What’s in season (July & August)?

Rose

I am always slightly taken aback when someone says they don’t like roses. Sure… there are some roses that I don’t like, but this family is vast and some varieties are almost unidentifiable as a rose, often mistaken for peonies instead. And the scent! Yes! Some cultivated varieties are also deliciously scented and in my book that’s a win-win.

Garage flowers and some supermarkets have give poor old rose a bad name, with customers often stating they don’t last. With a little know how and dedication you can string a good quality rose out for more than two weeks.

We buy some of our finest roses direct from Ecuador or Colombia. It’s a brilliant science with the cut stems brutally packaged in corrugated cardboard and squished in a huge box with a 100 or more room mates. Leaving the corrugated packaging in tact we remove the lower leaves and give the stems a good vertical cut with sharp secateurs. The roses are then plunged into fresh water and left to hydrate for a few hours.

It’s pure magic to see the plump petals and blousy garden rose that left their exotic home a week earlier spring to life. With regular water changes and re-cutting of the stems, your rose will go from strength-to-strength. Over the years I have heard a variety of often quite elaborate methods for teasing a few extra days from your buds. The two pence in the vase trick, an aspirin… lemonade, to name a few, but at the end of the day it is actually quite straightforward:

• Do properly clean your vases
• Do vertically re cut your stems
• Do remove as many leaves as you can
• Do change the water often
• Do add a wee drop of Milton sterilising fluid or bleach to each water change
• Don’t stick your vase on the telly or radiator
• Don’t position your vase in direct sunlight if you are lucky enough to have some

I implore you, give rose a chance… she’s a beautiful girl.

Dahlia

Dahlia has been the IT girl for a number of years now. twenty years ago she would have been considered the Granny flower and I would certainly have struggled to sell them.

Thanks to some dedicated souls, she is back on the scene and best of all dahlias have been lovingly embraced by our many passionate English growers and catapulted back onto the catwalk by some brilliant floral designers.

There is literally no better feeling than watching an armful of flowers leave the shop knowing that just hours earlier they were freshly cut. a stone’s throw away. These beauties are delicate and don’t travel well, certainly not in a cardboard box from Holland! They are easily bruised or broken and have a relatively short vase life. I would always argue beauty over longevity; rather a few exquisite stems for five days than a laboratory fresh rainbow lily bouquet favoured by some supermarkets!

Quite frankly the biggest problem with these is that they last too long!

Hydrangea

Great big balls!
If you love a statement flower these guys are top of their class and with hydrangea you really do get what you pay for. You can spend £40 and get five stems of mediocre rather underwhelming heads that are very high maintenance. or you can spend it more wisely on three stems of absolute show stoppers that will last and last.

Hydrangea’s are notoriously unpredictable and some can be very high maintenance but don’t give up on them too hastily. Drastic measures can breathe new life! Always re-cut the stem and make a vertical split up the stem so they can glug a bit more water. Remove any leaves that you don’t necessarily want, as they will divert the water from the head of the flower.

If you notice the beautiful crisp bloom starting to deflate a little you can swiftly dunk the head in deep water and allow it to absorb water directly then re-cut and place the stem in boiling water which, let’s face it is probably enough to make most of us sit bolt upright!

All the obvious tips about optimum room temperature, no direct heat / sunlight and regular re-cuts and water changes and you shall eventually be rewarded with your beautiful blooms drying out naturally leaving you with a soft faded reminder of a beautiful summer.