The Sweetpeas have arrived, and even if I do say so myself, have arrived in style!
I can not get enough of them. The fragrance, the colour, the ‘oh my gosh I can’t keep up with you’ production rate. Honestly, I picked the whole lot a few days ago. Every last one, there was not a pea to be seen, sweet or not, and two days later the wigwam is covered again!
And all these from a handful of saved seed. I forgot to harvest the final pods last year and by Autumn when I cleared the garden they had gone dry and crispy, but inside were some perfectly preserved little brown seeds. I kept them in a brown paper bag over Winter and sowed them in early Spring. They romped away and now… well.
Needless to say I’ll be repeating the experiment again this year.
Free seed? Thankyou very much. Free flowers? Thankyou very, very much!
I mean, who wouldn’t want an outdoor desk, with masses of Sweetpeas and a cuppa?
I had to post this photo of my gorgeous, gorgeous Tulips. They just keep on coming. I’ll be sad when they’re all gone again for another year.
My Tulips are in flower. I must admit flowers don’t last long in my garden since I only grow most of them for cutting. These particular Eastery yellow ones were cut…
gathered…
and in the vase pretty quick. I’ve got some lovely purple and peach coloured ones to come but these pale yellows are my favourite.
Remember they like a fairly cool room otherwise they will open up too fast. Drafty hallways and kitchen windowsills are brilliant.
I picked these gorgeous Asters from the garden today. They are from the fairly popular variety ‘Big Boy’. I sowed the seed in early Spring and they have been happily growing all summer. They began flowering about a month ago and boy do they flower? The more I pick the more they sprout. I’m getting about two or three bunches from them every week. And they look lovely teamed up with my white Gladioli that are also flowering at the moment.
As space-saving cutting flowers I can’t recommend Asters enough. I have one small row (about 1.5 metres long). And when you think about the cost of cut flowers in the shops, I’d say the £1.50 I spent on seed has been well worth it. I’ll definitely be growing them again next year. I might even throw caution to the wind and do two rows. ooooh!
I’m currently shopping for Tulip bulbs online. Last year I grew a variety of tall, single Tulips in different colours. They were all pretty successful and Tulips are the perfect early cut flower since they flower in May (or thereabouts) and then you can lift the bulbs and use the ground for something else.
This time I think I’ll go for a limited palette as the multi-coloured approach didn’t really work for me. I’m thinking whites, peaches and purples.
Doubles really don’t look like Tulips to me and the Parrot varieties (the ruffled kind) didn’t do well last year in my garden. So I’m sticking to your classic single. Here are some colours and varieties that I might go for:
I’ll be looking to get them planted over the next few weeks.
Anyone got any other suggestions? Or links to good bulb merchants?
Once, way back when I had my allotment, I let one of my Leeks go to flower. Just to see what happened. The result was amazing. A beautiful, spherical, pom-pom that exploded from its papery case and attracted bees from miles around. So this year when I came back from holiday and found that the last clutch of my Leeks had already sprouted alien-esque flower heads I decided to let them flower.
It’s been a long wait. Each day brought the tiny, purple and white flowers closer to the surface. So close infact I could see them through the skin of the pods! But still they didn’t open. Then suddenly, pop!
Out they came.
And so, so beautiful they are. Each flower being made up of hundreds of tiny flowers to make this amazingly round ball of loveliness.
Even the bees love them, so everyone’s a winner.
I thought I’d post this photo of some strange looking Geraniums that I have in my garden. They are one of the few things that are not edible, cuttable or useful in any way but they are pretty.
They were in the garden when we moved into the house and I saved a small plant in a pot while we were landscaping. Once I planted it out it thrived and is great because it seems to like being in the shade.
I have no idea what it’s called. It’s just pretty cool.
I actually tried to grow Sweet William last year. I sowed the seed, the plant came up and grew quite well but never flowered. It then didn’t die back over Winter. So I left it in the ground, through all the snow and frost and wet. Then in early Spring it started to grow again and now I have row upon row of beautiful flowers, poised to open at the first sign of sun.
On further reading I found that if you plant from seed in year one then you will actually get flowers in year two. Doh! should have realised that last year. But in any case I’m delighted with my raft of free cut flowers. Expect Sweet William in every room in the house very soon!
I do love Echinacea. Some people say they look like wilted daisies and I suppose they do really but if you get up close, they’re sooo beautiful. I actually like the way that their petals hang towards the ground. It makes them look even more delicate and exotic than other flowers.
I have one sturdy perennial plant in the garden, grown mainly for cutting purposes (everything must work for its place here at mtp!) It’s definitely going from strength to strength. I’d say the plant has doubled in size since I planted it last year and it has also given me double the number of cut flowers. Perfect.
It’s also perfect for a kitchen garden because it doesn’t take up much room. The plant is pretty sturdy and all the flowers grow straight up on a long stalk. It hardly takes up any room at all – unlike my Lavender which is sprawling all over my pathways and consequently is on the ‘might have to dig you up and move you soon’ list.
I’ve no idea which variety it is (possibly Summer Sky) but it’s beautiful and will always have a place (albeit a sunny one) in my kitchen garden.
What cut flowers would you recommend? Are you growing any?
I picked the first of my tulips this afternoon. I have a bank of them growing along the left hand side of mtp. I love tulips. They’re just so crisp and fresh. I love the way that they’re quite firm to the touch and stand bolt upright. I love the way sometimes their colour doesn’t got all the way to the bottom of the petals but merges into green just before it hits the stalk. I love that squeaky noise that they make when you rub the leaves together.
They’re also the perfect cut flower for the kitchen garden! You plant them in Aug, Sept when most vegetables are coming to an end and you’ve got lots of ground to play with. And they flower so early that they will be over and done with by the time the ground is needed again for vegetables. Brilliant!
