Becoming a Cut Flower Grower

Hello, it's Friday 16 January 2026. My seed/crop planning is still in progress and just when I think I've cracked it, I discover more things that I need to work out. So I have been drowning in a complicated spreadsheet this week as it has poured down with rain outside. I've also ordered a new wall calendar plus thousands of sticky dots to stick on it. And I've realised all the...

Hello and welcome to a rainy Tuesday 13 January 2026. Lots of things going on at the moment including a broken inner car door handle, more rain than I thought possible, outrageously elevated hormone levels and getting into the Alpine spirit with home-made Tartiflette.  Crop planning started in earnest today and I'd like to share my thoughts with you on this episode. I started out with an enor...

Hello, it's Friday 9 January 2026. Welcome to the latest episode! I've been hunkered down indoors this week finishing my new website , which I'm excited to say is now live. It has taken me a while because I wanted to write the text using all the information I learnt on my recent flower faming business course with Jenny Marks. So I hope that I have captured the spirit of the plot on...

Welcome. It's Tuesday 6 January 2026. We had more snow today! It was so pretty and fluffy but it did settle on the plot and made negotiating the slope a nightmare. It's melted away now but in the next few days we have a named storm coming in bringing with it a ton a rain. Always useful for topping up the water bowsers but not so good for getting any physical work done.  With that in mind...

Welcome. It's Friday 2 January 2026. Tonight I'm talking about the new year resolution I've made to improve my time management and fingers crossed I can do better in 2026. I really must stop running around like a mad thing. I'm also answering three brilliant questions from listeners in this episode that I've received in the last couple of days and I hope you enjoy the answ...

Welcome to Tuesday 30 December 2025 and the 100th episode of this podcast! To celebrate this milestone, today's episode is an extra long one because I wanted to include the hens and then take you on a walk around the plot to chat about what's going on, and then finish part 2 of my review of 2025.  The hens are an integral part of my cut flowers: they provide much needed organic fertilise...

Welcome to the latest episode on Friday 26 December 2025. I hope that you've had a great Christmas.  It's Boxing Day and to celebrate the end of Christmas and (almost) the end of the year, this episode is part 1 of my End of Year A-Z Review where tonight I chat about everything on the plot from Annuals to Ladybirds via Cosmos to Irrigation, Bells of Ireland to (lost) Keys, Hydrangea to L...

Hello, it's Tuesday 23 December 2025. It's a shorter episode tonight - I'm feeling a bit blue. I'm missing my regular routines and I'm not enjoying the disruption. I also have a mole on the field which I was very excited about and then realised it may well cause havoc with everything I've planted so far (and what's still to come).  Routines are a mainstay for me:...

Hello, it's Friday 19 December 2025. Phew - we've made it through another week and I've had so much rain here in the UK. My Six Figure Flower Farming course with Jenny Marks of Trademark Farmer has come to an end and I'm feeling rather sad about it: I will miss everyone. I realised in the final graduation video call just how much material we have covered in the last month (it&a...

Hello, welcome to Tuesday 16 December 2025. I've been busy since we last spoke - lots of digging and planting on the field and most of the dahlias are now in the ground, together with my new geums, veronica, astrantia and peonies. I went on a wreath-making course with a friend over the weekend and we had the best time making mini wreaths, eating s'mores cooked on an open fire and making...

Hello, it's Friday 12 December 2025. Another busy week: wet gloves, wet tools, muddy clothes, and never-ending lists of things to do. I hope you've had a good week. All of my roses have now been delivered which is wonderful and now they all need planting asap. My dahlia mentor, Richard Bailey, has kindly given me more of his unwanted dahlia tubers including Weston Pirate and some incredi...

Hello and welcome to Tuesday 9 December 2025. What a wet and windy few days! Another named storm has rolled in and everything is very wet. The plants on the plot are fine (benefit of being on a slope) but everywhere else on the field is somewhat treacherous (downside to being on a slope).  I've had a busy time since we last caught up and tonight I talk about having lunch with my best wholesal...

Hello and welcome to Friday 5 December 2025. It's been a very wet and chilly week: I've been soaked too many times to remember this week and it's not been nice! Thank you if you sent me a comment about the last few episodes - it's always good to hear what you think. I have (finally) placed my large rose order and I can't wait to get them and see the blooms next year. My co...

Hello, it's Tuesday 2 December 2025. Welcome to December! Tonight's episode is all about buying imports vs British-grown flowers (or wherever you're growing if you're not in the UK). It's a very hot topic and this episode is based entirely on a podcast I listened to this morning between two UK florists who talk about the pressure they feel to only use British flowers, and...

Hello, it's Friday 28 November 2025.  Today's episode discusses the million-dollar dahlia question: to lift or not to lift tubers? It's a question that many growers have a dilemma about every year and I'm no exception. This year I'm leaving mine in the ground and I'll explain why here. The majority of this episode is therefore a discussion of the pros and cons of lift...

Hello and welcome to a chilly Tuesday 25 November 2025.  Tonight I'm talking about the foliage that I'm growing for 2026 and beyond. I realised that I needed more foliage about mid-way through this year when I suddenly started selling buckets and buckets of beech and hazel. Then I thought that perhaps I needed to buy some more foliage plants for adding to bouquets and mixed buckets and t...

Hello, it's Friday 21 November 2025.  Welcome - I'm in a much better mood tonight! It's been a busy week, both indoors and outdoors. My course is going well: module 2 has just dropped which is all about pricing. Can't wait to start that. Pricing is such a huge topic and one that not everyone talks about. I know I've struggled with it this year. I've also just taken a...

Hello, welcome to Tuesday 18 November 2025.  Winter is here! The temperature has plummeted and I'm bundled up in so many layers that it's hard to even bend down sometimes. Tonight's episode gives you an update of my progress on the new course with Jenny Marks of Trademark Farmer in the US, and news of what I've done with my dahlias over the weekend. Yesterday I visited a fellow...

Hello, welcome to a very wet Friday 14 November 2025.  I've just taken part in the first online 'welcome' meeting for the new course I've just enrolled on with Jenny Marks of Trademark Farmer and it was great. I've made a start on module 1 and there's a lot to take onboard. Today has been a wash-out in terms of heavy rain all day so I spent time this morning unblockin...

Hello and welcome to 11 November 2025.  There's so much to tell you about in this episode! Life in the cut flower field has been busy: my young cockerel, Lion, finally has his own enclosure and a wife (!); I've been drying more stems in the unlikely event that someone wants to buy them (or they end up in wreaths); physocarpus shrubs have been planted; achillea 'The Pearl' is be...

Hello. It's Friday 7 November 2025. Welcome to tonight's episode. Tonight it's all about mistakes I've made in 2025 because I've been thinking like a gardener rather than a cut flower grower. I have therefore compiled a list of the Top 10 mistakes I've made and I thought I'd share them with you in the hope that you won't make them! There are many benefits to...

Hello. It's Tuesday 4 November 2025. Welcome to the latest episode. Another busy week: lots of planting new plants, particularly foliage in my new dedicated foliage bed, lifting and dividing of perennials, moving peonies, weeding, and watching the last of the strawflowers that the chickens haven't trampled putting on a lovely colourful display.  I talk about how I'm getting on with...

Hello and welcome, it's Friday 31 October 2025. Happy Halloween (if you're celebrating it). Lots to tell you: today I bumped into my fabulous dahlia mentor, Richard Bailey, and he has lots of dahlia tubers for me. These are tubers from plants that he no longer wants and I'm very lucky to receive them. I have also been offered some beautiful pink Japanese anemones which I will be gra...

Hello, it's Tuesday 28 October 2025. Welcome to the latest episode :-) The clocks have just gone back which means shorter days and longer evenings: it's a great opportunity for plenty of studying in the evenings but I have to remember to get the hens to bed an hour earlier... I've had the busiest weekend planting out my new shrubs including the Hydrangea Limelights, Eucalyptus, Lila...

Hello and welcome to a slightly rainy Friday 24 October 2025.  Straight into it tonight: let's talk about bouquet recipes. What are the categories of flower type and what months of the year am I growing in? What do I have flowering in each month and in each category? I've made (yet another) spreadsheet and this one has been illuminating so I'm going to talk you through it in this ep...