Here's a jug of Sweet Peas, Corncockle, Cornflowers, Gypsophila and Acrolinium that we wrapped for a birthday bouquet yesterday.
This year I've had to grow more annuals than I would like, because although they are very generous and prolific in their growing habits many of them have a fairly short vase life. This is easily extended by removing any dead flower heads as they go over and a vase like this should last for 6 -7 days before being relegated to the compost heap.
Being Soil Association certified means that I need to grow most of my perennials from seed which means I'm sowing seeds that I would otherwise probably never have tried. This is having some really satisfying results, I was puzzling over a seed tray without a label which Charlie had knocked over months ago but had been put to one side to see if anything survived the trampling. I was thrilled to see a tiny little Eucalyptus gunnii had emerged which was one set of seedlings I hadn't expected to see for a while. I've also got Sage, Hyssop and Rosemary emerging which I would never have thought of growing from seed.
I've realised I'm a splurger when it comes to buying seeds. Chiltern Seeds have such a fantastic catalogue and website that it is so easy to get tempted. I've just ordered my biennial seeds for next year so as well as Sweet Williams I also wanted to try Alexanders (Smyrnium oluastrum) which is a lovely architectural wild flower often found near the sea and that led me on to a variant called Smyrnium perfoliatum which is similar but where the leaf encloses the stem and then to another variant, although a different genus, called Zizia aurea or Golden Alexanders.
Another thing I'm going to try by seed are some ornamental alliums, they are great as cut flowers with their blue spheres. All these seeds will need a period of cold known as stratification so iI will sow them in the polytunnel and then after about three weeks they will be moved to the bottom shelf of our fridge for about a month and then back to the cold frame (which isn't actually built yet).
These are sweet little flowers, I've bought the seeds from the Organic Gardening Catalogue as Acrolinium but actually their proper name is Helipterum roseum. They are incredibly prolific and last ages and ages in a fresh vase arrangement. They also dry beautifully and as I'm cutting about 60 a day at the moment the shed rafters are already beginning to look very decorative with drying bunches. I think these would be really pretty flowers for a simple country wedding, you can just imagine them threaded into bridesmaid's hair.
The Ammi majus is almost flowering now, I'm keeping my fingers crossed for some sunshine this week to bring them on for our very first Farmer's Market at Keynsham next Saturday. I'd really like some more Euphorbia to take aswell but alas that seems to be settling in slowly. I hope we have enough flowers to make a really pretty stand and I really really hope that people want to buy them.
One last picture of the red cornflowers. I initially wasn't convinced of Centaurea cyanus "Red Boy" as it just wasn't blue enough but Jon absolutely loves it so it's gone up in my estimations . A number of florists have also made encouraging noises about this one so maybe we'll keep it on the list for next year.Jo x
