Blackfly, High Winds, Not Enough Rain, Not Enough Time, Absolutely No Money & Lessons for Spring 2026

Becoming a Cut Flower Grower

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 planted out and it's quite daunting: there aren't enough hours in the day.

Today I saw Rosa 'Juliet' for the first time. It's a stunning David Austin rose created specifically for their wedding and event cut flower collection. The rose plant itself is not available to buy: only the cut stems are available for florists. It cost GBP 3 million to produce!! The particular stems that I saw today had just flown over from Ecuador, a whopping 5,726 miles away, and you could tell because they looked a little exhausted. Seeing these stems close up made me even more determined to grow roses myself because I know that I could offer a beautiful locally-grown rose that's scented and just as gorgeous as Juliet (well, almost). Let's hope that I can make some money this year and then buy some bare-root roses this autumn.

After attending the funeral of a wonderful former gardening client of mine, I share some thoughts on what arrangements I could make for my plants in the event of my death. It's not morbid to think of these things: none of us know what's going to happen in the future and it doesn't hurt to put arrangements in place. I hope the you find the episode interesting.

In this episode, join me for all the latest news.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

✅ Why I've had to stake my cornflowers

✅ How I'm removing blackfly

✅ How many seedlings still have to be planted out (it's a lot...)

✅ Why I'm going to be mulching my dahlias with chipped bark

✅ How many flowers I've sold so far this year

✅ Rosa Juliet is the ultimate wedding flower: my thoughts on it

✅ What would happen to your plants if you died?

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Join me on my journey through a year of growing and selling cut flowers. I'm going to give you the low-down on what it's really like, how I'm getting started, what you do and don't need, what I do when and why, the successes and failures, and just about everything in between. All in real time. With guest appearances from my chickens every now and then.