Grow your own Wedding Flowers Read online

  Avoid using manure from horses that have been fed on bought-in hay, because the owners of the horses won’t be able to reassure you without doubt that the hay is uncontaminated.

  For details about planting bulbs for cutting, see Chapter 4.

  Sowing seed

  Once you have clean (weed-free) soil that will rake nicely to a fine tilth, then you can sow seed direct into the ground (a good idea with hardy annuals, which you can sow in the autumn; or for a late-summer wedding, for which you can direct-sow into warm ground in spring). Alternatively, start your seeds off in seed trays to germinate under cover, such as in a cold greenhouse. For an early-summer wedding, you might get them going under cover in autumn or late winter, to be planted out as good-sized seedlings in spring (see Chapter 5).

  Direct sowing is great if you have space, once the soil is warm enough, but of course your seedlings will be more vulnerable to pest damage. I recommend hedging your bets by sowing a tray of seed as well for every variety you sow direct – this way, if your strip of healthy cornflower seedlings are eaten off one night by a marauding army of evil slugs, you’ll have back-up.

  Don’t be tempted to direct-sow too early: test the soil warmth by holding your hand flat a few inches above the soil during early spring. You’ll feel nothing but cold and nothing but cold and nothing but cold – and then, bingo! One day you’ll feel the warmth radiating from the ground. Time to start sowing!

  A row of nigella seedlings in midwinter. Sown direct into the soil in the autumn, they’ll need thinning out to a 22cm (9”) spacing in early spring if the plants are to grow large and give lots of nice, long-stemmed flowers.

  Seed-sowing parties are great fun. The more help you have with your flower growing, the less stressful it will be – and what are bridesmaids and ushers for if not to be put to work?!

  I recommend hedging your bets by sowing a tray of seed as well for every variety you sow direct.

  Spacing

  For sowing seed directly into the ground, make your rows about 22cm (9”) apart, and when the seedlings need thinning, thin them to 22cm apart too. This may seem space-greedy when you have a tiny row of seedlings, but you want those seedlings to grow into large, floriferous plants, and they won’t do so well as they might if they’re fighting for space above ground, and their roots are crowding for water below. If they have to share little water, you might find your plants get mildew, which, while it won’t kill your flowers, doesn’t make for beautiful foliage in your bride’s bouquet.

  If raising your seeds in trays, sow them thinly into free-draining, peat-free seed compost. We make our own seed compost by mixing two-thirds municipal green-waste compost (with the chunky bits picked out) with one-third sand. This makes a good, serviceable seed compost, and is a great deal less expensive than using bought preparations that are specifically labelled for seeds. When seedlings are big enough to prick out, separate them into module trays, one seedling per module. A seedling is big enough to prick out once it has a good pair of leaves, by which you should handle it – never by its stem, which can bruise easily when the plant is this tiny. Once you see the first curl of a root peeking out of the hole at the bottom of the module tray, potted-on seedlings are ready to harden off and plant out (see ‘Summer management’).

  When and how much to sow

  If you think you’ll need, say, ten plants per variety of flower you want to grow, to be in full flower for your wedding, then if you have a space like the bed shown in the photograph on above, you could easily fit two rows each of, say, five varieties of cut flowers across the bed.

  You need to hedge your bets a little with timings, because a hot spring will have your flowers going over more quickly than a cold, late spring – and, no matter where you live, you can never predict the weather in advance. The way to avoid being caught out by the vicissitudes of the weather is to sow successionally. So, in a second, similarly sized bed, you could fit the same number of plants again, sown 2 or 3 weeks later, and in a third bed you could have the same yet again, sown another 2 or 3 weeks later. For tulips and spring flowers, you can be clever and plant some of your crop in pots, which you can then bring in to force if necessary.

  Autumn-sown hardy annuals will flower from late spring / early summer onwards. If your wedding is booked for early summer, then you might like to direct-sow one crop of your chosen flowers in the autumn, but also put in another crop, either under cover in late winter or directly in the ground once the soil’s begun warming up in spring. If you have mild winters, your autumn-sown plants will be flowering for you (so long as the slugs didn’t get them all) early next summer. But who knows what the winter will do? Sow more seed in trays in late winter, and it will fill any gaps in your overwintered stock (see Chapter 5).

  Consider including herbs

  If you’re planting a bed of a size, you could edge it with pineapple mint and lavender; with thyme and rosemary. Herbs are lovely in posies – the scent of mint mixed with sweet peas and roses has to be one of my absolute favourites; a sprig of rosemary makes a cheerful upright in a buttonhole, and can also be used in memory of a much-loved family member who may no longer be there. Lavender can be very calming to a nervous bride. If the lavender goes over, cut it anyway and save it to scatter on paths to and from the ceremony or on the way to the reception. You’ll likely get a second flush of flowers, and with the dried lavender scattered on the ground, people will wonder where the wonderful scent is coming from.

  Mint works very well in posies – here with the gentle bobbing blue heads of campanula.

  Pests

  Outdoors, there are slugs and birds and rabbits, which might take your seedlings. Birds can be frightened off with bits of something glittery hanging above your beds: old CDs or strips of silver foil work well. Slugs can be deterred by ringing your plants with coffee grounds (easily available from your local coffee shop if you don’t produce enough from your own kitchen) or smashed, baked eggshells (bake off the membrane inside, which might otherwise attract rats). Rabbits can be fenced out.

  Even if you raise your seedlings in trays under cover, the risk of pest damage is ever-present, so do take precautions:

  Slugs A salted smear of Vaseline around the lip of a seed tray makes double protection from the dreaded slug. Of course, if you move any of your seed trays, or disturb them, you risk smudging off this smear, so make sure to reapply your salty Vaseline.

  Mice The only seed I never direct-sow is sweet peas, because the mice will have it in a heartbeat. Always sow sweet-pea seed in deep pots of good, free-draining compost and cover with a mouse-proof, clear lid until the seed is well germinated. Mice will dig over all your seedlings once they’ve found germinating sweet peas, just in case everything else is as delicious – so it’s worth taking care!

  I always start sweet peas off in trays, and only plant them out when they’re about this big, for fear of marauding mice eating the fat, sweet, germinating seeds.

  Greenfly As the weather warms in spring, you may suddenly find you have an infestation of greenfly on your precious seedlings before you’ve had a chance to plant them out. You can squeeze them off between finger and thumb, but you risk damaging easily bruised growing tips that way. Another option is to spray greenfly with a very weak soft-soap solution (a short squirt of washing-up liquid in water in a sprayer bottle). Don’t spray soap solution on plants when the sun is full on them, or you risk scorching the leaves, so this is a job for a cool evening or early morning.

  DID WEDDINGS ALWAYS HAPPEN IN CHURCH?

  Actually, no. Historically, weddings would take place in the porch of a church. Marriages were legally binding contracts between families, and the church porch was a good, large, dry place for people to meet. Only 1,500 years after the beginning of Christianity did marriage become a sacrament to be celebrated at the altar of a church.

  Overwintered seedlings

  If you’re growing for a spring or early-summer wedding and have trays of autumn-sown hardy seedlings in a cold gree
nhouse or cold frame, you may occasionally find that they’re frozen solid in a hard frost.

  Help them survive by preventing them from defrosting too quickly: make a tent of sacking or burlap to wrap them up, and they will defrost slowly and stand a much better chance. Don’t worry if they appear very frost-bitten: the frost is simply pinching out the growing tips, as you might yourself later in the year, and they will have lots of flowering shoots ready to surprise you in the spring.

  If you have seedlings sown in beds to overwinter outside, and the conditions are freezing, you can either cover the beds with fleece before the frost to protect them, or cover with green mesh, burlap or sacking after the frost, to prevent too-speedy defrosting. I will admit to being quite lazy, and unless there’s been a period of really warm weather in which my seedlings have suddenly put on a bit of sappy growth, I don’t protect them. Only in spring, if there’s a late frost, do I worry, and then I fleece them so long as I know the frost is coming.

  Summer management

  Surviving winter is one thing; growing in the garden through the summer is quite another. Don’t take your eye off the ball, and keep in mind the following points.

  Don’t let seedlings growing in trays dry out. Water them from underneath, to help prevent the possibility of mould on the surface, which might cause damping off (when seedlings collapse and rot, ruining your plans), and check regularly that the water is getting all the way up through the compost. If the leaves of good-sized seedlings look a little yellow, you can feed them with a very weak seaweed solution to give them the trace elements they might need.

  Remember to harden off seedlings for a good fortnight before planting them out. ‘Hardening off’ means putting seedlings midway between the warm, protected environment they’re used to and the cold of the open garden. You might harden them off outside but against a wall somewhere, or in an open cold frame if you have one.

  When you plant out seedlings into the ground, water them in really well – if necessary watering the bed before you plant the seedlings into it, watering the seedling in the pot before you take it out of the pot, and watering again once the seedlings have been planted. From then on, don’t water more than once a week, in order to allow the plants to get their roots down and find water deep in the soil.

  Seeds growing in the garden where they’ve been direct-sown shouldn’t need so much watering. At Common Farm, we water in seed when it’s sown – as much to tamp down the earth around the seed, so that emerging roots won’t hit air pockets, as to give the seed moisture to encourage germination. Once the seeds have germinated, unless it’s very dry, you shouldn’t need to water much: maybe once a week during a dry period, but probably less often than that. However, if your plants are looking at all mildewy, give them a good water. Mildew is often caused by dry roots.

  Sweet peas can be especially prone to mildew. Plant them a good 22cm (9”) apart and be prepared to water and feed them for really high-quality flowers. We never expect a sweet-pea plant to be in full productive flower for more than 6 weeks at a time, so don’t sow too early.

  If your plants are looking at all mildewy, give them a good water. Mildew is often caused by dry roots.

  Feeding

  There are lots of reasons for feeding your plants: to encourage strong growth, to encourage lots of flowering shoots, to keep leaves green and healthy, and to help plants fight mildew and botrytis (mould), as well as slug and aphid attack. At Common Farm, we feed our plants with a mix of nettle tea, comfrey tea, chicken-poo pellets and seaweed solution. Recipes for garden-feeding teas are given below, but if you don’t fancy making these, then a good supply of organic chicken-poo pellets and seaweed solution are the ingredients I recommend.

  Home-made garden-feeding teas

  Nettle tea recipe In the spring, once the stinging nettles are shooting, cut a good quantity of them and put them in a bin. Fill the bin with water, cover, and leave for 3 weeks. The resulting stinking soup makes marvellous, nitrogen-rich plant food. Dilute 1:10 (or weaker) with water, and feed your plants fortnightly with it to promote strong growth. Use until midsummer.

  Comfrey tea recipe This is a potassium-rich preparation, which will help your plants be extra-flowery for your big day. In the middle of summer, cut the whole of a comfrey plant off at the base (don’t worry, it will regrow). Chop it up a little and put it in a bin. Cover with water and a lid and leave for 3 weeks. The resulting mess smells even worse than nettle tea, but diluted 1:10 it makes a wonderful once-a-week feed for mid- to late-summer flowering plants. Remember: feed your plants with this stinky tea no closer to your wedding than a week. You don’t want your flowers to smell of comfrey juice!

  Compost tea recipe In a washing-up bowl, put a handful of well-rotted manure, a handful of garden compost (not sterile, shop-bought compost), and a handful of freshly shooting nettle tips. Fill the bowl with water and put it somewhere in full sun in a warm place, like a sunny greenhouse. Stir from time to time over 48 hours, and you’ll see a bubble of yellow scum forming on the surface. This is a wonderful bacteria tea, breeding in the mix. After 48 hours, dilute 1:10 and use to feed the soil you’ll be planting into. Use this to make sure your earth is in extra-good heart before planting.

  As mentioned earlier in this chapter, for best results you should feed both the plants and the soil. As well as adding garden compost and/or well-rotted manure, you can also feed your soil with compost tea.

  When planting seedlings out, add a scattering of rockdust (which comes from the sides of volcanoes) dusted into the hole you’re going to plant into. Like seaweed solution, this provides a mix rich in trace elements, which will help plants to establish.

  Until midsummer (when the days are lightest), feed freshly planted-out seedlings with a nitrogen-rich food such as nettle tea, to encourage long, strong stems. However, if using commercially prepared feed, do read the instructions carefully: strong concentrates can burn your seedlings, while much-watered-down concentrates will feed them.

  Feed the plants you plan to cut from for your wedding fortnightly from when they start flowering with a very weak seaweed solution: this is full of trace elements and rich in potassium, which will help make lots of flowers. It should also help fight mildew and prevent yellowing leaves. Or, if you’d like to make more of your own free plant food, feed fortnightly with comfrey tea, which is also potassium-rich. At Common Farm, we feed with both comfrey tea and seaweed solution, alternately through the high-summer and late-summer months. Your time may be precious and your comfrey supplies meagre. Seaweed solution works very well if you don’t have comfrey.

  Weeding

  I did warn you that growing your own wedding flowers would take a little bit of time, and one of the jobs it’s worth spending time on is weeding. For the same reasons that you don’t want overcrowded plants, with roots fighting each other for limited water supply – because the plants may become mildewy – you don’t want your plants to fight with weeds for water, space and light.

  If you plant your seeds or seedlings in rows 22cm (9”) apart, then you can easily run a hoe between them once a week or so, and this will keep your soil clean and give your plants lots of space.

  Staking

  If you’re growing annuals for a summer wedding, then you’ll need to think about plant supports. All this care and attention, feeding them and giving them lots of space, means that your plants will be tall, and a strong wind might flatten them if you’re not careful.

  You may be growing flowers in various empty spaces in the garden, in which case each little clump of plants will need to be supported with canes. If, however, you’re growing your wedding flowers all together, in an allotment-style patch or part of your vegetable garden, then your plant support can be easier to manage.

  Sweet peas will do better grown in a straight row up pea netting rather than up a tepee-style arrangement of stakes. Why? Well, sweet peas growing up a tepee will jungle in the middle of the structure, and it’ll be really difficult for you to find all t
he flowers to cut them and thereby make sure the plants don’t go over before the big day. Sweet peas grown in a line along pea netting are very easy to keep tied in and the flowers cut.

  Other annuals, if grown all together, can be netted with pea netting horizontally across the bed. Plant four stout stakes at the corners of your bed, and perhaps two more halfway along the bed, if it’s long. Then hook the netting over the stakes, pulling it down to a height of about 1m (3’). Alternatively, make a cat’s cradle of string criss-crossing over the bed. Do this before the plants are too tall (it’s much easier to stake plants before they are tall enough to need it), and they’ll grow up and through the netting or string, enjoying the support.

  You can use this trick with dahlias and roses too, if you’re growing them in a block.

  Cut a bed of dahlias for a wedding on a Thursday, and the plants will be in full flower again by Saturday, which is great if you plan to hold your reception in the garden where you grow your flowers.

  These dahlias are growing through netting pulled taut horizontally across the bed, protecting them from summer wind and rainstorms.

  Top growing tips

  Always water trays of seedlings from underneath, to avoid damping off.

  Sow the same mix of flowers two or three times over 3-week intervals: that way you won’t be caught out by unexpectedly hot or cold weather, bringing your flowers to bloom too early or too late.