It’s been a weird year anyway, and everything does feel like it’s gone over much quicker than usual, even here in Scotland where the heatwaves have been less pronounced. I didn’t delegate anyone to look after the garden while I was away, but I know it rained a fair bit. As you can see, there’s a lot of good things coming in (very happy sunflowers, and the cosmos and scabious are kicking in nicely), but the earlier season flowers are looking tired and a bit crispy.

What I did, after a bit of mulling over the situation:

• Deadheaded aggressively. Any flowers that looked even slightly spent just got composted. Especially the sweet peas.

• Picked as much as I could. Sunflowers, scabious, phlox and cosmos, plus any sweet peas that looked fresh.

• Started pulling up plants that were really struggling or over, particularly the Shirley poppies.

• Fed the sweet peas - I’d like to see if that along with firm deadheading will produce any useable last flush.

It’s chucking it down here today, so I’m not doing anything else until I’ve seen what perks back up. I have a family event towards the end of August for which I’d like to have both a presentable garden and lots of flowers, so my goal is to keep as much as possible producing until then. I’m off to check on plants I currently have at two other sites today, including the dahlias - you’ll be able to see whatever I find there in this week’s An Everday Arrangement on Friday.

How’s your garden looking in late summer? Any questions or floral-related things I can help you with? Thanks as always for reading, and I hope you have some beautiful flowers in your week.

Olivia x

Nothing stops the sweet peas. They’re going over in the vase quicker than usual, but there’s no shortage of supply.

The advantage of growing at home is that you can still use flowers that have gone over a bit, they just won’t last as long. I didn’t get these into a vase until a couple of days after I’d picked them, but they’re still brightening up a corner for a few days. You can see the difference to the freshly picked bunch in the first picture.

Most, but not all, of what the cutting garden churned out this week.

The first scabious flower, and a fruity colour combo of calendula with cornflower ‘Black Ball’ in a Louise Condon vase. Short stems are a problem when it’s been so dry, but don’t matter as much for the home grower.

I just can’t resist more alchemilla in this case. It’s the end of the main flush, but I’m hoping that picking it all will encourage a second lot of flowers.

The first dahlia from the cutting patch! I have a lot that were grown from seed over the last few years, and I think this is one originally from Stem and Green flower farm’s seed mix. I cut down the stem just because I wanted the effect of the flower in this bud vase.

Cutting garden jobs for the week

• Pick, deadhead, water, repeat.

• Disbud your dahlias. Take off any buds growing further down a stem to end up with one flower per stem that’s better quality, making arranging easier

• Corral tall varieties as they get taller. I support cosmos and sunflowers by corralling. Put posts/canes at each corner of their area and stretch string around to hold the stems upright, adding more levels as they grow.

Thanks so much for reading! I’m Olivia, a cut flower gardener on the West Coast of Scotland, and it’s my mission to get gardeners growing their own cut flowers. Please share your questions, ideas and floral pictures here and on IG - let me know how I can help you on your floral journey.

See you next week

Olivia

Here’s some of what I picked this week. This has not been a good year (despite the odd blast of heat, it’s mostly been grey and wet here on the West Coast of Scotland), and I have not had as many or as good quality flowers as I would hope, and yet the cutting garden is still churning out these quantities. If you don’t already grow your own cut flowers, may I suggest you start eyeballing spaces in your garden for next year?

It can be as simple as this. Nasturtiums in a jug my daughter made (she loves pottery and I love putting flowers in things, which works out nicely).

I love single variety bunches, particularly because my floristry skills are minimal, so I have to challenge myself to do bigger mixed arrangements. This one includes ammi, astrantia, calendula ‘Sherbert Fizz’, alchemilla and snapdragon ‘Doubleshot Peach’, which is rapidly becoming my find of the season.

It’s actually quite hard to find things that look good on our mantelpiece - the vase is at eye level, not the flowers, but a low bowl is too low to be in proportion. I’m going to try something with more cascading elements next time.

This height is easier to appreciate, and I quite like how the house plants provide part of the effect. Flowers include stocks ‘Appleblossom’, phlox ‘Crème Brulee’ and cornflower ‘Classic Romantic’ - I picked that particular pattern of cornflowers out of the mix of pink and white variations.

For someone who doesn’t like yellow, I’ve been edging into almost-yellow quite a lot this year. I’ve got a big and unruly patch of alchemilla and I’ve been using it a lot.

Closer up - with cornflower ‘Black Ball’ and some hops trails. I love the dark red cornflower but I planted them out too late so they’re a bit short. The vase is from KT Robbins Ceramics (she’s @ceramicmagpie on IG)

Single stems or small bunches are my favourite way to put flowers everywhere, and are a really easy, accessible way to bring flowers indoors. I’ve loved decorating the bookcases in our dining room with whatever I can fit in. Zoom in to find them all! Roses are ‘The Fairy’ in pink and white plus a red rambler. The amazing sweet peas on the bottom shelf are ‘Theia-Bella’ by Alma Proust, and I will be growing hundreds of them next year.

And now your cutting garden jobs for the week!

• Pick everything you can, and if flowers are too far over to pick, deadhead them to keep more flowers coming. This especially applies to annuals, and especially sweet peas

• There’s still time for early summer jobs - sow biannuals (honesty, foxgloves, sweet rocket) and take semi-ripe cuttings of shrubs

• Get ready for going on holiday. Line up a neighbour or pay a local teenager to water and deadhead (as well as picking whatever they like!), or set up an irrigation system. Make sure supports are in place and sturdy - plants will grow a lot in a couple of weeks. Mow and weed your plot before you go, to minimise the chaos on your return.

• If you’re not going away, put a chair and table in your garden for morning coffee and evening drinks, and put a really big bunch of flowers on it. Cheers!

Thanks so much for reading! I’m Olivia, a cut flower gardener on the West Coast of Scotland, and it’s my mission to get gardeners growing their own cut flowers. Please share your questions, ideas and floral pictures here and on IG - let me know how I can help you on your floral journey.

See you next week

Olivia

Growing several varieties or mixes of cornflowers makes a bunch of them interesting all by themselves. This is a combination of Classic Fantastic (blues) and Classic Romantic (pinks). Vase is from Sostrene Green.

Same windowsill in different light. I love anything with a blue and white fish pattern - I have a whole shelf of blue-and-white, most of it featuring fish. Set off here with sedum foliage.

And here with ammi, plus some lilac foliage as I was cutting the lilac bush back.

I am all over fancy snapdragons this year, even this ‘Doubleshot Peach’, which would usually be too yellow for me. May I suggest choosing foods purely because they have cool tins?

Here’s the crazy snaps by themselves in the downstairs bathroom. The yellow really is very custardy, and I’m surprised I’m ok with it, but the peachy-orange tones set it off a bit. Stems weren’t very long but that might reflect my growing rather than the variety.

Bowl of mixed sweet peas on the living room mantelpiece. They’re really getting going now, I could probably cut a bunch every day. This low bowl style is an option when you have a lot of one thing but the stems aren’t that long.

Silhouette of a mixed bunch in the upstairs bathroom, including orlaya, pennycress, cosmos ‘Rubenza’, stocks and clary sage.

I’m trying to find a good shelf for all the tiny vases with individual stems. This one is a possible candidate, but tbh I could probably cover a few shelves like this. The jug in the top picture is from Clod and Pebble, a local ceramicist. Tiny bottles are from a junk-type antiques shop.

I hope this inspires you to pick and enjoy flowers everywhere! Send me your pictures, or tag #aneverydayarrangement on IG. Enjoy the beginning of summer proper.

Olivia x

This is the time of year where all your work comes to fruition, and you’re picking flowers more than growing them. But there’s still a few jobs to do, to keep the flowers coming as well as thinking ahead to next year.

Pick as much as you can, either as early as possible in the morning, or once it’s cooled down in the evening. Put flowers in buckets of deep, cool water in a dark cold place (mine go in our shed, which is north-facing and made of stone). Give them several hours drinking time before arranging, overnight if you’re picking in the evening.

Fill your home with flowers, give them to friends and family, give them away if you’ve got excess (think nursing homes, women’s refuges, etc). Keep jars as you use things up and you’ll have instant containers for posies and small bunches. For summer birthdays, give a beautiful hand-made vase accessorised by a bunch of your best home-grown blooms. Home-grown flowers make a great teacher gift - for bonus points, get the kids to do the arranging.

If you fall behind on picking, deadhead when you can, even if that’s just a quick wander round the garden every morning (coffee optional but highly recommended).

Keep up with watering, ideally from water butts. Have a jug on the kitchen counter to pour any waste water into that you can then use on the garden. As with picking, water early in the morning or in the cool of the evening. Pots may need watered twice a day when it’s really hot.

If there’s any seed you want to save, keep an eye on seedheads going over. When they’re ripe, but before they drop their seeds, put them in a paper bag to catch seeds as the heads dry out, giving it a shake from time to time. Even easier, let seed fall in place for self-seeding (but be prepared to weed unwanted seedlings that make their way to other spots!).

There’s rain and thunderstorms forecast for us today, so I’ve just run round to pick the sweet peas, the tallest of the ammi and some gorgeous fancy snapdragons that I haven’t grown before. I’ll show you everything in An Everyday Arrangement on Sunday. Happy weekend, and I hope you get to spend it in your garden.

Olivia x

Finally, there are flowers in generous quantities. The official cutting garden is still a bit sluggish, but the main garden is picking up the slack. This climbing rose is overshadowed by a magnolia and isn’t properly tied in, so I forget it’s there, but I caught a glimpse of the flowers through the magnolia branches. The cup is by Gavin Burnett.

Cornflowers, alchemilla and love-in-a-mist are a cottage garden cliche, but that’s because they work. May I recommend ‘Classic Romantic’ as a cornflower variety for a change? Pink and white loveliness.

This vase set was a 50th birthday present, and I LOVE it. Astrantia from the main garden.

More nigella, throwing some sci-fi shapes with sedums.

Some of this week’s arrangements. It’s a very good year for foxgloves.

Rose ‘Hot Chocolate’ on my bedside table. It’s an amazing matt, coppery red.

Holly trying to figure out just how she can drink the vase water. Cornflowers, alchemilla, sedum foliage, honeysuckle stems, nigella.

Hydrangeas in a beloved Jersey Pottery 40th birthday present jug. You would not believe the contortions I had to do to avoid being visible in the mirror while taking this picture.

Most of what I picked this week.

I hope this inspires you to pick what you’ve got in your garden and enjoy it in your home. Please get in touch with any questions on growing your own cut flowers, or any general flowery chat!

Olivia @ Lark Rose

Cutting garden jobs just now

• Sow biennials. Honesty, hesperis, sweet Williams and foxgloves are all in this group of plants, which germinate and grow in a first growing season, sit over the winter, then flower in the second year. They’re a crucial group to bridge the May gap, and next-year you will thank now-you for sowing them.

• Pick sweet peas. The way to keep the sweet pea flowers coming is to pick them, so even if you don’t want any more in the house, you need to keep taking the flowers off the plants. Give them to friends, fill up every corner of your home, even chuck them on the compost, but don’t let them go to seed. And keep tying in wayward stems as needed.

• Planting out - the final push. If you’re anything like me, you’ll still have various trays and pots of plants desperate to get in the ground. No judgement here, but this is your sign to do something about it. Identify spaces for everything (in pots if needs be), and spend a dedicated garden session getting them all tucked in. Spare plants? Give them to whoever can use them, via FB groups, local schools, allotment groups, nursing homes, or just leave them out front with a PLEASE TAKE ME sign. Spread some floral joy!

I’m off to take my own advice and get my new neighbourhood plot into action so the last of the dahlia tubers have somewhere to grow. Happy gardening, and let me know how the flowers are shaping up in your corner of the world.

Olivia @ Lark Rose

Roses (‘Desdemona’ and ‘Queen of Sweden’), verbascum ‘Southern Charm’, mint, astrantia, the first of the alchemilla.

Chive flowers making a little fluffy mound in my favourite bud vase. Normally, I can’t actually put flowers on this windowsill because my cat Holly always tries to drink the water, but this one seems to be Holly-proof.

A big bucket of pickings…

…and most of what I made with them.

The very first of the sweet peas! A new-to-me variety called ‘Queen of the Isles’. Not my usual colourway, but seemingly a copious flowerer.

Loving the lupins this year. As above, I had to move these off this windowsill before Holly got involved. Vase is an old favourite from KT Robbins ceramics.

The faff of trying to take a photo involving a mirror. The limited ranunculus that this year has produced plus some nigella for a cottage-style posy.

And finally, christening my beautiful new small vase from Louise Condon at Chelsea. Aquilegia, held up by a Niwaki kenzan.

I hope this inspires you to go play with whatever’s in your garden, and I also hope your weather’s better than ours! Cutting garden jobs and update coming over the weekend. Happy Friday!

Olivia @ Lark Rose

Thank goodness, then, for the perennials elsewhere in the garden. Astrantia, aquilegia, saxifrage, geums and cinquefoil have all been getting into their stride and are looking lovely, although there’s definitely still a dearth of focal flowers. Next up will probably be the foxgloves, which are self-seeded and therefore mystery colours; I’ll maybe try to plant some more deliberately next year.

Jobs in the cutting garden this week

• Hardening off and planting out half-hardy plants - time to do the in-and-out dance with your cosmos, dahlias, zinnias, etc. Or better still, invest in a cold frame to open and close each morning

• Planning cuttings. It’s coming into the time of year for softwood and semi ripe cuttings, which is a great way to increase your stock of shrubs. What do you want more of next year?

• Order biennial seed for sowing in June. Honesty, hesperis and foxgloves are all on my list for next year. (Let’s not talk about where they’re going to fit in, yes?)

And a PSA that the BBC coverage of the Chelsea Flower Show starts tonight - I’m off on my annual trip on Friday. I’ll be posting about it on Instagram, and will have a round up on here once I’ve digested it all. It’s one of my favourite days of the year.

Please get in touch with any questions about growing cut flowers, recommendations of things to grow, general flowery chat, etc - find me on IG @larkroseflowers, or email hellolarkrose@gmail.com.

Have a lovely flowery week

Olivia

It’s been a slow spring in the cutting garden. I didn’t have many overwintered annuals, and what I did have were pretty much ruined by pricking out into what turned out to be terrible compost (yes, bad compost will actively kill your plants). A huge expensive batch of ranunculus corms all failed, potentially but not definitely related to aforementioned compost. The spring-sown annuals are doing their best but not there yet. Thank goodness, then, for the perennials, especially the astrantia that perhaps grows a bit too well in my garden.

Here’s what I cut in this rather minimalist week, and here’s hoping the garden gets more bountiful from here on in.

The first year my lilac has put out enough to cut. Utterly gorgeous.

Aquilegia works hard in my garden. I have a dedicated cutting patch but I pick it from other spots too, as it appears in a mishmash of hybridised colours. Not shown - the time I spent washing the stems to get rid of aphids. Worth it though.

Not the best picture of the saxifrage flowers, but they’re a personal favourite. I love both the colour and the delicacy. This IKEA vase is turning out to be the answer for a lot of flowers, may have to get another one.

The cerinthe just keeps on giving. It’s hard to capture the ultramarine tones, but the range of colours in the flowers is amazing. Also, you should definitely put flowers in your bathroom.

Another not-great picture, but geums with cinquefoil, in a tiny vial against the collage wall in my office. Geums are a definite new fave.

Please show me all your home floral inspo, I’d love to see what your garden is giving you and how you’re making it look pretty! I’ll be back on Sunday with a tour of the cutting garden and some suggestions for May jobs to keep you busy.

Happy Friday!

Olivia @ Lark Rose

It’s still kind of pretend-that-foliage-is-flowers season in early April this year. Young rose foliage with just-opening amelanchier blossom (my favourite tree in the garden). Vase is IKEA. If you can put arrangements in front of a mirror, do, it makes them look lovely.

I didn’t plant this tulip, it came up in an unexpected area of the garden, just the one. I think it might be Flaming Purissima, which I did have in the cutting garden a few years ago. Vase is again IKEA, a current favourite.

The only kind-of-proper arrangement from this week. Narcissi Replete and Bridal Crown, cerinthe, lonicera foliage.

Various stems on the bookcases. Fennel foliage with the top narcissus. Tiny vase with a sprig of amalanchier in the middle is by Louise Condon.

A sprig of pear blossom next to my morning coffee spot. I’ve managed to keep the label on this absinthe bottle for years now, washing it very carefully every time I use it. 100% recommend choosing your beverages for whether the bottles will look pretty with flowers in.

Away from the house, the greenhouse Tetris struggle is real, but budding shoots on dahlia tubers! Flowers are coming! The winter-spring can’t last forever, right?

If this inspires you to go and see what your garden has to offer just now, I’d love to hear about it! Give me a shout, or tag #aneverydayarrangement on IG.

Thanks for being here, happy weekend!

Olivia @ Lark Rose

Welcome to a new theme of posts here at Lark Rose, An Everyday Arrangement - all about filling your home with flowers. No formal arrangements or specific skills required, just encouragement and ideas for putting flowers on all available surfaces.

I’m not a florist. I’m a gardener who started a cut flower patch, grew more flowers than she could possibly use, and ended up with a micro flower farm as an excuse to grow even more. I’ve accumulated a wide and eclectic range of vases and containers since I started in 2020, but I’m just as happy with an empty bottle if it makes the right stem look beautiful. We’re all about playing with flowers and making home prettier. Any corner of your home is fair game for flowers!

What you’ll see here is my real house. I tidy up a bit for photos, but there’s no special prep, and not even flowers could make the mountain of shoes in my hall look better. I’m planning to spend this growing season deliberately flooding my house with flowers and I want you to join in. Hopefully I’ll inspire you for everyday flowers as well as giving you ideas for parties and events.

Here at Lark Rose, it’s all about sustainable flowers. I’m encouraging you to raid the garden, or even start growing your own cut flowers (and we’ll be spending time in my home cutting garden), but if you’re buying flowers please think about where they come from. Most flowers sold in the UK aren’t grown here, or even in the Netherlands, but are from much further afield, which matters as our energy and climate crises deepen. You can find your local grower at Flowers from the Farm, and if you’re in the South Ayrshire area give me a shout!

Please send me all the pictures of flowers filling your homes, here or on Instagram, and if you want to recommend following this series to anyone you know who loves flowers, well, that would be lovely. Thank you for being here!

Olivia @ Lark Rose

Undeterred, I set out yesterday to do what I could to brighten my home up a bit while I’m waiting, and I offer you some ideas in the same spirit.

Vases are your friend

Put what you do have in your most beautiful, interesting, beloved vases and containers. Beautiful bottles, handmade ceramics, colours that you love. Preferably with flowers on them, until you have real flowers. These gorgeous small vases are by Louise Condon Ceramics (I buy one every year I got to the Chelsea Flower Show).

Embrace the season

February is a time of bare branches and silhouettes, at least here in Scotland. Bring that reality indoors - go big, and it can really make a dramatic impression. Put fairy lights or some decorations on if that helps. As above, choose something awesome to put them in.

Canvas the neighbourhood

I may be disorganised about planting, and have little in my main garden at this time of year, but that doesn’t apply to everyone around me. If someone nearby has something lovely in their garden, and there’s enough of it, ask if you can pick a bit. I’ve failed to grow hellebores in my garden multiple times, so now I just keep an eye out in my friend’s gardens.

Think small and multiple

Lots of small containers holding small amounts of small things. Scatter them around your home to create multiple beautiful moments while you wait for bigger flowers to show up. This vintage perfume bottle is going on my bedside table.

Go with what you’ve got

When I took my wander round the garden, much of what I found was in the veg patch. Add to that the odd evergreen shrub, and there was enough to play with. Hebe, regrowing fronds of fennel and purple sprouting broccoli are all playing at being flowers.

I hope this gives you a bit of inspiration - and you probably have more flowers in your garden than I do! Remember to contact your local flower farmer to find out what they have to offer just now, either as bunches made for you or as loose flowers that you can play with yourself. Order from them now for Mother’s Day if you want to be sure of your bouquet. (Want to find your local grower? Flowers From the Farm. )

Have a lovely week

Olivia x

I’ve been away for a while, so a brief recap seems in order. I’m Olivia, and I live in Troon on the West Coast of Scotland with my family, which includes cats, rabbits and an enthusiastic spaniel. I started growing cut flowers many years ago, but in lockdown I dug up half the lawn and went all in. I then spent two seasons trying to conquer a beautiful walled garden and took on a large-scale greenhouse space (I REALLY miss the greenhouse). But the garden was still pretty overrun, and in the end my part-time availability and one-woman workforce was no match for the weeds. Then panic, imposter syndrome and overwhelm hit hard, and I gave up the greenhouse too (sob).

I took last year to just hang out in my own garden. I worked on bringing a French romantic vibe to the main part of the garden, enjoyed the good weather, used up the last plants from the big greenhouse. I picked a few lovely vases for my home and gave some to friends.

But I missed it all. I missed the planning and anticipation of the flowers, the fun of choosing colours and varieties, watching the ideas come into reality and the creativity of making floral displays. The time away proved to me that flower farming is where I should be, on a scale that fits my life.

Then came the magic. Just when I’d made this decision and was wrangling with the details, the phone rang. The lovely friend who owns the walled garden wondered if I’d use the smaller area of beds she already has cleared, prepped, and under control this year. Why yes, I would. (Thanks universe!)

So this year I’m going to grow beautiful, unique flowers unlike those you’ll find in regular florist’s shops or in the supermarket. I want to bring your parties, home and businesses into gorgeous floral life. I’ll have jamjars and bunches for gifts. There'll be sweet pea and sunflower subscription clubs, to fully indulge your love for your favourites. I’m going big on parties and get-togethers - if you want to elevate any social occasions this year, either with buckets of DIY flowers to play with yourself, or flowers done for you, please get in touch. (You can even hire the vases from my extensive collection of glassware.) If you’re a cafe or restaurant owner in the Glasgow to South Ayrshire area, and you’d like to light up your tables while staying local and seasonal, give me a shout!

Message me here, at @larkroseflowers on IG, or email hellolarkrose@gmail.com

The garden is sleeping now, but it’s going to be a great floral year. Come along for the ride.

Olivia x

A quick note to let you know that I’m pausing writing here at Lark Rose for a bit (don’t worry, no major life disasters have occurred, thankfully!). Paid subscribers - subscriptions have been paused for now, so you won’t be billed while I’m not here; thank you so much for your support!

Have a wonderful Christmas and New Year

Olivia xx

Floral gift inspiration

With the flower season firmly over, for the run-up to Christmas I’m turning to present ideas for the flower lovers in your life that prioritise small business.

This week - ceramics. Buy your giftee a beautiful hand-made vase or jug ready for the year of flowers to come. You can beef this up with a bunch of everygreen foliage, a gift voucher for your local flower farmer or sustainable florist, packets of seed, or a book on cut flower growing to guide them through the growing year. (Or, of course, a subscription to my paid Substack!)

Try KT Robbins (above), Louise Condon or Vicky Hageman for some inspiration. Or consider a class at a local pottery studio for the recipient to try making their own!

Why grow your own cut flowers?

For the real, deep appreciation of the seasons. There are no useable flowers in my garden just now. It makes me truly aware of the artificiality of the display of imported flowers in the supermarket, and it clarifies the need of everything to rest and draw inwards in nature. And it makes the summer garden full of flowers even more beautiful.

This week’s cutting garden job

Keep watering any seedlings in your greenhouse. It’s easy to forget about watering in winter, but if you’ve got hardy annuals overwintering under glass, they’re not getting rained on! Just head down there once a week or so and check everything’s ok and not drying out.

Work with me to grow your cut flower garden

If you’d like some pro help to grow your own cut flowers next year, I can help! Become a paid subscriber and I’ll walk you through the cutting garden year here on Substack. If you’d like a personalised cutting garden plan, or if you’re local to me in South Ayrshire and you’d like me to get you started in person, email hellolarkrose@gmail.com to find out more. And for local folks, you can pre-order plants grown locally by me at www.larkrose.co.uk , ready for collection in the spring.

Subscribe now

Have a lovely week

Olivia @ Lark Rose x

I’ve got two categories here - general gardening, and cut flower growing in particular. Some span both, making them extra useful. I’m also throwing in a category of beautiful non-gardening books that I would highly recommend as gifts, as I guess there’s still a few poor souls out there who don’t care for gardening. If you know your recipient well enough, please consider buying good quality second-hand books; the world’s got enough new stuff being produced out there.

Let’s get stuck in…

Read more

Welcome to Sundays at Lark Rose. I’m Olivia, a lifelong grower with a passion for inspiring and helping you to grow your own cut flowers. I write all about how to do that here on Substack, and I grow a curated range of plants chosen for cutting for folk near me on the West Coast of Scotland. This is where I go into detail of what goes on in my cutting garden, the micronursery greenhouse and the business every week. It’s really lovely to have you here.

Please tell me what you’d like to know more about - this is for you, what you find interesting and useful. What are your pain points in the cutting patch? What would inspire you to start growing a few of your own cut flowers, or are you looking for detail on how to manage an established cutting garden? Are you just here for all the floral spam? I’d love to know how I can help. Leave a comment, message me here or on IG, or email hellolarkrose@gmail.com

I’m guessing that if you’re in the UK as well, you’ll know this week that winter is truly here. We’ve had frost, hail, sleet, and now we’re in the middle of serious storm winds. Real hunkering-down weather. I’ve been gripped by clearing-out fever while I’ve been stuck inside - loads of old kids’ stuff and unused craft materials being passed on, and halo thoroughly polished. I also cleaned out the world’s tiniest home office, which I’m hoping will make my writing life simpler!

Here’s what’s been going on in the garden and business this week…

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Flowers of the week

I went out into the garden anticipating just the elegant outlines of the bare silver birch branches for this week’s arrangement, and was rewarded with this unexpected rose, which must surely be the very, very last flower of the season. Brave the weather to see what might be hanging on in your garden.

When flowers are scarce, you can make minimalist arrangements more interesting by using unexpected containers instead of vases, ideally with a bit of detail - a lovely way to use any fancy glassware you don’t often get out.

Why grow your own cut flowers?

Pretty simple - because it makes you happier. True for me, anyway, and if you're reading this hopefully it will be true for you. Imagine a world where everyone grows flowers, brings them into their homes, and gifts them with thought and love.

This week’s cutting garden job

Shop the sales (an indoor-friendly idea for the forecast stormy weekend). Retailers are selling off end-of-season stock that will be perfectly fine for planting for this coming season. Bulbs, seeds, corms - fill your boots, then either plant now if there’s still time (for instance, tulip and narcissi bulbs) or keep them some where cool, dark and dry until spring.

Work with me to grow your cut flower garden

If you’d like some pro help with your cutting patch next year, I can help! Become a paid subscriber and I’ll walk you through the cutting garden year here on Substack. If you’d like a personalised cutting garden plan, or if you’re local to me in South Ayrshire and you’d like me to get you started in person, email hellolarkrose@gmail.com to find out more. And for local folks, you can pre-order plants grown locally by me at www.larkrose.co.uk , ready for collection in the spring.

Subscribe now

Have a lovely week

Olivia @ Lark Rose x

It’s been frosty here in the West of Scotland this week, as I know it has for many of you in the UK. That lovely clear weather is now giving way to the harsher cold of wind and occasional bitter rain. The cutting garden is firmly, completely dead for the season. Everything has collapsed or shrunk back to its most dormant form. This is not the time to talk brightly about ideas for next year or jobs to do now. This is the garden giving me a clear sign that it’s time to rest.

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