Cheerier!

So many tulips now blooming. The double yellow vanilla scented and/or pointy dull pinks should have gone out in the Saturday bunches... I love the scented ones more than any, they get stronger and stronger as they age and are really strongly scented when they turn almost pure white and fade. Heaven. They are all at least two weeks earlier than last year which is a surprise, and may all come at once if the weather turns very warm again.

Younger dog is in season and has to be watched like a hawk.

Diane has got the tunnel looking wonderfully organised and we're finally sowing outside tomorrow.

awful bloomer

The worst thing happened, this is the letter I had to send out to all MD customers as I had no idea who got the good and who got the bad bunches. I realised the disaster when I went out to the packing shed on Monday morning and spent all yesterday and so far today trying to sort it all out. I feel pretty damn bad......
Dear Customers,

This is to apologise that some very poor quality flowers were mistakenly sent to some customers for Mothering Sunday. It should never have happened but I left the flower elements to helpers as I was organising a big wedding in Suffolk and I obviously did not leave clear instructions. So some of your mothers will have received the right selection of flowers but I'm afraid some will have received ones that were not meant for sending but were rejected from the wedding flowers (where they were meant to be fully open for one day only on some of the garlands) - I realised the mix up when i returned late on Sunday night to find many of the good longlasting tulips that should have been sent were still in buckets when I returned, and the others were nowhere to be seen....

It should never have happened, I can only apologise wholeheartedly to those of you who got a bad service. It was not the fault of my helpers who I am sure tried their best but had not been put on the spot before without me or longterm helper`Meg somewhere at hand (she was scheduled in to supervise but had to go to a family funeral) so of course the blame is all mine. I know it cannot make amends but if any of you would like me to send more flowers to your mothers please let me know and I shall do so, or please let me send another order for you at any time at no charge - just email me with the order details when you would like me to do this for you.

With very many apologies, and assurances that this is very definitely not my usual service.

Charlie

lovely weather for Suffolk wedding - and Mothering Sunday

Well it was a huge wedding to start my full-on wedding season and I forgot my camera. Luckily the press didn't forget theirs so I found this one immediately on Google from a French royal-following site (and I promise many pix will come from friends and family soon!) Gorgeous Lucy married delightful Will on Saturday and it was fabulous to do their flowers. We did masses of large candelabras for the series of tipi tents which looked sensational, flowers for the other marquee and very simple spring church flowers for a beautiful church that was packed to the gills.

I had been in a state of usually quiet but sometimes frantic panic the week before as I didn't know quite what would be flowering but bless my flowers they came up trumps. I used masses of white and green hellebores and lovely pink ones, plus my favourite double white tulips that were kind enough to open in the tunnel with spot-on timing along with lily of the valley, hyacinths, hellebores, white ranunculus, anemones, rosemary, tons of blossoms, pittosporum, euonymus....... on Thursday we headed for Suffolk, me with my van plus Imogen with a huge hired van both packed so tight nothing more could fit in, and I think everything looked lovely when it was finished despite the distance. Lucy's simple but I think stunningly suitable bouquet was white double mount tacoma tulips with white hellebores and lily of the valley plus a sprig or two of myrtle and euonymus, she had lily of the valley and white hyacinth pips in her hair, little bridesmaids and adorable Theo the pageboy all had simple circlets of white hyacinth pips in their hair with head bridesmaid 5 year old Molly also carrying a posy of lily of the valley tied with red ribbon to match their red and white liberty outfits and red baseball boots. I made buttonholes from the lovely double tulips or white hellebores mixed with lily of the valley and a sprig of foliage. I'm not sure what my favourite bit was, I loved the font which was just a mass of hellebores with trailing ivy and the windowsills which were the simplest tied sheaves of blossoms and catkins and rosemary that we then took back to the tents as the vicar didn't want things left in the church because it is mid Lent.

Candelabras were a mix of foliages and anemones and ranunculus with pink hellebores and ivy looking down on the guests. I always forget how long full candelabras take to do but every single second is worth it for the ultimate effect. And the tent pole garlands were fun, just rosemary and anemones but they did the trick.

Thanks to all my helpers who made sure that it all happened. There were seven of us here on the Thursday getting it all together including my lovely daughter Rowan who happily was having a few days off from her usual work in London as an environmental lawyer and oldest friend Annette from Gloucestershire who thought she was having a fun day out.......! Her daughter Imogen (now a gardener and flower grower herself) was a total star and calmly plodded through everything with me when we got to the wedding destination after a five hour drive, and we both really enjoyed it. On the way home this afternoon I realised that we had spent about 120 woman hours on the wedding flowers including 20 hours of driving but excluding picking, but actually, it was worth every single moment as I think we did a good job. Phew!

Meanwhile, Rowan and Annette sorted out finishing and sending out all the Mothering Sunday flowers and did a brilliant job. I had spent a day earlier in the week bunching up beautiful birch and eucalyptus bundles and they added all the tulips and the anemone posies on Friday. They were a bit surprised at how long it all took and I think Rowan is glad she is a lawyer and Annette is wondering why she has just started growing cut flowers at my suggestion!

But it has been a brilliant week, and the reason why I haven't written anything on the blog for ages as it has been a tad busy here.

Oh and the wonderful news is that I have an AMAZING gardener now supervising all the growing. Diane is astonishingly wonderful and my tunnel now looks as it should, very professional and productive as she has years of brilliant experience and seems to enjoy being here and will be sorting out the field very soon. Please keep your fingers crossed she will continue to enjoy it here for a very very long time as we just have so many plans........

And the slightly more marginal news is that the husband, who is not a huge fan of the flower growing (I was rather more financially fluid and relaxed when I was working as a writer!)  has decided his future lies more on the marine environment than in the dirt and is planning on disappearing on his boat for a long time, maybe for ever. Heigh ho, just as well I love what I do and I find it so brilliant and exciting!

tally ho

Mouse tally in the tunnel so far 11. Seedlings looking decidedly happier!

What wonderful weather this week. The weekend was spent in my favourite activity, the annual rotovate of the annual beds. My trusty rotovator is still off being mended, I'm not quite sure where it is, the chap who delivers my mushroom compost took it away for his son to renovate some weeks or possibly months ago and I did say no rush but now can't seem to raise him. Ah well, I'm sure all will be well. So I hired the monster hydraulic machine which is huge fun as it is such a big beast, the one you can hang off the handlebars with both feet off the ground, but I have to say that cornering is a bit troublesome, it takes a lot of reversing and straightening out, about a ten point turn just to get back into line. But very satisfactory!

Narcissi are opening everywhere, and the great excitement for me is the opening of the first of the bulk tulips. And the chance to use my favourite antique tulip jug for flowers in the house. Unfortunately the first ones are not my favourites, short rather strangely-coloured pinkish yellowish affairs but with the most amazing black centres when they open like huge stars in the sun. The next ones, lovely cream scented doubles, are all covered in fleece as I am hoping (possibly against hope) they will do their thing by next weekend for a huge wedding. But it is very much fingers and toes crossed. I planted beautiful double whites in the tunnel specially for the day, for the bouquets, but they are opening now and will be past their best by the required day if it stays so sunny. I realise it can be hard getting everything to do its thing at the right time at the beginning of the season. And I have actually begun to get a little stressed about it but what will be will be........ I'm not yet quite sure what Plans B, C and D are, but I'm sure they will reveal themselves!

Seeds sown too early are already leggy in the tunnel so I have had to fill every available space in the beds by planting them out as they are far too early to go outside. Damn. It is just too tempting to get things going too early.

severed shoots

As my extremely polite and well spoken maternal grandmother used to say when she was really annoyed by something she had done Oh damn and blast and blithering hell....  I went in to water the tunnel this morning to discover nearly every sweet pea seedling nibbled off at the base and the little shoots just lying on the pots. Not slugs, no trails. And all happened overnight. Is this mouse damage?  It is just so cheeky to nibble the stalks through and just leave the severed shoots All pots are off the ground level palettes and back onto benches now. I was not happy......

Even if it isn't mouse damage there will soon be less mice as I'm just off to get traps - there's a new one on the market that you don't have to bait, it just has some scent that's apparently completely irresistible. I was sceptical but put one in the kitchen where a cheeky little rodent had been nipping out and stealing the dogs' biscuits (they just watched) and caught it within half an hour. Then reset the trap and caught its accomplice.
I think I'm on a mission for a substantial tunnel tally now.

Oh and I just organised for the next acre to be ploughed and harrowed. I have been trying to resist. But seem to have failed. I think I have a plan......

divided opinion

I was misguided! The worst thing about perennials is also that you have to divide them.... half of yesterday was spent slicing through great clumps and feeling awfully guilty that I hadn't done it last year. And when I got to the kniphofias I just didn't have the strength. If anyone lives nearby I have some of these spectacular fat orange hot pokers for grabs but I'm afraid I never knew their name, they came from rather a grand garden that new owners had taken over from someone who worked as a conservation gardener for the National Trust where there were some rather good plants. When they wanted rid of some of these I volunteered to home them as I certainly had the space but I'm afraid I never got to love them and now they're out.

But it was a spectacular day. As a relief from slicing I became obsessed by willows.

divide and rule

This is why I love perennials - every few years they increase exponentially. I spent the afternoon moving eryngiums and Achillea ptarmica, finally I might even have enough for a while. In fact I probably now have far too much Achillea pastel colours, I moved small clumps last year rather too late and never gave them any water or attention and they sulked, but a year in their current site, and a good winter mulch of masses of muck and I'm overrun.... I tried to get rid of a load of Oriental poppies last summer, but it's never easy to get rid of them as every bit of root colonises if it likes its home. That would be fine but we popped echinacea plugs in the same piece of ground that I thought we had cleared reasonably, so I fear they may all have got swamped, there's no sign yet. I also seem to have an unreasonably large swarm of heleniums which obviously like their site, I now wish I'd labelled them all as I remember that I didn't like using some of them and now of course I haven't a clue which ones..... catanache also seems to be making a bid for bed domination in one area, now I know it's a beggar to pick, and slightly temperamental to pick, but I am rather fond of it. I am not fond of the bright yellow rudbeckia though, and am planning to take them all out. Some people love them, but I just didn't want to use them last year. The trouble is, if I do give them all away, I'll probably suddenly find I want them. But I'm keen to use their space as I decided not to plough up another patch (yet) but to use every space within the existing fenced area instead. I am about to make more beds in the orchard area as that would be so much more useful than mowing grass, then when I really can't squeeze more in I'll move out to the next acre or two. I have an idea it may be sooner rather than later!

Sadly my pale yellow lemon scented nepetas seem to have frozen to death. And I had to uproot corpses of every pittosporum even though they should have been the perfect stage for good pickings this year. I guess I'll just have to keep being inventive with the foliage side of things. (But I never liked pittosporum anyway, that's probably the real reason it died, not just the extreme cold!). Eucalyptus have also been sawn down or taken out, some probably will survive, they are not my favourites but they are such incredibly useful shrubs and their foliage can be very beautiful and such a lovely colour so I hope some will re-grow after their winter blasting. Large bay trees have also gone which is more of an issue.

Now I know that some things are not as hardy as others so I really can't complain if things turn up their toes, it's my fault for planting them really, but we have become rather conditioned to thinking that most things will survive. I am quietly pleased that many dahlia tubers seem to have come through the winter in the ground, we ladled about a foot of well rotted horse muck over them and I think it seems to have done the trick, I dug a couple up to check and they were fine - but of course they might have been the only two healthy ones!

But this year I will concentrate on finding more seriously hardy cutting options, I am yearning for some rather tender scented foliage plants but will resist, though I am considering a new foliage tunnel at some point.......