1. Reviewed what plants you already have growing ✔

2. Written a wish list of plants ✔

3. Edited wish list using the ‘flower seasons guide’ ✔

4. Added which type of plant is which ✔

5. Noted the flowering length of each ✔

6. Considered how you’ll be starting your seeds off ✔

7. Created your plot plan✔

8. Completed the sowing schedule.

And we are done! This week we discussed some of the details of growing and sowing seeds, from first year plot pests, combinations of growing and why gardens growing flowers are some of the most biodiverse spaces.

Catch up on the previous weeks here -

I am grateful for those brilliant growers and gardeners that have turned up week after week. By your messages, I know just how useful their generous and candid honesty about growing, their mistakes and questions have been for you all. This is why working together and sharing this information is super valuable.

This was a great chat. I began by showing how I reviewed the productive plot and the garden border against original aims. Checking through season by season as to what would be available to cut. Then we had an enjoyable discussion covering a lot of ground. It’s a great session to finish this course on.

Thank you for joining me. I will be back in a few weeks time with some more lives and meet ups. They have been such fun!

Here’s the recording of last nights live session and the final session of this course. (I record the sessions each week and this one kicks off with a very funny comment and sets the tone for a generous, warm and insightful discussion)

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1. Reviewed what plants you already have growing ✔

2. Written a wish list of plants ✔

3. Edited wish list using the ‘flower seasons guide’ ✔

4. Added which type of plant is which ✔

5. Noted the flowering length of each ✔

6. Considered how you’ll be starting your seeds off ✔

7. Created your plot plan✔

The final week of planning, and a really satisfying way to finish.

I love filling out these sowing schedules knowing I have gathered together all the plants I want to grow this season, and a bit of time cross checking the spreadsheets spread across a table, and I am set up for the season.

Catch up on the previous weeks here -

This week as we chatted before I started the presentation, Deb shared how she’d gone through the process and had completed her plot plan, we paused, hit record and talked about getting to that stage.

I presented how I build a sowing schedule from your own plot plan alongside the spreadsheets I have made, the planting calendar and planting distances. These are all below to download. I share how I choose the dates to sow seeds, how to work out how many to sow and easily record where the plants will go. We have done the work, this bit is very simply filling out the spreadsheet and making sure you follow it this year!

If you are growing productively, in a dedicated space just for cut flowers, you’ll want to watch the first part of the session. If you are a gardener or designer, the garden sowing schedule is from 40mins. I think both types of flower growers would get something from each example though.

At the end, we had a great discussion about sweet peas (iykyk), planning our time, procrastination and techniques to help ourselves!

One quote I stumbled over, in reaction to the idea that arranging flowers should be wild, spontaneous and creative when growing them takes a lot of organising and discipline, well,

“Be regular and orderly in your life, so that you may be violent and original in your work.” –Gustave Flaubert

(It wasn’t Einstein!) I don’t think work has to be a grind and dull. It can and should be wildly creative, and our best work will be in the best given conditions. We owe that to ourselves!

Here’s the recording of last nights live session with my slides as a pdf to download.

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1. Reviewed what plants you already have growing ✔

2. Written a wish list of plants ✔

3. Edited wish list using the ‘flower seasons guide’ ✔

4. Added which type of plant is which ✔

5. Noted the flowering length of each ✔

6. Considered how you’ll be starting your seeds off ✔

Now in week 6 of the planning your cut flowers, time to commit your plans and all the information we have gathered so far. Now plot your plants out into their soil spots to maximise the flowers you will grow. No empty beds this year!

Catch up on the previous weeks here -

On week 6, plotting your plans to paper.

BIG WEEK this one. This week in the live, I shared two examples of plot plans drawn up across the flowering seasons.

What you will need - your space, be it a border, garden or multi acre plot drawn up, ideally to scale or at least know how big the spaces are.

You’ll want all your lists. What plants are you growing (week 1) and when will they ‘perform’ or create the material you want to cut and arrange in any given season (week 2) remember some of your plants produce material across several seasons. Note this as you make decisions as to their usefulness v. how much space these plans take up.

You’ll also need to have in the back of your mind, what type of plant it is (week 3 & 5) and therefore when it’s sown and planted out. We are drawing up these plans to show the plants in their soil position (not in seed trays) so this will be both their growing period (show in green on the border example) and their flowering period (week 4 and shown in colour during that time on the plans).

This is give you a visual representation of how you use any given space.

Then it gets interesting. What will you replace that plant with when it finishes flowering? How do you know? Use the planting calendar to check together with that sheet on the flower production (is it a one hit wonder or a come and cut again?) As you go through this exercise, you might find you have less room than you thought and some plants will get cut off the sowing list. Or perhaps you have more room, and find that when the ranunculus or biennials are lifted, there is a spot for some half hardy annuals before you pop in an autumn sowing of hardy annuals for next year. Piece of cake.

If you are growing productively, in a dedicated space just for cut flowers, you’ll want to watch the first part of the session. If you are a gardener or designer and interested in how flower successions fit in a bed, then watch from 25mins. I think both types of flower growers would get something from each example. Sometimes another way of presenting an idea just hits right.

I have also added the slides to this post from last night so you can click through and look at the examples in your own time to better follow how I am suggesting maximising your growing spaces with multiple crops or plants across the year.

Finally, we had a good chat about problems we might encounter in this process, our different requirements and fitting in green manures into the schedule too. I think there is a lot more to talk about with these. Read more here and I will do a live session on this in March once we have finished this course, in time to sow them directly in any spots available on your plot plan!

Here’s the recording of last nights live session with my slides as a pdf to download.

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1. Reviewed what plants you already have growing ✔

2. Written a wish list of plants ✔

3. Edited wish list using the ‘flower seasons guide’ ✔

4. Added which type of plant is which ✔

5. Noted the flowering length of each ✔

Now in week 5 of the planning your cut flowers, time to consider where you are starting off your flowers and how that informs your schedule.

Catch up on the previous weeks here -

On week 5, how you start off your seeds informs your sowing schedule.

This week in the live, we talked about where you are growing seeds - not just that starting off bit, but what you do with the seedlings once germinated and growing on until they are ready to be planted in their final position.

Scroll down for the recording of last nights live session with my presentation and our chat afterwards.

What do hardy plants require and in contrast, what do half hardy plants need in those weeks until the last frost has passed. Do you have that space to take a tiny seedling, pot on and tend to in a frost free place? If so, when can you start your seeds? If not, when is best to start seeds directly outside and what do you need to think about?

Hardy Plants

These are more straight forward and as you can check on the Planting Calendar spreadsheet, there are many options for germinating these seeds. Consider when you noted your hardy plants on your combinations list, were expected to flower - flowering period 2, 3 or 4. Then follow the corresponding line in the planting calendar to check when to start them off and then are you growing indoors or out. Same question - have you got the space and resources to grow these until they are ready to be planted out?

Half Hardy Plants

These have require a little more consideration. Check the Planting Calendar and consider your resources. Not just the indoor space, but also your time that these plants will require - heat, light, warmth and watering.

The effort required to grow half hardy through to maturity from a very early start is significant. Look at your flowering periods and combinations sheet. Do you need to start those off so early for your flowers to produce in the first flowering period? Can you start off later? Could you sow them direct into the soil?

Do you need to cut your list down as there are too many plants for your space (we will be plotting out the plants in our spaces on paper next week) in which case, thinking about those combinations from the anatomy of a flower arrangement, with the flowering period and how long it flowers for will help consider which is worth the effort. If you’ve got a plant that flowers for ages, and can be sown direct compared to one that is a one hit wonder and needs growing under cover and you have run out of space, which one will you knock off the list?

There are plenty in the floral notes index on growing cut flowers - this is not a practical course on growing, instead, how to consider planning yours individualised for your aims, space, resources and needs.

However, if you are growing at home without space undercover, here is a great guide as how to start seedlings off without a greenhouse.

Whichever way you start off those seeds really feeds into that sowing schedule. Let’s make this year much easier for you to grow to success.

What do you need to consider when starting off the seeds, your options and problems you can avoid:

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1. Reviewed what plants you already have growing ✔

2. Written a wish list of plants ✔

3. Edited wish list using the ‘flower seasons guide’ ✔

4. Added which type of plant is which ✔

Now in week 4 of the planning your cut flowers, we are focusing on flowering attributes

Catch up on the previous weeks here -

This week, a final piece of the decision puzzle - which plants are worth their space; depending how long they flower for.

If you are struggling to contain your wish list from week 1, this might help.

Most plants will produce flowers repeatedly for about 6 weeks. Some more (looking at you dahlias), and some, will flower once and that’s it. It was quite the surprise to me when I realised the nigella wasn’t going to send up more flowers for me to cut and dry as seed pods when I cut the plant back. I couldn’t believe the value of huge cosmos plants repeatedly flowering. That sweet peas will simply run to seed and stop flowering if I don’t cut them as often as possible.

I have had lots of garden visitors tell me that they never want to cut the flowers off their plants. They love seeing them but also worried they will stop the plant from flowering. The best news is that, for most plants, they will simply produce more flowers. But some won’t. ARGH. Which ones?

I categorise my plants into -

1. Single Cut

2. Medium Producers

3. Repeating or ‘come and cut again’

This information, as you’ll see below is as crucial as what type of plant each is. Using those two bits of information, I can write a sowing schedule that will ensure I sow at the right time, and have a fairly good idea as to when they’ll flower and for how long. This both ensures I use my plot space effectively but also have combinations of flowers I really want.

For instance, sowing single stem, single flowering sunflowers every 10 days from April since they are a half hardy annual. While sowing cornflowers 3 times for flowers across the summer.

We had some great discussions on the live call last night (recording below along with the printable list) about our own experiences.

Here is a list of the different plants and which category they fit into with how often to sow these if you want continual cropping:

Single Cut Varieties

Needs sowing little and often - every 2-3 weeks to ensure you have a fresh crop of stems to cut as the previous harvest ends.

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1. Reviewed what plants you already have growing ✔

2. Written a wish list of plants ✔

3. Edited wish list using the ‘flower seasons guide’ ✔

Now in week 3 of the planning your cut flowers, we get down to details.

Catch up on the previous weeks here -

Before I used this planning process, I would sow everything somewhere within the time frame the packet gave me. This often meant I ran out of room when I was pricking out seedlings. Now where for them to grow on under cover. I also had everything flowering at the same time. Armfuls of flowers for a month then very little.

If you are growing mostly annuals from seed, you are going to want my ‘planting calendar guide’ below. A ready reckoner for when to sow your annual and when to expect flowers.

Using the ‘Flowering Seasons’ lists from last week, under each ‘season’ is are plant suggestions, categorised by their type. To fill this out, you need to know what type of plant yours is, then use the guide below to choose which flower season you want it to flower.

Catch up on the recording from last nights live session below. We had a great discussion about our growing too.

Here is a brief guide to the types -

Hardy Annual

A plant that germinates, grows, flowers and sets seed all in one year. Hardy Annuals can tolerate periods of cold, therefore ‘hardy’ and can be sown before or after winter.

Half Hardy Annual

A plant that germinates, grows, flowers and sets seed in one year but cannot tolerate cold.

Biennial

A plant that germinates and grows foliage in one year and flowers the next. Biennials are sown in the summer, planted out in the autumn, flowering the following late Spring or early Summer.1

Bulb

A rounded underground storage organ. There is a flowering bulb for every month. Usually perennial.

Perennial

Plants that continue to live for several years.

Most perennials will return year after year, with more plants gained with division in future seasons. Annuals will be ready to cut in just a few weeks! I recommend that if you are planning on making a garden for longer than just a season, that trees, shrubs and perennials are essential. With unpredictable weather, these plants are more resilient to extreme heat, cold, drought or wet. I treat annuals now as a true luxury despite the value of a seed packet. They require resources to grow (more on this down the line on growing undercover v. direct) but they can change up your cutting palette each year with just a few additions to a permanent planting scheme.

Annuals can be sown at different times of the year, meaning that depending on the location, you can be cutting from April through to October.

There is no forcing or manipulating of plant growth. Annuals are just so quick to grow and several successional sowings are possible each season. With hardy ones, can cope with overwintering outside and blooming extra early, and far bigger due to unseen root growth for many months before.

Think about it.

Sow them in late August or September, they’ll flower in May. Then those will self sow and potentially flower in the late summer (or sow your last succession in May too). Add another sowing in March and you’ve got cornflowers from May till October. These could self sow too, and over winter, flowering in May and so the cycle continues.

This process I call planning in 4D.

Adding in the element of time. In the same location, something else will be planted and flower (the same is for vegetables of course). We’ll be coming on to plot planning in the next few weeks. Stick with the process! You’ll have a plan and sowing list in no time.

Next steps on planning your cut flowers

1. Label all your plants on your combinations wish list, now edited down, with what type of plant it is (hardy annual (HA), half hardy annual (HHA), Biennial (B) Perennial (P), Shrub (S) or Tree (T) and Climber (C).

The type of plant will determine your options - when to sow and when to expect flowering.

2. For both half hardy and hardy annuals, use the flowering calendar chart below to see what flowering time options you have depending on when you sow it and how. You have already decided in your wish list, which season you wanted an annual to flower for cutting. Note down what type of plant it is, and which season it will flower.

This will be the difference between sowing in September for May and May sowings for September and everything in between.

Using the chart below, it might be obvious which flowering season you want your annual to flower in, but not how you’ll sow it. Will you start earlier by sowing under cover, or is it better to sow direct? Will look at this next week so stay tuned!

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Planning Checklist:

1. Reviewed what plants you already have growing ✔

2. Written a wish list of plants ✔

Is your wish list as long as mine? If so, it needs editing. Which ones do I keep and which ones are dropped?

Over the next few weeks we’ll be editing this list. The first oppotunity is to review your wish together with your ‘already growing’ lists against the flower seasons. Immediately you’ll spot repeating numbers on your checklist. Or where none exist.

The flower seasons are not the same as the four seasons of the year (you knew there are really six seasons right? one of my most loved posts). I work on five flowering seasons across the year. The first place to start is to get that combinations spreadsheet out from last week (I’ve included it below for ease), and fill in which flower season each plant fits into.

This is one of the slides from the live session last night (recording below). The first image could be from Flowering Season 4, if it weren’t for the Eremurus in the top left corner, which can only flower naturally in June. Ditto the last photo. It’s the rosehips that ensure this arrangement is firmly in late September, not in Flowering season 3.

Going through the seasons is such a useful and fun exercise.

Hardy annuals can be grown for at least 3 seasons. Some perennials might fit into two or more seasons too. For example a flower that is useful for cutting as a ‘supporting’ stem in an arrangement say in season 3, which then becomes a great accent when it goes to seed in season 4. Or even dried in the winter. In this case, use as many lines on the spreadsheet as there are roles and seasons.

A quick glance will tell you that you might have loads of supportive stems for flowering season 2 but none for season 4. Maybe you’re a wedding florist and need loads of material for summer weddings and nothing in the early seasons.

Think about why you are growing, when you want the material and make sure you have all the elements covered.

Disclaimer - the flowering season checklist is a list of plants that I particularly love. If yours is missing, look up when it flowers and decide which season it best fits into.

Don’t worry about plant type just yet. That’s for next week….

Week 2: The Flowering Seasons

I’ve included a printable pdf version below to scribble on. I prefer to *think* with a pen. You’ll be able to print off all of these and have a complete set of planning resources by the end of this course.

Coursework - Fill out the Combinations wish list, include plants you already have, and allocate each a flowering season. Remember, if they have qualities about the, that falls into multiple seasons, include that. If you get stuck, bring queries to our session next Tuesday.

Flowering Season 1 – Mid March until Early May

Early Flowering Hardy Annuals – Autumn sown cerinthe, euphorbia oblongata, orlaya, calendula, early indoor sweet peas

Early Flowering Biennials – Wallflowers, lunaria annua (honesty), icelandic poppies,

anthriscus, sweet williams.

Bulbs - Snowdrops, hyacinths, narcissus, fritillarias, anemone, tulips & early alliums

Spring Flowering Perennials – Euphorbia, hellebores, cynara (cardoon)

Shrubs – Viburnum opulus, garrya, hazel catkins, spring emerging leaves & blossoms

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See you next week for Week 2 : The Flower Seasons - plotting your wish list & expanding combinations. That’ll be at 7pm GMT on Tuesday 27th January. The link will be the same every week but I will send out just before with a reminder on the coursework!

How to Begin : Only grow what you love.

I only grow what I love, realising that I just don’t take the same care and attention of the plants I am not besotted with. Let alone cut them.

The first stage to planning a cut flower garden is with a list of plants you love. But before that, you must know why you are growing cut flowers.

The flowers you love will go hand in hand with why you need to grow too. Clarifying your why will transform your growing plans and success.

I expect you fall into one of three types of flower grower:

Which one are you?

Home Gardener - From balcony to multi-acre, no matter, growing for yourself, for friends and to give away.

Grower Florist - Again, scale doesn’t much matter. You might be a florist learning, researching and understanding more about the flowers you work with or wanting to grow flowers you just can’t find. Or you could grow most if not all of the product you use in your work. Adding skill and time to flower stems to create something more than its sum. Growing your palette.

Flower Farmer - Growing a quality product at scale. Focused on sales of stems, for your own work and for other florists.

Regardless of whether you grow in a back garden or on 2 acres there will undoubtably be some hard decisions to make about what you do.

So where do you start?

As a home gardener, you have that benefit of proximity to your ‘patch’, ideally visiting little and often. You can probably keep a close eye on your plants, tie in, water or pick every day as and when. Grow plants that you can’t get elsewhere very easily, or that are more fleeting such as sweet peas and poppies. I expect you have borders of shrubs and perennials also to mix with your flower growing to create interesting combinations. Choose annuals for your cutting plots that complement more ‘permanent’ planting. If you have plenty of spring perennials and bulbs, concentrate on mid to late summer annuals with dahlias in your sowing plan. Consider what flowers you’d really enjoy growing and cutting, and when. Those that really do delight you. What gaps do you have in your existing planting and when do you want to cut flowers? When are you usually away? (determining when needy plants can be tended or beds need to look after themselves.)

As a grower florist, regardless of whether you have a small or large cutting garden, since growing is only part of your work, you want to choose smart. What flowers do you really adore, will elevate your arrangements beyond your orders from the local flower farmers. It might be sweet peas and poppies together with flowers blooming at different stages. Nascent through to those on the edge. About to teeter over, too far gone but perfectly undone for a bridal bouquet. The autonomy of choosing tight rosebuds, seed heads and leaves for boutonnieres, gathered in jam jars. Pinches of flowers that are so utterly precious and perfect for the brief but you didn’t know what you were going to use until you walked the plots. And herbs, basils in flower, twirling annual climbers like cobaea, love in a puff, or dahlias cut at different stages for texture and movement. Your plots will be a treasure box of delights masquerading as a cut flower plot.

Finally, the flower farmer. Who is growing at scale. Beyond busy with sowing seeds, transplanting, growing and selling. Whose economies of scale dictate that the plot plans need reliable long flowering plants. Not those that need daily attention and huge resources to coax into flowers only to bloom in the two days you don’t cut. No, you want perennials, shrubs and repeat flowering annuals. Where you can cut in hundreds of stems, not dozens. Growing flowers in combination so that on any given week between late March and the first frosts, bouquets can be made in complementary colour combinations, scale and texture. Useful stems that can be cut by the bucket for larger scale events with foliage to make those flowers sing. Knowing which plants need the least care compared to which do. And which are worth it.

Whatever type of grower you are, you’ll want to know when you want flowers to be blooming. If you don’t know, use this year to find that out. What flowers when? Grow what you love and see what works with those stems. Look at what others are growing and note combinations that delight you.

Know what you love - be it on your kitchen table, for your work or for sales and grow it for success.

To begin this course and reflect on these ideas, I recommend journalling before you start any planning, reflecting on how you want to develop your growing this year and work with this course.

1. Describe your growing space & measure it out. How much space is there to develop?

2. What experience or skills do you have? are you a novice new grower?

3. Why do you want to grow cut flowers? For pleasure, for sale, for your table? For a celebration?

4. How would your growing space look this summer? Can you put into words how you want to feel about that? What do you not want to feel (participants spoke of feeling frustrated and wanting to feel more confident and clear on what they were doing)

5. What are your hopes for this course? What would be success to you?

6. What are you most looking forward to on the course?

7. Do you have any reservations about the course and if so, what? Are you concerned about keeping up? Is finishing hard? How can you help yourself?

Week 1 - Beginning planning.

Coursework:

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Then so much pricking out, potting on and transplanting. I ran out of room to keep them. I sold seedlings rather than cut flowers on a plant stall at the top of the village. I learnt I could grow them.

There were flowers, armfuls of flowers. But only for about 6 weeks. Then nothing.

What went wrong?

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