My Cut Flower Journey
Having been an avid gardener for as long as I can remember, and being passionate about garden design for the past decade, I guess I was already growing ‘cut flowers’, I just didn’t really know it. It wasn’t until I decided to enrol in the Floret Flower Farming Workshop in 2024 that I came to understand this quite unique way of planning, designing and growing flowers that are ultimately either destined for the vase for for sale in a variety of different ways. At the time, I was dreaming of flower farming having been inspired by Misha Gillingham’s book ‘Blooms & Dreams: Cultivating Wellness, Generosity, & a Connection to the Land’ which made me want to live in her book! What I later came to realise is that cut flowers can be all flowers really; anything you grow can be cut (I prefer the word gathered!) and put in a vase, even in commercial terms, flower farmers grow annuals, biennials, perennials, shrubs and trees for diversity in a bouquet as well as to guarantee year round flowers when there are growing gaps with annuals. This helped me to understand that my garden could be just as productive as a flower farm, just on a smaller scale and perhaps more integrated with regards planting schemes.
The flowers don’t wait for you
The rest of 2024 was spent enthusiastically experimenting with growing annuals seasonally and in succession, making raised beds, adding perennials and shrubs that would be good accompaniments to annuals in a bouquet and generally learning about what works and doesn’t in my own garden. I discovered what I could grow direct into the ground from seed (which still feels like some small miracle to me), what hardy annuals would survive being grown direct into the soil during the autumn in my growing (zone 8b), what works with regards successional planting with restricted space as well as how to harvest and care for all of the flowers once they bloomed. I have continued this learning journey throughout 2025. It has been an adventure; one that didn’t allow for much time to stop and think and one that required all of the detailed pre-planning that Floret had taught me in order to make any kind of ‘success’ out of it. But what I have learned is that the flowers grow on their own terms and that I am just here to provide as best an environment for them to grow in and to nurture them. They have their own schedule and it is my job to learn how to keep up with them!
Combining flowers with life
It wasn’t long into the whole process that I began to understand the timings of the harvests for each season too. We often think of four seasons in England, however with cut flowers there are more like eight seasons to learn about; the early and late parts of each season which each bring their own stages of growth or rest. Whilst I was busy growing and learning, I was also photographing the flowers and experimenting with creating flower portraits. I began to notice that the biggest harvests coincided with English school holidays, as I was forever trying to juggle harvesting, photographing and being present with my two kids. It was only then that I could see that having the goal of ‘farming’ flowers from my garden was one that would end up compromising my time with my family at this stage in my life. So I needed to think creatively about how I could bring all of my skills together, to still get to grow flowers and enjoy them as cut flowers, but to find alternative ways for them to bring joy to others.
Sometimes it takes time for the plan to reveal itself
It turns out that the integration of all of the skills I have been building over the years, as well as my personal passions and interests began to come together with a coherence which makes so much sense to me. Now I get to enjoy all of my passions in one go! I get to design, grow, visualise, photograph and produce art work, within the context of my core beliefs and values about the environment, my love of nature and my desire to inspire others to connect with the natural world. My hope is that the meaning and story behind my art work, as well as sharing with you how I garden will be of some inspiration to you on your journey.
