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Join new cut flower grower Lydia for a behind-the-scenes look at how she's starting to grow and sell cut flowers in the south of England. Over the course of 2025 she'll be sharing everything she's doing to get her cut flower business up and running, from the planning stages all the way through to harvesting flowers, by way of highs and lows, hints and tips, lessons she's learning along the way (often the hard way) to the production and selling of beautiful cut flowers. If you're thinking of ...
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The Backyard Bouquet

Jennifer Gulizia

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Welcome to 'The Backyard Bouquet,' a cut flower podcast where vibrant stories bloom from the fields of local flower farmers and home gardeners alike. Join host Jennifer Gulizia of The Flowering Farmhouse as she dives into the captivating journey of local flowers, sharing inspiring tales and practical insights. This podcast celebrates the heartfelt journeys of both seasoned flower farmers and passionate backyard growers. Each episode is a vibrant tapestry woven with personal narratives, shedd ...
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Hosted by Shannon, otherwise known as accidental allotmenteer @DiaryOfALadyGardener, get ready to listen to some of your favourite IG gardeners to tell their growing story. From allotments and new build gardens to flower farms and microgreens, it doesn't matter how much space you have to play with, this gardening podcast will inspire you in so many ways. We'll be chatting about their history, what they're excited about this year, any challenges they face and, I'll be getting them to share th ...
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John and Karen Pendleton own Pendleton’s Country Market, a diversified family farm, growing vegetables, bedding plants and cut flowers. Located just off Hwy 10 between Kansas City and Lawrence, the farm is nestled in the rich Kaw River Valley. They sell their produce at the market on their farm, at the local farmers markets and through their CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) program. Karen’s flowers can be found every Saturday morning at the Lawrence Farmers Market. Her designs are a fav ...
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Hello. It's Wednesday 28 May 2025 and I'm very happy to welcome you to this episode. There's so much to share with you today including an update on my dahlias, what happened to the cornflowers and the leucanthemum in the wind, and how I've been dealing with a blackfly invasion. I've also taken a headcount of the seedlings which still need to be pla…
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In this powerful episode of The Backyard Bouquet, host Jennifer Gulizia sits down with Nicole Sardo of Midnight Magic Garden—a former stop-motion artist who left her dream job at Laika Studios after a life-altering autoimmune diagnosis. Nicole shares her remarkable journey of healing through gardening, how she's building a flourishing micro flower …
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Hello and welcome to this episode, recorded on Friday 23 May 2025. It's been a really busy few days since my last episode: I've been planting out my dahlia tubers plus some seedlings, weeding around my perennials, and tidying up my living paths. Sometimes I'm in two minds about living paths: are they a good idea or not? They need maintaining, which…
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Hello. It's Tuesday 20 May 2025, it's 10pm and I'm recording this while boiling spaghetti and microwaving some bolognese sauce. Batch cooking (and reheating) is the only way I get to eat properly right now. I have lots to share with you as I've been really busy on the plot since the last episode. Seedlings have been going out, including zinnias, or…
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In this episode of The Backyard Bouquet, we are joined by Frances Palmer—renowned potter, gardener, photographer, and author—to celebrate the release of her newest book, Life With Flowers. Known for her iconic handmade vessels and stunning floral photography, Frances shares how a life rooted in creativity, cultivation, and intention can lead to une…
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Hello. It's Thursday 15 May 2025 and I'm talking to you from the plot. Exciting news that the Digger Man, Nigel, came yesterday to lift the turf on my plot and it' amazing to have more growing space. Quite a lot more, in fact: an additional 171 square metres. He did an excellent job and was a very nice man. I had an emergency with one of my chicken…
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It's Tuesday 13 May 2025: welcome to today's episode. Beautiful sunshine but still no rain. I'm running low on water so it's a bit of a tense time. Tonight I'm on the plot talking about how I'm managing my seedlings in the hot and dry conditions. Some plants are doing fine but I really wish I had more water right now. The digger man is booked for t…
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In this episode of The Backyard Bouquet Podcast, we are joined by Debra Prinzing, founder of the Slow Flowers Movement and co-author of The Flower Farmers: Inspiration and Advice from Expert Growers. Debra shares her journey from writing The 50 Mile Bouquet to founding the Slow Flowers Movement—a movement that champions local, seasonal, and sustain…
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It's Friday 9 May 2025 and another gorgeous evening. I've recorded this episode at home tonight, out of the wind, so the audio quality is much better than the last episode (sorry about that one). Executive decision: the dahlias are finally moving outside this weekend! They have had enough of being inside (and I want my living room back) so they're …
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It's 8:30pm on Tuesday 6 May 2025 and a really beautiful evening. You join me for this episode on the plot as I'm planting out some of my hardy annual seedlings (calendula, orlaya and scabious). It's been a busy bank holiday weekend for me and I haven't had as much time on the plot as I would like so I'm up here this evening getting things done and…
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This week on The Backyard Bouquet, we’re celebrating a century of spectacular blooms with Schreiner’s Iris Gardens, one of the most iconic names in American flower farming. For over 100 years, the Schreiner family has been growing and breeding world-class bearded iris—a legacy that began in Minnesota and eventually found its forever home in Oregon’…
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It's 8:30am on Friday 2 May 2025 and it's another beautiful sunny day. What a busy week! I've been juggling a lot of things this week and it got me thinking about what I've learned about starting to grow cut flowers and what no-one tells you! So I have created quite a long list of things I'm learning the hard way and I'd like to share them with you…
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In this episode of The Backyard Bouquet Podcast, Jennifer invites you to step away from the rush of the season and pause at the garden gate. With raw honesty and gentle encouragement, she explores what it means to be in a season of becoming—when everything feels tender, stretched, and unfinished. Through the metaphors of seeds cracking open, the lo…
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The chickens are back on the podcast! It's Tuesday 29 April 2025 and it's very hot. Join me for this episode on a really beautiful spring day, which started off well then turned out to be a bit too busy and fraught for my liking. I am in charge of the diary so that's entirely my fault. While I'm letting the hens out this morning I talk about water …
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In this episode of The Backyard Bouquet Podcast, we’re joined by one of the most respected voices in the cut flower industry—Dave Dowling. With over 20 years of experience as a flower farmer and now a trusted mentor to growers across North America, Dave shares insights you won’t want to miss. We talk about how he got started growing flowers (before…
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Great excitement: I've just been speaking to a landscaper about using a mini-digger to lift some turf for me to really expand my growing space. I can't wait! I recorded this episode on Thursday 24 April 2025 in the afternoon and it's cool and breezy today. I did a reconciliation of how many seedlings I have and it's ALOT! It made me realise that I …
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It's a sunny lunchtime on Tuesday 22 April 2025 and I'm basking in the warmth of the greenhouse. I'm busy sowing more seeds and today I'm discussing the pros and cons of two different sowing styles: scattergun approach or straight lines. Which one do you use? I prefer the straight lines method as I can count how many plants I have and each plant ca…
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In this special Earth Day episode of The Backyard Bouquet, flower farmer and garden educator Jennifer Gulizia shares a deeply personal reflection on growing in harmony with the earth—and what it really means to be a steward of soil, beauty, and biodiversity. This solo episode blends story, science, and soul. Jennifer shares a poem Where Flowers Lea…
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Happy Easter! It's 8pm on Good Friday, 18 April 2025 and I'm on the plot. It has definitely not been my week! After the water debacle on Tuesday I managed to get a tummy bug which has been unpleasant and this afternoon I wasn't even able to leave the house because of it. And whilst I've had tummy trouble all week I've had to do some regular gardeni…
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It's Tuesday 15 April 2025 and this week has started really badly: I left a tap running last night and managed to drain my two full water bowsers. Overnight I've lost over a thousand litres of water. The timing is awful and I'm very disappointed in myself. I also managed to forget to close the greenhouse door last night, which is not like me. Lucki…
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It's Friday 11 April 2025 and another incredibly sunny day. Still no rain but hopefully it's coming next week. I'll be updating you on what I've been sowing this week and the new sowing chart that I've made to help me remember when to sow the next batch (it's all about successional sowing this year). I discuss my morning feeling routine and how I w…
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In this episode of The Backyard Bouquet Podcast, Jennifer sits down with Jessica Hall, co-founder of Harmony Harvest Farm in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley. What began as a simple question during a family beach vacation—“Where do florists get flowers?”—sparked the beginning of a 20-acre flower farm that now ships bouquets and heirloom chrysanthemum p…
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It's another glorious week of sunshine and dry weather and the shed doors are finally on! Today it's Tuesday 8 April 2025 and I'm pleased to update you on what's been going on since my last episode. I've been busy planting out foxgloves, peonies and raspberries, plus I made a new access path for the plot (and hung a new gate that I made myself, whi…
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It's Friday 4 April 2025 and if you're a dahlia-fan then this is the episode for you. Join me as I share everything I learnt this beautifully sunny morning from my dahlia mentor, Richard Bailey, including tips and tricks for success with these beautiful plants. Richard is a prize-winning dahlia exhibitor and a Vice President of the National Dahlia …
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There's a lot going on at the moment! Join me on the plot in the fabulous sunshine today, Tuesday 1 April (how is it April already???) as I update you on what I've been upto, including seed sowing, monitoring production costs, ordering more seeds, selecting new dahlias, making new beds, rearranging fence panels, moving the contents of the compost h…
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I've had an epiphany! I've been listening to a new podcast and it's made me think really hard about the "business" side of what I'm doing so I have paused with the seed sowing for a moment to give this some thought. I've been learning about production costs, overheads, profit margins, and calculating profitability per square metre. I'm a data nerd …
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How can we create gardens that are both beautiful and beneficial to the planet? In this episode of The Backyard Bouquet Podcast, we sit down with award-winning landscape architect and author Marian Boswall to discuss the power of regenerative gardening and sustainable landscape design. As the founder of Marian Boswall Landscape Architects and co-fo…
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It's a beautiful week and I've been busy. It's a bit overwhelming at times: I feel like I have so many things to do all at the same time and sometimes it's hard to work out what I should be doing first. Normally I'm pretty good at prioritising but at this time of year it's challenging... In this episode I take a breather from digging up nettles and…
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What a gorgeous week: it's been very warm and sunny in the last couple of days, which has made me feel very excited about spring. And also slightly overwhelmed. I look at my seed trays and simultaneously think "Oh there are SO MANY!" and also "Oh I don't have enough!". But it's all fine: it's just what happens at this time of year. Lots of updates …
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It's been a really busy few days: some of the new seeds that were sown last week have germinated, the new beds have been marked out with string, a whole new planting area has been created, I finally found my missing broad bean seeds (yipeeeeee!), more seeds have been sown, the sun has been shining and it's warming up nicely. I've been thinking a lo…
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Join us for an inspiring conversation with Jenny Marks, founder of Trademark Farmer and host of Six Figure Flower Farming. Jenny has been immersed in agriculture her entire life, from growing up on a farm to working in government roles with the USDA and State Departments of Agriculture. After starting a vegetable CSA, she discovered that she loved …
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I went to the garden centre just to buy a ball of string to finish marking out the new cut flower beds and came home with some lovely new flowers seeds! In this first part of this episode I'm back in the greenhouse on a warm and bright afternoon sowing more of my cut flower seeds as well as the new ones that I picked up in the garden centre. As I'm…
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It's Tuesday 10 March 2025 and I'm in the greenhouse this afternoon, sowing more cut flower seeds. Come and join me as I'm sowing Achillea, Cephalaria, Centaurea, Crespedia, Zinnia and Orlaya. It's much cooler this week: the weekend was positively balmy and it was wonderful to have so much sunshine. It really felt like Spring had arrived. And then …
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Can pansies be a cut flower? 🌸 You might be surprised! In this episode of The Backyard Bouquet Podcast, we’re chatting with Brenna Estrada, author of Pansies and the flower farmer behind Three Brothers Blooms. Brenna is on a mission to bring long-stemmed pansies back into the floral world, and she’s sharing everything you need to know about growing…
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I was SO looking forward to getting started on my seed sowing this week! And then I was thwarted by a really nasty cold so I ended up sleeping a lot, watching Netflix and endlessly re-reading the latest David Austin rose catalogue. So the first half of this episode is me with a rather croaky voice and a bunged-up nose talking about that. Luckily th…
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This week got off to an absolutely freezing (but beautiful) start. Unfortunately it was far too cold for me to be sowing seeds in the greenhouse so I have recorded a longer podcast instead. In this episode I answer a question from a listener about exactly how I chose the seeds I'm growing for cut flowers and I explain my thought process. I clarify …
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In Episode 49 of The Backyard Bouquet Podcast, we sit down with Dustin Saunders of Little Hollow Flowers, a specialty cut flower farm nestled along Colorado’s Front Range. Dustin shares how a fallen ash tree unexpectedly led him and his partner, Kate, into flower farming, and how their diverse backgrounds in landscaping and biodynamic vegetable far…
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It's the last day of February today which means two things: one, I'll be moving home tomorrow and two, it's time to start sowing seeds! Yipee! Once I've unpacked and got settled, I'll be getting busy in the greenhouse... Before all that fun, today's episode is me talking you through the 15 new varieties of flowers I'm going to grow this year from s…
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I'm excited to tell you that I've spent today dismantling my newly acquired (third-hand) greenhouse and transporting it to my plot. It was hard work and very tiring but only three panes of glass got broken (not bad) and no injuries at all (even better!). This is my second greenhouse and in this episode I talk about the differences between this one …
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This special episode of The Backyard Bouquet Podcast features returning guest Marryn Mathis, founder of The Farmhouse Flower Farm and widely known as the Sweet Pea Queen. Marryn joins the show to celebrate the release of her debut book, Sweet Pea School, a comprehensive guide to growing, nurturing, and enjoying these fragrant, timeless blooms. In t…
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It's time to put our cards on the table and answer this question: what's stopping you from becoming a cut flower grower? It's been a rainy old week yet on the sunniest two days I wasn't around to get on the plot but as the ground is still so wet, it's not a huge problem. So I'm talking to you in this episode from the warmth and dryness of indoors, …
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Join me on my frosty plot this morning as I let the hens out and find out if my young hen Kylie is still broody! In today's episode I'm answering a really great question from a listener about weeds: love them or hate them, you're going to get some! It's never too early to start thinking about weeds and it's how you deal with them that matters: spen…
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Have you thought about exactly who you're going to sell your flowers to? Before you sow any seeds or buy any plants, start thinking about this crucial part of the process right now. Are you dreaming of turning your cut flowers into bouquets and selling directly to customers at a local market? Or would you prefer to sell to florists? What sort of fl…
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It's February so let's talk about seeds! Collecting, drying, storing and saving, plus some seeds to avoid and the best seed compost. Everyone is talking about seeds right now and I'm certainly thinking about mine. In this episode I explain why seeds are saved from one year to the next and I cover the basics of how to store your seeds. Plus I talk a…
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Are you wondering which cut flowers you should grow? Are you confused by all the choices and not sure which will suit your needs or your budget? Are you thinking about the impact of vase life, stem length or scent? In this episode, I’m diving into how to select the best cut flowers to grow. What You’ll Learn in This Episode: ✅ What makes a flower i…
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This week got off to a rather chilly, murky, and drizzly start. However there's nothing like the thought of hundreds of gloriously coloured and heavily scented sweetpeas to cheer me up. My sweetpea story starts with a holiday outing to buy raw milk on a farm in Dorset which led to the discovery of a fantastic supplier of sweetpeas. I share the type…
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Dahlias are the queens of the cut flower world. They are achingly beautiful and come in a vast array of varieties, colours and shapes. Join me behind the scenes while I plan my 2025 dahlia beds. Today I talk about the nursery I visited in September 2024 to look at some selections (with obligatory notepad and pen), a brief bit about apprenticing wit…
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Hello and welcome to a rainy episode. Join me today as we let the chickens out first thing this morning for a warm scrambled egg breakfast (them, not me) and I talk about the perennials I grew on the plot in 2024. I'll share with you why perennials can form the low-maintenance backbone of your cut flower plot, and how to do this according to your o…
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From her time as a Peace Corps agriculture volunteer in Ecuador to becoming a passionate flower farmer in Colorado, Helen Skiba's story is a beautiful reminder of how life can take us on unexpected paths, like how a visit to a friend’s farm can change everything! Helen from Artemis Farm dives deep into her commitment to organic farming practices an…
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In today's episode I review the cut flowers I grew in my 2024 trial beds. I talk about what cut flowers I planned to grow and why, what I actually ended up growing, which cut flowers turned out well and why, what the florists loved, what I didn't like, where I sourced my cut flower seeds, the seeds which flourished and those which either didn't ger…
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