Spring Fairs

Publicity material just in for the Red Cross Fair on May 5th. If you've never been, it is probably the one fair you should try to get to, brimful of many of the best small independent nurseries from all over the Midlands and South West. It's at Hampton Court Castle again, but we are all assured there won't be a repeat of the occasion when so many people headed for the event that all roads round about were jammed solid and some people sat in traffic jams and eventually turned round and went home. This year different systems are in place and it is going to be superbly organised with proper traffic organisation so please do put it in your diaries if you can make it.

I'll be majoring on tulips that week. I'm hoping for a good selection still standing then, all should be fine as we do have at least 15,000 in the ground here. I do so love tulips!

Marching on

Photos from a Barnsley House wedding are out in a wedding mag and up on site. I hope the delightful bride and groom do not one day regret the very vintage style of  the photos.

I can't believe we're striding through March already. It seems too quick... After a few lovely days the frosts here have been really severe for the past few nights, the ground in the field still frozen well in to the day. I spent a glorious afternoon dividing perennials on Friday when it was such a perfect afternoon that I just couldn't bring myself to come in until I just couldn't move any more. I was rather creaky yesterday.

I am obsessing with working out quite how to make a very stable freestanding arch for a church entrance where there are no fixings, the entrance is narrow and the arch is high. It's also several hundred miles away so I can't just slip round there and check I'm getting it right. I don't suppose anyone has had an arch fall on their head yet but I really don't want to be the first!

Rabbit fencing is still not up despite endless promises from the guy who's doing it. Serves me right for being too lazy to sort out doing it myself I guess. Flopsy Mopsy and Cottontail are having too many parties with their friends and families and my splendid legal poachers from the valleys haven't been up lately.  Bunnies' favourite perennials are so far solidago and campanula, and they just love digging up shrubs. Tulips appear neither tasty not interesting to dig.

job filled

Well there are lots of amazing gardeners out there looking for work. Thanks to everyone who called and mailed. I hope I responded to everyone..... Some people who applied would find me far too chaotic, and others I really couldn't consider employing because they should be running fabulous design or development or restoration projects rather than considering working in the cut flower gardens.

Diane will be starting soon. I've a feeling we'll get on well and that she's just what the gardens need at this point. RHS qualified, many years of jobbing garden and nursery experience and fabulously long pink nails. We need a bit of gardening glamour!

starting simple

Sometimes the simplest can be the loveliest, this morning I was particularly taken with the last of the snowdrops and a few hellebores for the kitchen table.

Apparently we're in Homes and Gardens magazine now, they are very early with their April issue, local shops are still stocking March so I haven't seen the copy as I haven't been sent one yet but I do remember a lovely French photographer coming last spring and taking lots of close ups. We're also in Wedding Flowers mag this month but I haven't seen that yet either....

I'm trying to get to grips with some of the weeds. Slowly. And lots of dividing and moving. The later flowering cream camassias seem to have been breeding wildly and I kept myself awake last night trying to decide where to transplant all the babies - ridiculous, probably not the number one priority!

We will be starting the mail out season with Mothering Sunday flowers. This year I'm planning on big bunches of tulips or narciss with a few ranunculus, greenery and willows, plus a posy of anemones. (note to get it posted on the website soon). I still can't tell exactly what will be out. But we also have a huge wedding the same weekend so there's a bit of organising to do and I'm going to ask customers to place orders before 29th March as I know there will be absolutely no office time after that.

One dog still under the weather and the other went under the knife yesterday to have a lump removed so the house is very oddly quiet.

Well it made me laugh this morning!

"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.

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.

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.....