THE LATEST FROM THE FIELD

 "Nothing ever feels impossible in Spring, you know."   L.M. Montgomery

And so it is… spring has sprung! A renewed sense of energy is in the air and it’s time to get stuff done!!

So, as I write this, we are in the second week of April.  The daffodils are all but finished having adorned a number of weddings, the tulips are a third of the way through, and the ranunculus are just starting. 

Spring flowers, as you may know, are a particular passion of mine and with the exception of Christmas, April and May are my busiest months of the year. As a result the weeks go by at lightening speed, and every day is filled with huge list of ‘to do’s’ .... but I love it. 

Now don’t get me wrong, tulips are one of my favourites, but they’re hard work. Everything wants to eat them, whilst growing they can succumb to a number of viruses which make them unusable, if they don’t get enough water they come up short and too much sun and they bloom all at once. They also need quite a bit of manhandling, having planted them neatly one by one in rows, once harvested their stems need to be stripped of leaves and individually washed to remove the soil. After a few thousand of them you go on autopilot and need plenty of hand cream! So, to grow them you have to love them and be prepared for it all to go wrong! However. walking to the field on an April morning and hearing that familiar ‘pop’ as you pull up the tulips is pretty special and certainly beats the old corporate job.  See a short video I posted last year that shows the end to end process from bulb to bouquet. Click here

The ranunculus follow hot on the heels of the tulips, in fact they overlap which I think the combination of them both makes the most beautiful bouquet. If you’re not familiar with ranunculus, they are part of the buttercup family and people often refer to them as a mini rose/ peony. They have great vase life and this year I’m growing 7 varieties of amandine ranunculus in shades of pinks, salmons, purples, whites and creams.

The peonies are bulking up, and the corals and reds will be showing their faces by mid-May. I’m also for the first time growing pale yellow peonies. Towards the end of May, the pinks and whites will be with us too!

So don’t forget as well as the shed we can also provide extra special bouquets to order or buckets of flowers for events. Just drop us a line with what you are looking for! 

Have a gorgeous spring.

Zoe