For those of you who are new to this page – I am Roz Chandler, a flower farmer for over 10 years based in Milton Keynes, UK. I have a passion to help everyone that wants to grow, cut flowers whether for a business, pleasure, or as part of a community project. For me if we all grow more blooms, than we will reduce the need to fly flowers many thousands of miles across the globe and therefore help the planet for our children and our children’s children. And besides home grown blooms are so much nicer -fresher, scented and a pure delight.

Have you neglected your garden this winter? / Photo credit: Unsplash
Have you neglected your garden this winter? / Photo credit: Unsplash

And what to 2022?

We will relaunch the Seed to Vase Course with a start date of the 28th February 2022. For more details, visit: https://fieldgateflowers.kartra.com/page/seedtovase22

If you would like a chat, please do email me on [email protected]

In the meantime, let’s get plotting and planning.

I was delighted to see in the RHS top trends for 2022, that growing and buying seasonal local cut flowers as high on the list. We really are on trend for sure.

“If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.” Marcus Tullius Cicero

I for one am addicted to both growing cut flowers and reading everything I can about it. I am releasing my first book on the 17th of January – Seed to Vase. It will be available on Amazon so please do look out for it.

And so, to the jobs that can be done in the garden in January:

  1. Time to get the muck out if you haven’t already. Let’s get dirty. Dig out your well-rotted compost and cover your borders and beds with a two-inch layer. This not only improves the appearance of the borders but also suppresses those annoying annual weeds that seem pop up everywhere in the spring. We always test our compost here at Field Gate before we use it to ensure that its good stuff with no nasties in it. We grow field bean seeds in trays of a selection of manures and check that the beans grow well – healthy, green and with no damage.
  2. Leaf Mould. Still, lots of time to get this going. If you start now, you will have glorious leaf mould in a couple of years – great for conditioning the soil. There is something satisfying about collecting leaves too.
  3. January is a great time to clear out the greenhouse, potting shed and polytunnels. Give everything a good clean to ensure the bacteria growth is kept at bay.
  4. Start to plan your cutting patch. There is no rush at all. You have many months to do this and we can’t direct sow in the UK until April so it’s worth waiting.
  5. Plant any bare root plants. Bare root roses are best planted between October and April, during bare root season. This gives them time to establish ready to bloom come summer. The only time we recommend that you don't plant is when the ground is frozen, waterlogged or in drought conditions.
  6. Prune roses whilst dormant. We do have a wonderful Masterclass available on roses here. It covers the following:
  • Sourcing and planting our top 10 varieties for flowers from June til October.
  • Pruning for stem length, feeding, and dead heading
  • Propagation – increasing your stock.
  • Pests and how to deal with them.
  • Cutting and conditioning roses for a vase

Additionally, we have provided a PDF on our top ten cutting roses for your garden. We have also included information on the most frequently asked questions.

For more information, visit: www.fieldgateflowers.com

 

 

 

 

 

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