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.
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)