Becoming a Cut Flower Grower

Hello, it's Tuesday 14 April 2026.  I've had a busy weekend trying to divide my time between the field and the greenhouse, so there's lots to tell you tonight including news about mulching, weeding, transplanting, and staking. I've also just started sowing my half hardy annuals too, plus all my veg seeds, and I'll tell you why I'm using more vermiculite this year. In...

Hello, welcome to Friday 10 April 2026.  We had a one-day heatwave this week and it was roasting! 24 degrees centigrade! Wow! And today it's back to 13 degrees - quite a change. It's musical chairs in the greenhouse with the seedlings: one minute they're in, then they're out, and keeping everyone moist is proving challenging. In tonight's episode I'll share with you t...

Hello, welcome to Tuesday 7 April 2026.  I hope you had a lovely Easter weekend. I spent the weekend on the field and was mostly doing battle with nettles, clearing beds and making space for all the annual seedlings rapidly filling up my greenhouse. I can't wait to get them out onto the plot and growing away. The rats continue to test my patience: they've had a go at my final remaining b...

Hello, welcome to Friday 3 April 2026. Happy Good Friday! Storm 'Dave' has landed and it's very windy here. My honeysuckle arch blew down, the cockerels are getting blown across the field and anything I put down gets whisked away. I've spent most of today in the greenhouse sowing more hardy annuals and it went really well. I'm going to need a lot more shelves in there at t...

Hello, welcome to Tuesday 31 March 2026.  Fuel prices are shooting up really quickly and it's already impacting many of us, in one way or another. I've often mentioned the statistic that 80 to 90 percent of cut flowers sold in the UK are imported but here’s the important question: where exactly are they imported from? And how is the current crisis going to affect the market and what does...

Hello, it's Friday 27 March 2026.  ** Apologies for the terrible audio quality in this episode. I don't quite know what happened but I think there's something wrong with the microphone (and the spare one because I changed mic midway through) ** The battle with the rats for ownership of my tulips continues and I have finally given in and put the tulip crates in the back of my car. Vi...

Hello, it's Tuesday 24 March 2026.  Lots of news - some of climbing roses have finally gone in the ground, the phlox has been split and replanted and the crated tulips have been relocated on top of the duck house to stop the rats eating the remains of them. As I no longer have squirrels on the field, this may be a safe place and I might actually have some tulips available for sale. I had a wo...

Hello, it's Friday 20 March 2026.  It's been an epic couple of days: yesterday I got a flat tyre on an isolated road in the middle of nowhere and then I found bindweed on the field. On the plus side, my seedlings are doing really well, which is great.  Today I had a meeting with my main wedding and event florist - all the details of that in the episode - and she's agreed to be a gue...

Hello, it's Tuesday 17 March 2026.  Lots to tell you tonight. Everything is growing away nicely and I've been busy weeding and prepping the beds. I share everything else that's going on including the jobs on the field I have coming up. The greenhouse is also rapidly filling up with seeds and tonight I'll talk you through how I've been sowing differently this week. The tuli...

Hello, it's Friday 13 March 2026. Welcome to the episode. Tonight' I'm focusing on my cut flower website.  You'll hear about which company I used to make it, who hosts it, how much the hosting costs per month, where I buy my domain names, which domains I buy, why it's so much easier to make a website these days (no coding required), how I get started when I don't know...

Hello, it's Tuesday 10 March 2026. Tonight I'm talking about how I'm sowing my sweet pea seeds and share some techniques that save me time and money. Every penny (and second) counts when starting seeds because it directly impacts the cost of producing each flower stem. And this of course matters when I'm aiming for profit. I discuss the soil blocker that I'm using (link be...

Hello, it's Friday 6 March 2026. I started sowing my annuals today and it felt so good. I have been putting it off (no idea why) and I really did just need to get started and I instantly felt better. In tonight's episode I talk about how I did it including how I got on with soil blocking: this is a new method for me so it will be interesting to see how the seeds get on. Let's hope n...

Hello and welcome to Tuesday 3 March 2026. It's March! At last! Spring is finally here. Tonight's episode is a real reflection on how I'm feeling about beginning year 2 of my cut flower enterprise and it's really not what I thought it would be like. So I'm talking about my current mood and all the thoughts I'm having about the plot, including not having enough greenho...

Hello and welcome to Friday 27 February 2026. You join me on the plot today for some thoughts about what's going on this week. I'm not quite myself this week and I think it's my hormones again so I talk about this a little bit. If you're feeling a little bit "off" then this may (or may not) resonate with you, and if it does, you're not alone.  Today's Plant...

Hello, it's Tuesday 24 February 2026. I have lots of news from the plot to tell you in the first part of tonight’s episode including planting my new perennial plugs, removing nettles from the old nigella bed, and tidying Kylie’s room plus more. I also started to make a dead hedge with apple prunings, which I’m very proud of.  In the second part of the episode I’m sharing all the prep work inv...

Hello, it's Friday 20 February 2026. In tonight's episode you join me on the plot where it's windy and rainy (at one point we even had sleet) and the hens make a guest appearance when one of them scared themselves and then frightened all of the others. I'm talking about what's happening on the plot right now including all the new growth I'm seeing, the plants which ar...

Hello, it's Wednesday 18 February 2026. Happy Shrove Tuesday for yesterday! Today I'm talking about a Floret video I saw on instagram about using a rich potting mixture for sowing seedlings rather than just a plain seed compost: it's really interesting and Erin shares the recipe if you want to take a look. I've always used a nutrient-poor compost for germinating seeds and had e...

Hello, it's Friday 13 February 2026. Are you superstitious about Friday 13th?! I hope it was a good day for you. In this episode I continue talking about pricing. I talk about how I did it in 2025 as a year 1 grower including the market research I did and the places I hunted for prices, how I worked out my costs of production (and what I didn't record) plus I share with you what this act...

Hello, it's Tuesday 10 February 2026. Today's episode is a big one and it's all about pricing . It's such a hot topic: everyone wants answers and so I thought I'd share my experiences of it. I'm covering the nitty-gritty details including why pricing properly matters, what information you need to calculate the cost of producing stems (and how you do this), how I do th...

Hello, it's Friday 6 February 2026. The stats are in: we've had a lot of rain . According to the Met Office my region of the UK has had 188% of its average rainfall in January. It's no wonder I have been grumpy this month: missing days of work and nothing doable on the field. On the plus side I have collected a lot of rainwater but I'd swap that for some dry days.  In light of...

Hello, it's Tuesday 3 February 2026. Another wet week!  In today's episode I realise that I don't have enough growing space for all the annuals that I'm planning to grow, which is a problem. I have come up with a solution and hopefully you'll agree it's a good one (although the chickens may not approve). I discuss my seed sowing plan in great detail including all the...

Hello and welcome to Friday 30 January 2026. Tonight I'm talking all about the magic of compost . I absolutely love making it, talking about it and using it. Given the price of compost these days, it's so much better to make my own plus it has the added benefit of being tailored to my soil conditions. So I talk about how to make simple compost bays, what to add (and what to avoid), turni...

Hello and welcome to (a very wet) Tuesday 27 January 2026. The disasters are coming thick and fast this week (and it's only Tuesday). There is endless rain, my car window has broken (again), and something has eaten a third of my tulips. To console myself I've just made a gloriously rich and decadent tartifette and will worry about the calories in the spring. Tonight I have two epic chats...

Hello, it's Friday 23 January 2026. The laptop is back and normal service has been resumed so today's episode has the proper introduction and music, phew. However the audio quality isn't brilliant at the beginning so apologies for that. It does get better about five minutes into the episode so maybe I did something silly with the microphone. Tonight I'm talking about photoperio...

Hello, it's Tuesday 20 January 2026. Tonight’s episode sounds a little different because there’s no introduction or music because my laptop is at the repair shop and I’m having to upload this episode in a completely different way. Since last week’s episodes I have received lots of really great questions from listeners about my seed sowing plan so I thought I’d answer these in this episode, in...