I’m reminded of five years ago when the ‘Beast from the East’ arrived on our doorstep and the country was a blanket of snow and the garden fell back into the depths of winter.
Granted in Cornwall we have no snow but it feels like someone just pressed pause on Spring.
This time last year my husband and I were on our first international trip after the lockdown. Whilst very excited I was also mildly stressed as we were bang in the middle of a heat wave. The tulips were so close to flowering and to stop them all blowing pre wedding season required a shift around the garden to keep them in the shade!
This year, as you can see from the images above, the one of the left was taken in 16.03.22 and the right was today. The growth is way behind. Admittedly I don’t often have tulips in March and for me they are certainly better to arrive in the busier season of April but over the years I’ve watched the seasons change so much. We seem to have sudden swings of cold, wet, dry and hot and each seems to be prolonged and challenging. Trying to grow flowers in this changing climate is pretty stressful so I am also looking at ways to adapt. My love of flowering shrubs has always been the back bone of my work and never more has this group of plants been more important in the garden.
This year I decided not to offer Mother’s Day flowers. The garden renovation added to the cold seasonal start just felt like another layer of complications.
However, I’m super excited to be welcoming a group of Italians over to my garden for a three day bespoke class next week. So as I start to remind my flowers that perhaps some of them could wake up I’m grateful for the wonderful local growers like B J Richards and Smith and Munson for their excellent blooms.
Part 2 will be a little creation from todays soggy morning in the garden. It was my intention to do it this afternoon, however I treated myself to putting the woodturner on at 1pm after I was soaked right through and now I find myself with little motivation to be creative! This is, I believe, the equivalent of writers block…
Instead I’ll leave you with some of images from today.
Antique Shade of Viola - grown by The Garden Gate Flower Company
Courses
If you are interested in group courses to The Garden Gate Flower Company please drop me an email and we can arrange a phone consultation.
