We're pleased to have our morning gathered agapanthus in this week's posies. This plant is native to Southern Africa but if you've spent time in New Zealand you might also recognise it from growing tall along the road sides where it has become naturalised. In Australia it is known as 'Star of Bethlehem' as it makes an appearance for their summer Christmas-time.
Just like buses, we've got two more true blue ingredients this week and they are homegrown eryngium (sea holly) and cornflowers from a second-sowing. To balance out the blues we have a pink hydrangea - so you could say our posy is gender neutral!
This posy includes the first of our homegrown gypsophila crop and this variety is called 'million stars'. It's a more delicate, dainty flower-shape than the more usual rounded 'baby's breath'. It was a surprise actually because I thought most of what we were growing was the round type, but it seems that, not for the first time, the garden had other plans!
We've got some other new arrivals this week, such as the lime green Nicotiana (tobacco plant), red pompon dahlia, white lavender, and the true blues of the Echinops and hydrangea.
We're pretty chuffed with how everything is growing at our cutting garden at the moment. Despite the low rainfall, the amount of organic material that's been added to the soil has allowed it to retain moisture very well and we have not watered any of the established crops this year. A first for the posies is the addition of homegrown rudbeckia. These ones are Rudbeckia hirta 'sahara' and they are a double-petalled variety in russety hues that come up nice and straight. This week we've also got free seeds with every posy! You can start your own mini wildflower meadow by scattering the seeds out of the nigella seedpods when you've finished enjoying looking at them! It's British Flowers Week this week....
Welcome back gypsophila, aka baby's breath! I didn't know it was part of the carnation family till just now - always learning! Often the choice for a country wedding, these mini flowers can add a spot of magic to any arrangement. In the 1990s a sprig of 'gyp' with a single red rose was a popular gift (especially by the navy guys who came to the flower shop where I worked. They'd also get me to compose their messages for them, incidentally). Now it is more likely to be used all by itself for bridesmaid bouquets in a big fluffball. You have to be a hardened florist to use it that way, as most of the lower stems need to...
Everything is bursting into bloom in this heat on the plot and all but the peonies this week have been grown by us. Our flower of the week is the honeysuckle. Not such a looker perhaps, but this climbing plant has a wonderful sweet fragrance to enhance any posy or garden. The scent is strongest at night-time to attract pollinating moths. It grows in woodlands in North America and Europe and is regarded as an invasive species outside its original range. There are over 180 species of honeysuckle in the genus Lonicera. The flowers are edible but the berries can cause sickness, so don't eat those! Honeysuckle flowers are used inside cat toys, so it's safe to see if your...
