Getting outside

This morning was the school Easter service and afterwards I went for coffee with friends, friends that I have been very remiss about keeping up with over the past six weeks or so.
It was somehow immensely cheering. We moved to Drymen 3 1/2 years ago, knowing no-one and slightly wary about whether it would be one of those places that you had to live in for over 80 years to become a local. It isn't.

The decision to move here was a good one, one of our better ones. I have more friends - good, funny, gallus friends - now than I have ever had before. Friends who can tell me as they did this morning - when I am moaning about the state of the cutting garden - that it always looks appalling at this time of year.

It is the cusp of my year, the point when I tip from making things to sewing things. I do hardly any gardening between October and the end of March but then, once the clocks go forward it is a mad rush to claw it all back from chaos.

So today I have been weeding, dividing perennials and planting out. It has been heavenly. I have a pile of orders to make up for things that sold out at the Fair but I told all the customers that I wouldn't be doing any sewing for the next month. For the next month I shall be sowing not sewing and I just can't wait.

Actually that isn't quite true. The thing that I regretted most about the amount of work I took on over Christmas was that I didn't get a chance to make Christmas presents for the girls. I have always made them a present but this year we just ran out of time.
So I decided that, after the Fair was over, I would make them both something. Zoe won a pack of pencils at school so I thought I would make them pencil rolls. So far, so simple - an hour's work maybe. Then I googled pencil roll blog and found this.

Isn't it fantastic? So that it what I am sewing - slowly.

Species tulips

I have never grown species tulips before. I have grown perhaps 100 different varieties of garden tulips but this is the first year that I have fallen prey to the charms of the species.

Part of the remit of our business is to grow things that you just can't get anywhere else. I could go to any flower wholesaler this lunchtime and come back with trays of Muscari armenium (grape hyacinth), Narcissi tete a tete and white, pink and blue hyacinth. So could any florist.

But you can't go anywhere, bar perhaps a specialist nursery, and get pots of flowering species tulips. They are the complete opposite of the lowest common denominator plant.

The tulips in the photograph are Tulipa turkestana about 6 inches tall with up to 7 flowers on a stem. They are not one of the parents of garden tulips as breeders have so far failed to get them to hybridise with other varieties (think of the flowers you could get if you could get an elegant multi headed version of Queen of the Night) but rather grow in the wild on stony slopes in the Mediterranean and central Asia.


I sold almost all my flowers last week but have saved a few for myself and have planted them into an old enamel nursery mug to enjoy in the dining room.

Yesterday Di Overton at Designer's Block did a lovely post about us. She is an even more avid blogger than I am and is putting together a really great archive of inspirational pictures and contacts.

Flower Confidential Part 1

One of the few advantages of still feeling rotten is that I have had a chance to start reading Amy Stewart's new book Flower Confidential. I had assumed that I would race through it and report today but unfortunately I am still so woozy that I am having to take my time. As I am a "race through it" type of girl it does me good to slow down and it is a book which probably deserves 3 or 4 reports anyway.

Amy is an American garden writer who has already written a couple of books, one on her first garden and the other on earthworms. Flower Confidential shows the journey of a cut flower - from breeding, through growing, packing, sale and finally to vase. One of the quotes on the back jacket is "Amy Stewart understands that a good book can be about a subject as commonplace as the ground beneath our feet - if the author has a passion to share it" and I think that pretty much sums it up. If you like the kind of book that is about cod or lighthouses brought to you with passion, then you will love this.

I came to cut flower growing from the garden side - I grew them for myself, I expanded the patch and sold some on . . . . In many ways I have seen that as an advantage - I have not had to bother with the conventional way of doing it - but it does mean that I have little practical knowledge of what goes on inside the large tunnels of the multinational flower grower. I am finding it all fascinating.

The most fascinating bit so far though appeals to the bit of me that wanted to be an ancient historian when I was little. Like this quote

"Roses are not yet in full bloom here - in fact they are scarce - we could just barely get together the thousand that we sent you . . . even with picking the ones that ought not to be picked till tomorrow. We had all the narcissi you wanted, so instead of the two thousand you asked for we sent four thousand".

This is an extract from a letter written on papyrus in Roman Egypt, shortly before the birth of Christ.

The photo is of my favourite hyacinth - City of Haarlem - exactly the colour of butter.

I have been sorting out the links on the side bar - please let me know if you are not on (I keep forgetting people as I look at blogs through a circuitous route) or if you are in the wrong category.

Ethical weddings

Suddenly I have begun to get masses of wedding enquiries - so much so that I am almost full up this year.
Partly it is the wedding planning season, partly that I have had a couple of small newspaper mentions but mainly I think it is that couples are increasingly interested in ensuring their big day doesn't have a big carbon footprint.

There are now a few websites catering for people looking for ethical suppliers - I think the best is Katie's site Ethical Weddings which has the advantage of an active forum.
As we have always sold ourselves as a completely seasonal, homegrown florist we have always attracted couples looking for eco type flowers - I think that I have done more flowers for youth hostels than fancy hotels (and co-incidentally they were the nicest buildings to decorate as well). It is lovely that it is moving more into the mainstream.
I am wanting to build up a good wedding links section on the website - not the kind of thing that duplicates what Katie is doing - just perhaps other small environmentally friendly businesses, not necessarily wedding businesses, that do things to do with weddings. e.g. the youth hostels,. Also sites that discuss the whole Green Wedding phenomenon.

Any suggestions welcome.

The fantastic paeony was from last year - we're not that balmy up north.

Country Living Roundup.

This was meant to have been done on Thursday - ah well - it is probably a bit irrelevant really but these are stalls I liked at the show and then there are a couple of rants


Caroline Zoob - always beautiful, much copied, but then they never quite get it right.

Primrose Hill Interiors. Flowers, ginghams, hearts and dots

Boxwood - the most packed stall in the hall.


And now for Rant 1.

The Country Living Magazine awards a prize for the best stall design, the prize is a free stall next year and it is meant to encourage people to put a lot of effort into their stall design and so improve the look of the whole show. we won last year and it was a good reward for a lot of hard work that went into the look of the stall over and above the things we were selling.

This is the stall that won

Hume Sweet Hume. I don't really understand it - I'm not being tricksy with the photos - that is the whole stall, there isn't something interesting just out of view. Now I like Hume Sweet Hume's products, their knitted cushions are very soft and tasteful, but this is not a designed stand. It is a shop fitting c. 1997.

This is the stall I think should have won.

Dream Acres had a great hand cart that became the stall and lots of things, including these patchwork flowers, had been made for the show.

I think it very peculiar - and judging from the amount of people who mentioned the odd choice at our stall - so did a lot of visitors.

Rant 2

There has been a lot of bad publicity for Country Living Shows within the blogging community, a feeling that there are not enough small craft producers any more, that much of the stuff on offer is bought in and that there is a lack of variety, that they are too crowded for a leisurely browse . The knee jerk reaction seems to be to blame the magazine and actually I do not think that that is justified.

Stalls are expensive - the overall expenses for a small stall for a one of the shows must come in at about £2,000 - but this is very much in line with all trade shows -many of which do not have the slickness of the CL show. I was constantly amazed by the speed and professionalism of the Melville team handling the putting up and taking down of the show. I don't get the feeling that the shows are a great money making exercise for CL magazine.

So, to cover costs you need to sell approximately £4,000 over the 4 days. Now this is not an issue for some stalls - Stephensons Rocking Horses must take double that every day, one jumper stall told me of a customer spending £2,500 in a single purchase - but it is an issue for most of the craft stalls. This is because customers do not value their products properly.

I had bought a felt corsage, made from knitted material hand felted then sewn up, a one off.

It is lovely and goes well with my red coat and cost all of £16.00. I feel that it was a more than fair price. 2 customers told me - without my having brought the subject up -that I should have saved my money and gone down to Accessorize where they have a 2 for 1 offer on corsages.

There seems to be an inability in many people to distinguish between mass produced throwaway items and hand made unique ones. It all comes down to price. Though they want the stalls there at CL Fairs so that it looks pretty, they will buy on the high street.

Then there is the customer who does appreciate the difference. The customer who has paid her £7.50 entrance and is using the Fair as a source of ideas. She quizzes about methods, she takes surreptitious photographs, she scribbles in her notebook. Friends say to each other "Oh what a good idea, you could do that".

I had 15 magnet buttons stolen from my noticeboards - presumably by people who thought "Oh what a good idea, I could do that".

So I don't think that it is the organiser to blame - yes, I wish they could get more innovative press coverage, yes I wish they would get more young people in with houses to fill, but really I think that it is the customers.

If you want the small crafty unique stalls to attend- BUY FROM THEM - don't just tell them the look nice.

As to the negative comments about the magazine itself see here I am with Nikki on deploring the laziness.

Rant over

We actually had a very good fair - but many people didn't - so I leave you with a last photo of my van. You can tell I am confined to bed today trying to recover my voice, this post has taken ages.

A duvet day

Hmmmm. By the time I turned up at the SECC this morning it was obvious that I was not going to be an asset to the stall. "Death warmed up" seemed to be the general opinion - grey face, dark circled eyes, that dull sticky ill hair, a 60 a day cough and no voice. I could see their point.

All potential customers were likely to make a wide berth.

I was taken home and have slept more or less since. I am feeling quite a bit better - still no voice but hopefully I will be able to flash a welcoming smile tomorrow.

What it has taught me is that I have such a super team working with me now that I no longer need to be everywhere all the time. I can even be sick on the busiest day of our year.

Thank you Sally for organising everything superbly, to Jo for coming in at short notice, to Euan for being bossy when he had to and to Callum.

Time to chat

Today was a much more relaxed day - more a steady stream than mad surges so there was more time to talk to people.

Time to talk to customers who bought dahlias last year and are back to add to their collections this year.

Time to talk to the bloggers (8 in all) that came and said hello - hopefully you will all feel ready to comment now you've seen my face.

Time to talk to fellow stallholders and find out how the London shows are and make contacts.

Just time to talk.

I am actually not feeling that well this week - I caught some kind of chest infection from Zoe - so I have been drugged up today and paranoid about coming across as really spaced out. Tonight I am left with just a poor croak of a voice - I am keeping quiet and hope it is back to full force tomorrow. Otherwise it will have to be sign language.


Sorry that these are yet more photos of MY stall. I'm not trying to be narcissistic< I just forgot my camera.

Do come & say Hi if you are coming to the CL Fair this weekend.

Busy, busy, busy

Goodness, it was busy. At 10 o'clock as the doors opened we were still tagging up and sticking magnet sets up on the wall.
From that point on we didn't stop. Jo, who was in shopping stayed to help as we were overwhelmed with queues of people wanting to chat.
The nicest thing was that practically first in the queue were a couple of women who bought garden kneelers last year and rushed in to buy several more before we sold out. that got my day off to a very good start.
And we have sold out of a number of things so we shall be re-arranging the stall first thing this morning.
The upshot is that I haven't really had a chance to look round. I had intended to post about all the lovely stalls but haven't any photos and only know stalls either in the ways to the loos or near to us. Caroline Zoob's stall is gorgeous as usual, Primrose Hill Interiors is very pretty, Samantha Holmes has wonderfully luxurious jumpers and scarves and there are a couple of lovely vintage fabric stalls.

Knackered but happy

Now off for that wine.
Thanks to Sally, Jo and Euan.

Moving the van

Well we are on our way - Robin Watt from nearby Lomond Classic Transport came to pick up the van and take it to the SECC. Euan cameback in his lunch hour to drive it up onto the ramp, it was strapped down and is now safely on our stand at the CL Fair.

Robin is a great chap, not phased at all by the vagaries of vintage vehicles. After delivering our van to Glasgow he was about to transport a band box new landrover down south so that it could maintain its 0 mileometer until delivered to the owner.

Taking the van in today also meant that Euan was able to see the space that we have, he says that it isn't as big as I've been fearing so hopefully we will be able to fill it all generously tomorrow.

Tying up loose ends

I have finished making things for the CL Fair- I wish I could have made more but I have to stop sometime, I'm not doing that "taking a sewing basket along with me" thing.
I am now concentrating on all the things that make a stall look nice.
One of the things that I have been doing today is potting up some unusual spring bulbs.
In the autumn I planted trays and trays of spring bulbs in the hope of having lots to pot up now.

To be honest, it hasn't been a great success. Mice and the unremitting rain saw a lot of them off but there were some survivors.
The photo is of muscari latifolium - basically a grape hyacinth in a very deep blue with a beautiful spathe shaped leaf.
I always think that shape gives a kind of sinister glamour to a plant - I don't know why. The flower hangs around inside the leaf for a week or two then elongates and looks much more like a grape hyacinth.
Bix, our eldest cat, has been supervising the packing up.

Aprons

Last year the most requested items at our Country Living stand were the aprons that Sally and I were wearing. I didn't have any for sale at the time but subsequently made some up - mainly for B&B owners who wanted something out of the ordinary for serving up breakfast.

So aprons were always on my list, but with one thing and another they have turned out to be the last thing to be sewn up.

I actually have a problem with aprons. I have as euphemism would have it, a curvy figure. I have a bust and hips with a waist inbetween. In most aprons I look like a badly tied parcel with a baggy bit above my bust and not enough material to wrap round my ample hips. I never feel like a capable confident domestic goddess in an apron. I feel like I am in a hospital gown.

Over the years I have tried the tie on 1950s pinnies and the amazing wrap dresses from the 1940s - the sort of thing you should wear to scrub your step in a Hovis advert - but nothing looked right.

So this year I decided to tweak last year's apron pattern and come up with something flattering to the non-beanpole. And it has worked - I used a couple of beautiful drapey linens so there isn't that bunchy cardboard effect that you get with ticking or denim, I was generous with the side flaps so that they don't stick out and most importantly, I scooped the neck so that it sits properly.

The result is a very high class apron indeed with a lined top, an Irish linen pocket, vintage button detailing ans a handy clip to attach a cloth to so that you can wipe your hands.

It is a pinny for Nigella or Marylin (or me).

Bellis, bella, bellum

I normally like to grow all my own plants but getting the larger space at the Country Living Fair, Scotland was a last minute thing really so I have had to buy them in.

Yesterday I headed for Perthshire to collect my order from the Dutch van man. They have done me proud, really good quality plants - these are the bellis daisies. I also have muscari, narcissi, primula and cyclamen.

Tomorrow they will have all their flowers cut off to let the new stems get ready for blooming their socks off next week. It seems a bit mean, and I am very anxious about the planting bit - I have never tried to time plants flowering like this before and I hope that they will be happy in the heat of the SECC.

I hate the waste of shows - the first one I went to threw out 50 perfectly good jasmine plants (which I rescued of course) and hundreds of narcissi at the end of the 3 days.

My mother is worse - I did the flowers for the CL pavilion when the show was in Edinburgh. With the dryness of the hall it was a tough gig for flowers, particularly the spring flowers I was using and by the Sunday night there wasn't much lifespan left in most of the flowers - 2-3 days at the most I would say. My Mum came to help me dismantle and pack up but actually spent her time dismantling and giving away bunches of the slightly droopy flowers rather than put them in the bin.

Walking the dog

I have been musing - this being my second year doing the CL Fair - whether I am better prepared, both in terms of stock levels and, more importantly, in terms of stress levels.

I think that I am - and part of that is remembering to properly walk the dog. At Christmas I got so tied up with work and so stressed with orders that I stopped doing anything else. Jasmine was neglected and she turned into a wee tub looking morosely at me from her basket.

Now I have begun to realise that, counter-intuitively, doing things away from the business gives me a better perspective and moreover seems to actually stretch time. You also notice things - a couple of days ago Jasmine and I walked along the track at Craigievern, part of the West Highland Way, and saw ditches full of billows of frogspawn. Spring.

These photos were taken yesterday evening. Katie and I went for a walk by Loch Lomond and up through the woods. Zoe was at her piano lesson. This time last year I would probably have been sat in the car frantically punching holes in price labels. . . . so I think I am improving.

Euan disagrees and claims that I am still being followed around by a big black cloud of stress.

I made a list of everything that needs to be done between now and Tuesday when the stand goes up and put an estimated time next to it. It added up to . . .300 hours.

Now that will take some stretching of time.

Faultlines

Last night was the Karine Polwart concert in Balfron - or perhaps I should say Karine Polwart and the Get Reel Allstars as the first half was a mix of local musicians aged 6-60. It was great fun - nothing beats a small venue and it was intriguing to hear the story behind Karine's songs. She is a truly amazing singer-songwriter. The audience had a lot of children in it - we took our girls along - and instead of playing up and running around, they all listened rapt the smallest fell asleep on parents knees.
It is odd as many of the songs are sad and desperate - Zoe's favourite, Over the hill is about a woman driven to drink and drugs by her partner's behaviour! I assume that she responds to the harmonies rather than the lyrics.

Karine's best known song Daisy was very poignant this weekend. "Hey Daisy darling don't give them all you can, why don't you keep a few more cards in your hand. I know you'll only say a thing you believe to be true, but there are people in this world who don't think like you do"

On Friday a friend, whose opinion I respect, phoned me with concerns about this blog - she feels that I say too much too soon about the business and pointed out what she feels to be copy catting going on by another business. She gave me examples where my text has been lifted.

Heather has been having problems with this too Here (the post with the beautiful roses). She probably coped better than I did

I was furious on Friday, stomping round the house. To be honest I was ready to become an anodyne marketing blogger with photos of my "lovely" home and stagemanaged accounts of my days walking the dog and teaching the children to whittle arrows. I considered that it might be sensible to give up on it all together.

By this morning, after a good evening with friends and family I am more inclined to say (like Heather) that imitation is the most sincere form of flattery, perhaps it is subliminal, perhaps the woman in question is cursed with a photographic memory. Perhaps she is distraught at having no ideas of her own.

I'm putting a copyright note on the blog!

Wonder cloches

Do you remember my putting cloches over my parsley plants in February?
I didn't have enough cloches for all the plants so I covered every second one in the row.

Here are the photographs of the difference in the plants.



The one under the cloche is lush, bright green, soft leaved and ready for picking.

The one without cover is tiny, its leaves went mushy in the frost, and it is yellow and poorly looking.


It will recover, both will be thriving by May. But for the moment the cloches are giving me enough fresh parsley for my cooking.

Those C18th dutchmen knew a thing or two about gardening.

Planning the stand

Yesterday Euan went to see a cooper in Aidrie to pick up our barrels. I wanted to have really large planters on the stand with tripod frames and ivy growing up them.

Whisky barrels seemed to be the obvious solution - unfortunately while they would have all been delighted to provide them, none of the whisky distilleries round here had any in stock.

Fortunately the cooper in Airdrie did and he cut them up for us to order. They are fabulous - chunky, weathered, big enough to put planting in, it is a pity we can't show off their very scenic purple bottoms. We have left them outside to get rid of the smell - they are very alcoholic. My car smells like a wild party in Inverness.

I was paranoid doing deliveries this morning that people would think I had taken to morning tippling on my way to the shops.

Flower Confidential

I turned on the radio today halfway through an interview with Amy Stewart, an American writer whose book Flower Confidential has just been published in Britain. the book is about the cut flower trade - I can't comment on it yet as my copy is still in the post - but from what I have read on Amy's website and heard on the wiggly wigglers podcast she did, it seems to be a balanced account. A clear look at the bad practices and problems with cut flower production but married with a voluptuous love of flowers and a realisation that wagging fingers don't change anything.
I have read another couple of books by her - one about making her first garden, the other about worms. She is also very into her chickens.

She is a woman that I think I would get on with.


CL blog still going! here

Up at last . . .

I feel like I have been trailling this website for ages - but now it is properly live - at www.snapdragongarden.co.uk.

There are still some kinks to sort out but it should work -let me know by e-mail if something doesn't work - snapdragonjane@yahoo.co.uk.

I have been looking at it for too long today so I can no longer see it rationally.

Feedback would be great - in theory I should be able to change things!

Browns Restaurant, Drymen

I thought that I would do my bit to promote local business today as I know that a lot of the people who read (but don't comment) are local.

Drymen used to have an Indian restaurant that did meals and carryouts. The food was fine but the restaurant was very dark and a bit musty - not somewhere you would want to go in the daytime and to be honest, not really nice enough for a treat either. A while ago the building went on fire and the business closed.

I was hoping that it would become a kind of nice lunch dining place like Ramsays in Bridge of Allan or Kemble & Jones in Glasgow - somewhere that I could meet friends for a civilised, light and not too pricey lunch.

To be honest I was rather miffed when I heard that it was going to be a "fine dining place" with "contemporary scottish cuisine". Rumours began to circulate about how expensive it was going to be.

I was very disappointed. How often do I get to go somewhere like that? I miss having somewhere that I can eat out every month, not just at birthdays and wedding anniversaries.

Well, last week Mum and I had lunch there - they have a set lunch - 2 courses and coffee for £11.95 and (always a sign of a good place I think) they aren't fussed if you order tap water. Well it was fantastic, the food was delicious, the mustiness has gone and has been transformed into an brown and cream elegance. And did I mention the food?

I think that the price is excellent - less than I spend in Ramsays on the equivalent. The appalling thing was that there was no-one else there. The service is so friendly and downbeat that it did't feel odd, but if it continues for long then presumably the restaurant will not carry on.

So use it or lose it. Browns isn't just expensive fine dining - you can do lunch there. You can do lunch there to a budget. I am looking through my address book as I speak for people that I really need to meet for lunch.

The more observant of you will notice that the website is meant to be up today - well it is but it needs some glitches removed (long story). Email me (snapdragonjane@yahoo.co.uk) if you want the address to see what a glitchy website looks like!

Still blogging at CL - Here

Building a business

On Friday I went to a Women in Business networking event at Gartmore House. It was a chance for women who own businesses within Loch Lomond National Park to get together and chat with the aim of making new connections to help each other's businesses. I went along really without thinking about it.

I am busy busy at the moment so I could only stay for the morning so perhaps I am being unfair. However - I came away feeling slightly insulted and thinking that what the event was desperately in need of was some men.

Why is it acceptable to have women only networking groups? Why is it thought to be a good thing for the women's businesses to segregate them? I have far more in common with a man owning a pharmecutical mail order business than I do with a woman who makes cards in her spare time.

I went along because I am at a stage in the business where I am desperately in need of a mentor, there are so many things that I don't know that I need to be able to chat with people who are more established and knowlegable than I am. It was a complete waste of time from that point of view.

I suppose that the "women only" thing is a kind of positive discrimination, that there is a thought that women won't speak up in mixed company. Well honestly - if you are the type of women who is going to be frightened off by men, then you are never going to make a go of a business.

Why the heck do we have to be coddled like this? Does anyone else find it insulting?

Alternatives to cut flowers.

It is that time of year when I begin to get a lot of phonecalls from people wanting to order flowers as gifts. The sun is shining, snowdrops and daffodils are in all the verges and people feel that I should be open again.

It is very flattering. It is great to know that people miss the business while we are closed. But it is just not possible to make up bouquets of flowers from my garden at this time of year.

Yes - I could probably grow early daffodils but it wouldn't be worth it - the early forms don't have a good vase life and they aren't bulky enough to make a good bouquet. Also, even when we have the glamorous, long lasting, beautifully scented narcissi at the van in April, people will not pay money for daffodils.

I sometimes despair of the way that what people expect has been formed by the cut flower industry. In the C19th cut flowers were not generally available from January-March and instead potted plants were used to decorate interiors. In fact, the C19th used a lot more potted plants -plants like primroses and harebells - in temporary flowery arrangements.

If I do ever extend my season to take in February and March it will be this example I will follow - trying to persuade people to order potted bulbs instead of flowers. In fact, I do continue to do this a bit all year and the photo is of a lovely sturdy aged zinc plante that I delivered today. It is full of the narcissi Soleil d'Or.

I continue to blog on the Country Living Site - very slow and bulky - entries can be read here

New publicity

Today I went to deliver the artwork for my new business cards to the printer.

Last year I handed out a lot of cards at the Country Living show and I have been amazed at how many people have obviously kept them and got in touch many months later.

Having something visual seems to work for me as people stick it to their fridge because they like the photo.

As I am now going to be doing mail order - and as I have almost run out of my old cards - I thought that we needed a change. As the business does lots of different things I have gone for 4 different cards - one general, one weddings, one mail order and one with a map to show where we are. They can either be given out seperately or as a group with a punched hole and ribbon.


I'm also intending to have a blank postcard so that I can use it as a gift card/compliments slip.

It was a bit of a gulp signing the cheque but nothing ventured. . . . . . .

The nice people at Country Living are going to try and get some into the compimentary bags at the show for me - I missed the deadline for them being part of the London based packing (what a job!) but they can go at the front desk and be put in ad hoc.

I would stick them to my fridge. Graphic design as always by the talented Kate Watt.