Hello and welcome. It's Tuesday 11 August 2025 and it's really hot (yet again).

We're in the midst of heatwave no. 4 right now and so I've been busy watering and mulching with bark to keep the moisture locked into the soil and try to slow the weeds down. In many places on the plot I have the healthiest and best-looking nettles in the world right now.

I seriously considered quitting this weekend (partly because I had a cold from hell) but I refuse to be beaten by the weather and my inexperience so I'm ploughing on. I've been questioning the route that I decided to take (wholesale only) and then wondering how I would re-do my marketing plan if I tried selling elsewhere. I got well and truly stuck inside a whirlwind of indecision and overwhelm.

On a positive note, at the end of the episode I share some tips with you after I came to some realisations recently: I hope they're food for thought. I really hope you enjoy this episode and that you'll come back and join me for the next one.

Connect with me

If you like what you hear, please follow/subscribe to this podcast so that you're the first to hear new episodes when they become available every Tuesday and Friday. And if you enjoy this episode, please take a minute to leave a review because it really does help more cut flower-lovers like you find the podcast.

Follow me on instagram @henhillcutflowers for a behind-the-scenes look at life on my cut flower plot.

Join me on my journey through a year of growing and selling cut flowers in England. I'm giving you the low-down on what it's really like, how I'm getting started, what you do and don't need, what I do when and why, the successes and failures, and just about everything in between. All in real time. With guest appearances from my chickens every now and then.

Hello, it's Friday 8 August 2025.

You're joining me for this episode on the plot: it's a truly beautiful evening and at one point a bat actually flies right over my head. This week has been good in terms of the cut flowers and my lovely event florist collected an order from me this morning. I have also got my car back from the mechanic and my cold has gone, so all round, it's a win.

I've got dahlia news for you from my mentor and expert dahlia grower, Richard Bailey, after my visit to see him this afternoon for one of our regular catchups. He talked me through his dis-budding process and my brain melted halfway through: it's complicated! There is a knack to dahlias but the results are well worth the effort.

This week there has been the usual deadheading, cutting, conditioning and arranging, as well as some emergency staking of the snaps. Do your staking well in advance! There have also been the (fairly standard) crisis of confidence and feelings of failure this week: if you're experiencing the same, I hear you. Growing cut flowers for sale is a steep learning curve: the highs are very high, and the lows are equally low but it's certainly never boring.

I hope you enjoy this episode and that you'll come back and join me for the next one!

Connect with me

If you like what you hear, please follow/subscribe to this podcast so that you're the first to hear new episodes when they become available every Tuesday and Friday. And if you enjoy this episode, please take a minute to leave a review because it really does help more cut flower-lovers like you find the podcast.

Follow me on instagram @henhillcutflowers for a behind-the-scenes look at life on my cut flower plot.

Join me on my journey through a year of growing and selling cut flowers in England. I'm giving you the low-down on what it's really like, how I'm getting started, what you do and don't need, what I do when and why, the successes and failures, and just about everything in between. All in real time. With guest appearances from my chickens every now and then.

Hello and welcome to a warm and sunny Tuesday 5 August 2025.

I'm back to cheerful business this week. However, apologies for my voice on this episode: I have got a cold at the moment.

I've topped up one of the IBCs with a new water pump, which has been great and saved a lot of effort with no spillage, although it took the same amount of time as doing it by hand. I've also been planting out more of my strawflowers: some of them are flowering nicely and they're very pretty. Some great news: my hen, Shirley Bassey, has successfully hatched her babies and they're the cutest little bundles of fluff ever! I'm so in love with them already and Shirley is doing a great job.

In tonight's episode I answer a question about how I selected my sweetpeas for 2026 and also exactly how I compile my 'availability list' for my florist. I have made up an availability list template on a spreadsheet and I make a new one for each order using this template. I am a great lover of spreadsheets so I find it easier to do it this way but you could also do it on a notes app or on a piece of paper.

This morning I visited a fellow local grower, Fiona at Chiltern Sky Flowers, for a walk-around her plot. She shared lots of information with me and answered all of my questions: it's always brilliant to have this opportunity and if you're new to growing then I'd encourage you to visit as many growers as you possibly can. Fiona also runs workshops and you can find more information about these and her flowers here: https://www.chilternskyflowers.com/. Her insta is also well worth looking at because she's an incredible photographer!

I really hope you enjoy this episode: please come back and join me for the next one!

Connect with me

If you like what you hear, please follow/subscribe to this podcast so that you're the first to hear new episodes when they become available every Tuesday and Friday. And if you enjoy this episode, please take a minute to leave a review because it really does help more cut flower-lovers like you find the podcast.

Follow me on instagram @henhillcutflowers for a behind-the-scenes look at life on my cut flower plot.

Join me on my journey through a year of growing and selling cut flowers in England. I'm giving you the low-down on what it's really like, how I'm getting started, what you do and don't need, what I do when and why, the successes and failures, and just about everything in between. All in real time. With guest appearances from my chickens every now and then.