November 2024 has so far been very mild with no frosts and hardly any rain. This has meant that we’ve had an extended period of time to get the autumn planted hardies in the ground and growing. But as growers we need cold weather and frosts to kill off some of the pests and diseases that build up in the ground over the warmer months. This year we’ve had a dull and fairly wet year, which has meant that fungal diseases have proliferated. I’ve been very lucky, but other growers have seen a lot of rusts, mildews and blights. Our open, windy site causes a few problems, but it does lead to good airflow around the plants, so they are a little less susceptible to fungal problems. But now it is bulb planting season.

Planting spring bulbs is backbreaking work. If they don’t get a good hard cold snap, particularly the tulips, then they are very prone to diseases such as blight. So we usually wait until the weather turns wintery to plant them. However this year, time has been short and I have had to start my bulb planting already. At the moment I am about half way through planting the 6000 tulip bulbs I have in storage and we’ve 800 anemones already growing in the polytunnel. Tulips, ranunculus and anemones are expensive crops to grow. Mice, rats and voles love to eat the bulbs, and the bulbs are also prone to rotting in wet conditions. In every bag of bulbs you buy there are always a few that are not viable. There are always going to be losses. So this is something you have to try and factor in to your costings, which is tricky, as every year is different. But without the spring bulbs, we would have nothing much to offer for sale until June, and it is vital that we can provide our customers with a wide choice of flowers as early as we can in the season. Bringing back our returning customers and tempting in new customers, is a task I take seriously, as once customers have got a taste for field grown British blooms they are quickly hooked. Every customer I can tempt through the door in March or April is potentially a new regular client. So although they are a lot of work, with quite a bit of risk, spring bulbs are always something we will grow a lot of.