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At the end of 2007, we planned and planted our first cutting garden as an experiment to provide us with a constant supply of home grown cut flowers from February when the first crocus appear until November’s first frosts. We were also able to use this demonstration bed as a trial for our Home Grown range of annuals which had been sown into peat-free soils and as a testing ground for natural plant feeds and fertilizers and our own compost. The cutting garden produced more flowers than we could have imagined - and is now an annual feature.
Cutting Garden Update Summer 2010
The cutting garden in July is a haze of self seeded poppies, dusty mauves and dots of scarlet, hopeless for cutting but pretty and they hide the yellowing leaves of Allium Purple Sensation and A. Cristophii which have finished flowering now. Their seed pods remain to provide us with new plants in a few years time.
As the poppies and forget me nots fade we clear them out and are left with gaps between rows of bronze fennel, Salvia sclarea var turkestanica (which smells very strongly of sweat but looks beautiful), foxgloves, sweet rocket, with its lovely scent. The last petals of the foxtail lily, which flowers endlessly from the bottom upwards, like jewels they glitter and attract the eye with their ancient dazzling colours.
Three rows of sweet peas, trained up hazel peasticks are flowering now. Planted intermittently down the length of the cutting garden in April when the first of the tulips had finished, they have been regularly fed and picked to provide the restaurant with scented flowers.
Other annuals we have sown in the glasshouse have been finally planted. The hot spring has meant they are in bud and ready to flower; Tithonia rotundifolia 'Torch', the Mexican sunflower which has intense orange petals on elegant stems arising from a shrub like plant that will grow to 1.5 m and can be picked again and again until the frosts.
Cosmos bipinnatus "Purity' (white) and "Dazzler' (magenta) are starting to flower and are capable of producing pure colour and simplicity of form that can be cut throughout the remainder of the season. They are so light and clear planted next to the 'meat' of our Babylon Dahlias; easy to pick, huge flowerheads in purples, pinks, oranges and reds. They are a fantastic cut flower providing great quantities of colour and glamour for the restaurant.....
The half hardy annual, Zinnia elegans replace the sweet rocket, while Scabiosa varieties seperate blocks of Cleome spinosa 'Helen Campbell' (white) and 'Cherry Queen' (pink), they will continue to flower until November. The edible mallow; Malope trifida 'Vulcan' and related Lavetteria trimestris 'Monc Blanc' (white) and 'Loveliness', divide the dahlias and biennial verbena bonnariensis. Self seeded borage from last years edible/ornamental cutting garden is editted out and in the middle of July I can leave it to itself- now it is just a mater of picking the flowers.
Fresh, Home Grown Cut Flowers from Petersham Nurseries
Our home grown, low ‘plant mile’ cut flowers are available to buy on a seasonal basis. From December until the end March each year (subject to seasonal variations), we sell beautiful, highly scented narcissi from the Scilly Isles.
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