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Tag Archives | cut flowers

Icelandic Poppies

By on May 27, 2013 in conditioning, Cut flowers, Poppies

I cannot let May come to an end without
a blog about my favourite flower of the month, the enigmatic
Icelandic Poppy. A flower that looks so delicate and ethereal that
any kind of vase life seems a far-fetched notion. Unlike other
members of its family, they can give you 5 -7 days of breathtaking
beauty in a vase.

 
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They also have a good 6 week flowering
period if you keep on top of the picking.

 

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 Once they have finished flowering, collect the seed and sow it fresh, sometime next month is ideal. This
will give you much better germination rates than buying it in, which
of course you will have to do initially.

I recommend Chiltern Seeds for a good
range of varieties of Papaver nudicaule. My favourites are 'Meadow
Pastels' for soft, muted shades of apricot, coral, cream and lemon –
great for weddings.

 

 
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If you want a bit more punch then
'Champagne Bubbles' fits the bill, with the most beautiful shade of
orange, salmon pink, daffodil yellow and white.

 

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 Pick the flowers just as they are
opening and sear the ends in boiling water for 20 seconds.

 

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I will be saving the seed off these next month and selling it fresh at our Saturday shop.

Rachel 

 

 

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To All the Mums

By on March 10, 2013 in Anemones, Cut flowers, Polytunnels

Mother's Day is always rather
frustrating, especially when it comes early and the flowers are late.
A missed opportunity for British flower growers I think. If only we
could change it to a Sunday in June. 

Anyway, I decided to rise to the
challenge and create a bouquet with only what is flowering in our
cutting gardens, bearing in mind that I am lucky to have an unheated
polytunnel for some of our spring bulbs.

 

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The bouquet contains a beautiful
selection of hellebores with rich, intense colours (specially bred by
Hugh Nunn of Harvington Hellebores) these match up well to the jewel-like
anemones. For foliage, I had rosemary, arum leaf and pussy willow.

 

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 Rachel

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Caterpillar Capers

By on January 25, 2013 in Polytunnels, Tulips

When
I was growing vegetables full time, I looked down on cloches. Too far
down, too much bending down and far too much pegging down. All that
ground level shenanigans, just way too undignified in order to gain a
very small ribbon of protection. And then you can't see whatever bad
omens may be hidden beneath the plastic, either weeds, pest or diseases, and a
false sense of security was guaranteed.

 


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 So
I now find that I have spent the autumn and winter thus far wrestling
with a caterpillar tunnel, which I now realize is just a really
expensive and humongous cloche. I
can't even stand up in it, which is the first major design fault you
might observe. However, I am limited by the 6m standard sizing of the
PVC pipe hoops, resulting in a mildly stooping scenario.

 

  
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The
idea comes from the USA and has been covered well by the Growing For
Market community (NB. They call polytunnels 'hoophouses' over there).
There is an introduction to the concept here by
Lynn Byczynski.
The main features are portability, no footings, hoops that fit over
steel rebar 'pegs', and rope lashings (lots and lots!) that produce a
segmented appearance and the caterpillar profile. After spending a
small fortune reskinning a twin-span polytunnel this year, we thought
we'd give it a go, especially since you can move them to fresh ground
so easily.


We
played it safe however and have only put tulips in it this autumn,
just in case. There have been a few hiccups and several improvements
along the way, notably bigger and bigger hoops, after the Mark One, pictured below.



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It has been keeping
me slightly fretful on stormy nights but we'll keep you posted about
the spring blooms and whether we can get enough air flow through it.
It has seemed to cope with the winter snow so far though, and near
flooding, although it may just yet prove to be the ultimate vole
hotel….

 


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The River Thames coming up to say 'hello' last year.

 

Ashley
Pearson

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