I have been a British flower grower for a year now! I also still work part time and I often get asked what I’ve been up to when I return to work in the office after the weekend. So I thought I’d write a dairy of my week to share.
My work for The Flower Patch starts on a Wednesday lunchtime and this week as it was raining it gave me the opportunity to catch up on my accounts, a boring but necessary job and I do feel better for getting on top of things. I then decided it was time my work space had a bit of a tidy up, however that job is to be continued!

Thursday is usually the day I spend at The Flower Patch where I grow the majority of my flowers. I picked flowers & foliage for this weeks orders and then set to work on the damage the wind and rain had caused to some of the flowers (The worst weather for flower growing). I do usually stake all the plants but some of the autumn sown annuals and the biennials have grown so quickly I didn’t manage to get round to staking them. I did try to do some weeding but it was a matter of dodging the rain,we have April showers in May this week!
I also delivered some flowers for the tables at Lubcloud Farm Tea Room in Oaks in Charnwood near Shepshed. They serve delicious food in a beautiful location, I recommend a visit.

I am also helping Carole from Tuckshop Flowers & Penny (a new flower grower) to organise a stand at the BBC Gardeners World Live at the NEC in Birmingham which runs from 11th to 14th June. So we had a Skype meeting to discuss plans. If you are interested in knowing more about growing flowers for a living or enjoy flower arranging come along and meet us, we’ll answer your questions. We’ll also be running have a go floristry workshops throughout the event.

Friday was spent making posies and delivering locally. Lauren works with me on Fridays she usually spends time taking photos for our records & helps with my social media. We have collected lots of vintage items over the years and it was Lauren’s idea to hire these out for weddings & events, so she’s been busy sorting out & taking photos of styling ideas.
Unfortunately this time of year there are weeds popping up all over the place, so the rest of the day was spent frantically trying to get rid of them!

On Saturday morning I went to visit Newton House Barn at Newton Solney, with a bride who is having her wedding reception there in August. The gardens are beautiful and the barn is spacious and simply decorated which gives plenty of opportunity to create your own style. We then went on to visit the church to see where best to place the flowers. It was a lovely morning and by visiting early on it gives us more time to discuss ideas together to achieve the look and feel the bride is after.

As the weather was fine on Sunday afternoon I went to The Flower Patch, it’s a very busy time of year so I need to keep on top of the weeds and prepare the soil for planting out the half hardy annuals at the end of the month. Everything grows so quickly this time of year so although the tulips are just about over the alliums, sweet rocket, honesty, Icelandic poppies, cerinthe, euphorbia & blossom are flowering and I’m still picking lots of ranunculus in the polytunnel. Another few weeks and we will have lots more to choose from, the sweet peas, nigella, snapdragons, cornflowers, foxgloves, sweet williams to name just a few are nearly out.

So that was my week, if you are interested in growing please contact me. I’ll be happy to share my information and experiences.