July news.....
No seriously, July already? You’ll be sighing and saying you’ve noticed the nights are drawing in next. At which, of course, I roll my eyes to the heavens… and then panic! Or not, in fact… For the first time ever, in the history of Common Farm Flowers (watch the thunderbolt strike me down for saying this,) we are ‘on it’ where the seed sowing is concerned. I have a *few* more biennials I could sow direct in the ground, but I’ve hedged my bets and sowed a tray of each biennial so I’ll have a nice array of seedlings for planting out in September should the rest of my direct-sown seed not germinate. Sue is out there now sowing the final fling of annuals. We’re even doing things like popping round with a bucket doing groundsel tours as the big weeding is kind of under control. This isn’t the end of the seed sowing year of course: in September when we have our cut flower patch workshop I’ll be sowing a little hardy annual seed to overwinter, some in the ground, some in the greenhouse, but I won’t sow much. Getting biennial seed in now takes a little pressure off the annuals and I’ll know I have a good crop of something coming for next spring to go with the tulips and the iris and the alliums and take us through until the roses flower. This flower farmer’s year is all about planning, sowing small quantities of seed, designing bouquets for next year up to a year in advance. There comes a point in early June when we start booking weddings for next year, garden tours for next year, and I sow my biennials - and at that point I know I’ll be flower farming for another twelve months at least. In a way I find this commitment to the future reassuring. I cannot control the political situation or the weather, but I have learned that if I sow seed in the ground it generally does germinate, and that if I look after those germinated seedlings there will be flowers. And as a rule you kind customers come along and buy those flowers, whether they’re in our flower delivery bouquets or for weddings, or just because you fancy a big old DIY bucket of flowers with which to treat yourself. We need a fair few for our workshops too - day courses in floristry and gardening being something people seem to really need in these interesting times. I was asked by a gentleman visiting for a garden tour the other day what qualities one needs to be a flower farmer: and I thought, and I replied that, while horticultural knowledge is useful, and floristry skills too, what one needs is not to be too much of a perfectionist in the garden (obviously floristry is all about perfection!) and that one needs to be a doer - plus, I told him, a mild enthusiasm for spread sheet planning doesn’t go amiss. So I’m not selling you anything really in this newsletter. I just hope your summers are going well, that you too have something you can put your faith in, and that will prove you to have been right a year down the line. If you dream of running a small business from home, I have very bossy days in which I tell you how to do it (business plans rool ok!) If you dream of running a flower farm then do come and spend a day here in October and I’ll show you how. If you fancy a tour of our flower farm (the very opposite of a refined show garden) we’re taking bookings for next June and July. And for flower delivery bouquets, and wedding flowers, we’re always here happy to take your orders.