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Its been a sunny summer here in the north of England! We are in the middle of another dry spell and, its fair to say, the cutting garden is struggling. Thankfully it has cooled down a bit this week but there has been no significant rain for a few weeks. I think we are due for some next week, I’m keeping my fingers crossed. I’m having to be a bit judicious with my watering now, I do have 5 water butts in my garden but they soon get depleted and I’m trying to be very careful. I don’t water the garden itself unless I have planted anything new but won’t be planting anything now till the autumn. Its mostly my Dahlias in containers, my tomatoes and cucumbers in the greenhouse and a few raised beds that have my annuals in that I need to water. I’ve been saving my washing up water and throwing it over the roots of the hydrangeas in the back garden. Some things have gone over much quicker than normal and I haven’t kept up with all the deadheading so some things have gone to seed and some like the Zinnias have just got smaller flowers than usual. Its definitely a challenge this year, but we have had a sunny summer.Its not all doom and gloom, the Cosmos are doing really well, they do seem pretty drought tolerant in good soil. The Ammi visnaga has arrived and as subtly beautiful as ever. Both are in this arrangement. Cosmos ‘Apricotta’, ‘Double Click Cranberries’ and ‘Fizzy Rose’, with Lavatera ‘Mont Blanc’ (one of my best new finds this season and I’m hoping that we may stock it at Higgledy soon), Limonium suworowii, Lysimachia clethroides and Origanum ‘Rosenkuppel’.

I really must celebrate the Cosmos, they really are so good and much more drought tolerant than many other annuals. I have a couple of small patches of them and they are looking fresh. I will give them a bit of a water after a really hot day but otherwise I have hardly watered them. Here is a little flaylay of the varieties that I’ve grown this year. From top, left to right, we have Cosmos ‘Apricotta’, ‘Fizzy Rose’ and ‘Purity’, bottom, left to right, ‘Xsenia’, ‘Double Click Cranberries’ and a new one for me ‘Xanthos’. Still nothing beats ‘Apricotta’ for me! I just love that colour, it just seems to glow with that irridescent pink in the centre. It seems to go with lots of pink and peaches. Purples, rich dark reds.Used again in this bright and soft arrangement. I’ve managed to squeeze three into this arrangement, Cosmos ‘Double Click Cranberries’, ‘Apricotta’ and ‘Xsenia’. Plus Phlox ‘Creme Brulee’ and ‘Cherry Caramel’, Cerinthe, Consolida ‘Blue Cloud’, Hydrangea ‘Annabelle’ and Dahlia ‘Preference’.Cosmos ‘Xsenia’ looking beautiful.And the delectable ‘Double Click Cranberries’….Cosmos ‘Double Click Cranberries’ was the star of this arrangement too this month.Along with the beautiful Amaranthus Red, Dahlia ‘Preference’, Sedum and Physocarpus ‘Diablo’ foliage and a bit of frothy fun from Panicum ‘Frosted Explosion’.A glorious bunch of Cosmos with the other stars of the August garden, the beautiful annual Phlox. Here with Phlox ‘Creme Brulee’ and ‘Cherry Caramel’.

Its not all about pinks though and the drawing to the end of the summer brings about some lovely yellow in the garden. This contains Cosmos ‘Xanthos’ a lovely fresh yellow and the beautiful clean white of Cosmos ‘Purity’.Plus Ammi visnaga, Zinnia ‘Portofino Peach’, Inula hookeri, Scabiosa ‘Fata Morgana’.Plus Rudbeckia ‘Marmalade’ and ‘Irish Eyes’.

And Helianthus ‘Vanilla Ice’.Finally another big up for the gorgeous Ammi visnaga, many people grow Ammi majus, which is lovely but I do prefer Ammi V. Its later in the season, is a much more sturdy and stable form and has lovely frothy foliage. Plus the flowers are smaller and I find easier to use in arrangements than the floppier Ammi M. Just look at this beautiful bunch, and you will find it as a filler in most of my arrangements at the moment.Here it is though having a more starring role in a simple bouquet with just four ingredients. Ammi visnaga, Lysimachia clethroides, Verbena bonariensis and Origanum ‘Rossenkuppel’.

So there we go, despite a tricky growing year there are still some highlights in the cutting patch in August. Hope you are all managing to keep yours growing. I’m planning ahead for next year now and getting ready for some sowing of hardy annuals in September. There is currently a special offer on a 1/2 price September sow meadow mix with a gorgeous mix of hardy annuals to give you some early colour next year.

Higgledy Anne

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

How is your garden/cutting patch doing? Mine has been a bit battered by the heavy rain and winds but the rain has definitely given everything a boost including the weeds. The garden needed the rain but we’d like a bit of sun too, you can’t win with us gardeners! Its been quite a bit cooler up here this week. I always feel like I’m chasing my tail at this time of year, some areas are getting a bit out of hand with weeds, the Cornflowers and Corncockle have taken a bit of a battering and the sweet rocket needs cutting back. There is still a bit of planting for me to do, lots of staking and supporting of plants, deadheading and cutting flowers and watering in the greenhouse. Its the reality of gardening, most of us don’t have quite enough time, especially if we are working. But I try to break it down into areas and just try and do a bit little and often. I don’t make it easy for myself, my garden is the only high maintence thing about me! But I love gardening, its the doing in the garden that I love. So I have lots of annuals, biennials and perennials and I try and make my cut flowers as successional as possible and do grow a mad range of things, but mostly in small amounts. It will settle down by the end of June when I have all my late summer annuals planted, like Zinnias and Rudbeckias. Then I can just concentrate on the fun part, harvesting them and getting creative with floral arrangements.This arrangement celebrates the Sweet rocket that was in abundance in late May and into June, here we have Hesperis ‘Purple’ and Hesperis ‘Alba’, along with the autumn sown Orlaya grandiflora and the seed sown perennial Knautia ‘Melton Pastels’. This is from last years sowing and its flowering with abandon this year. It also contains Persicaria bistorta ‘Superba’, Polemonium ‘Apricot Beauty’, Centaurea montana and a lovely pink Aquilegia.

Sweet Rocket is one of the most reliable flowers in my cutting patch for May and June, its a biennial plant and now is the time for sowing your biennials. If you need more encouragement on this, do look at my recent blog post, and also Ben’s post. I’m sowing mine this weekend, I sow into small seed trays (as I don’t have room at this time of year to direct sow). Sow thinly on the surface of a good peat-free compost, cover lightly with more compost and then sit in a tray of water to allow the water to percolate up. They don’t need to be in a greenhouse, just a sheltered part of your garden but just remember to keep them well watered. Once germinated they can be pricked out into individual pots and then just grow them on till you are ready to plant them out in August/September time. More information can be found in the Higgledy Garden seed sowing guide. Other biennials to sow now are Foxgloves, Wallflowers, Honesty, Sweet William and Canterbury Bells. Sweet Williams are flowering in abundance now in my garden, this year for some reason I only planted Sweet William ‘Alba’ and ‘Nigricans’. They are fabulous and are a good base for many of my posies at this time of year but I have missed the vibrant pinks and purples too. So I will be sowing them again this year.This was one of my favourite arrangements so far this year which featured the rich dark almost black flowers of Sweet William ‘Nigricans’ and Cornflower ‘Black Ball’, with the really unusual coppery brown flowers of Bupleurum longifolium ‘Bronze Beauty’ and the buttery brown foliage of Physocarpus ‘Amber Jubilee’. Alchemilla mollis adds a vibrant acid green and the white airy flowers of Silene vulgaris.

My autumn sown annuals are starting into flower, including some of my favourites the Cornflowers that I have written about recently in a blog post here. There are just so reliable and I will be cutting them for a good few weeks. They are great for adding vibrant colour into a posy or dramatic contrast.This posy features the fabulous Cornflower ‘Blue ball’, with the perennial cornflower Centaurea montana, Geranium magnificum and more Alchemilla mollis. 

A had a little patch in my garden with autumn sown Orlaya grandiflora and Candytuft ‘Crown’ and these have loved the sunny spot. It was my first time growing Candytuft and its a sweet little thing and seems very long flowering. 

So in this arrangement I used the Candytuft, with more Knautia ‘Melton Pastels’, Cornflower ‘Black Ball’, Sweet William ‘Nigricans’, Alchemilla mollis and Allium roseum.

Another unsung hero of the cutting patch now is Corncockle and what a delicate beautiful flower but the plant is a toughie, comes through any amount of cold over winter to flower away in June for a few weeks. Always timing its flowering with the Cornflowers so I often plant them together. This year they are in my front garden. I’m also growing a cultivated form called Corncockle ‘Bianca’ a white form and a pale pink form too Corncockle ‘Rose’.Just look at the beautiful dotted lines down to the centre of the flower. And the buds are beautiful too.

It is the showstopper flower in this posy. Also contains Cornflower ‘Mauve Ball’, Salvia ‘Oxford Blue’, Candytuft ‘Crown’, Gypsophila ‘Covent Garden’ and some Sweet Peas ‘Sir Jimmy Shand’, ‘Leamington’ and ‘Noel Sutton’ to add some delicious scent.

So yes the sweet peas are flowering in earnest now and I will be adding these to my bouquets, but also love picking that first big bunch.So this month the Ranunculus have come out of their raised beds (I’m not throwing them away though, I’ve put them somewhere tucked away to die back and then I will dry them and plant them again next autumn) and the beds have been topped up with compost and replanted with Cosmos, Amaranthus, Didiscus, Phlox and Sunflowers. Still need to plant my Zinnias which seem to have done well this year. But nearly there and then everything will be in. Then just keeping an eye on slugs which after the dry spring when they seemed almost absent and back with avengeance now. But its nice to see why outdoor display getting filled with flowers again now.

Its still time to sow your biennials. We have a special offer on at the moment for a 25% off bundle which includes 10 lovely varieties. Click here.

Hope your flower gardens are filling with flowers, happy picking.

Higgledy Anne

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

Its May, the most heavenly of months, especially if the weather is kind. The cutting garden is really getting into its stride now, there is so much promise ahead with the sweet peas climbing up their supports, the autumn sown annuals are just starting to flower or budding up and the spring sown annuals slowly getting their roots down or waiting patiently to be planted out once the risk of frosts has passed. You might be thinking that’s it for seed sowing for a while but don’t be too hasty, there are some flowers that I encourage you to think about for sowing soon. If you are relying on spring sown annuals for cutting you probably have a bit of a gap now while you wait for them to germinate, pot on and plant in your garden or cutting patch. But there are one group of flowers that come in to their own now and that is the biennials. They are the stars of the moment and start flowering in April with the Wallflowers and Honesty, May you have Hesperis and into June you have the spires of Foxgloves and Canterbury bells and the vibrant Sweet William. They flower with abundance and some act as great fillers in your bouquets like the Wallflowers, Hesperis and Honesty and others can be stars in their own right, like the Foxgloves, Sweet William and Canterbury Bells.But first lets just have a brief explanation of what a biennial is. Biennials are flowers that you sow in late Spring/early Summer, they germinate and grow into a small plant in the first year and then flower the following year. That might seem like a long time to wait but gardening is all about patience and planning, aren’t we always thinking ahead to the next season, what will be blooming, what jobs we have to do next. Its a joyful cycle of the seasons and biennials have the potential of adding so much flower and life to your garden or cutting patch. Even if you don’t want to grow them for cutting they are all great for the pollinators in your garden. Just think about Foxgloves, bumble bees adore them. And I haven’t even mentioned the scent! Oh joy, that gentle honey-like scent of the Wallflowers, the slightly stronger but still not overpowering scent of Hesperis (or Sweet Rocket as its otherwise known) and Honesty, then finally Sweet William with its spicy tones, a bit clove-like. Surely I’m convincing you now.So what goodies can we tempt you with, well lets go through them, starting with the first into flower, the Wallflowers, we have four different varieties (Wallflower ‘Cloth of Gold’, ‘Ivory White’, ‘Ruby Gem’ and ‘Vulcan’). Seen all together here!They all have a lovely gentle sweet scent that I adore and this adds a great dimension to your arrangements. I love them all, but just a warning ‘Ivory White’ isn’t white or if it is it should be called Buttermilk white, the buds start off butter yellow and then fade to a rich cream as the flowers open. It goes nicely with the richer egg-yolk yellow of ‘Cloth of Gold’ and both go beautifully with the blues of bluebells, Forget-me-nots, or purples of Honesty. You will know if you follow me on Instagram that I’m a big fan of pale blue and lemon yellow combination in the spring time. Here we have the yellow wallflowers with Forget-me-nots, Bluebells and Narcissus.

But Wallflowers also enable lovely rich dark combinations using Wallflower ‘Vulcan’. Here it is with cherry blossom, dark red Hellebores, white Cytisus and Narcissus.

Wallflower ‘Ruby Gem’ was new to me this year and I love its vibrant pink.

Similar flowering time to the wallflowers is Honesty, you can cut the lovely purple flowers and use them in your arrangements but save some to develop into those classic moon-shaped seed heads that you can dry and keep for your winter arrangements. Here it is adding a splash of vibrant purple to this arrangement with Narcissus ‘Thalia’, Ranunculus, Hellebores and Wallflower ‘Vulcan’.

Next into bloom is Hesperis or Sweet Rocket, we sell both Hesperis ‘Purple’ and Hesperis ‘White’, this is one of my favourite biennials as you get to cut so much from one plant, you cut the main stems and then you can lots of side stems for many weeks.Here they both are with Iceland poppy, Ranunculus, Chive flowers, Astrantia ‘Buckland’, Briza, Orlaya grandiflora and Lychnis flos cuculi ‘White Robin’. 

Into June you get the glorious spires of Foxgloves. Here is Digitalis ‘Excelsior’ and Digitalis ‘Apricot’ in my garden a few years ago. I have to be honest I often can’t bear to cut them for arrangements and leave them for the bees but here is an arrangement with Digitalis ‘Alba’, double flowered Feverfew, Ammi majus and Alchemilla mollis. Sweet William are another June bloomer, adding a rich colour to your arrangements. This cutting bed from last year had Sweet William ‘Alba’, ‘Nigricans’ and ‘Auricula-eyed’.Here it add some filler flowers to a display containing Canterbury bells (which will get a mention next), Knautia macedonica, Corncockle, Rosa ‘Munstead Red’ and Cornflower ‘Black Ball’.

Finally, last but not least one of my favourite flowers for the cutting patch are the Canterbury Bells, I just adore these and never quite have enough. Beautiful tall stems of large bell-shaped flowers they add a statement to a border or cutting patch. You get a range of colours from rich dark purple, through lilac into pink and white. Here a glorious bunch with Corncockle ‘Bianca’, Orlaya grandiflora, Alchemilla mollis and Echium ‘White Bedder’.

Again like the sweet rocket, once you cut the bigger main stems you get lots of side shoots that are great in small posies like this one with Cosmos ‘Apricotta’, Phlox ‘Creme Brulee’ and Amberboa muricata.

Many people get confused about when the best time to sow them is, but my reminder of the time is the sight of them flowering, once they start flowering in your garden that is the time to start ordering your seeds and getting ready to sow. I tend to sow mine in early to mid June.

So hopefully I’ve convinced you to give them a go, but how to sow them. There is detailed sowing information for each variety in the Higgledy garden seed sowing guide but here are just a few hints and tips. Sowing direct into a spare patch of ground or a nursery bed is the ideal option, then you don’t have to use pots and compost. Prepare the bed by clearing any weeds and raking over so that the soil is nice and crumbly. Then you can either broadcast sow over an area or sow thinly in rows. The advantage of sowing in rows is you can spot any weed seeds that germinate in between the rows and can confidently remove them. Then thin out if needed and then you can move them to their final growing position in the late summer/early autumn. They will stay as a small plant over winter and then start growing and flower the following spring.

However, if you are anything like me you won’t have any room in your garden to sow direct so I sow into seed trays or 9cm pots. They don’t need protection so don’t need to be in a greenhouse. Wallflowers germinate quickly and need pricking out and potting on speedily as they can get leggy and woody and held back if not. Foxglove seed is tiny so try and sow thinly so they are easier to prick out. Honesty has big seeds so they can be sown into modules and then potted on or straight into 9cm pots. Its crucial to keep them well-watered especially with all the sunshine we are getting at the moment and keep them growing steadily. They need to be planted out in final positions by late summer really so they have time to get a good root system down before any cold weather sets in. Or you can also move them around in the early spring before they get growing again. I often get seedlings now popping up of all biennials in my garden so often move them around in the spring. They are pretty tough plants.

Have I convinced you to give them a go? If so we have a special biennial bundle offer. With 10 varieties at 25% off.

Happy biennial seed sowing

Higgledy Anne

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

Its glorious May, my favourite time of year by far and for once the weather is being kind, we have had plenty of sunshine, all be it a couple of crazily warm days but it has been good growing weather. Though I’m a bit concerned about the lack of any rain in the forecast for a few weeks. The May blossom is out in the hedgerows and the cow parsley is just starting to open here, the British countryside looks fabulous at this time of year. The birds are singing lustily in the mornings and getting outside is just a joy. The thermals are finally off for working at the nursery!Loving the pale blues and yellows in my cutting patch at the moment. Here I have the yellow wallflowers, Wallflower ‘Ivory White’ and Wallflower ‘Cloth of Gold’, Ranunculus ‘Creme’, Anemone ‘Mr Fokker’, forget-me-nots and bluebells with the lovely little grass Melica altissima ‘Alba’.

I think I’ve got to the end of my seed sowing for summer annuals but I’m still busy pricking seedlings out and potting on if needed. There is a lot of greenhouse juggling and moving things around, lots came out with this current hot spell but I’m also ready to do some planting just preparing a new plot for them to go in. Lots to plant, including Calendula, Larkspur, Godetia, Cynoglossum and Cerinthe. Time for a little break from seed sowing until I sow my biennials in June. But the biennials sown last year are in their stride now, the wallflowers have been good, and I’ve used them a lot in my posies so far. The Honesty is looking good, though I’ve not picked much as I’m saving some for the seed heads. This was taken in mid-April. Its setting small seed heads now. As always I have loads of self-sown forget-me-nots which I like to pick too. Now its Sweet Rocket time so looking forward to those. I’ve got both colours, Hesperis ‘Purple’ and Hesperis ‘White‘.There will be more information coming up in the next few weeks about sowing biennials!

The autumn sown annuals are almost there, there are buds on the Cornflowers and the Orlaya are just starting to open. Also have Corncockle on its way with Echium ‘Blue Bedder’ and Iceland poppies.

The Ranunculus in my little home made polytunnel have been brilliant and I’m picking lots from those at the moment. I’m especially loving the oranges and reds with richer wallflowers like Wallflower ‘Vulcan’.

Seedlings are doing well, only a couple casualties to slugs so far. Sunflowers, Phlox and Cosmos on their way.

Zinnias and Rudbeckias coming on too, but they will replace the autumn sown annuals when they are finished so plenty of time for them to get growing. I’m keeping an eye on my sweet peas, they are taking off now, but need to be kept tied in or encouraged to grow up your support. But maybe another few weeks for those. Keep them well watered in this dry spell as they like plenty of water and nutrients, I will start feeding them now too to keep them healthy and growing well.

However its not too later if you haven’t sown your seeds yet, there is still time, you can sow in trays and pot and grow them on or sow direct if you prefer. The soil is warm now so seeds will germinate fast and soon catch up with earlier sown plants. Lots of information on sowing in the Higgledy seed sowing guide.

Enjoy this spring sunshine.

Higgledy Anne

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

Hope you have all been enjoying the sunshine this week, it has felt like a long cold grey winter this year so I’ve been rejoicing in this weather, in fact it was crazily warm at the weekend but back to normal now. Yes its still a bit chilly in the mornings but its just been so good to see the sun and feel that warmth coming through. Things are stirring in the garden, there have been plenty of bees buzzing around, a couple of big bumblebees bumbling around my garden especially loving the Hellebores. Already the flower year is moving on, the snowdrops are going over now and being followed by the first daffodils. The first shoots of the hardy perennials are emerging and finally the garden has hints of green in the borders. The grass is starting to grow again and soon will be ready for its first cut which always feels good. Out in the countryside the Hawthorn hedges are just showing that first hint of green, I always feel that at this time of year we are going from monochrome back into technicolour, like the bit in the Wizard of Oz when Dorothy goes from black and white into the bright and beautiful colours of Oz.Things are all abuzz in my cutting garden now, the autumn sown annuals are getting big and beefy now and I’ve been hardening them off from the greenhouse and getting ready to plant them. So that’s the Cornflowers, Echium ‘Blue Bedder’, Corncockle, Orlaya grandiflora, Candytuft ‘Crown’, Cerinthe, Salvia ‘Oxford Blue’, Papaver nudicale and Ammi visnaga.

I’ve already planted some of the Ranunculus into a raised bed which is covered for protection and they are coming on nicely. I’m also preparing the ground for my autumn sown sweet peas. They are hungry plants so a nice big layer of manure will give them nutrients and also keep the moisture in the soil. I need to put up the bamboo support too which always takes longer than I think! I’ve pricked out some of the seeds I sowed in February, including Larkspur, Gaura, Knautia, Feverfew, Dahlias ‘Bishops Children’ and ‘Cactus, Snapdragon ‘Lucky Lips’ and a few Scabious including ‘Ping Pong’. 

The Biennials are starting to get growing now too, though I still need to plant my Campanula so need to get a shift on with that. I’ve had lots of self-seeded foxgloves and Forget-me-nots which have been moved around but getting them in their final locations now. But the Honesty, Sweet Rocket, Wallflowers and Sweet William I can see are just starting again into growth after a dormant winter. Excited for when they start flowering, in fact I don’t think it will be very long before the Wallflowers are out, they are usually the first into flower.

The perennial cutting patch is all cut back and mulched, this bed contains various Origanums, Geums, Sanguisorbas, Knautia, Chives and Astrantias. But its time to really kickstart the seed sowing season for me and I think this has got to be my favourite time of year. The process of seed sowing is just joyous and despite the fact that I’ve been sowing seeds for many years now I never fail to be excited by the first signs of germination. Its such a magic process, little brown dry seeds poked into a pot full of crumbly brown compost, add a sprinkling of water, wait a while and then the little green shoots poking up out of the soil is such a miraculous delight. So I start with some of the hardier annuals first though as its still early, but I do have a greenhouse to give them some protection. So I’m sowing some Calendula, Godetia, Chrysanthemum ‘Rainbow’, Statice, Amaranthus, Gypsophila, Daucus carota, Phacelia and Nigella. The last four I’m going to sow some in seed trays but also have a go at sowing some directly into the soil. I’m also going to do a first sowing of some Phlox and Rudbeckia which though are half hardy annuals have quite a long growing season, these will be put on my windowsill for some warmth for germination and kept protected until ready to plant out after the frosts. Others good for sowing now are other hardy annuals, Larkspur, Cornflowers, Corncockle, Ammi majus, Cerinthe, Borage, Briza, Eschscholzia, Echium, Phacelia, Painted Sage. Plus its still not too late to sow some sweet peas, still plenty of time for that.

More detailed information on sowing for each variety can be found in the Higgledy garden seed sowing guide.

Here are some of the seeds I’m sowing now. I’m excited to grow Godetia ‘Crown’ again this year, it was one of my favourites from last year. Especially this arrangement that also had Godetia ‘Memoria’ and some Origanum.

Calendula’s are one of the first to be sown in the seed sowing year, I struggle to get them to survive from an autumn sowing but they are fast and just as good from a early spring sowing. I just adore Calendula ‘Ice Maiden’, here with Calendula ‘Indian Prince’, Chrysanthemum ‘Rainbow’, Cosmos ‘Apricotta’ and other rusty tones of Achillea, Nicotiana ‘Bronze Queen’ and Bupleurum ‘Bronze Beauty’.

Amaranthus Red is another one I get started now, it took me a while but I now love this drama queen, have a look at this blog to find out more. I always thought it would be a challenging one to grow too but its not, its pretty straightforward. They can be sown direct in April, but I sow mine undercover to get them growing well before I plant out. They just look amazing dripping those stunning tassels down the side of a vase and do well with some of the bigger more blousy flowers that you might grow, like Dahlias and Sunflowers. Here with Helianthus ‘Summer Lovin’ and ‘Ruby Eclipse’, Ammi visnaga and Phlox ‘Creme Brulee’.And here with Dahlia ‘Bacardi’ and ‘Arabian Night’, with Ammi visnaga, Phlox ‘Creme Brulee’ and Panicum ‘Sprinkles’.Gypsophila, is a lovely airy filler for your bouquets but is quite a delicate plant and can get a bit overwhelmed and bossed about a bit by more robust annuals that you might have in your cutting patch so you need to either give it some space to itself or grow it in some containers. Nigella, another great one for sowing now, they definitely prefer direct sowing but they can be sown and pricked out quickly and potted on if you don’t have the space ready just yet. I especially partial to Nigella ‘Delft Blue’.I also adore Phlox but they can be a little tricksy and slow to germinate and have a weird growing habit and need a bit of pinching out before you get good flowers for cutting. So I’m sowing a few now and will do another one in a few weeks time. Its a half hardy annual so needs protection from the frosts so it will be sown and put on my windowsill inside to germinate. I sow lots of these as I also use them in the big dustbins that I have my Dahlias in as underplanting so I can use plenty of these. There is a blog post about this if you want to have a read. My big favourite is Phlox ‘Creme Brulee’ which goes with so many other flower combinations. Just look at it here with Cosmos ‘Apricotta’ and ‘Purity’.And then here with Helianthus ‘Ruby Eclipse’ and Rudbeckia.I also love Phlox ‘Sugar Stars’.And I’ll squeeze in a bit of Phlox ‘Cherry Caramel’!Rudbeckia are another half hardy annual that I am going to sow some of now, they are tiny seeds and its pretty slow growing so want to give it a head start. Rudbeckia ‘Marmalade’ is such a reliable form.It goes fabulously with bright blues and purples of Salvia ‘Oxford Blue’ and Larkspur ‘Imperials’ and bright red and orange Zinnia ‘Mammoth’ and ‘Purple Prince’.But also with a mix of yellows in this arrangement.

I’m holding off from sowing most of my half hardy annuals, like Cosmos, Sunflowers, Zinnias to the end of the month or into April when its warmer and they will grow quick and fast and then be ready to plant out after the frosts.Just to say though that this is the sowing routine that I seem to have got into in my garden here in the North of England. If you are further south you may want to do things differently and sow somethings earlier, likewise if you are further North you may want to hold off till April for many things. It also depends whether you have got space to protect your seedlings or whether you are planning on sowing directly. Experiment and see what works best for you. If you are not sure just have a go at sowing the more hardy annuals as suggested here and just sow a few seeds (I very rarely sow a full packet of seeds) see how they do if not try again later. But most of the hardy annuals that I’ve suggested here are robust and are reliable to germinate with a bit of warmth, good compost and a bit of care.

Happy Sowing, enjoy the magic of it all!

Higgledy Anne

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

Many of the seeds that we sell at Higgledy garden we recommend as they make great cut flowers, so we are always looking for varieties that have a good vase life, have nice long stems and have a range of flower shapes and textures and that is often much of the focus of my blogs. However I’m also keen to encourage wildlife into my garden and I love to grow lots of flowers for bees and other insects. I love the sound of bees buzzing while I’m pottering round the garden. I’m looking forward to hearing that sound again after a what feels like a long cold winter, who doesn’t get excited by that first sighting of a bee and I always make sure I have some early flowers in my garden that will give them a bit of nectar, especially Pulmonarias, Hellebores and Crocuses. I’m certainly no expert on bees but I do try and take time in the spring and summer and look at some of the different types, there are 26 different species of bumblebees and you may find at least 6 in your gardens. I really recommend reading some of Dave Goulson’s books especially Gardening for Bumblebees which will explain more about the plight of our bees and what we can all do to help. He’s got some great guides for how to identify the different types of bumblebees and other solitary bees to be found in your gardens and also other pollinators such as Hoverflies, Wasps, Beetles, Butterflies and Moths. He also discusses some of the plants that you can grow in your garden to encourage them, many of them can be grown from seed and that we sell here at Higgledy Garden.Here are some of my favourites. See the Higgledy Seed Sowing guide for more detailed sowing information for these varieties.

Borage is not just that blue flower that you get in your Pimms or summer salads, its so much more than that and I think one of the best flowers for nectar for bees. Its very easy to grow from seed and will thrive 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. 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.The plant can grow up to 1m tall when really happy and may need some support. March is a good time to sow these if you want to sow undercover or wait till April and they are really easy to sow directly into your bed and borders.

Cerinthe, another from the Borage family, and is another prodigous nectar producer hence its common name of Honeywort. Its one plant in my cutting patch that I know will be humming with the sound of bees in the summer. Beautiful glaucous blue foliage with purpley blue flowers with a white tip. Again this is easy from seed and I’ve sown some in the autumn that I’m hoping will flower a bit earlier but I’m also planning on sowing some more in March to create a bit of succession. The dark black seed can be sown directly or into 9cm pots in a greenhouse or on a windowsill. It may seed also around but its also easy to collect seed from for next year. Its a wonderful foliage flower to use in your arrangements.Here it is on my old allotment mingling with some Chives (also loved by bees!).Two other members of the Borage family that are worth growing are Echium ‘Blue Bedder’ and Phacelia. Echium is a good one to sow in March and the bees will thank you for it. 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. I also use it as a filler in my arrangements but I grow it more for the bees. The white form is also loved by bees too.

Phacelia is super speedy from sowing to flower and is a really good one for direct sowing, good to sow into weed-free good cultivated soil in March or April and you will soon have those lovely unusual flowers in pale blue. Its loved not only be bees, but hoveflies and wasps. You can use it as a green manure but its best to dig it back into the soil before it flowers, helps improve soils structure. It’s surprisingly long flowering as a cut flower and has a delicate scent. Foxgloves, another must have for a bee-friendly garden, and we sell them in shades of white, Digitalis ‘Alba’ and Apricot, Digitalis ‘Apricot’ but I still think my favourite is the purple form. Foxglove ‘Excelsior’ is mix of the pinks, purples, and whites. I just love those stately spires in my garden and that sound of the bee tucked into the flower buzzing away. They are biennials so seed is sown in May/June time for flowering the following year. Foxglove seed is tiny so surface sowing in a seed tray is a good idea and sow as thinly as you can. Once established in your garden they will seed around and you can dig them up and move them to their final places in the autumn or early spring. They are tough too and can grow in shade as well as sun.

The daisy family or Asteraceae contains many species that are brilliant for pollinators like Cosmos, Calendula, Chrysanthemum, Cornflower, Corncockle, Dahlia ‘Bishops Children’, Echinacea, Rudbeckias, Scabious and Sunflowers. You all know how much I like Cosmos from my recent blog post but I must also recommend it for a bee-friendly garden, most importantly the single flowered one with that big yellow central boss that the bees hone in on. You can’t beat the simple beauty of Cosmos ‘Purity’ and Cosmos ‘Apricotta’ is a joy to me. These are half-hardy annuals so susceptible to frosts so hold off sowing for a bit longer. They are quick to germinate and grow fast and tall once planted in the garden so they may need some support but they will be covered in bees from the word go. They are prolific flowers, the best cut and come again flower in my cutting patch and will keep flowering till the frosts if you keep deadheading them or picking them for the house. As I’ve said before the yellow centre is nearly always occupied by a bee in my garden, and also loved by Hoverflies. In fact they must come with a warning that you can often accidently pick them with the bee still attached and hanging on! Here’s Cosmos ‘Fizzy Rose’ doing its bee magnet impression.And Cosmos ‘Sensation’!They are just a joy in a vase.Cornflowers are another great choice, read more in my blog about them here. They are loved by bees and the flowers are long lasting and long flowering especially if you keep dead-heading.

Calendula are just so cheery flowers that they always have a space in my cutting patch. Sunny daisy flowers in shades of oranges and yellows they also go really well with the blue flowers in my patch like Echium and Cornflowers. Here is Calendula ‘Indian Prince’ with Salvia ‘Oxford Blue’.This is Calendula ‘Ice Maiden’ just waiting for a bee to land.Dahlias you may not immediately this of as great pollinator friendly flowers and certainly the big pompom types and the fancy-pants ones aren’t, but go for the single flowered varieties like Dahlia ‘Bishops Children’ and you are really on to a winner. They are very easy to grow from seed, I sowed some and put them on my window sill about 10 days ago and they have germinated already and will soon be ready for pricking out and potting on. They, like Cosmos, are tender too so don’t plant out till after the frosts have passed but they will flower well in their first year and late in to the autumn. Then you can dig them up once the frosts arrive and they will have developed a nice tuber. If you protect this over winter you can plant them again next year for an even bigger display. The ‘Bishops Children’ seedlings also have lovely dark foliage which contrasts beautifully with the bright shades of oranges and reds.

Sunflowers, we have many varieties of sunflowers mostly chosen because they are good for cutting that don’t produce a single stem with one flower, they are branching varieties that produce side shoots and more stems once you have cut the first flower. They are all still loved by the bees though. Sunflowers are great to grow with kids are they are nice big seeds and reliable to germinate. Wait a bit longer for sowing these as again that are not frost hardy. April is a good time to sow these and they are a good late flowerer in your garden. This is Helianthus ‘Summer Lovin’.But I think my favourite is Sunflower ‘Valentine’ which is a smaller flower that I use in alot in my arrangements.Umbellifers, I just love these in the garden, and who doesn’t love the hedgerows filled with that most famous Umbellifer, Cow Parsley, in May. Just a fabulous froth, I grow the dark leaved form in my garden Anthriscus sylvestris ‘Ravenswing’. They are not generally popular with bumblebees but loved by Hoverflies and Beetles. Anything that encourages Hoverflies is a goodie in the garden as the Hoverfly larvae are also voracious predators of greenfly. There are also some brilliant annual umbellifers such as Daucus carota, Dill, Ammi visnaga and Ammi majus that are easy to grow from seed sown now. Daucus carota, just look at that beautiful flower head. A platform for pollinators, I’ve seen this out in the meadows near us covered by soldier beetles. Ammi visnaga is another flower that has an automatic place in my cutting patch not just for cutting but for the pollinators, but it would just look gorgeous in your garden borders too. Its a great filler flower and I use it lots in my arrangements.

If you don’t want to sow the individual varieties then we have a couple of options of Bee Friendly Mixes. The 4g mix which is good to cover a square metre. Then there is the 60g mix which covers 20 square metres. The mixes includes Larkspur, Escholtzia, Cosmos, Cornflowers, Borage, Phacelia, Nigella and Calendula. Sow directly on a prepared site once the soil has warmed up in April.So just a few of my favourite bee-friendly plants that you might want to have a go at growing from seed for your garden this year. In the UK we have about 22 million gardens and if we all grew a few flowers to encourage more insects and bees then surely the world would be a better place. Lets make sure our gardens have a bit of a buzz to them this year!

Wishing you a flower (and bee) filled summer.

Higgledy Anne

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

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

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