What will I grow next year?

Today I have been thinking about next year's tulips, which varieties will I grow again, which just didn't perform well enough. It seems ridiculously early but bulb catalogues will arrive in the next couple of weeks and eary ordering means early dispatch in the Autumn.
The definate re-order is going to be for Black hero - it is stunning, tall, weather resistant and as it colours up early and opens slowly it can be picked over 4 or 5 days. It is also not available in general flower shops as it is not yet being commercially grown on any meaningful scale.
The bulbs that I will definately be crossing off my list are also easy to spot - they are the ones that are still flowering in the garden as they have not been picked. The irony is that they actually look fantastic, have been flowering for 3 weeks and would both be great garden flowers.
The first is Rosy Wings - a large flowered bluish pink tulip with blunt petals that splay out overlapping each other. The problem with this was that all the flowers came out together and moved from a green bud to a fully out flower in less than a day. People like to buy tulips in coloured bud so they became unsaleable before I had a chance to pick them.
The second is a double tulip - Givenchy - which sounded sumptous in the catalogue description - red with yellow tips. It is a striking flower but the yellow tip is edged with beige and while it looks great in the garden, as soon as you pick it, the beige edge looks as though it is past its best.
Others I shall have to mull over - perhaps I shall wait until the catalogues arrive, pour a large glass of red wine and allow myself to be seduced by the fabulous descriptions of lilies and parrots and flames.

Sunny days

I have spent today pretty much as people seem to imagine I spend my life - in a sunhat, lazily weeding, tying in sweetpeas and picking buckets of flowers.
This is actually a difficult time for flowers - the fantastical tulips are all over and, apart from the alliums, there isn't really anything to take their place as large showstoppers in bouquets until the lilies in June. I rely on the early biennials - like iceland poppies and sweet rocket - along with alliums, columbines and some perennials.
I panic at the end of every May, convinced that there won't be enough to fulfil orders, but it is amazing - after an hour or so of picking (in sunhat, very lazily!) there are buckets and buckets of beautiful blooms. The bunches made up this week will be more like flower borders than flower shops, with smaller flowers, grasses, and scented leaves. They will be more subtle, more textural and more scented. I actually think that I may prefer them.
This thrush has decided that everywhere Euan and I go is a great source of food so follows us about and is incredibly tame. I miss having the chickens following me about for worms, but it has to be said that the thrush is a lot less destructive.

This week's flowers

This will be the last week of tulips, but the more meadowy flowers are ready to follow on.
Iceland poppies (fantastic long lasting cut flowers) in vibrant oranges and yellows; Purple sensation globe alliums; and the first perennials. Two of my favourites are cirsium purpureum -like a burgundy thistle - and black leaved cow parsley "ravenswing". They look fantastic in a bunch with alliums and columbines.
I have potted up a dozen or so seedlings of the cow parsley which will be on sale in the next couple of weeks.

Texas Flame

The largest and blowsiest of the parrot tulips is now coming into bloom. Texas Flame has a bright, bright yellow ground with vivid red and green markings. It is about twice the size of most of the parrots and finds it impossible to hold its head up. It has a great vase life and does wonderful flopping, twisting, operatic death-throes as it develops. It is probably best on its own in a vase where it can be fully appreciated.

The very flower-shop arrangement of 4 cut stems submerged in a large glass vase looks fantastic - it intensifies the colour and the flailing petals - but only lasts a few days before the flowers begin to fall apart

Why I grow cut flowers

I tend to bang on about the ethics of cut flower production very rarely - I prefer to stress the seasonality and freshness of my flowers rather than pointing out the way that most cut flowers on sale in flower shops, supermarkets and garage forecourts are grown, treated and transported.
Over the past couple of months there has been a lot of coverage in the press about working conditions in and land pollution caused by flower farms - particularly in Kenya which is fast becoming the country where most of the UK's come from.
I thought that it might be useful to have a few links so that anyone who is interested can see how products that are essentially treats - usually bought as tokens of love or to make a house more of a home - are damaging the environment.
http://lifeandhealth.guardian.co.uk/ethicalliving/story/0,,1774214,00.html
http://money.guardian.co.uk/ethicalliving/story/0,,1709448,00.html
http://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/200107/hidden.asp
http://www.pelicannetwork.net/flowers.noroses.htm
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/gardening/main.jhtml?xml=/gardening/2003/06/14/ggerm14.xml
Growing all flowers locally isn't going to be a full answer to the problem - there is however a small market in fair trade flowers - still not addressing the pesticide pollution, the airmiles or the heavy metal treatments but at least a start. Florists SHOULD be able to source fair trade flowers, they SHOULD also be able to tell you the country of origin - NB the "Holland" on a supermarket bunch of flowers refers to the packing department, not where the actual flowers were grown.

Seedlings

Now that the soil has finally warmed up enough(they say that you should be able to sit in comfort on the ground with a bare bum - but the fact that weed seeds are germinating in the beds is a less risky sign) I am putting in my annual seedlings.
I tend to start everything off in plugs rather than sowing straight into the ground - it gives me a couple of weeks head start and means that the plants stand a better chance against slugs.
I use coir jiffy 7 pellets which fit into mushroom trays lined with poly bags to conserve water. When the roots come out of the netting around the pellet, it is time to plant them.
These seedlngs are Ammi majus - a white flowered umbelifer with flowers a bit like cow parsley but with more movement. Next week I shall pinch out their tips to make the plants more bushy - with more flowers to cut - and then in a few weeks time I shall put a layer of netting at about a foot high over the whole bed to support the stems and stop the plants falling over.
Ammi majus looks beautiful with wild type flowers like poppies, cornflowers and love in a mist. It also looks wonerful on its own - 20 stems in a large vase.

Black Hero Tulips

Sarah Raven, who is well known for her choice of deep coloured flowers, has been trialling dark tulips and this week reported her results in her gardening column in the Saturday Telegraph. The results are very subjective - and the low rainfall in sussex this past month hardly tests the category of weather resistance - but I certainly agree with her top choice - Black Hero - a double form of Queen of the Night, which opens out into a shiny black peony like bloom. The tulip is - unlike most double tulips - very tall and looks good in bud (a bit like an artichoke) as well as bloom.
I "do the flowers" for the Royal Bank of Scotland in Drymen and put a tall vase of Black Hero tulips in there last week - I have had dozens of people phoning about them - unfortunately we are all sold out. I think that I shall get some extra bulbs in the autumn and shall be able to sell some.

overview shots

This week I have been asked to post some overview shots of the garden - I fear that they will show me up - particularly as the lawnmower is away being mended so all the grass is shaggy and the edges anything but sharp.
The first photo is taken looking Nrth with a clump of artemesia "limelight"; alliums, penstemons and sage- the second is looking east towards the new greenhouse with the dahlia beds (still to sprout) in the foreground and the remnants of the tulip crop. These will be dug out later in the week and replanted with cosmos and gladioli. The third looks north east from in front of the tunnel with cat mint, artemesia and the begin ings of the iceland poppies, the forth looks south towards the tunnel - lillies and plume poppies in the front bed, annuals and weeds down by the children.
It is so much nicer to concentrate on the detail and ignore the chaos in the peripheral vision!

Parrot Tulips - Flaming parrot

Here is a vase of vibrant yellow and red parrot tulips with solomon's seal and tiarella.

Back on line!

Our new computer has arrived - very sleek and usable while watching telly and drinking wine in the sitting room. Unfortunately all the data on the old computer has been completely wiped - an organised person would have been backing everything up in a regular and sensible manner. Unfortunately . . . . I am not that person, so I have lost all my business letters. plans, etc. I do have a card index mailing list as well as the compter version and it is early enough in the year for me to be able to track invoices but it is a good lesson to learn and I now have a stack of CDs to back up all data from now onwards.
At least having this weblog means that not all my photographs have gone.
It has been interesting being offline for a couple of weeks - it has made me realise how useful having a commitment to writing something on the weblog is in itself. I had a visitor last week who wanted to look around and see how feasible it is to make a living growing flowers.We talked about the RHS diploma course in horticulture that I did in Edinburgh before starting the business and about how it was valuable partly because of the great people I met - all wanting to change the direction of their lives - and partly because of the discipline of having to do some reading/research each week and work towards an exam. I think that having a weblog is the same - I would never get around to taking photographs, logging flowering dates or noting down my comments on flowers if I didn't have a formalised format for it.
This week my favourite tulip is "Greenland" a massive green and pink parrot tulip which opens out into a great flat flower but doesn't collapse. I have used it in all of today's gift bouquets and everyone loved it. I shall put it on my list of bulbs to sell in September/October.

Computer blew up

Last week's storms didn't damage any of our flowers but they did blow up the computer.
This is why there have been no posts for the last week and why there are no photographs on this one.
We have been very busy though and we are still open.
This is the big week for tulips - the hot weather has brought them on very fast - we have gorgeuos black tulips - the single "Queen of the Night" and the double "Hero" and a number of parrot tulips - white and green "Greenwave"; pink and green "Greenland" and possibly a few of the scented "Rococo".
We sold out of sweet pea plants, dahlia tubers and tulip planters.
On Saturday we shall not be open at the house but will be at Drymen Primary School Fun Day - 11- 1.00.

Whats new this week

The tulips are finally beginning to bloom properly now - most of the early tulips are very straightforward - simple, elegant shapes with great colours. Negrita (above left) is a deep almost chalky textured purple - the colour of blackcurrant fool, pink impression is a clear bright blue pink. Both live a long time in the vase and, as I am now pulling all my bulbs rather than cutting them, they have long long stems. One unusual early tulip is the multi-headed red georgette a lipstick red with between 2 and five heads per stem. It only takes a few stems to fill a vase.
Hyacinths are also at their peak - my favourite is woodstock (above right) a deep saturated purple which looks fantastic either on its own or mixed with bright pink. We are still very short of foliage to mix with the bulbs - the cold weather has tended to mangle it. I am going to plant a lot of early euphorbias so hopefully by next year there should be some great lime greens to mix with the reds, purples and blues.

Subscriptions

Subscriptions have begun locally this week - Croftamie, Drymen, Balfron and Killearn on Wednesdays; Gartmore, Aberfoyle and Buchlyvie on Thursday mornings.
It is great to see last year's subscribers again.
Subscriptions range from £6-10 and can be ordered weekly or fortnightly. They can either be postponed during holidays or re-routed within our delivery area (some people use this as a way of saying thanks to whoever is looking after their pets and potplants).
The price of the flowers is kept so low because there is no choice of flowers - it is whatever is blooming that week. I am happy to take customers pereferences into account - some people don't like pink, others don't like the smell of lillies.