It's taken some work over the past year to convince Jon that flowers were as equally worthy a subject for our time and money as would be a vegetable crop. There are a few factors that decided it for me a long time ago.
Firstly and simply although I love the order and straight lines of a vegetable garden, flowers make me happy so what could be better than flowers grown in orderly straight lines. Secondly harvesting...........given the choice would you rather be harvesting carrots or Larkspur? See, there's no choice really. And thirdly seeing as we are approaching this with commercial heads firmly in place there are lots of people out there growing organic vegetables but if you want to buy a bouquet of flowers grown without pesticides and not shipped half way round the world before it reaches you, there are very few opportunities for you to do so.
I love flowers in my home and I never buy them. I love real flowers, the ones growing in our gardens, in our countryside, the ones that tell us that Spring is here or that Midsummer is upon us. These flowers keep us in touch with the seasons and remind us of our cultural heritage. As a gardener, over the years I have seldom had enough flowers in my borders that I have been able to pick without guilt for indoor vases, parties or friend's weddings.
I am convinced that there are so many people out there who feel the same way as me so quite simply I've decided to grow enough flowers for all of us (well at least for a select number of lucky customers) who will be able to order flowers directly from us or from the florists listed on our website. We'll extend the season gradually over the next few years to include Spring flowering bulbs like the beautiful Spring Snowflake Leucojum vernum so that our blooms will be available for a longer period of time.
For this first year however we're going to concentrate on hardy and half hardy annuals as we will also be propagating our perennial stock at the same time. Having Soil Association Organic status means that most of our plants will be grown from seed as there are few organic ornamental nursery suppliers out there. The field's first summer will be full of Cornflowers, Poppies,Gypsophila, Larkspur, Love in a Mist and not to forget the beautiful Sweet Pea just to mention a few..... and not a potato in sight!
Firstly and simply although I love the order and straight lines of a vegetable garden, flowers make me happy so what could be better than flowers grown in orderly straight lines. Secondly harvesting...........given the choice would you rather be harvesting carrots or Larkspur? See, there's no choice really. And thirdly seeing as we are approaching this with commercial heads firmly in place there are lots of people out there growing organic vegetables but if you want to buy a bouquet of flowers grown without pesticides and not shipped half way round the world before it reaches you, there are very few opportunities for you to do so.
I love flowers in my home and I never buy them. I love real flowers, the ones growing in our gardens, in our countryside, the ones that tell us that Spring is here or that Midsummer is upon us. These flowers keep us in touch with the seasons and remind us of our cultural heritage. As a gardener, over the years I have seldom had enough flowers in my borders that I have been able to pick without guilt for indoor vases, parties or friend's weddings.
I am convinced that there are so many people out there who feel the same way as me so quite simply I've decided to grow enough flowers for all of us (well at least for a select number of lucky customers) who will be able to order flowers directly from us or from the florists listed on our website. We'll extend the season gradually over the next few years to include Spring flowering bulbs like the beautiful Spring Snowflake Leucojum vernum so that our blooms will be available for a longer period of time.
For this first year however we're going to concentrate on hardy and half hardy annuals as we will also be propagating our perennial stock at the same time. Having Soil Association Organic status means that most of our plants will be grown from seed as there are few organic ornamental nursery suppliers out there. The field's first summer will be full of Cornflowers, Poppies,Gypsophila, Larkspur, Love in a Mist and not to forget the beautiful Sweet Pea just to mention a few..... and not a potato in sight!
