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
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