Journal
Buttercups as cut flowers
YOU CAN LISTEN TO AN AUDIO VERSION OF THIS HERE (second segment)
In June the fields around us turn into a haze of yellow. Slightly softened by the pink of the flowering grass the bright buttercup flowers bob in the breeze, an upper story of brilliant flowers, shiny as lacquer.
In the garden I have a slightly more tetchy relationship with the buttercup - it is one of the main weeds we have, left over from when the garden was a soggy pony paddock. It loves the wet and thrives in compaction, spreading in runners to form a dense strangling mat, regrowing efficiently from each tiny scrap of root.
This is one of the main reasons that the vegetable garden has raised beds - the buttercup shies away from the loose soil and organic matter, preferring to set up home on the paths with their stamped down wood chip.
How to Rescue Flopped Tulips
While there is nothing quite as beautiful as an ageing tulip undulating and swan diving, sometimes tulips have a tendency to fling themselves over the edge of the vase, turning into hoops that resist all attempts to straighten them.
If that happens to yours, this is how to rescue them.
• Take the tulips out of water and leave them somewhere flat until they are completely floppy.
• Lay them out straight as a bunch, with all the stem ends level.
• Wrap the tulips tightly in a cone of paper that will support them with straight stems. Make sure the stem ends are sticking out the bottom.
• Boil a kettle and pour boiling water into a mug or measuring jug.
• Fill a deep vase with luke warm water.
• Cut the bottom 2-3 cm. from the tulip stems, put the tulips immediately into the hot water, count to ten and them plunge into the vase, still in the cone of paper.
• Leave for 2-3 hours for the stems to fill with water and stiffen again.
• Remove the paper and arrange.
Bringing the outdoors in: February bulbs
The nature table windowsill.
Over the years the way I arrange flowers has changed - I used to create elaborate mixes of flowers, with lots of greenery and different types of flowers, designed to be displayed in a beautiful vase on a side table.
Now things are much simpler, my time is more valuable and I am usually looking for something quick and effective. I find my arrangements have almost become deconstructed - the finished effect owing a lot to the nature table.
My favourite is on my bedroom windowsill - shells, fossils and stones gathered on family holidays are interspersed with old glass bottles, each with a single flower or stem in it.
Each morning, as I sit in bed and drink my morning coffee, I wonder at how they change from day to day.
My top 5 spring flowers for cutting
Leucojum Gravetye Giant
My favourite cut flowers are ones that change - that open and sway, that grow and bloom, that catch at your attention each time you pass.
I love to watch flowers - which is why I love garden flowers and would always choose a sprig of spring blooms over a fancy foreign grown bouquet.
My 5 top spring flowers are ones you can snip from your garden - pop into a jar or a bottle and watch.
Leucojum Gravetye Giant - a damp loving bulb - also known as the summer snow flake, this naturalises here in our damp heavy soil - a couple of stems look ethereal for a week in a botle or you can pick sheaves of it to arrange in a stone jar.
Viola - by this time of year I find that tulips and narcissi have crowded out the winter flowering violas - and they respond by growing long stems to try and reach the light - pick them and you can spend time looking into those open freckly faces.
Cow parsley “Ravenswing” - where regular cow parsley can have a musty smell this earlier, more delicate variety is more refined - bring it into the house and you can really appreciate the tiny perfect flowers set off against the burgundy stems.
Erythronium “Pagoda” - I love these citrus yellow woodlanders - they have long stems and you can pick them in bud, hanging downwards - then overnight they open, kick back their petals and turn into the Pagodas. As glamorous as any lily.
Hellebores - I love the bruised plummy colours of Ballard hellebores but, if I’m honest, they aren’t shown off that well in the garden - inside, in different heights of bottles with light shining through the petals . . . heaven!
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