05th June 2022
May was a manically busy month – sowing, planting and harvesting all happening on a daily basis. We added more wholesale customers to our books, mainly due to the pleasing trend for using more sustainably grown cut flowers. There is still a shortage of British grown cut flowers – especially when it comes to the range available.
June sees the end in sight of the planting for this year. We are still sowing, but it is the biennials and perennials for autumn planting that fill the greenhouse shelves now. We have had very poor germination this year with many things – and it can only be one thing, the compost quality. I am hearing the same from growers throughout the country – compost prices have shot up but the quality has gone down (just like the cost and quality of everything else it seems).
Tasks for this week will include planting out the zinnia, echinops and potting on the fancy chrysanths. I’ll also feed the dahlias and hopefully finishing planting the pumpkins, squash and ornamental gourds. And of course there is plenty of weeding.
This week we are also cutting daily and sending flowers down to the garden museum in London for an exhibition to celebrate British Flowers Week. Our friend Kate Kashiri of Kate Wren Flowers has been selected to exhibit there. She has given us carte blanche to cut and send whatever looks at it’s best in the field right now. We are so proud of her and know she will create something amazing. I expect roses to feature quite heavily, as the first June flush is just about to start in the polytunnel, so Kate’s display should smell amazing too!
Hay Lane Flowers 