourite videos to create and to edit are the floristry videos we’ve made – to watch Sarah begin with a bowl and some stems, and then create something so beautiful is quite a wonder to behold. You can see the final edited video on our channel for the one we filmed that day if you look for Spring Floral Centrepiece using a flower grid on YouTube (or just click on the link!).

The final arrangement ends up being part of the table decor for the open day the following day…

The prep for an open day is fairly intense. The gardens are being primped, the whole farm is cleaned and tidied, the shop is getting fully stocked and the food is being cooked.

The food is incredible – anyone that has visited for an open day or a course will tell you that! – using Sarah’s recipes and produce from the garden, it’s unlike anything you’ll get anywhere else, and it’s always a highlight of my visit. Actually, anytime someone from the office visits, their first comment when the come back to the office is a full detail of what they ate.

This time I had… chicken salad. But this wasn’t just any chicken salad, this was Sarah Raven’s chicken salad with raisins, dried cherries, olives, capers and fresh herbs with an olive oil and pomegranate molasses dressing, with a side of fresh green leaves and edible flowers (violas and mizuna flower) and a lemon and poppyseed grated carrot, fennel and pepper ‘slaw’.

Anyhow, enough of the food.

The open days are huge fun, and the team at Perch Hill are so friendly and good to work with. It’s great to see a live ‘bricks-and-mortar’ version of our online store there, and to see some of the new varieties that are being trialled in the gardens for next season’s catalogues. Perch Hill opens about once a month in flowering seasons (you can find the open day details on our website), and it’s definitely worth seeing if you can get in a visit.

This particular open day some of the bloggers from Garlic & Sapphire came to visit – to meet Sarah and to talk about the future of the blog, and to meet each other and have a good old natter over a huge piece of apple cake.

Karen, Belinda and Rona all arrived, armed with very large cameras and a huge smile on their face. It’s lovely to meet them in person and put a face behind the articles (see our Meet the Team page for more info on our writers). They definitely enjoyed asking Sarah all their growing and cooking questions…

We discussed the future of the blog, and all agreed that it was a rather exciting project, and we’re so happy to see the blog readership grow! Thank you all for taking the time to read the blog, as well as comment on and share each of the posts that are written here.

Do check out the posts by these lovely ladies of their day at Perch Hill – the photos are gorgeous! You can find them at:

• Flowerona – Meeting up with fellow bloggers at Perch Hill
• Karen – Rhubarb cordial, tulips and edible flowers
• Belinda – Perch Hill 2013

More to come from the behind the scenes – so subscribe via email, bloglovin, wordpress or your reader of choice, to catch up with the latest posts!

Thanks for reading,

In Italy, Cavolo Nero finds its way into all sorts of meals, from soups to salads, and as a complement for meat and fish dishes. At home, we’ve put the leaves in stir fries, chicken noodle soups, and fried them with butter and white wine as a delicious side dish.

Last year my hardy Cavolo Nero survived everything the winter threw at it, going beyond the call of duty and providing tasty greens when the rest of the plot had given up. The crumpled, mottled green leaves are also very attractive, and give the plot some much needed colour during this otherwise barren period.

I’d go as far as saying the plant wouldn’t look out of place in a decorative bed, so if space in your veg patch is at a premium, try sneaking some Cavolo Nero in with the flowers. Alternatively, you could mix Cavolo Nero with other brightly coloured winter veg, such as Bright Lights chard and the purple kale Redbor for a striking display.

April, May and June are the perfect time to sow Cavolo Nero. I sow seeds in April for early winter and then again in June for a crop that lasts until the next spring. I start the seeds off in 10cm pots of multipurpose compost and plant out when the seedlings reach about 25cm in height.

Plant the Cavolo Nero about 50cm between apart, as they can grow upwards of a metre tall, and harvest when the leaves reach 15cm long. Being a cut and come again variety, the leaves you take home will quickly be replaced by more, making this a great value for money crop. One good tip is to try and harvest evenly, rather than one at a time, to avoid exhausting individual plants.

There isn’t much else to know when growing this increasingly popular veg. The plants don’t require huge amounts of water and seemingly untroubled by pests. The slugs ignore the seedlings, and they haven’t succumbed to the whitefly as much as the other brassicas on my plot.

Cavolo Nero leaves are difficult to find in grocery stores, but luckily the seeds are readily available nowadays. The shop at sarahraven.com stocks Cavolo Nero under its other guise, Nero di Toscana.

Thanks for reading!

As soon as she came home from school yesterday my youngest daughter (4) told me that she wanted to ‘go and find nature things’. Her elder sister was at an after school club and the sun was shining so it was a good time for a nature trail. We keep a little basket near the front door for collecting and she ran to fetch it at top speed.

First in her list of treasures were daisies. I’m afraid to say that we don’t always keep the verge in front of our cottage very well mown. The daisy population is thriving, and if we’re especially lazy buttercups, plaintain and sometimes hop-flowered trefoil emerge too. She went to work picking daisies for her basket. The ones with pink-edged petals are the most highly-prized. Once she was satisfied we made our way up the dirt track to the wood.

In high summer this track is lined with poppies but just now there are is blackthorn blossom in the hedgerows and garlic mustard (jack by the hedge) and cow parsley are just about to break into flower. Youngest bagged a dandelion and then spotted the blossom. ‘Mummy! Let’s get some!’

At this point I explained that if we picked the blossom then her favourite tiny plums wouldn’t come later in the year, so we agreed that we’d just pick up any blossom that had fallen to the ground. She was satisfied with that. At this point we found an empty snail shell. ‘The snail must have found another house Mummy.’ I didn’t like to correct her.

Next she came across some twigs. ‘I want some clean ones Mummy, I don’t like these lumpy green ones.’ I explained that the green lumpy stuff was lichen, that it was a special kind of plant and it meant that the air in the wood was very clean. That seemed to make it just about desirable enough so several lichen-covered sticks went into the basket.

Finally we reached the gate that both my girls like to climb on. Beyond it is ‘the buttercup meadow’. There’s a fantastic population of hop-flowered trefoil here, but most excitingly there are several plants of wild salsify or ‘Jack-go-to-bed-at-noon’. Who was Jack I wonder? Sometimes he was by the hedge, sometimes in the pulpit. I asked on Twitter – apparently he represents everyone.

We picked one or two buttercups. I reasoned that this was alright since there are literally thousands of plants growing here. Then we returned home to make a tiny nature ‘table’ (on a vintage enamel plate). The demise of the school nature table is something that many of us mourn but making one at home can be just as fun and we’re very pleased with ours.

Note: We live in a rural village but we didn’t find anything very exotic on our walk. Parks are just as good for finding items for a nature table.

Thanks for reading,

We ate lots of delicious seafood, Spider Crab, Brown Crab, Langoustines, Prawns, Clams as well as freshly caught fish, such as Sea Bass and Lieu (Pollack).

I usually serve the seafood with homemade mayonnaise and freshly baked soda bread. I made pretty, cheerful salads with Breton Tomatoes and Roscoff Onions to eat alongside the fish. I felt that a little more was required and decided to use the Fennel which grows wild on the sand dunes (I do love a little foraging!).

I used some of the Fennel to stuff the fish along with lemon before I baked it, and then used the rest in a delectable Salsa to serve alongside the fish; it was perfect!

Sarah Raven has a very simple and extremely tasty Spring Salsa Verde featuring  fresh Spring herbs on her website, and this was the recipe I based my salsa on. I was unable to get all the herbs, but the two salsa that I made, one with Fennel as the base herb, and the other with Parsley and Fennel, were both superb. They complemented the fish perfectly and were also delicious  with the New Potatoes that were just beginning to appear.

I think this Spring Salsa Verde would work well with all sorts of foods, and it’s a great way to use fresh herbs, whether home grown, bought or foraged.

My own little herb patch was rather over grown after a winter of neglect and the Rosemary had swamped all the other plants, even the Mint was struggling somewhat!  I had to deal with it, and removed the larger of the two plants, but I didn’t want the all wonderful scent to be lost.  I made a room freshener.

This is an ideal way to use up a few sprigs of Rosemary, even if you’re not dealing with a monstrous plant!

Fill  a large saucepan with water adding several sprigs of Rosemary and a sliced Lemon or two, as well as a decent spoonful of Vanilla Extract.  Bring this to the boil and then leave simmering, for the day if you wish, just refill as needed with hot water.

The house quickly smells fantastic, and how much better is this idea then a room spray? Completely natural and no additives required!  A good alternative in the winter months is to boil sliced Lemons with Cloves, which create a wonderfully midwinter scent.

Isn’t it wonderful to see the trees in bloom (after such a long winter)?  I am gazing out of the window at pink and white blossom and have started dreaming about all the cordials and jams I’ll be making during the summer.  Do you make your own preserves?  What’s your favourite recipe? Which is the tastiest thing you’ve ever made?  Do let us know!

I’ll catch up again at the end of May, but in the meantime I’m reading the posts of all my fellow bloggers, all of which I find so inspiring.

Thanks for reading,

I absolutely love forget-me-nots.  I think it’s due to their vibrant blue colour and their daintiness…

Their botanical name, Myosotis, comes from the Greek mus (mouse) and ous (ear), due to the perception that the plant’s leaves are shaped like mouse’s ears.

As for the common name, forget-me-not, it is said to have come from a German legend in which a lover, while gathering the flowers fell into a river and cried ‘forget me not’ as he drowned.

Generally, when we think of this pretty flower, it’s the blue variety that comes to mind first, in shades of sky blue through to mauve and azure blue.

But there are other colours such as white, cream, pink and striped varieties. 

Forget-me-nots are available as a cut flower in the floristry industry.  And at a wedding fair last week, I saw for the first time, some stems of a blue and white striped variety, called Myosotis Wiranda.

From the Borage family, the blooms have five petals and either a white or yellow centre. And they flower from April through to June.

The plants are fully hardy and like to grow in the sun or partial shade in moist soil.  And popular varieties include Myosotis ‘Blue Ball’ and Myosotis ‘White Ball’.

P.S. Myosotis ‘My Oh My’ is available from the Sarah Raven website.

(Images : Flickr : TearShade/kh1234567890/tanakawho/postbear)

Thanks for reading!

A blue sky hung overhead and storybook clouds bobbed across the sky, full of candyfloss loveliness, there would be “picture painting” to be done with them later, whilst lounging in an old striped deck chair – a post prandial pleasure.

On letting my hens out, I laughed at their morning antics, all feathers and bustles as they ran across the grass in search of worms and other chicken treats. Warm eggs in straw met me on checking the nesting box, a clutch of eggs waiting for breakfast, cakes and other bakes……nestled like ovoid gifts, warm and freckled with each hen’s personality, I knew their heart would be pure gold.

A quicker pace now as I head back up the garden, anticipation of tea, boiled eggs and toast, as well as that quiet peace of being the first one at the kitchen table…….a simple pleasure, but eagerly anticipated – almost prize-like for being the first one up.

Spring has finally awakened, and whilst I sipped my scalding hot tea and dip “soldiers” in freshly boiled eggs, I planned my foraging for the day ahead.

Lilac was a “must have” and I also know that the rosemary is in bloom – tiny purple flowers heavy with the idea of “roast lamb” as well as scented, crispy potatoes and garlic. With a basket full of eggs, cakes and baking was also on my spring day agenda, maybe fairy cakes for the spring tea time table or a jar of golden lemon curd for toast, crumpets, muffins and fluffy freshly-made bread rolls.

The garden is a freshly painted canvas of blossom and fragrance, a veritable “Old Master” of flower and future fruits…..and, I am minded of a verse from my mother’s favourite poem, one that she wrote in my first “autograph book”, and old-fashioned piece of beauty and grace, redolent of sunny days with grandparents in other walled gardens……

The kiss of the sun for pardon,
The song of the birds for mirth,
One is nearer God’s heart in a garden
Than anywhere else on earth.

(From “God’s Garden” by Dorothy Frances Gurney, 1858 – 1932)

 And so to seasonal baking plans, maybe floral cakes to herald spring to our family tea time table? Violets still peep through fresh grass, and I still have a small tin of crystallised violets on the pantry…

I wish my garden held primroses, as I would have made some of Sarah’s Primrose Lemon Curd Cakes, with my freshly made lemon curd and free-range eggs, but, sadly there are none this year; so, sweet violet fairy cakes it will be then…..small and dainty cousins to the blousy cupcake, a much-loved tea time treat, an “Auntie’s Handbag” sort of cake, in the best “Devon Violet scent” kind of way.

The kitchen is still mine, as the family continue to slumber……so eggs are cracked, butter is whipped with sugar and flour is sifted high over an old ceramic mixing bowl….. a bowl heavy with memories of hundreds of Christmas cakes exuding from its pale beige loveliness, as well as birthday cakes, Easter cakes and “just because” cakes too.

Little paper cases are popped into an old patty tin and the mixing bowl is licked and scraped out with a wooden spoon, no need to share the bowl this time! The cakes rise, wire racks are set out to receive them and my pantry is raided for “hundreds and thousands”, crystallised violets and other “cakey” things.

This recipe of mine is a simple 4,4,4,2 Victoria Sandwich recipe (4 ounces of sugar, butter and flour with 2 eggs), there is a goodly dollop of home-made lemon curd added to the top, and then the cakes are adorned with “hundreds and thousands” with a final floral flourish, a crystallised violet on each cake.

If you have been industrious in the kitchen then these cakes can be made with violet sugar for an extra floral note, but normal caster sugar works just as well. Fresh lemon curd is the only other requisite, and my mum’s recipe is divine, trust me! I will leave you with the recipe for my spring Spring Violet and Lemon Curd Cakes, and do let me know if you make these, and may all your early spring mornings be as beautiful as mine!

Thanks for reading!

Tulips by the barrow-load, in every window. This year, we had several of these wee daffs dotted around. As we all know, Spring is running a little late this year.

 In Wiltshire yesterday, my hosts had done some decorating with these specimens:

Very charming I thought. My friend C is a stylist and always has large arrangements of cut flowers in the house. The little glasses of primroses though, being utterly seasonal and local, really sung out. Simple arrangements gladden the heart and makes a joke out of the weather. If it’s sleeting and snowing and you can STILL bring flowers indoors, it is a show of defiance. It shows character. It’s very British.

 “I get a thrill from being able to see the actual flowers,” says Shane Connolly, flower decorator by royal appointment, who spoke at the Garden Museum last month. “I love single specimens: you can enjoy the beauty of the container and the beauty of the flower.” He cites one of his greatest influences as “The seasons, and nature within those seasons.”

When you feel that the only flower around, delightful as it is, has had a rather protracted moment in the sun, look for something more subtle. Winter-flowering cherry is doing what it’s supposed to, ditto viburnum. Bring them in. Use what’s there. Even plants which you think you loathe (which will remain nameless) take on a new personality when cut and placed in the company of an improving vase.

 The formal bunches of my friend C the stylist are lovely and quite grand, pulling up the tone of the room. But if you prefer informality, use what you find and do what you like. Homegrown flower arrangements will become more fabulous later. But for now, enjoy the simplicity.

Thanks for reading!

For those wishing to grow flowers to cut for the first time, but do not have an allotment, kitchen garden or working area to set aside for such cultivation, the only answer can be to create a patch or patches within an existing arrangement of flower beds, with the addition of pots.

I found when I first tried to create a cutting patch in my family garden, creating a new border to do so, that an allotment style approach in just the one flowerbed, with regimented rows for cutting just looked a bit odd in such close proximity to the other more naturalistically planted borders.

Furthermore, the planting of annual seeds, the netting and enthusiastic cropping left unsightly bare patches all summer that contrasted unfavourably with the rest of the garden. It all just jarred a bit visually, so over the last few years I have made a few changes to the way I plan the planting of my flowers-to-cut that have made the visual flow of the garden much easier on the eye, and made the cutting patch fit in much better with the rest of the garden.

So, if you are wanting to grow cut flowers in a way that looks decorative in the same way as your other flower beds, seamlessly fitting in to the style of your garden these are my cutting patch by stealth tips:

• Instead of planting in, (the most efficient for cutting), regimented rows, look at the planting style in your other borders and replicate loosely – so if you tend to plant in block, swathe or ribbon shapes, do likewise in your cutting patch. If you plant in height order front to back, or make use of tall but airy plants that allow viewing through differently scaled plants, (using, say, verbena bonariensis or fennel), reflect that in your new cut flower bed. The only style that really doesn’t make life easy is a very dotted approach, it is hard to know what is growing where in the seedling stage, bigger plants can end up swamping smaller ones, and picking a number of the same type can mean trampling all over the flower bed.

• Take consideration of the colour schemes in the closest flower beds, or in the garden as a whole, and decide if you want the new bed to blend in or provide a contrast, either way, making it work in scale, colour and style to the rest of the garden. The only colour clashes that I have found hard to like in my garden are pastels next to hot colours – clashes between equally strong and punchy colours can be exhilarating though.

• Keep support stakes, wigwams and netting either as hidden or as decorative as possible.

• Crop sensitively – not hacking plants to the ground for their flowers, but a few from each plant to keep the shapes attractive and natural looking. This can make a huge difference to the look of the cutting patch and health of the plants.

• Instead of creating paths through your flowerbed, as you might do for ease of harvesting in an allotment or kitchen garden, try using stepping stones that are more discreet but avoid you trampling the soil.

• If possible, keep planting seeds in pots or trays or gutter pipes in the wings throughout the growing season so that annuals that have finished cropping can be replaced by good sized seedlings that can romp away to fill unsightly gaps. Choosing plants that cut and come again over a long season is helpful too – and remember for most annuals to keep cutting to promote more growth – when you are away from home for a few days or weeks ask a friend or neighbour to snip away for you! Cosmos, sweetpeas and cornflowers respond dramatically to regular snipping and can flower for weeks on end if not allowed to go to seed.

• Although you may want good sized areas in your cutting patch for cut and come again annuals, I have really enjoyed adding some bulbs and perennials around the edges or in designated areas that work well in my planting scheme, extending the flower season and the type of flowers available to me. euphorbias, ornamental grasses, achilleas, dianthus, dahlias, scabious, astrantia and bulbs like narcissi, tulips and alliums have been indispensible in my cutting patch border. Don’t forget that growing lots of flowers in large pots is another way of adding to the cut flower quota of your available space, just make sure the pots are big enough to contain enough plants to provide enough to cut without totally denuding. Layered planting of bulbs and then later annual seedlings is a good way of providing successional flower production in pots. Just keep them well fed and watered as it is a lot of growth in a small quantity of soil.

• Finally, adding plants you want to grow to cut amongst existing herbaceous flower beds is a great way to grow cut flowers by stealth – no new flower bed required, just slipping in handfuls of annual seeds like nigella or hesperis, a group of dahlias or some tulips or  alliums – whatever you desire as cut flowers – into existing schemes. Just plant enough that you won’t feel too pained cutting some of them! Many of them will self seed and naturalise successfully in future years.  Growing annuals, perennials and bulbs with an eye to cutting in my decisions has mean’t so much variety in material to pick, and lovely arrangements of mixed flower types, whilst creating a garden relatively easy to maintain and able to provide plenty of colour from April to November.

 In these ways, I have ended up growing less flowers that do not cut successfully and more that do in every one of my flower beds – and I snip away most evenings of the summer from each one as I dead head and take in the scents and colour. Although they seem far away right now, I cannot wait for those moments again this year. I’d love to know if and how you grow flowers to cut, and what has worked really well for you – sharing tips is a brilliant way to learn so thanks in advance!

Thanks for reading!