The sun has really moved these Anemones up a gear this week. The pink ones seem to be ahead of the other colours at the moment. And wow, what a pink that is! The stems are still quite short & a bit wonky, but I love their cheerful little faces just the same. 

The new year of growing cut flowers has begun for us, slowly to start with but underneath the snow, there's a lot going on. Gently pull back the snow & dead leaves, the Tulips & Narcissi are growing well. We've planted over a thousand new Narcissi this winter so it's going to be quite a show!

  Most of our work was indoors while it's been snowy but the plants are quietly growing away out there. The days are beginning to noticeably stretch now so in February we begin preparing the outside growing areas too.

  The stars at the moment are the winter flowering shrubs - these are some of my 'desert island' plants I wouldn't want to be without. A large Winter Honeysuckle (Lonicera Fragrantissima) grows near my back door. A rather plain green shrub for most of the year but In the past few weeks, is really earning it's place. This often delights me with a powerful waft of scent on the late night breeze when I take the dogs out for their final stroll in the dark. Just a few stems are a treat to enjoy in a bud vase on my desk & I often pop them in a bouquet too.

  The Hellebores are full of buds now & a fabulous cut flower. They have a bad reputation for flopping though & many florists are wary of using them.  The trick is to let them mature before cutting - so enjoy them in your garden now & then later this month, enjoy them in your vase too. Most of my Hellebores were grown from seed given to me in a tiny envelope over 25 years ago by the Great Aunt of a friend from my primary school days. Over time, I've picked out & increased the better colours - they're still called 'Auntie May's Hellebores' though! So many of my favourite plants remind me of people - somehow those names are easier to remember, aren't they? So we have 'Terry's Fuschia', 'Mrs Jefferies Geranium', 'Peter Roberts' Blackcurrant' to name just a few...

  A large box of new Dahlia tubers arrived on Friday - I'll start a few of them (new varieties) off this week so I can increase the number of plants quickly & cheaply from cuttings. But most ( & last years saved stock) will wait until the end of the month. It's too cold here to plant them out until late May & they take up so much space.

  All the seed has arrived now - & my fingers are itching to get sowing! A few of the toughies can be started in trays this week - more Sweet Peas, Larkspur, Foxgloves for late summer, fancy Primroses for next year & Antirrhinums. Unless you have somewhere warm & light to grow tiny plants on, hold back with the tender seeds such as Cosmos. It's better to sow small batches, often, over time to keep the continuity of flowers coming.

  And if you're in need of a flowery treat, I'm bringing in deliciously scented Narcissi from the Scilly Isles by courier each week now. So if you would like to order some for yourself or a friend, let me know by noon on Monday each week. They can be collected from the Flower Farm on Fridays & Saturdays. Email Rosie
 
  The diary is beginning to fill with bookings for wedding flowers so if you know a couple looking for locally grown flowers for their special day, do suggest they get in touch soon. We’ll be offering full service wedding flowers (romantic bouquets, buttonholes, venue flowers & more) again, as well as ‘Bloom Buckets’ of flowers for arranging by family & friends. I only take on a few weddings each week, & the busiest weeks book early.

  We begin our calendar of events around the region on Saturday March 2nd when we take part in the 'Big Brew' event at Dunscore during Fairtrade fortnight. There'll be an opportunity to see Fairtrade products from around the world & meet local producers from Dumfries & Galloway. Do come along & say 'hello' if you're coming along.

  If the weather is kind, there are many gardens open in the next few weeks for the'Snowdrop Festival' & they're definitely worth visiting. Be inspired by the sight of the first Spring flowers, the sun on your face & sound of birds beginning to mark out their territories with song!
 
Jobs for the Cutting Garden in February;

• There's still time to plant bare root roses & new shrubs ths month
• Weed seedlings begin to emerge as the soil warms up - an hour spent hoeing or pulling these now saves much effort later
• Prune late flowering varieties of Clematis & Honeysuckle before they begin active growth. Leave the early flowering Clematis until after they have flowered
• Put up Nest Boxes for birds this month so they have time to discover them before breeding season begins. They're supposed to find their mates on Valentine's Day after all!
• And for some flowery inspiration, below are links to two gorgeous weddings by one talented florist. Dorset based florist Emma Whicher of 'Martha & the Meadow' uses British flowers whenever she can. I particularly love her use of British grown foliage in these two weddings. What do you think?

1. Hannah & Yann's Summer Wedding
2. Sai & Jack's Autumn Wedding

Until next time, 
Rosie Gray
Galloway Flowers 
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The first proper snow fall of the winter this past week - can't complain about that. Very picturesque of course but slowed me down on the planned tasks (shrub planting). Never mind it was a good opportunity to work in the greenhouse, tidying up, sweeping away cobwebs & getting ready for seed sowing to commene.

​    It’s been a kind, mild start to the New Year hasn’t it?  On recent days I could almost imagine Spring is just around the corner – buds on Hyacinths & Hellebores, a few Snowdrops already blooming in sheltered spots & the Daffs shooting up fast. There are surprise flowers blooming outside & the Chrysanthemums, Garden Pinks & Anemones are still giving a few flowers each week in the tunnel. Too few for a bouquet, of course, but enough for cheery little bud vases around the house.

  But don’t be fooled, it’s still too soon to reach for the seed packets & start sowing much. The days are slightly longer yet the memory of the ‘Beast from the East’ last March is making me extra cautious. Seed sown too early produces thin, light starved plants & never come to much. There’s plenty of other tasks for dry days to get your Cuttting Patch ready for 2019. What better way to get fresh air & exercise after the lazy, long festive break?

  So what might 2019 hold? 

  Well, this is my time for planning – most of the seeds, new Dahlia tubers (not THAT many, honestly) & plants are ordered. The easy bit.

  Now I need to plan the ‘where’ each plant will go to make the most of the space. This is a frustrating process rather like working out the plot for a game of ‘Cluedo’. Just as I think I’ve come up with the perfect solution, snags appear. You know the sort of thing - Professor Plum (or 2 metres of Cosmos ‘Psyche’ perhaps) in the Conservatory (third bed of the nursery plot) from June to early September – but no! I’ve got my second batch of Godetia behind it at that time. They’ll not get enough light! Aagh – back to the plan…

  The plan always changes but it’s still a great help when we begin sowing so I don’t overdo it (is it possible to have too many Sweet Pea plants? Yes!) I aim for at least 2 & ideally 3 crops from every bed over a year & space is always at a premium. I must keep the blooms coming – it's no good having more than I can cut & sell one month, then nothing late in the season.

  And of course, they’ll be new tempting varieties to try. Last years Chrysanthemum trial brought winners & some losers. We’ll take cuttings from the best & I’ve ordered some different ones to add in the mix for very late flowers. Also I’m trying more of the huge ‘dinnerplate’ dahlias – last year a huge white one was a big seller (especially to decorate wedding cakes). But the stems were short so not great for bouquets & vases. This year I’m trialling (just a ‘few’ tubers of each) ‘dinnerplates’ in other colours & several smaller white ones in my search for the perfect, weatherproof white dahlia.

  There’s a trend for drying flowers at the moment so I’m growing many more varieties specifically for this too. Interesting seed pods & grasses have been popular recently both as fresh accents in arrangements & drying for winter use.

  The planning is helped by bookings for wedding flowers coming in now, as it helps me predict the favourite flowers for our couples. We’ll be offering full service wedding flowers (romantic bouquets, buttonholes, venue flowers & more) again, as well as ‘Bloom Buckets’ of flowers for arranging by family & friends. I only take on a few weddings each week, so if you know anyone looking for seasonal, natural & locally grown wedding flowers this year, please do give them a nudge to get in touch soon.

  Now this is usually where I give suggestions for jobs in your Cutting Patch for the month – but no, this is probably the shortest list of the year! Instead enjoy any dry, bright weather when you can, admire the beauty of frost on the garden & snuggle up in the warm, dreaming, planning the beautiful flowers to come…
​
Jobs for the Cutting Garden in January;

• Order your seeds, dahlias & any new roses this month to be sure of your chosen varieties. Hold off sowing most of them though - later sown seed catches up fast. A few Sweet Peas can be started off from mid-month for early flowers.
• Remove the dead blackened leaves from your Hellebores to reveal the beatiful blooms as they emerge. 
• If too cold to work outside, tidy greenhouse & potting shed areas ready for seed sowing next month.
• Wash plastic seed trays, pots & plant labels ready to be reused. With care these last many years & help reduce plastic waste.
• And for some flowery inspiration for the year ahead, here's a LINK to a review of the 'most popular wedding bouquets of 2018' on wedding blog Green Wedding Shoes.
• And predictions for wedding trends in 2019 from wedding blog Style Me Pretty. Will they be right, I wonder?

Until next time, 
Rosie Gray
Galloway Flowers 

I found some leftover Mistletoe in the workshop while tidying up after the Christmas mayhem. Rather than just toss it, I thought I would try to 'seed' it on our apple trees. Until recently I didn't think it would grow this far north. But then neighbours told me some grows in their orchard, so thought it worth a try.
The seeds are in the berries - the vile, sticky balls have to be squashed on the branches. Utterly disgusting stuff, gloves are essential! 
Now I must wait & hope - it's slow to germinate, very fickle but maybe, just maybe, we'll have our own Galloway grown mistletoe, in about 5 years time.

Sami continued his tradition of 'not really helping' yesterday while I was cutting conifer for the first of the Christmas Wreath Making Workshops in Dumfries tomorrow. By sitting on it. Well, it was sunny...

  The pre-ordered Christmas Wreaths are being made from the freshest ingredients this week & being delivered to decorate doors across Dumfries & Galloway. This one is made from mixed foliage, rosehips & cones grown here at the flower farm in Galloway. We didn't grow the cinnamon sticks though!
  You can still order a wreath for your door or as a surprise gift to be delivered before December 19th. But don't leave it too late to order, once they're gone, they're gone...
​  Order wreaths online here

I love making wreaths – every one unique, richly textured, using the natural materials we’re blessed with here. We grow almost all the foliage at the Flower Farm & add a few natural extras such as Cones, Mistletoe & Rosehips from other British growers to give a splash of colour to the designs. Now the Festive season has arrived, our pre-ordered wreaths start being delivered to front doors across the region from this week. Wreaths can be ordered for delivery up to Wednesday 19th December.

  The ‘Make Your Own Wreath’ Workshops begin next week too & I admit this is one of the most enjoyable activities of my year. Many of us believe we aren’t creative but it simply isn’t so – everybody can enjoy crafting their own natural wreath. There are a few places left on each as of today - don’t leave it too late if you’re planning to come along. The dates are;

• Sunday 9th December Dumfries Sports Centre
• Tuesday 11th December Cat strand Arts Centre, New Galloway
• Saturday 15th December Station House Cookery School, Kirkcudbright

  All the information about the workshops can be found here.

  In between making wreaths, we make the most of the limited daylight & any dry days to work outside. I would love to report that every Tulip & Narcissi bulb is snugly tucked up in the soil by now, the leaves have all been raked up & everything looks immaculately tidy – but I would be lying!

  Every year it seems I’m caught out by these short days & massively overestimate what can be achieved. It’s not a disaster, bulbs have an amazing ability to catch up but still, I want to move on to the detailed planning for 2019. I’ll be planting out the first few Sweet Pea seedlings in the polytunnel this week for an early wedding. The thought I’m holding on to like a countdown is; only another 20 days & the days start to get longer…

  While wedding season may seem far off, we’ve already 5 couples booked in for 2019. Such early bookings are a great help to us with planning our flower choices. This year we noticed a trend for pale pink & burgundy colour schemes, requests for blue flowers (a favourite of mine) & it seems for next year, yellow is becoming a popular choice too. Now that’s a colour I haven’t been growing much of for the early Summer season so I’m having fun with the seed catalogues looking for new favourites.

  And while there’s much to do preparing wreaths, table decorations & more for our clients this month, I look forward to those long dark evenings in front of the wood burner with the seed catalogues. The ‘wish list’ is still far too long…

  The last words for this month have to be; 'A heartfelt Thank You for helping us spread the word about beautiful, natural, seasonal British flowers. And of course, Very warm wishes to you & yours for the Festive season & a spectacular cutting patch in 2019.’ 

Jobs for the Cutting Garden in December;

• If you grow Hellebores, they'll love a generous dollop of compost this month. It'll give them a boost as they prepare for a beautiful display of early flowers.
• If you have a wood burner (or know someone who does) use the wood ash to feed hungry flowering plants. It's particularly good for Clematis, Roses, Hellebores, Strawberries & Raspberries.
• This is a good time to prune your Roses by about half to prevent root damage from windrock.
• Remember the garden birds in the colder weather. They appreciate feeders full of peanuts, sunflowers & fatballs. offering clean fresh water is a great help to them when normal sources are frozen.
• And for some flowery inspiration from a real wedding, here's a Link to a an Early Summer Wedding. It isn't Christmassy but early summer - you know when a Florist gets married, the flowers are going to be something special!

Until next time, 
Rosie Gray
Galloway Flowers 

​ I went away for a week in late October in what felt like early Autumn, hundreds of Dahlias blooming… & returned to what felt like another season. The frosts last weekend were hard, blackening all those blooms overnight. So now we’re on to the end of season tasks – clearing, composting & covering the beds with a thick layer of compost. Just digging up & storing 600 dahlia plants is going to take a while!

  But of course the end of one season is the beginning of another – so we’re busy planting out too. Most of the Narcissi, Ranunculus & Anemones, so lovely in bouquets from mid-March onwards, are now planted. This month we start planting Tulips. By choosing varieties & planting in different places we can usually cut these for at least 2 months. We leave it until November or even early December to plant Tulips as they’re less likely to develop a nasty disease called ‘Tulip Fire’ if planted later.
 
  It’s dark just after 5pm now, so we’re having to organise differently. It never fails to astonish me how quickly the light fades away. Dogs have to be walked earlier or I miss out on valuable ‘thinking time’. The evenings are filled with preparing for the Christmas season – mossing up wreaths, wiring cones & ribbon so these are ready to assemble next month.

  The closing of the flower season means the end of our local bouquet deliveryservice for a while. There are still some flowers of course (especially the garden pinks, chrysanthemums & berries) so I can still make up our regular orders & funeral flowers when required. And by mid-December I’ll have flowers from British growers further south so bouquets will be available to order for Christmas.

  The ‘Make Your Own Christmas Wreath’ Workshop at the CatStrand Arts Centre, New Galloway on 11th December is filling so book your place soon if you’re planning to come. This is always a fun afternoon with heaps of lovely foliage & festive trimmings to make every wreath unique. And of course a natural wreath is made without floral foam. This workshop always starts my Christmas season off! Book here

  And Wreaths are going to keep me busy in the coming weeks – I’ll be at the CatStrand Christmas Fair, New Galloway on Saturday November 24th & Kirkcudbright Farmers Market on Sunday 25th November. Wreaths & Christmas flowers can be ordered & I'll bring lots of cards & Narcissi from the Scilly Isles too.
  
  Take the chances of bright weather to enjoy the fresh air, kick up a few leaves & forage for your own natural decorations such as a gorgeous leaf, berries & cones. I cannot resist - my kitchen window sill is beginning to look like the school 'nature table' at the moment!

Jobs for the Cutting Garden in November;

• Clear any annual flowers that have been clinging on (such as my Rudbeckia above). They’ll not produce many more quality blooms now & the space can be put to better use with spring bulbs.
• If you have Dahlias to protect, dig them up now they’ve been blackened by frost. Cut off all the mushy stems & remove as much soil as possible, dry upside down. Store in a frost free place. Further south you might be able to keep them in the ground over winter, covered with a thick layer of compost. But I don’t want to risk losing my beauties…
• Rake up the leaves for some good exercise – it gets your heart pumping & so much more fun than the gym! Pile it high & let it break down slowly – it makes an excellent leaf mould, perfect for conditioning the soil in 12-18 months time. If you haven’t a compost bin, put leaves in a black binbag with plenty of holes pierced for ventilation & store in a corner out of the way. It’ll break down just the same.
• Protect any garden pots not guaranteed ‘frost free’. Wrap or bring indoors to prevent cracking in the frost.
• Tidy around perennial & shrubs – remove fallen leaves to prevent them becoming a safe haven for slugs & snails. Collect fallen rose leaves & put these in the rubbish NOT your compost to avoid a build up of diseases such as black spot & rust
• If you’re lucky enough to have a Holly bush with plenty of berries, cut some this month. Stand in buckets of water in a cool place (eg garage). The berries keep well for your Christmas decorations. If you leave it until next month the birds might have stripped the berries!
• On a bright day, give your greenhouse or polytunnel (if you have one) a clean. Brush down the cobwebs, & the floor. Wash the glass to allow maximum light to reach any plants or seedlings overwintering in there.
• And for some flowery inspiration from a real wedding, here's a Link to a Green & White early Summer Wedding

Until next time, 
Rosie Gray
Galloway Flowers