16/01/2025
Throwback to a favorite from Mother’s Day, all grown in my garden that somehow never made it on the grid.
Not a bud in sight right now, just lush green growth, but these are some of the varieties I regrow each year because I fell in love with them. I let them turn brown and crispy before giving up the bed, and collect the seeds and corms they produce for the next year. Sometimes they just sit in a paper bag, when something new catches my eye that I want to grow instead, and then a year passes without them and I find I missed them, and pull them back out, like a shoebox of memories.
Garden dreaming usually starts up to a year in advance, when I meet a flower in bloom and add it to my list of things I want to grow. I start them from seed, bulb or corm, babying them for 3-9 months before seeing the first blooms I can cut, fighting weeds and pests, reluctant to spray anything.
They start as a little trickle, impatiently watching those buds each day that seem to always be “almost there”, waiting for enough to make a small arrangement. Is it the right color for that next event? Usually not - maybe those flowers finished a week ago, or the bride booked me too late for me to source seeds, or no beds had room and I had already committed them to something else I wanted to grow. Often they’re just for me, or friends we are going to see that weekend, or design workshops in my studio, or the occasional elopement bouquet where the bride doesn’t require a specific color story and just wants the most beautiful and fresh flowers the season has to offer. But when they coincide with a wedding, in the right color, at the right time, it’s like the universe smiled on us to say it was meant to be that way, and invariably the flowers that my clients find the most special. It turns out you CAN feel the love put into flowers by their grower.
I’ve been adding more varieties, and want to teach out of the garden more this year. As blooms get closer watch out for workshop dates so you can meet these beauties in person 🫶
Ranunculus Champagne, Purple Jean, Cloni Grand Pastel, Cloni Hanoi, Sweet Pea Naomi Nazareth, Rose David Austin Ambridge Rose & Roald Dahl, CA Poppy Thai silk