Flower farm update - June 2024

June went by in a whirl. The ‘to do’ list was much longer than the time available, so it’s been incredibly busy. So busy, it’s hard to remember all that we’ve done. And what a difference a month makes to the flowers. Everything is so abundant after just a few weeks.

Yet more beds

This month, we added what will probably be the final three beds for this year (famous last words!).

 After removing the tarp and laying the cardboard, I ran out of time and was away the next day. By the time I got back to it, it was a wet and windy day, and I had no choice but to just get on with it – hunting down the cardboard that had blown away.

Planting our next succession

Roger kindly took on the irrigation chore, which just left me to burn holes and lay the weed fabrc we lay on top of the beds.

Then in went the next succession of seedlings – achillea / yarrow, antirrhinum / snapdragons, Chinese forget-me-nots, dianthus / sweet william, feverfew, gypsophila, limonium / statice, monarda, safflower and hundreds of zinnias.

Next season, it will hopefully just be a case of mulching the beds over winter and adding a little home-made compost before planting again.

Sweet peas like never before

The flowers are coming thick and fast now.

Our sweet peas are amazing this year – we’re getting stem lengths of 50cm on some varieties and I can pick morning and night. Variety is definitely one factor. Spencer types grow much longer stems, and I guess the cool weather and all the rain has helped.

Super-tall Ammi

The autumn-sown Ammi is also doing really well - a good seven foot tall and bushy. I’m still on the fence about it as a cut flower though. I find one head is often going over before the other heads are ready, and it’s tricky to arrange with – probably best suited to the bigger bouquets and arrangements.

The ranunculus we pre-sprouted and planted outside under frost cloth at the end of March, started to flower and continued through to mid- June, when it started getting a bit too hot for them.

Pretty blue scabiosa

Scabiosa perfecta blue is flowering and one of my top flowers. Such a pretty form and colour. My mystery monster flower also turned out to be a giant scabious with pale yellow flowers. My plant app identified it as a weed, but I was curious how it would turn out so left it. Very glad I did.

Cosmos getting into its stride

The cosmos started worryingly small, and by the end of the month has really come on. It brings a lovely airy feel to bouquets but it’s a challenge to keep up with the dead-heading. Variety wise, the white Purity is still a firm favourite and I’m also loving the small, pale yellow Xanthos - not so keen on the maroon Rubenza.

Achillea (yarrow) and limonium (statice) are ‘must grow’ flowers. They come in a load of pretty colours and are easy to grow – and if you don’t use them, you can dry them.

New this year

New to me this year was Limonium pink pokers and it’s definitely a keeper.

Also new is gypsophila – both white and rose. The good news it grows easily and is prolific, but the pink variety has very sticky stems and the white, even with the bigger flowers, feels a bit old-fashioned, so I don’t think I’ll grow it again.

Sunflower experiment continues

I’m experimenting with sunflowers this year, growing them two seeds to a plug cell and/or planting them close together – around 15cm / 6 inches apart – to get thinner stems and smaller flower heads.

Interestingly, I think they are thinner and the flower heads are a good bouquet size, but they still grow really tall. And the odd one turns out to be enormous – and branches; the ones we get are not supposed to do that.

Mixed sunflower bunches

I love the varieties though – Procut white nite particularly, which has beautiful pale yellow petals. And Sunfill. This one is really grown for foliage with it’s really interesting calyx – but I like the flowers with the short petals too. Combined with the Procut plum, they make for a really lovely mixed bouquet. I was sowing seeds every week or so, which meant I had a lot to plant out in June.

Beautiful bouquets and arrangements

Working with the seasons and our climate, what we offer continually changes. Now we have an abundance of flowers and foliage, it’s a lot of fun making up bouquets in different colour palettes.

Aiming for winter chrysanthemums

To extend the season out beyond October, we’re growing late chrysanthemums. My thinking is to grow them outside in pots until the frost comes and them move them into the polytunnel – maybe adding some artificial light when the days get shorter.

 I got them as small plugs in June, and planted them up into 9cm pots, then again into 27cm pots which I quickly ran out of, so had to resort to 3 and 2 litre pots instead for now.

Building the business

A lovely customer said we must be living the dream running a flower farm. We hope to be, one day. Don’t get us wrong, we love working outdoors, and seeing the results of all the planning, sowing and growing come to fruition with beautiful flowers. But it’s 90% hard graft and 10% fun with flowers. And selling is a constant challenge.

 Everyone says you should only grow flowers when you’ve sold them. That’s very easy to say and much harder to do in practice. People want to see what you’re selling before making any commitment to buy.

This year, we’re doing Romsey Market on the first Sunday of the first full week each month, and are growing to ensure we have the volumes for that. But it’s a small, friendly market, and not super busy, so not a huge money maker.

Offering wholesale to florists

That leaves us trying to sell the flowers inbetween wholesale to florists or direct to customers.

For the florists, we have to compete with wholesalers who can provide and deliver pretty much anything, at any quantity, and generally at a lower cost. Florists are too busy to hunt around different websites, collate small quantities and collect flowers themselves. And their margins are tight enough without paying more. Also, for many, British-grown flowers are a risk they have not been prepared to take to date.

A few growers from the south west have come together to create a hub (see https://www.instagram.com/swflowergrowercollective). Florists can order via one website supplied by multiple growers, collect from one location or take one delivery. I’m sure it’s the way to go, but will inevitably take a while to get established.

Selling direct

We’re finding selling direct to customers is also a challenge. We don’t have a shop that people see, we don’t think the neighbours would relish a stall at the end of the lane, or lots of people arriving each day to ‘pick your own’. Social media is obviously a great option, but it’s just so hard to get a profile amongst the millions of other posts out there. We are getting some customers direct, but would like a lot more so need to work harder at that.

Yet another new challenge

This year, so far, we’ve battled with the weather, mice, rabbits, slugs, snails and aphids – with varying degrees of success. The pansies were the one flower that reliably battled through everything unscathed – until something decided to sleep on them. Reminiscent of the three bears story, they’ve tried every pot. Turns out it’s the wood pigeons. They sit there, munching away, getting dinner, bed and breakfast. Oh well. What we do is also about creating a diverse habitat for wildlife, so I can’t really complain. Onwards and upwards.

A break in July

We’re celebrating an important medical milestone in July. Roger finishes his last round of chemotherapy treatments and, to mark the occasion, we’re going sailing around the Ionian Islands with my brother and sister-in-law all the way from Australia. He’s done amazingly well throughout and very much deserves a holiday.

It’s obviously not great for business, I’m very worried about leaving the flowers, and can already see the bind weed rubbing its hands with glee in anticipation of taking over. But, there is nothing more important than family and health.

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