Search Results for: autumn

Little chinks of brightness are appearing, its just that little bit lighter in the mornings and evenings, you can garden till 5pm on sunny days here now. The birds are really starting to sing again, we are serenaded from the bathroom window by the Robin singing its heart out in the dark. There are plenty of signs of life in the garden too, the snowdrops are nodding there delicate heads, their underlying toughness hidden away inside that simple flower. They keep flowering on even the coldest days. Little cyclamen coum adding a splash of bright pink to the otherwise mostly browns and greys. I’ve been doing a bit of tidying up in the perennial borders, cutting back and clearing a few leaves and there is already signs of life, little shoots emerging from the soil for the spring flowering perennials. There are buds on the Pulmonarias and the Primula flowers are emerging from the those green wrinkly leaves. Hellebores, another tough cookie, I’ve got a few now and they are shining out, some still in bud stage but some in full flower. I always worry when we have had a hard frost they droop down but miraculously stand up straight again once its warmed up.In the cutting garden, I’m trying to keep on top of things, my autumn sown hardy annuals are looking good despite the cold, I’ve repotted some and nipped out some top growth. I’ve got the usual ones I sow Cornflowers, Corncockle, Cerinthe, Ammi visnaga, Orlaya grandiflora and also a few that I’ve tried for the first time like Candytuft ‘Crown’ and Salvia viridia ‘Oxford Blue’ both of which seem to be growing well. Sweet peas are all looking good and I’ve planted some Ranunculus into the little mini polytunnel.

Its still too early to sow many things, Sweet peas can be sown, have you done yours yet? See the January blog post for a few hints and tips. But from mid to end of February I do make a bit of a start, most will go on my windowsill in the front bedroom. There is a radiator under it so it gets some warmth and it gets some sun too in the afternoon, its bright and seedlings once germinated need all the light they can get at this time of year. More information on seed sowing can be found in the Higgledy seed sowing guide. There is not much space on the windowsill so I’d rather leave most things till it gets a bit warmer but there are a few things that I’d like to get started. I’m starting my Cobaea scandens, this is a real beauty but I guess its a little bit of a diva that needs quite a bit of cossetting and encouragement to get it to bloom well. You need space in your garden to grow this, it likes to scramble and according to Sarah Raven they need to grow over 2m before they will flower well, they can easily do this in a growing season. I had a fabulous year of growing them in 2023, they scrambled all over my old chicken run and I had masses of flowers. Last year, not quite as successful, we had such a cold late spring that they just didn’t get growing quick enough and I just had a few blooms, before the frosts came. I’m ‘up north’ so it would definitely be much easier to grow the further south you go but I just think the trick is to get them sown early and keep them growing fast and healthy and you will do well with them. You just have to be aware that if you sow them now you will have to keep them warm and protected until after the frosts and once they germinate they will grow fast and will get big so you need the space. So how to sow it, they are lovely big seeds, like discs, so I sow them into modules, fill the modules with a good peat free compost and inserting the disc down into the compost not flat, so that any water will run off them and not sit on top of the seed and potentially rot it. I water from below by sitting the modules in a tray of water and allowing the water to soak into the compost.

Then it goes somewhere warm, on a windowsill or a heated propagator and it should germinate in a couple of weeks. Once they have got going in the module they will need potting on into 9cm pots. Then really it depends on the weather and how cold it is but I often then pot them into 11cm pots and they will need a small stake at this stage once they start to twine and climb. I’ve usually moved them into my unheated greenhouse by this time where they are protected from frosts.Then hopefully they can be planted out in the garden May time. They need good rich garden soil and kept well watered and then hopefully they should romp away. Obviously they need some climbing support, probably need more than a wigwam. They have twining growth so once they are started you don’t need to do much tying in, they may just need a bit of guidance early on to get them growing where you want them. I grew it up my old chicken run so this was chicken wire and they seemed to like that. They covered the whole area and over the top. Its always so exciting when they start to flower from those wacky buds.

I was still picking from mine in November but they will get caught by any early frosts.I’m also getting started with Larkspur, these need a bit of a cold spell to break the dormancy in the seed, so will sow mine in seed trays and leave them in a my unheated greenhouse and allow them to get a bit cold and then once it warms up they will germinate. If you want to bypass this stage just put the seed packet in the fridge for a week or so before sowing. I love the vibrant blues that you get in the Larkspur ‘Imperials’ seed mix. Plus we have Larkspur ‘Hyacinth Mix’ which has double and semi-double flowers. I sow them in a seed tray, into peat-free compost, cover lightly with compost or vermiculite. Then once germinated, which can take over a month, they are pricked out into modules or 9cm pots. They can then be planted out in early May. They do get tall so will need some support. They will then flower from July until the frosts if you keep picking them.Here with some other lovely blues, Salvia ‘Oxford Blue’, Echium ‘Blue Bedder’, Cornflower ‘Mauve Ball’, Sweet pea ‘Noel Sutton’ and ‘Nimbus’, plus lovely Feverfew.

If you have somewhere warm to propagate in you can also start sowing your Snapdragon seeds now, Snapdragon ‘Lucky Lips’ is a real standout flower! These are small seeds and are quite slow to get growing so sowing them now will give them a headstart. These need to be surface sown onto a seed tray as they need some light for germination. Prick out the tiny seedlings in modules or 9cm pots. Plant out in final position once frosts have passed, these are half-hardy annuals so won’t survive any frosts.

The other seeds I’m sowing are some perennials, again many of these need a long growing season if you want them to flower this year. The Dahlias (‘Bishops Children’ and ‘Cactus’) are easy, sow thinly on the surface of peat-free compost in seed trays or in 9cm pots and cover lightly with more compost. They need a bit of warmth but they germinate quickly and can be individually pricked out and potted on into 9cm pots. They shouldn’t be planted outside till all risk of frosts have passed. The other hardy perennials (Chrysanthemum ‘Crazy Daisy’, Echinacea ‘Primadonna Pink’, Feverfew and Gaura ‘The Bride’ all have similar requirements. Sow thinly on the surface of peat-free compost in a seed tray and don’t cover as they need light to germinate or you can cover with a thin layer of vermiculite. Germination can be slow and bit erratic, with some germinating before the others. If you get no germination they may need some cold stratification to break the seed dormancy. So put them somewhere cold for a couple of weeks and then bring them back into the warmth again. Or you can cheat and put the packet of seed in the fridge for a couple of weeks before sowing. Knautia ‘Melton Pastels’ is also said to need a cold spell to break the dormancy so you could also use the fridge trick on this seed too. Though actually mine germinated fine without it last year. Again this needs surface sowing. Knautia ‘Melton Pastels’ with Astrantia ‘Buckland’, Corncockle ‘Bianca’, Orlaya grandiflora and Ranunculus. I have a lovely double Feverfew that seeds around my garden and use it lots as filler in my bouquets. Here with pink and white Canterbury bells, Cornflowers and Astilbe. So just a few things to think about sowing later this month. Then once March comes I will be sowing some hardy annuals, all the C’s Calendulas, Cornflowers, Corncockles, Cerinthe, Chrysanthemum ‘Rainbow’. Ammi majus, Godetia, Salvia viridis, Phacelia, Nigella, so much to choose from. I won’t sow any of the half hardy annuals, like Cosmos and Sunflowers till end of March into April. Still got plenty of time but good idea to get your seeds ordered and ready!

Higgledy Anne

(I’m on Instagram anne_hinks if you fancy a follow, I’ve also joined Bluesky Anne Hinks)

After describing, in a previous blog post, the different types of flowers for a balanced arrangement that also helps you plan what to grow in your cutting patch. Here I’m going to go into a bit more detail about some of my favourite filler flowers, that I use quite a lot from my garden and cutting patch.Ammi majus and Ammi visnaga, these are the queens of froth! Umbelliferishly beautiful! Yes I’ve created a new word. White lacy flowers like Cow parsley, they are long flowering and great as a cut flower. They are both hardy annuals but I tend to sow these in the autumn, one it gives me less to sow in the spring, and two they develop into good chunky plants. Ammi majus expecially from an autumn sowing gets really tall but both will need some support. I have to say though I prefer Ammi visnaga and I use that way more than I use Ammi majus. Ammi visnaga has lovely foliage as well as the flower head. Ammi visnaga is a bit later into flower than A. majus but I used it in most of my arrangements in the summer. I love it at all stages and after you pick the main stem you get lots of sideshoots. Here we have Ammi visnaga with Cosmos ‘Double Click Cranberries’ and Cosmos ‘Apricotta’ and Phlox ‘Creme Brulee’ and Phlox ‘Cherry Caramel’.Here with Helianthus ‘Ruby Eclipse’, Phlox ‘Creme Brulee’ and ‘Amaranthus Red’.Salvia ‘Oxford Blue’, I’ve talked about how much I love this flower in a blog before but I just think everyone should have this or Salvia viridis in their cutting patch. It flowers all summer long and in the vase its so long lasting. Its easy to grow, you can cut it and it comes back for more and there is hardly any prep that you have to do to it to go in the vase, and you can dry it to use over the winter months. Have I convinced you yet? It adds a lovely spike form to your arrangements, I love the intense indigo blue of the ‘Oxford Blue’ but it also comes in pinks, paler blues and white. I sowed some in the autumn this year and they are doing really well so hoping for some earlier flowers but I will also sow some in Spring too, for later pickings. Its so bright and versatile.Here with Cosmos ‘Apricotta’, Lysimachia barystachys, white Oreganum and Sweet pea ‘Nimbus’.Here we have it with Rudbeckia ‘Marmalade’, Zinnia ‘Mammoth’, Nicotiana ‘Bronze Queen’, Helianthus ‘Lemon Queen’ and Larkspur ‘Imperials’. Cerinthe, one of my favourite plants in the cutting patch for its foliage, it has glaucous succulent stems and leaves with nodding heads of purple bell-like flowers tipped with white. because its so succulent it can flop after cutting so its best to sear the stems in boiling water for 10 seconds and then put in cold water and they will usually be ok. I quite like the way they curl and hang down a bit but if you do want super straight stems then wrapping them in paper is supposed to keep them straight. Again I sow these in autumn and unless we have really prolonged frost that come through but I also sow again in the spring to extend the cutting season. They are also easy to collect seed from for growing another year!Here with Orlaya grandiflora, Silene vulgaris and Cornflower ‘Blueball’.Here with Calendula ‘Indian Prince’ and Calendula ‘Sherbert Fizz’, Chrysanthemum ‘Rainbow’, Cornflower ‘Black Ball’, Orlaya grandiflora, Omphalodes linifolia ‘Little Snow White’.Daucus carota or wild carrot is another lacy umbellifer like the Ammis, I think these look fabulous in a wilder arrangement. I often pick the flowers also as they are going over, they have a beautiful habit of curling in on themselves and can be used at various stages including when dried. The cultivar Daucus carota ‘Dara’ is a real beauty too with varying shades of pink in the flower. As the common name, wild carrot, suggests this is a plant that develops a big tap root so doesn’t always respond well to transplantation so its better to sow this directly and it does well from an autumn sowing, but equally will still flower well from a spring sowing. If you do want to sow undercover, then sow into modules and minimise the amount of transplanting.

Here is Daucus carota ‘Dara’ with Dahlia ‘Arabian Night’, Zinnia ‘Purple Prince’ and Lysimachia clethroides. Echium ‘Blue Bedder’, I love this plant as much as the bees do and thats a lot! Its a bit hairy and its a bit sprawling in habit but its long flowering and adds a hit of bright blue into your arrangements. I also grow the white form, Echium ‘White Bedder’ which I probably use more of in arrangements but probably slightly less loved by the bees. Sometimes its fine from autumn sowing and sometimes not if we have lots of prolonged frosts but its pretty quick from sowing to flowering so spring is good time to sow. Keep deadheading it or cutting to keep it flowering.Here it is with Cornflower ‘Black Ball’, Cynoglossum ‘Mystic Pink’, Feverfew and Ammi majus.Dill is superb if you want to add a splash of acid green into your arrangements, some vibrant colour to clash with bright pinks and purples of Zinnias. Or blues of Cornflowers. Another one that prefers direct sowing to minimise disturbance of the roots. This also adds a different dimension to your arrangement with its fresh green aniseedy scent.There are a number of small flowered annuals that make good filler like Gypsophila ‘Covent Garden’, the annual Phloxes, Omphalodes and Cynoglossum. Obviously there sometimes overlap in categories as these may also be used as supporting flowers. But the smaller flowers again add an airyness to your posies. Gypsophila ‘Covent Garden’, this is just such a lovely delicate white flower. The problem I sometimes have with this is that it gets overwhelmed by other things in the cutting patch, so it needs its own space where it won’t get squashed by other more dominant annuals. Always tricky if like me you are trying to squeeze so much into a space. They can be sown undercover earlier or direct sown into the flower bed. I want to grow more of this this year.

Here it is with Oreganum, Cornflower ‘Black Ball’ and Cynoglossum ‘Mystic Pink’.Another similar white flower is Omphalodes linifolia ‘Little Snow White’, this also has attractive glaucous stems and leaves. I discovered this a couple of years ago and love its delicate beauty. Sow in the spring, I sow undercover in trays and pot on and plant out once the frosts have passed. Again it needs space to grow with out being overwhelmed by other plants.Here with Calendula ‘Indian Prince’ and Calendula ‘Sherbert Fizz’, Chrysanthemum ‘Rainbow’, Cornflower ‘Black Ball’, Orlaya grandiflora and Cerinthe.Also with Orlaya grandiflora, Chive flowers, Sweet Rocket and mint. I’m a big fan of the annual phloxes, especially Phlox ‘Creme Brulee’, I just love the intricate details of colours on the small flowers and the twisted flower buds that unravel to open. I use them as much as I can in my arrangements. I’ve written about them in more detail here. They are half-hardy so I sow mine undercover in the spring and protect from frosts. They can look a bit floppy and leggy when they first start growing but the trick is to cut them for the flowers or pinch them out and they will progressively get more sturdy and branch out and then will produce nice long stems of flowers. Then they will flower all summer long.Here it is with Amberboa muricata, Canterbury Bells and Cosmos ‘Apricotta’. Here with Helianthus ‘Ruby Eclipse’ and Rudbeckia ‘Sahara.Just a small posy of Phlox ‘Sugar Stars’.Cynoglossum, I grow a couple of varieties of this, one ‘Firmament’ is such a lovely clear fresh sky blue and the other ‘Mystic Pink’, which I think I love even more, is a soft pastel pink. For picking best to wait to till all the flowers are open up the stem and sear stems in boiling water first like for Cerinthe.

Here is Cynoglossum ‘Firmament’ with Nicotiana ‘Starlight Dancer’, Feverfew, white Oreganum and Salvia ‘Oxford Blue’.Here is Cynoglossum ‘Mystic Pink ‘ with Zinnia ‘Purple Prince, Cosmos ‘Sensation’, Cosmos ‘Apricotta’ and Cosmos ‘Fizzy Rose’.Grasses make great fillers and add so much texture to your arrangements, there are a couple of annual grasses that I use a lot of and they are Briza maxima and Panicum ‘Frosted Explosion’. Briza creates lots of movement the flowerheads seem to dangle on a tiny stem and flutter about in any breeze. I’ll be brutally honest its a rampant self seeded but you only have to sow it once and any in the wrong place are easy to pull up. I’ve a little area where they are left to self seed every year and seem to have kept themselves there so far! Cut lots for drying too. Some Briza with Cornflower ‘Blue Ball’ and Cornflower ‘Black Ball’, Orlaya grandiflora, Cerinthe and Silene vulgaris.Panicum ‘Frosted Explosion’ or ‘Sprinkles’ is a bit of a wonder, it produces a fibre optic like cloud of flowers and is a must-have for your arrangements. I grow it in the big dustbins with my Dahlias and it froths around between the flowers but they are very good cut and come again flower so have plenty to pick too.With Dahlia ‘Arabian Night’, Phlox ‘Creme Brulee’, Cosmos ‘Apricotta’ and Ammi visnaga.

So there you go just some suggestions for what to grow as filler flowers, some of my favourites. I also have quite a few perennial plants that I grow for filler so I might try and blog about that at some point too.

Wishing you a flower filled year!

Higgledy Anne

(I’m on Instagram anne_hinks if you fancy a follow, I’ve also joined Bluesky Anne Hinks)

As I write this its a chilly grey day, its a day for having the fairy lights on or lighting a few candles. Sitting on the sofa with a cup of coffee, a cat and a good book. I’ve not ventured into the garden at all apart from to top up the bird feeders. Today I have no real inclination to get out and sow any seeds but I just know as soon as we get a hint of sunshine and a few dry days that I will be yearning to get out there and get going. But hold your horses, think of those seeds, would you want to be pushed into that cold wet soil with hardly any sunlight to urge you up out of the ground. In many cases they will just rot off or put on weak spindly growth. If I don’t feel like going out I know the seeds won’t either. Summer will come though!January I always think of as the time for planning, of taking stock, it can be a bit of a cliche but its the one time of year that I do have a bit more time. I’ve been having a sort out of my seed boxes, getting rid of any old packets, binning any that I know I don’t want to grow again this year and generally getting an idea of what I want to reorder. I have a few new ones on my list that I want to grow and ones that were a bit of a failure for me last year and that I want another go at (the slugs were a horror last year). Now is the exciting planning time, but get your seeds ordered now and then you are all ready for the seed sowing year.Have a bit of a tidy up of your seed sowing bits and pieces, I’m very lucky to have a potting shed in my garden now. I used to seed sow on the kitchen table in my old house and thats fine but having a potting shed or a potting space means that you can leave things out, have everything around you and just shut the door at the end of the day. Though that does mean that it can get a bit messy. So I’ve been tidying up my seed trays and pots, making sure I have plenty of clean labels. I’ve got some new compost in, I use Melcourts Sylvagrow peat free multipurpose compost. For any really fine and small seeds I might sieve it first to get rid of any really chucky bits.How long it will stay tidy is anyones guess!I really try hard to not sow much in January but there are a few things that can be started in February that you can be getting seed ready for now. I will write about sowing these in more detail in a separate blog. The first is Cobaea scandens, that tropical looking beauty that can reward you with late flowers in September and October. They need a long growing season to really do well especially in my northern garden. But there are couple of things that you have to be aware of, the first being they need warmth to germinate so a heated propagator or I use a windowsill with a radiator below it. Then you will need to keep it warm and growing steadily until after the frosts have passed and you can plant them out which can be 4-5 months if you sow them in January. So hence better to wait till February when the light is a bit better and they will still have plenty of time. But get your seeds ordered and then you are ready to go.Same can be said for many of the perennials, like Gaura ‘The Bride’, Echinacea ‘Primadonna Pink’ and Knautia ‘Melton Pastels’. I think February is a good time for those and these again will have to be sown in a warm, bright place and kept inside till the spring so you need to have the space and the conditions. Finally Larkspur, we have two varieties ‘Imperials’ and ‘Giant Hyacinth’, these can sometimes be a bit tricky to germinate and can often get kickstarted by a cold spell. They need a cold spell to break the dormancy in the seed. Hence why you can start these off early allow them to go through a cold spell in your greenhouse and then they will get going. Or avoid this step by putting the seed packet in your fridge for a couple of weeks. Here is the gorgeous vibrant blue of Larkspur ‘Imperials’.But fear not for those intrepid hardy gardeners there are things that you can sow now and the main one being sweet peas. Now many of you will know how much I love sweet peas, as far as I’m concerned no cutting garden should be without them. I tend to sow some in the autumn, it takes away some of the seed sowing in the spring. Mine are sat in the unheated greenhouse just ticking over now in this cold spell. I protected them with a bit of a fleece blanket im that really cold spell we had last week, it got down to -2.5 degrees in my greenhouse, but they are fine. I gave them a good water yesterday. Its a fine balance you don’t want to over water them but you don’t want them to dry out either so they do need keeping an eye on. But I will also sow some more now.They are ideal for sowing now, but they will do better with some warmth for germination. Some people suggest nicking the seeds with a knife or soaking them but I’ve never found the need to do that they all germinate well without. I sow into roottrainers or 9cm pots, sowing one or two per pot and they should germinate within a couple of weeks especially quicker if given some warmth so maybe on a heated propagator or simply on a sunny windowsill. There is the more general advice in the Higgledy Garden seed sowing guide. But once germinated they can go out into an unheated greenhouse or a sheltered spot in the garden. Ben has a genius hack for those without a greenhouse and that is to put in a big clear, plastic storage box which protects from the worst of the weather and the lid can be opened on warmer days to let in some ventilation.They can be pinched out if they do start getting too leggy or after they have produced 2 or 3 sets of leaves. That just means nipping off the top growth down to the next leaf, leaving two sets of leaves below that point. Then you will get shoots emerging further down and you will get a nice bushier plant.Hopefully my autumn sown varieties will be able to be planted out in late March, but from a winter sowing they will be good for planting in April. You really just have to play it by ear according to what the weather is like in early spring. But there is no pressure you can sow sweet peas from now until April.

Here are some of my favourite combinations from last year. This bunch has ‘Alan Williams’, ‘Eclipse’ a vibrant pink and ‘Beaujolais’ a rich dark purple.This bunch has again ‘Alan Williams’ isn’t he is a great mingler, ‘Swan Lake’ a gorgeous pure white’ and ‘Noel Sutton’ a hard to describe bluey-pink.If you want to be a bit patriotic, chose ‘Swan Lake’ and ‘Noel Sutton’ and combine with ‘Winston Churchill’ a nice deep red!From the top and clockwise round, the clear white flower is ‘Swan lake’, ‘Winston Churchill’, ‘Eclipse’, ‘Alan Williams’, ‘Noel Sutton’, ‘Flagship’, ‘Beaujolais’, ‘Nimbus’ with ‘Jilly’ in the middle. Excitingly we have a couple of new varieties this year. The first is Sweet pea ‘Mrs R Bolton’, we like to have a good range of the single colour cultivars and this one is a nice peachy colour, which will look fabulous in with the pastel shades of sweet peas. I can’t wait to try it with other peachy coloured annuals like Cosmos ‘Apricotta’ and Phlox ‘Creme Brulee’. Or the dark tones of Cornflower ‘Black Ball’ and the dusky blues of ‘Cerinthe’.

The most depressing day of the year? Blue Monday, usually the third monday in January, and this is when, supposedly, we are at our least happy, the Christmas sparkle has gone, when pay day feels an age away, you may have lapsed a bit on your super strict new years resolutions, the days are still short and spring and summer still feel a long way away. Whether its a real phenomenon or not I want to turn it on its head. Its not particularly original but I want to give you an antidote to this and celebrate the blue beauties in the cutting patch and the garden. There are so many beautiful blue flowers but the spectrum of shades can vary quite a lot and there are not many ‘true’ blues. I’m a big fan of a blue flower, bit rarer in the garden compared to other colours, and they are always treasured.  Borage, this is a proper blue colour, found in many a herb garden, we sell it at Higgledy garden because its such a good plant for pollinators. It produces prodigous amounts of nectar (topping itself up every two minutes) and flowers for months. The star-like flowers are edible, probably one of the most beautiful of the edible flowers with its dark black stamens. Most people think of it as that blue flower found in your Pimms, but also beautifully brightens up your salads, tasting vaguely of cucumber. You can eat the leaves too, think they would have to be very young and fresh, but they are said to contain plenty of Vitamin C. The plant itself is a hairy beast and can grow up to 1m tall when really happy and is a substantial plant, maybe needing some support. It will thrive the best in a sunny site but can cope with some shade. Once you have sown it once it will often self seed but they are easy to dig up so never really cause a problem. Here it is with Feverfew, Cynoglossum ‘Firmament, white Oreganum and Larkspur ‘Imperials‘.Cerinthe, ok its not really a blue flower but I’ve included it in here because of the fabulous glaucous blue foliage. Actually its quite hard to describe the colour of the foliage and flowers it has shades of purple and grey and the flowers are bluey-grey with the bottom tipped in white. Its one of the most reliable plants in my cutting patch, grown for its foliage more than anything but the flowers are beautiful too and again the bees love it. I had a patch in a raised bed near the door of my potting shed and I could hear the bees humming around it from inside the shed. So yes another great one for bees, its otherwise known as Honeywort and like the borage produces lots of nectar. It is a very succulent plant and if you are using it for cutting it helps to sear the ends in boiling water for 10 seconds and then put in cold water and leave to condition preferably overnight. It can still be a bit floppy in habit but I like that movement in a posy but if you want nice straight stems then wrapping them in paper is supposed to keep them straight. I do a sowing of this in the autumn and most years these come through but if we get a prolonged very cold spell then I have lost them. But they are pretty speedy too from a spring sowing and its worth doing multiple sowings to keep it growing well through the summer. Easy to collect your own seed from it too.Here it is with Orlaya grandiflora, Silene vulgaris and Cornflower ‘Blue Ball’.Cornflower ‘Blue Ball’, the bluest of them all. Cornflowers are my go to autumn sown annual. They germinate quickly in the warmth of September. I grow them on into 9cm pots and they are tough and hardy and can cope with even the hardest frosts. I plant them early in March and then they will be flowering by June, earlier than any spring sown annuals but again like Cerinthe its worth doing multiple sowings to extend the season of cutting. The autumn sown ones will also be taller and more substantial plants, I just love cutting big bunches of it with buds and all, the buds are beautiful wafting about in your bouquets. They do get tall and will need some support.Here it is with Salvia ‘Oxford Blue’, Canterbury bells and various sweet peas.Didiscus ‘Blue Lace’, I have a confession about this plant, its a real beauty, and I rather enviously see it grown in other peoples cutting patch but I had a complete failure with it last year. Germinated lovely, pricked out happily and grown on well into larger pots. Lost a few to slugs straight away in the greenhouse, but I always sow more than I need so was still able to plant out 5 plants. I probably did plant them out a bit too early but the weather was set fair, but then we had a late cold spell and so they paused growing, this isn’t good for tender annuals. Then I took my eye off the ball and slugs again. The air was blue that morning when I saw a slug had just literally grazed off the whole row, not even bothering to munch away at the plant just cutting them off nicely at the base so that they had no chance of growing again. But I will try again this year, protect them, cosset them and hopefully this year I will have some of those delicate beautiful lacy flowers. Perseverance!

Echium ‘Blue Bedder’ this is another stalwart on my cutting patch, it is a lovely filler flower but I grow it more for the bees. They love it. Its a cultivated form of the native wild flower Vipers Bugloss. Richard Mabey in Flora Britannica delightfully explains the viperish name ‘The sprays of flowers spiral up the stem half coiled, the long red stamens protrude from the mouths of the blue flowers like tongues and the fruits resemble adders heads’. I’ve seen it flowering on the sand dunes above Woolacombe beach and its a common wild flower in dry open spaces. Another copious nectar plant from the Borage family, it is another plant that hums with bees in the summer. I’ve also grown the white form of it and this is especially nice in arrangements but slightly less popular with the bees. The plants prefer a sunny spot with good drainage and can seed around if happy. The flowers fade to a pinky colour and its another hairy leaved plant.  It looks amazing growing with bright orange Calendula ‘Indian Prince’. Here with Calendula ‘Sherbert Fizz’.Larkspur ‘Imperials’ this is a seed mix but one of the amazing colours in there is a deep blue almost purple, which I try to save seed from each year. It looks great in a bouquet with the blue of Salvia ‘Oxford Blue’ and Cornflowers too. Again contrasting well with the yellows and oranges of Calendula. These can be sown in the autumn but also late winter, they need some cold to kick start their germination so you can sow and then put in an unheated greenhouse or put the seeds in the fridge for a couple of weeks. They get tall and will need some support, but keep cutting them and they will flower for a long season. Here with Feverfew, Salvia ‘Oxford Blue’, Sweet pea ‘Nimbus’ and Echium ‘Blue Bedder’.Nigella ‘Oxford Blue’ and Nigella ‘Delft blue’. These often do better from having been sown directly and as such its nice to dot these around your patch where you have some space. Is there a more romantic name for an annual than Love-in-a-mist? Its a perfect name for this delicate flowered beauty though they are pretty tough in the cutting patch and are a good one for seeding around once you have them. I especially love the Nigella ‘Delft Blue’, each flower has a different pattern of flowers. For picking in flower cut as they are just fully open, but always good to leave some for their fabulous seed heads and to allow some to set seed for next year. Again they are good from an autumn sowing but easy in spring too.

Salvia ‘Oxford Blue’ the workhorse of my cutting patch. Again a bit of a purply blue but lets not get into an argument. This year I have sown some in the autumn and they seem to be doing OK so far so hoping for some earlier flowers this year. I will sow again in the spring too. Its such a long flowerer on the cutting patch, a proper cut and come again crop. You can get this in a range of colours but I particularly like this blue form. The actual flowers on the stem are tiny but its the bracts that are the showy part, even as the flowers have faded the bracts hold their colour well. It is also good for drying.Here with Rudbeckia ‘Marmalade’, Zinnia ‘Mammoth’ and Larkspur ‘Imperials’.Cynoglossom ‘Firmament’ a beautiful sea-like blue colour, also called the Chinese Forget-me-not, I love this flower and also the delicate pink form ‘Mystic Pink’. I sow this in the spring undercover and plant once the frosts have passed. Like Cerinthe it can be a bit floppy if the stems are not seared in boiling water first, for picking best to wait to till all the flowers are open up the stem. The seeds are sticky fellas and will stick all over you if you wait for them to set seed before cutting back.Here with Salvia ‘Oxford Blue’, Feverfew, Nicotiana ‘Starlight Dancer’ and white Oreganum.So there you go some of my favourite blues. Hopefully some colour to brighten your monday.

Spring will soon be here.

Higgledy Anne

(I’m on Instagram anne_hinks if you fancy a follow, I’ve also joined Bluesky Anne Hinks)

I’m not a florist or a professional flower grower I just grow on a small scale and just for me (and my family and friends) but its become a bit of a passion. There is nothing nicer than going out and picking a bunch of flowers for yourself from your garden. I know its a real privilege and feel very lucky to have a garden. I don’t have a very big garden, there are lots of photos of it on Instagram if you want to have a peek, but I love it and its big enough and manageable enough for me. But is also just shows that you don’t need a big space to grow, you could even just grow in a small raised bed or just find a sunny spot in the garden, clear a space and grow some flowers. If you want some hints on starting a new cutting patch have a read here. I just want to have a varied range of flowers so that I can have beautiful seasonal arrangement from flowers and foliage in my garden. I’m hoping in my small way to inspire you to grow your own flowers too. But what should I grow in my cutting patch?Well firstly grow what you love. I will always have a wigwam or teepee of Sweet peas as they are just one of my favourite flowers for cutting. These are a must have for me and I know that summer has arrived when I pick my first big bunch of Sweet peas. They are just the best for scent as far as I am concerned. Look at the colour range they are great for adding into your mixed bouquets too. More info on sweet peas here, and you can sow them now too.

So look through seed catalogues and have a browse of the Higgledy garden seed shop and get dreaming of what you want in your patch. You might want to start off with some easier to grow varieties and there are definitely some that are tough and reliable, have a look at this blog for some easy wins. Cosmos are just so easy, have a long season for harvesting and such long flowering, its one that I always recommend, I will always have them in my cutting garden. Likewise Cornflowers they are pretty tough cookies and look beautiful in arrangements. But its also good to think about how you might arrange your flowers. I’m very much a novice when it comes to arranging, there are some brilliant flower growing and arranging books out there and there is so much available on social media, I’ve done some courses and these are great to get hands on advice and help. I do recommend if you want to learn from the experts then there are lots of brilliant tutors out there who do great courses. But after that the best thing to do is just have a go. See what you have in the garden and see what looks good together in an arrangement. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t but its just so much fun to try. But there is some general advice that can be helpful when putting together a bouquet and thus helpful when deciding what to grow in your cutting patch.

Its good to think about a number of different categories of flowers. The showstoppers, the supporting cast and the fillers and foliage. If you get a good balance of these in your cut flower garden you can’t go too far wrong.Firstly there are the stars of the show, the focal flowers, these are things like Ranunculus, Tulips, Dahlias and Roses. Usually large flowers, bright and eye-catching. The showstoppers are the flowers that your eyes are drawn to the most in the bouquet. I don’t tend to use the really big flowers in my arrangements, I find them really tricky unless you really have lots of other flowers for scale. For example, I love the huge dinnerplate Dahlias like Cafe au lait but gosh I find them really tricky to arrange. They need to be in really big showstopper arrangements for weddings and events and thats not the feel that I’m going for. But by all means go for those if you want a super special arrangement. I tend to go for smaller flowered dahlias that are good to grow in containers and the flowers are easier to place in arrangements. Many of these showstopper flowers can be a bit more expensive to grow and so you may not have so many at a time but thats fine, a little goes a long way. Many would be an investment in your garden (but a good one) but I’d say you don’t need loads of them. There are also many annuals and biennials that can be real stars in your bouquet Zinnias, Sunflowers, Cosmos, Amaranthus and Foxgloves. These are much cheaper and easier to grow and good for when you are getting started with your cutting patch. Click on the links for individual blogs about these fabulous flowers.

In this arrangement below the Rose ‘Munstead Wood’ is the star of the show. The supporting cast is the Ranunculus, Canterbury Bells and Knautia macedonica. The filler support is Sweet William ‘Nigricans’ and Corncockle.

However you need a supporting cast and these tend to be a bit smaller but compliment the focal flowers, these can be daisy-like flowers of Cornflowers, Rudbeckia, Corncockle, Calendula, or some of the ‘spiky’ flowers like Wallflowers, Larkspur and Snapdragons. All beautiful in their own way but smaller and less showy, you need plenty of these. These bring out the best in your showstoppers.

This has been one of my favourite arrangements and here the Sunflower ‘Valentine’ is the centre of attraction. Its is supported by Inula hookeri, Rudbeckia ‘Marmalade’ and Helianthus ‘Lemon Queen’ and the filler is Ammi visnaga, Nicotiana ‘Starlight Dancer’ and Bupleurum falcatum.

Finally there are the filler and foliage plants and flowers, these put their arms round the stars and the supporting cast and allow them to shine. Its a fine balance, you don’t want it to be too dominant but just bring out the best in them. Some can be a bit frothy and airy, you may want contrasting foliage colour or you may just want it to blend in and compliment the arrangement. The foliage really can seen as a base for the arrangement, a framework if you like into which you blend in the fillers, supporting and focal flowers. I’ll write a future blog in more detail about these filler flowers, but some of my favourites are Ammi visnaga, Cerinthe, Salvia viridis, the annual phloxes, like Phlox ‘Creme Brulee’, Gypsophila ‘Covent Garden’ and grasses like Briza and Panicum ‘Sprinkles’.

The Sunflowers are the stars of the show in this arrangement too. Helianthus ‘Ruby Eclipse’ and Helianthus ‘Red Sun’, the supporting flowers are Rudbeckia ‘Sahara’, Cosmos ‘Purity’ and Cosmos ‘Apricotta’ and the fillers are Ammi visnaga, Nicotiana ‘Bronze Queen’, Phlox ‘Creme Brulee’ and Panicum ‘Sprinkles’.

I don’t profess to be an expert on this at all, I’m still very much learning about this all the time from my favourite flower growers and arrangers, like Georgie Newbery and Sarah Raven, and just from going out there and giving it a go. But just having this range of flowers in your cutting patch will help you get a beautiful balanced arrangement. It’s really just worth experimenting with what you have in your garden.

There is obviously often a bit of overlap between the categories, some like Phlox, Gypsophila and Cynoglossum can be used as supporting flowers too or just as filler. Sometimes you may not have any real showstoppers to pick from your garden and sometimes a more gently froth of smaller flowers can be just as beautiful. Its not set in stone and the rules are there to be broken.

In this arrangement, I’d say there is no real showstopper unless you count the Narcissus ‘Thalia’, but I like its frothy mix, the supporting flowers are the Wallflowers ‘Ivory White’ and ‘Cloth of Gold‘ and some Spanish Bluebells. Some fillers from Honesty, Omphalodes linifolia ‘Little Snow White’ and some lovely grass flower heads from Melica altissima ‘Alba’.

In this arrangement I just kept it very simple with Godetia ‘Crown’ and ‘Memoria’ with one of my favourite fillers Oreganum vulgare.

Sometimes you just want a vase of just a single variety, this can be gorgeous, like this pot of Cornflowers.Hopefully this have been helpful to get you thinking about what you might grow in your cutting patch. A few showstoppers to be the stars of your arrangements, some supporting flowers to mingle with the stars and some filler flowers to pull it all together. But ultimately just grow the flowers that you love!

Wishing you all a flowery summer.

Higgledy Anne

(I’m on Instagram anne_hinks if you fancy a follow, I’ve also joined Bluesky Anne Hinks)

Happy new year to you all, hope you had a lovely Christmas break and happy holidays. Mine was a mix of family time and lots of quiet days at home. My family is a big one and its hard to get us all together for the actual Christmas time but we have a get together a weekend or so before the big day at a local pub (luckily we all live around and about the North west). Siblings, in-laws, nephews, nieces and great nephews and nieces, a lovely chaotic time. Our actual Christmas day is a lot quieter, this year we managed to do the Christmas day park run which set us up for the day. Lunch was at my sisters with her partner, lots of good food and chat, less frantic than the Christmas’s of old but perfect. After Christmas day I love the quiet time between Christmas and New Year, we’ve struck a nice balance this year with lots of fresh air and exercise but also lots time on the sofa reading, watching films and just chilling out. I even managed a couple hours of gardening! But the Christmas tree came down today, with all the ornaments and paraphenalia going back up in the loft for another year, followed by a good dust and clean. But why is it that you always miss something and have to go back up into the loft again, its one of those Christmas mysteries!But I actually feel refreshed and I’m starting to feel the excitement rising about the new growing year ahead. There is always that feeling of a fresh start, a clean slate, thats one of the things I love the most about gardening, its the cyclical nature, each year you start afresh. Its a chance to try new things, experiment a little, I love that. Maybe you want to start growing more cut flowers from home, start a little cutting patch or grow more pollinator friendly flowers. There is not much better than going out into your garden and picking a bouquet of flowers for the house, I get so much joy out of it. I can tell you for a fact they will be nicer than anything that you can buy from the supermarket and often will be very different from the blooms that you can buy at a florist.So what are the advantages of growing your own flowers well there is the obvious environmental benefit, you will be getting rid of the airmiles in transporting roses halfway across the world into your supermarket. Grown on an industrial scale, using chemicals and all sorts of nasties, and often linked to poor working conditions for the growers. They are bred with that transport in mind so very uniform, I just find most cutflowers that you see in supermarkets so boring. One of the first things you naturally do when you are given a bunch of roses is stick your nose in them, but most of them have been bred without that delicious rose scent so that they have a longer vase life. Crazy to me. However, I think one of the most important thing about growing your own flowers for me is that it really brings the seasonality of your garden to you, you really appreciate the changing flora through the year and celebrate that in all it’s delicate details.I also just enjoy the process of it all, sowing seeds to me is one of the most joyful things in life that you can do. That simple process of sticking a little seed into some pots of compost or directly into the soil and watching for those green shoots of life, fills me with wonder everytime. So what are the best things to grow, well for beginners the easiest things are annuals which you can grow from seed. Cornflowers, Ammi, Nigella, Calendula, Cosmos and Cerinthe are just some of the wide range of annuals that are just great as cut flowers.Think about where you are going to grow your flowers, will you have a specific cutting patch, the advantage of having parts of your garden designated for cutting is that you don’t then worry about cutting them and taking flowers and thus some of the colour away from your garden. However you may not have room for a specific area but don’t let that stop you, you can still grow flowers for cutting. Just clear some gaps in your borders and sow directly or plant in some annual seedlings and they will soon take off. But do remember that most annuals need a sunny spot so bear this in mind, not too windswept a site and good well-drained but moist soil. The other alternative is to grow in pots or large containers and many annuals are suited to that, Ben has proved that with his amazing boat garden through the years, but you do have to make sure that you keep them well fed and watered. Not all annuals need super-rich soil but some like sweet peas espcially need good nutrient rich soil with plenty of water. I grow some of my Dahlias in big dustbins and they do brilliantly well.I have a cutting patch (which seems to be expanding a bit each year!) which is composed of raised beds, each one is roughly 1m by 1.2m. If you are creating beds within borders just make sure they are not too wide, around 1m is ideal. You need to be able to reach in to the beds to cut your flowers. I’ve got quite a lot of trees in my garden so its not perfect as many are not in full, full sun but they all get some sun for some part of the day. You just have to work with what you have. Some annuals are more fussy than others, Zinnias especially need a good sunny spot to really flower well (or a very good summer!), I do have a couple of spots in my garden with full sun and I prioritise planting the Zinnias in these areas. You can start to prepare your patch for the growing season ahead as soon as the weather allows (my garden is covered in snow today). Clear any weeds, you don’t want any couch grass or the like smothering your annuals. You might need to add some organic matter to help improve drainage and give a bit of a boost to the soil. If you are growing particularly hungry plants like Dahlias and Sweet peas you can add some manure to boost the fertility and this also helps retain moisture too.

So what should you grow, well as I said annuals are just so good as a starting point for your cutting garden. There are many easy varieties out there and many are truly cut and come again so the more you pick the more you will harvest. When browsing through seed catalogues many will tell you if they are good as a cut flower, check the stem length, avoid dwarf varieties that would just look stumpy in a vase, but look for flowers that you love. Here at Higgledy we only select good varieties, tried and tested by us all, that are suitable for cutting so we’ve done the hard work for you. So have a good look through the shop and read the great descriptions and work out what you like. There are definitely some that are pretty tough and resilient. You may want to go for particular colour schemes or just have a vibrant mix, have a look at this blog for some suggestions.Then you need to think about how you will grow them, will you be sowing direct into your raised beds or will you sow into pots and trays and transplant them as young seedlings or plants into your cutting patch. The easiest option is to sow directly, you don’t need any equipment for that, just sow according the seed instructions. Here its important you know the difference between a hardy and half-hardy annual. Half-hardy annuals will be killed off by frosts so if you are sowing these directly they need to be sown after your last frosts. This will depend where you are in the country, but usually end of May beginning of July. Hardy annuals are a bit tougher and can be sown as soon as the soil is warm enough for germination. A good tip for knowing when the time is right is when you start seeing weed seeds germinating in your garden, if its good enough for them then it will be fine for your annuals. For more information about specific seed growing instructions see the Higgledy garden seed sowing guide. You can sow in rows so that you can easily identify where you have sown them, or broadcast sow covering the whole area assigned for them. Some annuals do well from direct sowing, like Nigella, Calendula, Cornflowers, Briza, Borage, Nasturtiums and Sunflowers. I have to be honest though I don’t tend to sow very much directly into my raised beds, I prefer to sow in pots or trays and just grow them on. The main reason for this is so that I can get a bit ahead with things. I can sow undercover earlier with a bit of warmth, protect them and plant them out as soon as the conditions are good. Plus I can just plant out exactly what I need. You just need some pots and some good peat-free compost. I grow slightly more than I think I will need in case of some losses, you can always give away any spares or squeeze them in to your garden borders. But find out what works best for you. I have to say timing is important, many people sow way to early, thats fine if you have space and means to protect them from the weather. You want your seeds to germinate quickly and grow smoothly and evenly without fits and starts, growth will be checked if it suddenly gets a cold. They not only need some warmth but they also need good light, they will become leggy otherwise. It can make them more vulnerable to pests. Better to wait till the conditions are right before you sow but if you can’t resist just sow a small amount and then you will see how they do and if they fail you can sow again when the conditions are better. A general rule of thumb if you have no protection, I would say, is April for hardy annuals (Ben always says wait for the spring solstice) and end of May into June for half hardies. Whether you sow directly or in pots you will need to also think about spacing of your final plants, some need a bit of space around them, others can jostle and mingle closely. Again more information for each plant is in the seed sowing guide. Just do a bit of research into your favourite varieties about spacing and then you can work out how many per row and you can get a rough plan of your cutting patch. Growing in rows is just an efficient way to grow in terms of ease for weeding and for cutting your harvest. Once you have really got into it you might think more about successional sowing so that you extend the cutting season of a particular flower. One of the easiest ways to do this for some annuals is to sow some in the autumn and then again in spring. Growing biennials (such as Sweet Rocket, Wallflowers, Sweet William, Foxgloves and Honesty) is another way to extend the season as they tend to flower in the spring and fill that gap before your spring or autumn sown annuals get going. Biennials are sown in May/June for flowering around that time a year later. More information on growing biennials can be found here.

Its not all about the annuals and biennials though I would say they are the workhorse of your cutting patch especially if you grow truly cut and come again varieties, but so many perennials make great cut flowers. Asters, Rudbeckias, Sanguisorba, Alchemilla, Geums, Feverfew, Leucanthemum and Knautia are just some of the perennials that are good for cut flowers and they come back every year. Many of these you can grow from seed including the amazing Dahlias like ‘Bishops Children’. I have a raised bed full of great perennials for cutting and also am forever foraging from my borders. These really add something unique to your bouquets. Once you really get addicted to it, you might grow some bulbs like tulips or Narcissus to extend your season into spring. For foliage having access to some shrubs can be really useful too. Can I say that word again just get out there and experiment, its what gardening is all about.But lets not completely over complicate things if you are just getting started. Just start with some annuals and I can almost guarantee you will get hooked. A simple cutting patch could perhaps have a wigwam of Sweet peas in the middle and some easy hardy annuals on one side, say a row each Cornflowers, Cerinthe and Nigella. On the other side a row of Cosmos and maybe some Ammi and Calendula. This would be a simple starting point but really the sky is the limit. I would recommend though trying a few different varieties, then if say one gets eaten by slugs you still have others to cut from and you want a bit of a mixture for your posies. Slugs can be a bit of a challenge (they were a right pain in the **** last year), I won’t use slug pellets as I have cats and hedgehogs in my garden so slug patrols are crucial especially when they are first planted or newly sown. Because I tend to sow my annuals undercover I grow them on till they are a decent size for planting out, they are sturdier and more likely to survive a small amount being nibbled by slugs.

Many annuals will need some sort of support, sweet peas need something to climb up and others many need some structures to stop them from getting knocked over, this can be in the form of simple bamboo canes, twiggy sticks, willow supports or jute netting. I try to avoid using plastic netting but if you do use it, look after it so that you can reuse it again and again, I always just get it in a tangle. Supporting your cut flower beds is important or you risk ruining all your hard work by them collapsing after a heavy summer rainstorm. Bent and quirky stems are not great for cutting and arranging.Hope this is all useful advice, just a few things to think about if you are looking to create your own cutting patch but I just urge you to get started and give it a go, there are lots of blogs here to help you along. There will be more blogs coming up on choosing your plants and for seed sowing but now is the time to just dream and start planning your summer garden.

Higgledy trilogies have been launched in the New Year and are small collections of seeds that make good companions. All for £5, ready to be sown in the spring.

Trilogy #1

Trilogy #2

Trilogy #3

Wishing you all a flower filled 2025

Higgledy Anne

(I’m on Instagram anne_hinks if you fancy a follow, I’ve also joined Bluesky Anne Hinks)

How can it possibly be nearly Christmas, this year has whizzed by in a flash its quite hard to believe. Winter is fully upon us but the sparkly lights of Christmas see us through the dark days until the winter solstice. To be honest thats my winter countdown, the countdown to the shortest day, to when we will start inch by inch seeing a bit more light each day. But I’m also mindful that I don’t want to wish time away, its so precious. So I’m just enjoying pulling the curtains across in the early evening and settling in with a book or catching up with some good series on TV (Slow Horses anyone? We have been loving that!) or watching films. Doing things I don’t always have time for in the summer when I just want to be in the garden. I’ve been sorting through my photos taken throughout the year (I take way too many), getting them a bit organised and remembering the sunny days.We have started a new tradition, for the last couple of years I’ve been meeting up with two of my sisters and spending a relaxing morning making our Christmas wreaths. I reuse willow frames that I’ve made in previous years and we all have a forage in our gardens for foliage and seed heads and bring them all together and share it out. A bit of Christmas music on and some Christmas treats get us through and we forget about the spiky leaves of the holly. All the spare bits have brightened up the flower display in my garden.

I haven’t had much time to get in the garden, but thats fine at this time of year, the garden is settling into its quieter time too. There are still jobs I need to do but it mostly involves clearing leaves off the grass, cutting back where things have collapsed and are looking a bit messy. There are already signs of new growth in the garden from those winter stalwarts the hellebores. New flower buds and the Christmas rose is already in flower.I’m keeping an eye on things in the greenhouse, we have had a few hard frosts now but all seems ok in there. I’ve learnt my lesson this year and moved my Pelargoniums and Aeoniums inside for the winter, I’ve lost them too many times now. I do try and open up the door on nicer days to keep the airflow moving in there. My sweet peas were getting a bit leggy so I’ve nipped the tops off those and also given them a water as they had got a bit dry. Careful watering is needed to give them enough to keep them healthy but not too much. The ranunculus are growing well and maybe need planting soon undercover like I did last year. The autumn sown annuals are OK, had the odd loss due to a rogue slug, but they will just grow quietly and slowly now.

Cornflowers

All Christmas shopping is done now so I can relax. Have you done yours? If you want any last minute ideas then here at Higgledy we have a couple of bundles that make perfect Christmas presents. They both contain 12 packets of seeds and are a nice mix of hardy and half hardy annuals, all the easy ones, a great mix of colours and many that are great for the bees. We have lots of information on blog and in the seed sowing guide for how to grow them next year.

Larkspur ‘Imperials’

Christmas Bundle 1 includes Larkspur ‘Imperials’, a fabulous mix of colours including a really vivid blue that go so well with some of the other blues in this collection. Cornflower ‘Blue Ball’, so reliable and easy to grow, Borage officinalis beloved by bees for its plentiful nectar supply. Another great one for the bees is Phacelia, such an unusual flower and super easy to sow directly into the soil. Nigella ‘Oxford Blue’ another glorious blue and Nigella is another great one for direct sowing. The seed heads on Nigella extend its season and usefulness as a cutflower.

Calendula ‘Ice Maiden’

Combine these blues with the subtle pale yellow, almost white, Calendula ‘Ice Maiden’ or the frothy white of Ammi majus and you have some lovely soft colours or add a bit of zing from Dill ‘Mammoth’, a acid green flower thats great as a filler in bouquets and smells so sweet. Then we have some lovely pink tones from Cosmos ‘Fizzy Rose’ (I celebrated the joys of Cosmos in my last blogpost) and Godetia ‘Crown’, such a great cut flower that is much loved by us here at Higgledy.

Cosmos ‘Fizzy Rose’

Snapdragon ‘Lucky Lips’ adds some great spikes for your garden or arrangements and goes beautifully with Cosmos ‘Fizzy Rose’. To add some movement and textures to both your borders or your posies then Briza is fabulous, it will self seed but that means once you sow it once you don’t need to again!

Christmas Bundle 2 includes again a nice mixture of vibrant colours and cooler shades. Chrysanthemum ‘Rainbow Hippy Lovechild’ such a cheery annual that mingles and mixes well with so many other flowers.

Cerinthe

Cerinthe a great flower for adding great foliage for your bouquets and always buzzing with bees. We have included a few white flowers to add some lightness, Nigella ‘Alba’, as I said above a great easy annual for direct sowing, Ammi visnaga, one of my favourite filler flowers and Cosmos ‘Purity’, such a long lasting cutflower and brilliant cut and come again crop in your cutting patch.

We have another Cornflower ‘Black Ball’ this time with dark almost black flowers that looks great with some of the zingy shades like Malope trifida ‘Vulcan’, Rudbeckia ‘Marmalade’ or Nicotiana ‘Lime’ or the sumptuous grand dame of the flower garden Amaranthus ‘Red’, read more about this drama queen here.

Amaranthus red with sunflowers

Salvia ‘Oxford Blue’ is one of my most long lasting flowers in my cutting garden and such a great filler for arrangements and posies.

Salvia ‘Oxford Blue’ with Larkspur and sweet peasFinally the famous Scabiosa ‘Ping Pong’ a real talking point in the garden, not really for its flower which is is a lovely pale blue, but more for its seed heads which are just a joy.

Anyway we think the bundles are a lovely mixture of flowers and would make great presents. Last chance to order now until 15th December at Midnight (Ben likes to be a bit dramatic) then we can make sure they are delivered to you before Christmas. Free Christmassy gift tags too!

Christmas Bundle 1

Christmas Bundle 2

Wishing you all a lovely Christmas time and hope Santa brings you lots of flowery presents.

Higgledy Anne

(I’m on Instagram anne_hinks if you fancy a follow, I’ve also joined Bluesky Anne Hinks)

We have finally had a break in the anticyclonic gloom that just seemed to render the world colourless and felt heavy on our shoulders, the sun has broken through, its much needed. I’ve been thinking about colour in the garden and cutting patch, thinking about what flowers to grow for next year. I like to mix it up a little bit, try new varieties, are there any new colours that grab me? Do I want to try and colour coordinate my cutting patch or just have a joyful muddle of colours? Its usually the latter, I just want to fit as much in as I can in my modest garden. Are you particular about colour matching or does anything go? You hear about people who won’t have a particular colour in their garden, usually yellow or orange. But yellow is the colour of spring to me, how can you not have cheery daffodils to light up your garden after the long winter. Its also a big colour for late summer with sunflowers and Rudbeckias bringing a vibrancy to the garden. For oranges I think about the beautiful Geums, that fabulous late spring flowering perennial that are the stars in my garden in May and June. Or the vibrant orange of Calendula ‘Indian Prince’.Some people go for colour themed gardens or borders, often a very tasteful white garden which do look very romantic and beautiful like the one at Sissinghurst. Or maybe go for a hot border with vibrant colours of yellow, orange and red. I do love these and a great example are the borders leading you in to the Paradise garden at RHS Bridgewater, one of my favourite parts of the garden. Personally my garden is a bit of a mixture I love plants so much that I’m always trying to squeeze more in and sometimes the colour schemes tend to get thrown out of the window.When I first started growing annuals as cut flowers I was so inspired by Sarah Raven and her book Grow your own cut flowers. That book with the vibrant acid green and pink cover was what started me off growing flowers for cutting on my allotment. Cerinthe, the vibrant orange of Calendula ‘Indian Prince’, Cornflower ‘Blue Ball’, Nigella, Euphorbia oblongata and sunflowers were my starting point and then it just took off. I loved those energetic colours and still grow most of them to this day. A  combination from this year of Calendula ‘Indian Prince’ and ‘Sherbert Fizz’, with Cornflower ‘Black Ball’, Cerinthe and Orlaya grandiflora.There are definite colour trends that are found in fashion, interior design and floristry, I can’t pretend to know anything about the current vibes in fashion and I think the recent fad for all things grey in interior design is fading (personally I’ve always loved a house full of colour and as soon as I moved into my current house, that was painted throughout in Magnolia, the paint pots came out and colour now drenches the walls). But it feels to me that the current colour scheme most loved by flowery folks are more antiquey shades, peachy apricot, dusky pinks, lilacy grey, beige almost. This is highlighted by the popularity of varieties such as Phlox ‘Creme brulee’, Cosmos ‘Apricotta’, Sweet Pea ‘Kings Ransom’, Papaver ‘Amazing Grey’, Rosa ‘Koko Loco’ and Tulip ‘La belle Epoque’.

Here we have my two current favourites Phlox ‘Creme Brulee’ and Cosmos ‘Apricotta’ with Amberboa muricata and lilac Canterbury bells. Delicious!

I have succumbed to many of these beauties and my arrangements have leaned more to these tones in the last couple of years but I also always have plenty of other colours in my cutting garden and I do still love vibrant shades of acid greens, blues and oranges. Here we have the dark purple Canterbury Bells with Corncockle ‘Bianca’, Orlaya grandiflora and the wondrous acid green of Alchemilla mollis.So when it comes to making floral arrangements colour is one of the crucial things for me. I love the process of combining different colours, thinking about what goes well together. It’s important to combine different flower shapes and textures but I think for me colour is the key. It determines the feel of the arrangement.

You may want calm and relaxing colours, pastel shades and whites are the colours here the more cooler colours.

Here we have a lovely pastel mix, big on Cornflowers, Canterbury Bells and Feverfew with the pink spikes of Astillbe.

Alternatively you may want a vibrant, invigorating colour mix, here you might pick more contrasting colours, often hotter colours. Here we have zingy mix of Zinnia ‘Purple Prince’, Rudbeckia ‘Marmalade’, Larkspur ‘Imperials’, Salvia ‘Oxford Blue’ and Helianthus ‘Lemon Queen’ and bright acid green foliage of Physocarpus.You might start with your key flower in your arrangement and build up from that. I had the first flowers of my favourite rose ‘Munstead Wood’ and wanted to celebrate them.So I combined with some pink Canterbury Bells, Cornflower ‘Black Ball’, the vibrant pink Corncockle, and Sweet William ‘Nigricans’.

Sometimes it might not be the flower petals that are the focus in the colour combination but sometimes it might be the buds that pick out the petals on another flower or central boss of the flower might be the key to the colour combination. The Sunflower ‘Ruby Eclipse’ and ‘Summer Lovin’ both have a dark red halo in the centre of the flower which goes perfectly with Amaranthus Red. Mixed in with Ammi visnaga and the Phlox ‘Creme Brulee’.

The foliage is also a key part of the colour combination. I especially love Physocarpus as foliage and ‘Diablo’ is a stunning dark leafed form. Here its combined with vivid dark pink of Ranunculus and Cytisus ‘Boskoop Ruby’, some stems of honeysuckle that are blushed in pink, with splashes of white from Allium cowanii.

You might want to use shades of one colour. Like shades of yellow here from Sunflower ‘Valentine, Rudbeckia ‘Marmalade’, Nicotiana ‘Starlight Dancer’, Inula hookeri, Ammi visnaga and Bupleurum falcatum.

My arrangements are all seasonal and sometimes that drives the colours, so more pale yellows and blues in spring. Here the beautiful white flowers of Narcissus ‘Thalia’ and pale yellow ‘Minnow’ look delightful with Wallflower ‘Cloth of Gold’ and lilac Honesty.

Then more warmer hot colours in the autumn. Here we have Sunflower ‘Ruby Eclipse’ and ‘Red Sun’ with Phlox ‘Creme Brulee’, Ammi visnaga, Rudbeckia ‘Sahara’, Cosmos ‘Purity’ and ‘Apricotta’. In the summer almost anything goes as there is usually so much in flower.

Finally a little monochrome combination using Sweet William ‘Alba’ and ‘Nigricans’.

But sometimes you still can’t beat the simplicity of a big mixed bunch of sweet peas!

So there you go some colourful inspiration to brighten up the wintry days, keep us going till the winter equinox when the light will slowly return. Come and join me with planning your cutting garden to bring lots of colour.

Higgledy Anne

(I’m on Instagram anne_hinks if you fancy a follow)

Phew we have made it through. We have got to the end of another growing season but boy oh boy it has been a challenging one. October, or early November if we are lucky, is the turning point for me when my cut flower garden is coming to a natural end exhausted itself from performing week in week out and providing me with bunches of blooms. It has to be said that I’m also pretty exhausted by this time and ready to slow down a little bit. I have started clearing the beds and making space for next years flowers but I don’t rush it, just fit it in as and when the weather is good. Fortunately we have had a dry spell for a few days and its been wonderful. I lost my gardening mojo a bit at the end of the summer and its taken its time to come back so I just set myself one garden job last week which was to cut down the tomatoes in the greenhouse and that led to tidying the greenhouse, then another job and another and now I’m back in love with my garden.But though things are slowing down autumn is also an important time for planning for next year, I have already sown some hardy annuals for earlier flowering next year and now is also a good time to sow sweet peas. Its worth noting that we have some new sweet pea varieties this year.  There are bulbs to plant and I also like to get a batch of Ranunculus started now. But its much less frantic now than that busy time in the spring and I take my time and enjoy being able to potter about in the garden and the potting shed making the most of the autumn sunshine. Jed likes to join me in there as its the sunniest spot in the garden in the afternoon.

But it is also a good time to look back and see how things have been whilst its all fresh in your mind is there anything that you wouldn’t grow again or on the flip side what was the real star this year. It has been a very challenging weather year, a very prolonged cold spring which was also very wet. A soggy, grey summer with not a huge amount of sunshine and not even a real respite of the weather in the autumn which has also been very beset by heavy downpours. And then 2024 has got to be crowned the year of the slug oh my goodness they have been everywhere and it has really been a bit of a battle. Some flowers have not fared well, those that like sunshine and warmth have struggled in my garden, most notably the Zinnias which in previous years have been good. Every year I try and find a more sunny spot for them but where I put them this year is now a bit shaded by a beech hedge so will try again next year. But other things like Sweet peas have loved this cool damp weather and flowered so much longer than in previous years. Its fair to say in gardening that you win some and you lose some, which is why its good to grow a bit of a variety of things. However, despite everything the weather has thrown at us, I’ve still had a colourful cutting batch and plenty to cut and arrange.I’ve just been helping design a cut flower garden and its made me think about the varieties that are very reliable. There are a number of annuals that are just a bit more bomb-proof than others and these are varieties that I just love to grow every year. Salvia ‘Oxford Blue’ is one of my favourite filler flowers, its still flowering in my garden at the beginning of November. I think of it as a real unsung hero of the cutflower garden. Quietly getting on with things in the background. Once established it doesn’t seem to be troubled by slugs, the more you pick the more it flowers and it lasts a long time in the vase. Its fabulous mixer with vibrant shades or more pastel tones.

Another annual I’ve still been picking late into October is Nicotiana ‘Sensation’. Again Nicotiana is one of the varieties that is less loved by slugs once established and again is another good cut-and-come again cut flower. The seed is tiny and you think it will be ages before you get a good sturdy plant but once germinated and pricked out into their only little pot they race away and soon develop into a good looking plant ready to go in your garden. It has coped with the heavy downpours that we have had through the summer but I’ve also found it very drought tolerant in summers where that has been an issue.

Cornflowers for me are just perfect for a cutting garden. They are such reliable flowers, come in a lovely range of colours from pure blue (Cornflower ‘Blue Ball’) to almost black (Cornflower ‘Black Ball’), you can sow them in the autumn for early flowering next year and they add a delightful natural vibe to your bouquets. Easy to sow and tough cookies in the garden.

For a bit of froth then you can’t beat Ammi majus or Ammi visnaga, I’ve taken more to using the latter in recent years. I just love the foliage on it and the flowers are slightly smaller and easier to incorporate into arrangements. Again both are pretty slug resilient, and can be sown in autumn for earlier flowering and more robust plants. I use it in nearly all my arrangements in the summer months.

One annual that has really surprised me over the last couple of years as to how reliable it is, is Amaranthus Red. It always looked to me so unusual and exotic that I just assumed that it would be a diva to grow but not a bit of it. This is a half hardy annual and has to be planted out once the risk of frosts has passed but once planted and growing it grows fast and tall. It needs to be staked but other than that there is hardly any maintenance to do apart from picking those dramatic drooping flowers that look divine in an arrangement. Its drought tolerant but also has coped with the wet summer this year. I’ve still got a couple of plants at the end of one of the raised beds in my cutting patch looking good. So its long flowering. I grew the green form this year too but don’t think you can beat the deep red flowers for combining with Dahlias and Sunflowers.

Finally no cut flower garden of mine is complete without Cosmos, they are just one of the best for sheer volume of flowers per plant and for a mighty cut and come again crop. Mine got a little bit nibbled this year by slugs which is unusual but once established they grow big and have such a presence in the garden or cut flower patch. They are also pretty drought tolerant too (I know that hasn’t been relevant this year!). As most people know I love ‘Apricotta’ but they are all stars for me. We have a couple of new varieties as well this year ‘Double Click Cranberries’ and ‘Xsenia’.

So those are just a few of my favourite more resilient and reliable annual flowers, but there are other things that we can do to make the plants a bit more resilient. Well in terms of slugs, one thing is to grow your plants on a bit to a decent size before planting out in your garden. I tend to sow most things in pots or trays rather than sowing directly into the soil. This is more because I’ve only got a fairly small plot and just grow a few plants of lots of things so I can control things better if growing in pots. Slotting new things in as some things go over. I will prick them out individually into pots and get them growing well and well rooted before planting. Especially things like Zinnias and Sunflowers that are slug magnets in bad years. The stronger and healthier the plant the more likely it is to withstand any slug or pest damage. But it also pays to be vigilent on first planting and going out on slug patrols in the evening and removing any pesky critters to the compost heap or how ever you choose to despatch these creatures. Use good peat-free compost for sowing and potting on and keep them weed free especially once planted in the garden. They don’t want competition for growing space or nutrients. I have used Strulch a bit this year to mulch the raised beds, this keeps in moisture, suppresses weeds and also protects your young plants from slugs.There are also plenty of varieties that are good and reliable for sowing directly, such as Calendula, Borage, Nigella, Daucus carota, Eschscholzia, Briza maxima and Nasturtiums. Ben sows lots of his directly and has great success. If you are sowing directly, here is a blog post by Ben on what he’s been doing to take on the slugs on his plots. These are good plants to establish in your garden as they are also good self seeders so that you only have to sow them once and they tend to come back of their own accord every year, making life a lot easier for you. This is what I’m trying to establish in my cut flower garden too.

So just a few of my favourites that I’ve found to be pretty weather-resistent and less susceptible to slugs (once established) and just brilliant for cutting, being productive as well as pretty. What more could you ask for in a plant.

Higgledy Anne

(I’m on Instagram anne_hinks if you fancy a follow)

Autumn is in full flow now, we have had a couple of frosts here and most of the plants in my cutting garden are looking a bit sorry for themselves now. The sunflowers are a bit bedraggled, the Cosmos are producing much smaller flowers but I’ve still got a few Phlox ‘Creme Brulee’ going strong, the Salvia ‘Oxford Blue’ is fading but still producing lots of flowers. But this is the cyclical nature of gardening which I love so I’m starting to clear things now and taking back a bit of control. I’ve still got some biennials to plant in the spaces made so it all fits together perfectly. My dahlias will be moved to the greenhouse and I’ll be planting my Ranunculus claws this week. My hardy annuals are all growing well and so far not touched by any slugs or snails.

I sowed my sweet pea seeds on the 7th October, just before I went on holiday, and they are just starting to peek their little green shoots above the compost. I sowed them in the greenhouse which is still nice and warm but once they are all showing I will move them somewhere cooler as I don’t want them to grow too fast. So outside in a sheltered spot or in a cold frame, or in my case I tend to keep them in the cooler half of my greenhouse which isn’t insulated. But there is still plenty of time to sow, any time until March in fact. Just remember once it gets colder they may not germinate outside so bring them in somewhere warm and then once germinated they can go back outside. I just protect mine with some fleece if we have a prolonged frost of below -5 degrees which they can suffer in. Hopefully my autumn sown varieties will be able to be planted out in late March, but from a winter sowing they will be good for planting in April. You really just have to play it by ear according to what the weather is like in early spring. I will sow some more in February too to extend the flowering season. For more information of autumn sowing of sweet peas see my previous blog post. Plus there is the more general advice in the Higgledy Garden seed sowing guide.

But I am planning on sowing a few more this week as we have added a couple more varieties to the Higgledy Garden Sweet pea range.

The first is Sweet pea ‘Mrs R Bolton’, we like to have a good range of the single colour cultivars and this one is a nice peachy colour, which will look fabulous in with the pastel shades of sweet peas.

I think it will go perfectly with the lilacs and blue shades of ‘Leamington’ and ‘Noel Sutton’. Add a bit of white of ‘Swan Lake’ and maybe a bit of pink from ‘Eclipse’ and you are sorted with a glorious bunch of romantic pastel shades. If you want to add a bit more of a richer colour palette then perhaps try the sumptuous dark purple ‘Flagship’ or dark almost black ‘Beaujolais’. I’m also excited about trying it with other peachy coloured annuals like Cosmos ‘Apricotta’ and Phlox ‘Creme Brulee’. Or the dark tones of Cornflower ‘Black Ball’ and the dusky blues of ‘Cerinthe’.

The second is Sweet pea ‘Sir Jimmy Shand’, this is a lovely variety with a ripple colour effect across the flower a bit like ‘Nimbus’ which unfortunately we are out of stock of at the moment. But this is a lighter shade of lilac in the stripes and ripples. Again this is probably more in the pastel tone end of the sweet pea colour range but we could all do with some more romance in this life. So a big bouquet of romantic pastel shades sounds perfect to me. This cultivar also has a frill to the petals, nice long stems and a good scent too.

I’m looking forward to trying it with the clear white of ‘Swan Lake’ and the pale pink of ‘Alan Williams’. I also think it will go well with the dark purple of ‘Flagship’. But it would also add a bit of brightness to one of the sweet pea mixes that we sell like ‘Starry Night’.

We have a special offer on at the moment of a bundle of sweet peas seeds that includes many of the varieties mentioned above. Have a look here.

Higgledy Anne

(I’m on Instagram anne_hinks if you fancy a follow)

Its August folks, can you believe it? Where is the year going to, it will soon be time for Strictly again! It already feels like there is a shift towards autumn. I was up early for a run this week and there was a definite chill in the air, it was foggy and such a heavy dew on the grass and flowers. The hedgerows near me are full of blackberries, its been a good year for those, and the white flowers of the bindweed are covering the hedges like bunting. There were hundreds of spiders webs speckled with the heavy dew. I don’t mind too much as I love autumn but I was hoping to have a summer first. I’m sure we will still have some nice weather to come but there is a definite change in the air. To be fair this summer has suited me, I don’t really like those boiling hot days and scorched gardens, good job living up North! We have had some lovely sunny days but then some days of heavy rain and the garden has liked that, everything is still very green and lush. The sweet peas have loved it but the slugs have also had a party this summer.One of my favourite bouquets this month, with Cosmos ‘Purity’ and Cosmos ‘Apricotta’, Phlox ‘Creme Brulee’ and ‘Cherry Caramel’, Oreganum, Ammi visnaga, Scabious ‘Fata Morgana’, Lysimachia clethroides and Dahlia ‘Rip City’.

After a bit of a slow start the cutting garden has come good on the whole, there have been some losers but I’ve had plenty for cutting. August is a quiet time work wise in the cut flower garden, all I really do is try to keep on top of cutting the flowers, or deadheading them if they get away from me, and watering if its needed. I tend to lose my gardening mojo a bit in August, its all a bit manic in May and June that by August I’m a bit exhausted and need a break. I’ve realised this now so just accept it and use the summer to try and recharge a bit and just let the garden be. We tend to go away in September and then I’m back ready to get going with autumn seed sowing and bulb planting and so the cycle goes on.The sunflowers are here in abundance. This year I’ve grown ‘Red Sun’ at the front here, then as you go round clockwise there is ‘Summer Lovin’, dark red ‘Claret’ at the top, I love the little ‘Valentine’ yellow and then ‘Ruby Eclipse’ that has pink blushed through it.I used ‘Summer Lovin’ and ‘Ruby Eclipse’ with some of the Red Amaranthus which is looking glorious now, Ammi visnaga and Phlox ‘Creme Brulee’. The red of the Amaranthus picking up the reds and pinks in the sunflowers beautifully.

I love the smaller lemon yellow sunflower, Helianthus ‘Valentine’, its such a lovely colour and the smaller flower heads are easier to incorporate into bouquets. Here it’s included in a softly coloured posy with the beautiful Aster ‘Little Carlow’, the perennial sunflower Helianthus ‘Lemon Queen’ and the seedheads of Bupleurum falcatum and more of that fabulous filler Ammi visnaga. 

So some areas of my garden need some attention now, the autumn sown annuals have all gone over now and they need digging up and composting but before I do that I always see if I can collect some seeds. Nice easy ones to collect are the spiky hedgehog-like seeds of Orlaya grandiflora, which I think likes to be sown fresh, the big black seeds of Cerinthe and the weird alien-like ones of Calendula. The big pods of Corncockle are ready for collecting now and I’ve left some of my larkspur to set seed. Or you may want to pick some for the seedheads for drying, like Honesty and Nigella for flower arrangements in the winter. The sweet peas have mostly gone over now and I still need to clear some of the biennials, but there is no rush.The Cosmos is coming fast now and needs picking or deadheading regularly, I love combining Cosmos ‘Apricotta’ with Phlox ‘Creme Brulee’. Here with the beautiful Larkspur ‘Misty Lavender’, Salvia ‘Oxford Blue’, Sweet pea ‘Nimbus’ and Sweet pea ‘Swan Lake’, the white spikes of Lysimachia barystachys, white Oregano and Sedum.

More Cosmos ‘Apricotta’, now joined now with Cosmos ‘Double Click Cranberries’, Phlox ‘Creme Brulee’ and ‘Cherry Caramel’, Scabious ‘Magic’, Nicotiana ‘Starlight Dancer’ and Ammi visnaga.

I also have to keep remembering to keep an eye on the biennials that I sowed in July, they need careful watering and also protecting from slugs. I will plant some of the wallflowers and Honesty as soon as I have space as they are going fast and strongly now. Though I noticed that my Honesty was being eaten the other day by cabbage white butterfly caterpillars! They are in the Brassica family so are susceptible but gosh if its not the slugs its something else.

Its a good time to visit some gardens now too to give you inspiration for your cutting garden for next year. One that always inspires me is the one at Chatsworth in Derbyshire, which is a really interesting mix of annuals, perennials and shrubs with such an amazing backdrop.

Also Arley Hall in Cheshire has a lovely cut flower area. The main big herbaceous borders are what everyone goes to Arley for and they really are amazing and the real star feature of the garden but I loved the planting in the Kitchen garden too. There seemed to have a lot of beds with cut flowers in this year. The border here are full of herbaceous Paeonies in late May/June and they have filled the gaps with an array of Cosmos, Cleome and Cornflowers to flower through July and August.

Also loved the bed of Limonium suworowii, tried growing that this year but not very successfully, this is how it should look!

Hoping that summer holds on for a bit longer and its looks set fair here for a few days so hopefully I will get in the garden and get a bit on top of things but then again might just get my book and just enjoy the garden……

Higgledy Anne

(I’m on Instagram anne_hinks if you fancy a follow)

Finally I think summer has arrived!! Its been a long time coming, June has been a chilly month but hopefully we have turned a corner now. At last I’ve now got lots of flowers for cutting and really enjoying making lots of posies and arrangements from mainly the autumn sown annuals and the biennials which are now flowering in abundance. Also that quintissential summer flower has arrived the Sweet peas, I’ve just picked a big bunch so yes officially think we can now say that its summer.

My sweet peas have been really slow to flower, they have nice long stems but the first flowers were mostly single flowers and I’ve had a few where the buds had dropped off. This is due to cold night time temperatures but hopefully this is past now and they seem to be flowering away now.The trick now is to keep them well watered and fed and most importantly keep picking them.

I think its fair to say its been a challenging year for annuals expecially ones that are a bit more susceptible to slugs as they have been celebrating the cool wet weather and there seems to have been a population explosion and that’s just in my garden. Zinnias have been the worst affected for me and despite getting mine potted on into 11cm pots they have still taken a bit of a hammering and they have sulked a bit in this cool weather. I’m not joking when I say the temperature got down to 7 degrees C in my greenhouse on the 13th June. I have just mulched the raised bed with Strulch which I’ve found is great for detering them a bit. They ate nearly all the Zinnia ‘Envy’ so that was resown quite late but fair to say its catching up now and hoping to get them planted soon. They have also chomped all my Chrysanthemum ‘Rainbow’ so I’ve given up on these for this year. The positive thing it also highlights plants that are much more resilient in the cutting garden. The Salvia ‘Oxford Blue’ has hardly been touched, neither the Statice, Godetia, Nicotiana, Calendula and Larkspur.

But really coming into their own now are the autumn sown annuals and I’ve come to appreciate these more and more in my cutting garden as it really spreads out the work of sowing and you get flowers much earlier than the spring sown ones. I’m still learning about what works for me in terms of getting through the winter but two real stalwarts that are flowering in abundance now are Cornflowers and Corncockle. They don’t seem at all fazed by any winter cold and you get fabulous tall plants too. For the Cornflowers I’ve sown a few different colours of them this year I do love the classic ‘Blue Ball’ and ‘Black Ball’, but also one called ‘Mauve Ball’ which goes perfectly with sweet rocket, Hesperis Purple and also the lilac Canterbury bells that both flower at the same time and are a staple of my bouquets in June. I’ve also loved the very pale pink form. I’m using them in all my arrangements at the moment.

This year I sowed a new Corncockle called ‘Bianca’ its a white form and is really striking with larger flowers than the wild form. But I have to say I still really love the wild form the pink flowers are gorgeous and the buds are lovely and wafty. I pick low down so that I get a mix of flowers and buds still to come.

My Orlaya is still flowering strongly though I’m going to leave a couple of plants so that I can collect seed off that for sowing again in the autumn, they seem to do best from fresh seed. Cerinthe too is still going strong though I’ve left a couple of plants and I will get lots of seed off these too.

I really aim to get all the annuals planted out by the end of June and then I can just relax and enjoy the garden. Then the main jobs in the cut flower garden will be watering (not needed much so far), cutting flowers and arranging them! My favourite parts. I may need to do some deadheading as well if I’m not quick enough in cutting flowers and also for the garden flowers like roses and geraniums that I don’t necessarily pick for cutting. I’m nearly there but been scuppered a bit by the weather at times but also I needed to wait for some things to finish flowering. I’ve now taken up all my Ranunculus now which have been brilliant this year and in their place I have planted Zinnias, Amaranthus and Phlox. I still need to find room for my Rudbeckias though! Plan for them to go where my Iceland poppies are but I can’t bear to dig them up yet as they are still flowering like mad. Soon the Cosmos and Phlox will be flowering and the Salvia ‘Oxford Blue’ is just starting to send up its flower stems so these will take over the autumn sown annuals and so the cycle of flowers goes on!

But what has come to be one of my favourite plants of all on my cutting patch has finally made its entrance. The Canterbury bells are here and making a big statement in all my arrangements at the moment. I’ve written a separate blog really championing them here. Here is my latest arrangement with them combining with the beautiful rose Rosa ‘Lady of Shallott’, the first of the Ammi majus and Cornflower ‘Mauve Ball’.

A more subtle arrangement with pastel shades. Here are the pale pink and white Canterbury bells, with pink and white Cornflowers, double flowered Feverfew and Astilbe.

So talking of biennials, have you sown yours yet. I’ve sown mine now and I’m looking forward to lots more beautiful blooms next year. It’s not too late to sow yet, anytime till the end of July is fine. Have a look at the brilliant biennial bundle which is our selection of our favourites and has 10% off the price.

Higgledy Anne

(I’m on Instagram anne_hinks if you fancy a follow)