Welcome to the weekend! I’m here to give you a blast of inspiration for growing and enjoying sustainable flowers. This is free to all you lovely subscribers; if you want to get more detailed practical advice and behind-the-scenes action, as well as support small sustainable business, you can upgrade to paid below:
Floral gift inspiration
With the flower season firmly over, for the run-up to Christmas I’m turning to present ideas for the flower lovers in your life that prioritise small business.
This week - ceramics. Buy your giftee a beautiful hand-made vase or jug ready for the year of flowers to come. You can beef this up with a bunch of everygreen foliage, a gift voucher for your local flower farmer or sustainable florist, packets of seed, or a book on cut flower growing to guide them through the growing year. (Or, of course, a subscription to my paid Substack!)
Try KT Robbins (above), Louise Condon or Vicky Hageman for some inspiration. Or consider a class at a local pottery studio for the recipient to try making their own!
Why grow your own cut flowers?
For the real, deep appreciation of the seasons. There are no useable flowers in my garden just now. It makes me truly aware of the artificiality of the display of imported flowers in the supermarket, and it clarifies the need of everything to rest and draw inwards in nature. And it makes the summer garden full of flowers even more beautiful.
This week’s cutting garden job
Keep watering any seedlings in your greenhouse. It’s easy to forget about watering in winter, but if you’ve got hardy annuals overwintering under glass, they’re not getting rained on! Just head down there once a week or so and check everything’s ok and not drying out.
Work with me to grow your cut flower garden
If you’d like some pro help to grow your own cut flowers next year, I can help! Become a paid subscriber and I’ll walk you through the cutting garden year here on Substack. If you’d like a personalised cutting garden plan, or if you’re local to me in South Ayrshire and you’d like me to get you started in person, email hellolarkrose@gmail.com to find out more. And for local folks, you can pre-order plants grown locally by me at www.larkrose.co.uk , ready for collection in the spring.