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!