 Photo Credit Sarah Craig Joy Story Photo When you see others smile, you just have to smile back don't you? And this is such a joyous & colourful selection of wedding photos of Jemma & Lisa at their Dalduff Luxury Barn wedding in Ayrshire last September. Those smiles & special moments captured brilliantly by Top Photographer Sarah Craig of Joy Story Photo  Photo credit Sarah Craig Joy Story Photo The Bridal Bouquet included bold, Autumn colours. Garden Roses for scent, Dahlia, Rudbeckia, Amaranthus & much more. 100% grown & arranged by myself here in Galloway. Minimal flower miles for this wedding!  Photo credit Sarah Craig Joy Story Photo The Ceremony area in the main Barn at Dalduff was dressed with this giant hoop (couples own) draped with British grown Hops. A touch of colour was added with the large jars of seasonal flowers arranged at the Hoop base & on the Signing table. Jars are a budget-friendly decor idea as they 'double up' the flower impact. Lightweight & easily moved by guests after the ceremony, large jars of fresh flowers can be used elsewhere at the venue.  September Wedding Buttonhole Buttonholes for the wedding party were made from seasonal, locally grown flowers & foliage, simply trimmed with ivory ribbon. Every one was unique & included everlasting flowers, berries & whimsical grasses.  Photo credit Sarah Craig of Joy Story Photo Family & friends pulled together to create table florals for the Barns. Large buckets of locally grown flowers from Galloway Flowers (including a LOT of Dahlias!) were delivered to the venue the afternoon before the wedding. Gin & wine bottles plus bud vases were filled with flowers for colour, personality & a party atmosphere.  Some of the freshly Cut Flowers Ready for Delivery Many thanks to L & J for sharing the photos with me & of course, thanks also to Sarah Craig @joystoryphoto for capturing such a fun moment in her fabulous photos!
Supplier Details; Photographer Sarah Craig, Joy Story Photo https://joystory.co.uk/ Wedding Venue; Dalduff Luxury Barn Weddings, Ayrshire https://www.dalduffweddings.com/ Flowers; Rosie Gray & Ken Leslie, Galloway Flowers https://www.gallowayflowers.co.uk/
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 Starting another batch of Sweet Peas ... after such a wet day yesterday, I decided it was time to cheer myself up by getting a few more going.
There's debate about whether soaking Sweet Pea seed helps or hinders their germination. If you search the internet you'll find many posts on the 'best' way to grow such a popular flower. To be honest, I don't think there's only one way, many methods work. Just do it in a way that's easy & successful in your growing conditions. What seems to make the biggest difference to mine (just my humble opinion & experience) is using fresh seed & actually sowing them. Buying seed is great fun & very easy to do, especially late at night on the internet after a glass of wine. But Sweet Peas don't grow well inside the packets. Yes, I've been guilty of losing seed, buying far too many or simply never quite getting around to sowing! Please tell me it isn't just me who does that... So I soak Sweet Pea seed for about an hour, that's it. Just enough to soften the coat, not enough to rot them. Seems to work for me so here we go again- we'll be cutting buckets full of scented beauty in no time. For more practical insights on growing beautiful cut flowers in your flower patch, join me on my 'Cut Flowers From Your Garden' workshop. All the details & online booking Here  To be frank, our flower farm in Dumfries & Galloway looks a tad messy just now after a January-full of relentless wind & rain. But I have to start somewhere.
The last of the Tulips are in finally & so time for a bit of tidying. The wind seems to have blown pots all over the place! These Agapanthus are tucked up snug in the tiny greenhouse just now, & will be strutting their stuff again in July. With an acre of flowers, there's always something lovely to cut from April to late September. It's becoming trickier to predict timings as climate change is already throwing away the rule book. There's always something lovely though - just might be a bit earlier or later than it used to be! This month I've been cutting Pussy Willow, colourful Willow stems & contorted Hazel - interesting shapes to admire in a vase. And I began cutting Pussy Willow in mid-December to include in our Christmas bouquets - a full 2 weeks ahead of last year. Mad.  January is the time for quiet strolls around the cutting beds with my notebook & a dog, noting actions required. Gaps to fill, plants to divide or move, repairs, plans... Still a long time until anything I could call 'Spring', yet I've felt a subtle shift this week. A couple of afternoons working without a jacket, listening to birds singing about territory already & noticeably a little more light in the evenings. Best of all, I can see flowery changes too. Wiggling Catkins on a sunny bank, buds swelling on Roses & Honeysuckle, Daffodils & Snowdrops pushing up from nowhere overnight. And so the promise of a year full of flowers here begin again... I'm re-energised after the long Christmas break, impatient to get my hands in the soil again. And of course, cut even more flowers this year! There are always lessons learned, new ideas to try & new beauty to create. It's our 11th season growing cut flowers here & it's time for consolidation & a refresh. We use about an acre for flowers (including greenhouses, tunnels, compost corner etc.) That's about capacity for us to manage.The weeds become unmanageable incredibly fast in Galloway rain if we turn our backs! So I'm concentrating on using space better, more productively. It's always better to continue producing quality rather than more quantity. Some flowers, while I might love them, produce few stems or are less in demand, compared to others. So my 'Dump, Grow More, Grow the Same' list is probably the most important. For example, Dahlias - some varieties pump out masses of fabulous flowers, others make you grateful for a paltry few delivered late in the season, sneaking in just before the frosts. (Cafe Au Lait I'm looking straight at you, despite your glamour...) The flower business is led by fashion & fickle. Colours & styles change, floral designers are always looking for something new to make their designs stand out. So some of my old favourites are on the move to my private garden to make way for more bestsellers. (But I daresay, many will be back when fashion shifts again!) This is the month of imagining, tucked up beneath a patchwork quilt by the wood burner, scrolling plant & seed catalogues. I've declared my Dahlia & seed shopping done a couple of times now, only to find 'just one more'' is indispensable. And then I'm on to the planning. Consultations with wedding couples drive much of my choices. What will flower when, sowing & planting schedules to keep flowers coming, & critically, how do I fit it all in! Last year, flowers were typically 2-3 weeks ahead of 2024 blooming dates. It was difficult to predict with certainty exactly what would be in flower when. I knew there would always be something lovely in colour schemes as we grow so many varieties. Climate change is very real & beginning to impact us here faster than we could have predicted 10 years ago. I'm itching to rip open the seed packets & get started. Despite the advice of many so called experts on social media, I'll wait until the Equinox when light levels are increased. Seed sown now will likely rot in damp cold soil as germination without heat is slow. Or if it germinates, the results will be straggly thin light starved seedlings quickly overtaken by seed sown next month. Only exceptions to the 'no sow' rule for me are more Sweet Peas, Antirrhinum & Chillies at the end of the month. A couple of Perennials needing freezing weather to get them going will go in too. Unless you have grow lights & a heated greenhouse, I advise patience. Tulip bulbs became very expensive last year (wholesale bulbs roughly 30% up) so I reduced the number grown. To fill the gap, I've increased the number of Ranunculus, Anemones & Poppies for the early May - early June period. Mice protection in force as they love them. All are being kept in the cool tunnel, on a table the mice (so far) haven't scaled. This is a busy month for wedding bookings so if you know a couple planning to tie the knot, feel free to point them at my Wedding Pages on my website. The most popular Summer dates book quickly & I take on only a few wedding dates each week. We offer options to suit all budgets - from full service, bespoke occasions to 'bloom buckets' of mixed flowers for DIY Weddings. Most popular choices are somewhere in between. Couples choose their package of bouquets & buttonholes to be made up by myself, & order buckets of flowers to decorate the venue tables etc. What Can I Cut in January? This month, we must seek out the treats - often our nose finds them! The scented shrubs are wafting perfume about on calmer days & many are good for a vase. Just a few stems of lemony Winter Honeysuckle (Lonicera Frangrantissima) transformed an arrangement I made yesterday. The Customer noticed it immediately. I've been cutting colourful Willow, Cornus, Garrya, Hazel & Alder Catkins, even Pussy Willow this week. Look under Shrubs too, a few Hellebore, Snowdrops, Cyclamen & Aconites are peeping through. Just a few short weeks & these will carpeting the ground. The easily missed details are precious to cut just now. Perhaps a few Cyclamen or Heuchera leaves, Violas from a pot outside, the gorgeous scented Narcissi from the Isles of Scilly. I've a line of egg cup sized bud vases along the kitchen shelf with these tiny treasures! I'm sure garden centres have Hyacinth & Narcissi bulbs to pot up in your own bowls for a deliciously scented 'pick me up' in the house. Upcoming Events 2026 We'll be hosting Flower Workshops here at the Flower Farm again this year. As always, there'll be a generous supply of fresh flowers & of course, tea & cake!. Groups will be small (maximum 4 adults) so please don't delay if you're planning to book. (Plan an Escape from the endless World Cup tv coverage perhaps...) The dates are;
There'll be more cold, wet weather to come yet so be sure to make the most of any dry, bright days. Notice whats stirring already, & make the most of the lovely sparse ''bits & bobs' available to fill your vases. There's something very calming about a vase of twiggy catkins, perhaps experiment with adding a few dried flowers too. Just day dream about the beautiful flowers to come & do that armchair shopping! Until next time, Rosie Galloway Flowers “If you look the right way, you can see that the whole world is a garden.” Frances Hodgson Burnett Author of 'The Secret Garden' |
AuthorRosie Gray of Galloway Flowers. Cut Flower Grower & Florist near Castle Douglas, in South West Scotland. Using 100% Flowers & Foliage grown in British Isles, all year round. 
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Growing Gorgeous Seasonal Cut Flowers & Foliage in Castle Douglas, Dumfries & Galloway, Scotland
Flower Farmer Florist Castle Douglas, Flower Farm Scotland, Wedding Flowers Castle Douglas, Florist Castle Douglas, Funeral Flowers Castle Douglas, Sympathy flowers Castle Douglas, wedding florist Dumfries & Galloway, Wedding florist Kirkcudbright, wedding florist Gatehouse of Fleet, natural funeral flowers Dumfries & Galloway, wild wedding flowers Dumfries & Galloway, wedding flowers Ayr, wedding flowers Ayrshire
Flower Farmer Florist Castle Douglas, Flower Farm Scotland, Wedding Flowers Castle Douglas, Florist Castle Douglas, Funeral Flowers Castle Douglas, Sympathy flowers Castle Douglas, wedding florist Dumfries & Galloway, Wedding florist Kirkcudbright, wedding florist Gatehouse of Fleet, natural funeral flowers Dumfries & Galloway, wild wedding flowers Dumfries & Galloway, wedding flowers Ayr, wedding flowers Ayrshire