"Hello, I'm an artist putting on an event in London at the end of March and I'm looking for long stemmed British organic edible flowers. Can you help?"
"Well I'd love to but I fear it just may not be possible then."
"I thought roses would be lovely."
"Yes. I think you might be hard put to find organic roses anywhere in the world in March and definitely not in UK."
"Ah. Well I have a list here of all the edible flowers I might like. Shall I send it to you?"
"It's very thoughtful of you, but I think I only have poisonous long stemmed flowers then."
Anyone wanting to munch on tulips, hellebores, euphorbia.........? I suppose ranunculus might just not be inedible but I don't think I'd want to try. Two years ago I had to do 12 identical edible long stemmed bouquets for a film prop. That was hard enough in June.
Monday, 28 February 2011
Job
I'm looking for a gardener/garden supervisor 3 days a week or so (never on Mondays) from end March to October to look after day to day running of the gardens with part timers and volunteers. I'll be gardening alongside you some days but need to devote more time to the floristry side and running the business so I ideally want someone independent, hard working, energetic, enthusiastic, organised, brilliant, but above all flexible....... No mowing or strimming as the wonderful Steve does all that, no spraying, but all other garden duties.
I think it would be a great opportunity for someone who really wants to learn about small scale mixed flower growing. I wish I could offer accommodation but sadly I can't. Hay is a delightful area, still very rural but with a thriving community of free thinkers and self employed folk as we are far from any urban centre.
I think it would be a great opportunity for someone who really wants to learn about small scale mixed flower growing. I wish I could offer accommodation but sadly I can't. Hay is a delightful area, still very rural but with a thriving community of free thinkers and self employed folk as we are far from any urban centre.
Thursday, 24 February 2011
Back to the gardens
Well, I had quite a break from the gardens - first snow, then more snow, then still more snow, then a short holiday, then helping my elderly mother after an op, then rain and more rain. I wasn't totally off the case as there has been masses of wedding planning and even a bit of office organising, but now spring is just round the corner and outside it's all muddy and messy and in my mind - but probably only mine - potentially magnificent, glorious and optimistic!
I've spent the past couple of weeks (in between downpours) making new steps, planting more willow, planting more peonies, dividing clumps of this and that and even a bit of that incredibly necessary weeding. Things have got a bit out of hand in that department but I'm sure all will be well because, well, because it has to be!
I did think about putting something up on the blog earlier because I have had complaints about complete silence on this front, but I only had mud to photograph, or extremely muddy dogs, or an extremely muddy me, and I would like to think of myself as a bit less grubby than all that.
In the gardens now bulbs are looking hopeful, tulips are popping through happily, in some areas the scent from the daphnes and the honeysuckles make me happy to linger, even in the rain. Hellebores seem to have reverted, or my lovely ones have disappeared or are just late to appear, but even the plain white or deep purple are beautiful. In the tunnel ranunculus are shooting away but not much else is happening there as we had a bit of a freezing situation with a door left open at the wrong time. I have started off the first seeds but there's no point in getting too carried away as our ground is always late and it's at least twice as much work to get early things going than starting later when things catch up anyway.
This weekend is the first wedding of the year. The bride was hoping for bright and cheerful anemones in her bouquets, in fact desperately wanted bright anemones, so I resorted to buying in a load from Cornwall. Sadly they arrived this morning and about 90 per cent have browned petals which is a bit of a beggaration. So she will get a few bright and white ranuncs with narciss and bits and pieces and a few anemones for the pew ends etc where they won't be quite so obvious.
Enough. The old dog, who has not been very well for the past few days, has just been terrifically sick under the table, time to get back to the mud.....
I've spent the past couple of weeks (in between downpours) making new steps, planting more willow, planting more peonies, dividing clumps of this and that and even a bit of that incredibly necessary weeding. Things have got a bit out of hand in that department but I'm sure all will be well because, well, because it has to be!
I did think about putting something up on the blog earlier because I have had complaints about complete silence on this front, but I only had mud to photograph, or extremely muddy dogs, or an extremely muddy me, and I would like to think of myself as a bit less grubby than all that.
In the gardens now bulbs are looking hopeful, tulips are popping through happily, in some areas the scent from the daphnes and the honeysuckles make me happy to linger, even in the rain. Hellebores seem to have reverted, or my lovely ones have disappeared or are just late to appear, but even the plain white or deep purple are beautiful. In the tunnel ranunculus are shooting away but not much else is happening there as we had a bit of a freezing situation with a door left open at the wrong time. I have started off the first seeds but there's no point in getting too carried away as our ground is always late and it's at least twice as much work to get early things going than starting later when things catch up anyway.
This weekend is the first wedding of the year. The bride was hoping for bright and cheerful anemones in her bouquets, in fact desperately wanted bright anemones, so I resorted to buying in a load from Cornwall. Sadly they arrived this morning and about 90 per cent have browned petals which is a bit of a beggaration. So she will get a few bright and white ranuncs with narciss and bits and pieces and a few anemones for the pew ends etc where they won't be quite so obvious.
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