Journal

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!

People often shy away from cutting spring flowers - remembering the wilting bunches of childhood - but if you treat them properly they will last a week in the house.

I have put together a tip sheet here.

I would love to know what your favourite flowers are.

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