After months of sheltering inside, wrapped in layers of wool, the garden finally called to me last month and with a few days of glorious sunshine forecast, I dragged myself outside. The cutting garden has been sadly neglected over winter – weeds have popped up everywhere and spent annuals, without enough cold weather to fully kill them, had flopped, no longer flowering and barely clinging to their foliage.
Read moreMy Top 5 Filler Flowers for the Cutting Garden
Filler flowers - an essential part of the cutting garden for bouquets and wedding designs, and I'd have countless varieties if I had the space for them! However, I'm working with just a few beds, and have to be very selective about what I grow. I'm growing no more than about 15 different fillers and these 5 are my absolute favourites.
Read moreMy Top 5 Bulbs for the Cutting Garden
My post the other week on focal flowers quite noticeably left out all spring bulbs because I felt they needed a category all of their own. I love bulbs in spring, they're a cheap and cheerful way to add pops of beautiful colour into the cutting garden, and are especially useful to the hobby florist as they enable you to get the specialist varieties without having to purchase 50 stem bunches from the wholesalers. Now it's November it's the perfect time to be planting them as you clear spent annuals and lift dahlias for the winter.
Read moreMy Top 5 Focal Flowers for the Cutting Garden
This week I'm thinking about the focal flowers - after foliage this is the next one to be thinking about for your cutting garden, as this is where you need to decide about the stars of your designs. Some are tubers, some herbacious perennials and some are shrubs, but they all need a fair amount of space (although lots are great for problem areas like against walls or shady spots) so set aside as much as you can for them and get planting!
Read moreMy Top 5 Foliages for the Cutting Garden
Foliage is a funny old thing. People disregard it as just 'greens', but it's the mainstay of almost all floral design. There's a vast range of different textures and colours available, and it's an easy way to fill spaces in the cutting garden and create permanent structure . These are my 5 favourites, all of which are easy to grow in most of the UK.
Read moreTop Five Plants Series
Autumn is here and the garden is slowly starting to wind down for the winter. I'm working with a fairly small space in my cutting garden, beds are precious and only the most beautiful and productive plants get a spot. Even so, there's a lot to do and I've been out over the last couple of weeks pottering about; taking cuttings, planting out and clearing spaces for the spring bulb order that's coming soon.
It's got me thinking about my favourite plants, which ones I'll always make space for, so I thought I'd do a 'My Top 5 Plants for the Cutting Garden' blog post. But after about 30 seconds of writing I realised that would just be impossible - there are far too many! But I've managed to narrow down my top 5 in various different categories, and over the next couple of months I'm going to be sharing these with you, and hopefully inspiring you in your garden planning for next year!
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