On the Farm, March 2022

March on the farm is the beginning of our seed sowing marathon and a race to get seedlings started and ready for the ground in time for the last frost, successively sowing and potting on for the next 2 months so that we can have a range of flowers all season. The tiny green shots of snapdragon, sweet pea, sunflower, ammi, dara, strawflower, and gypsophila reach skyward, bending their spindly bodies towards the sun, almost in prayer. Tulip, narcissi, hyacinth, and fritillary shoots push out of the soil. Muscari and iris flowers appear, blue as biro pen ink. Everything suddenly feels alive and urgent. It's a busy month, the daylight elongates making us feel more productive and energised. Towards the end of the month, we have enough flowers to begin supplying our orders and so the season begins. Harvesting, sowing, weeding, watering, checking; many labours, many loves.

Snapdragon seedlings

The first muscari of the year

Narcissi shoots, buds to follow

Young lupin foliage with tiny water droplets in the early morning

The hairy fronds of perennial poppy foliage

Angelica shoots

Last year's grasses

Tulip shoots, like rolled tongues

Hyacinth buds showing a little colour and promise

Sweet rocket we transferred from the polytunnel, hoping it will be happier outside

Achillea, getting ready

Roses pruned and fed

Ranunculus bulking up by the day

Anemones, slowly emerging

Iris flowering happily

Satisfaction is a day spent sowing thousands of seeds

Sunflowers, their first 'true leaves' emerging from a seed case

Hyacinths, from bud to full flower in less than a month

The blossom of our plum tree, putting on a beautiful show against the blue sky

The first flower buckets and carts heading into the studio

The male catkins of "Florist's Willow", full of pollen

Geese migrations across the sky

Rows of muscari, ready to cut

Blue sunflower seeds, winning first prize for most idiosyncratic seed

Narcissi, from tiny shoot to full flower in just one month, ready to cut in the sunshine

This is the beauty of non-imported, naturally grown garden flowers, no two flowers are ever the same!

---