Sustainable Flowers – how to have cut flowers all year round

I was thinking about the air miles, chemicals and single use plastic wrap, that those tempting bouqets of flowers at supermarkets go through. It struck me that there’s got to be a way to have more sustainable flowers on our tables at home.

Sustainable Flowers – The Challenge!

So I thought I’d set us all a challenge – to see if we can grow our own cut flowers. Enough for us to have a vase of flowers on the table from the garden every week of the year.

I’m going to try to do it. To show how I’ve got on, I’ll post each week’s flower arrangement at the end of each blog post.

I’ll also post the weekly cut flower arrangement on my Blooming Lucky Facebook Page, and on Instagram.

Perhaps you’ll have a go too, sharing you pictures with me on those social media sites and we can get additional inspiration from each other?

Forward Planning

Now as I look out on my garden which has virtually zero colour in it I realise this is a challenge which needs some forethought. If I’d known I was going to get this mad sustainable flowers idea in my head and try to conjure a flower arrangement from my February garden I’d have forward planned. But I haven’t!

So my cut flowers for February are going to have to be posies of snowdrops, with ivy. Nothing earth shattering but very pretty all the same. Oh and I’ve some primroses which I may dig up and bring indoors for a bit.

However, I don’t want this to be a ‘make do’ kind of a challenge. I want to create vases which I’m genuinely thrilled with. I also don’t want this to be a one year committment. To make a lasting difference to the planet, we probably need to be doing more of this and buying fewer mass produced, flown-in flowers, from now on.

So, while I’ve not got the right plants in place now to deliver this sustainable flowers vision, I’m going to get my ducks in a row so that next January, February and March and for all the months and years after that, I’ve plenty of gorgeous flowers to choose from.

Sustainable Flowers – What to Grow

To help you and me with this forward planning, over the next four weeks I’m going to blog about the ideal plants to grow to have cut flowers in your home all year round. This week I’m covering off plants which deliver blooms in January, February and March.

January – March

Daffodils

One of my go to suggestions for flowers in January is daffodils (Narcissi). While we’re used to those in our garden mostly coming into bloom a little later on, they can be forced (brought indoors) to give you earlier flowers. Paperwhites are the most commonly used for this. I’ve read that they are easy to persuade to flower in late December and on into January.

If you stagger plantings in containers, starting October 1st and planting up a batch every ten days, you can ensure a steady stream of lovely early daffs for your home. I’ve never done this before but am going to give it a try next Autumn.

Apparently, they need a cool temperature of 10-15C for the first two weeks. You can then move them to a warmer, sunnier spot from then on. But you must keep them moist. I think it’s probably an idea to label up the plantings so that you can refine the timings. My sense is if you want to slow down a batch (in case you’re scared they’re all going to flower at the same time) you probably put them out of direct light and into indirect light, in a cooler area. It will be interesting to see how it all works.

Paperwhites originate from the mediterranean, so however you move them about, you must keep them frost free. And sadly that also means that after you’ve forced them and they’ve done their flowering they probably won’t work planted out in your garden.

Daffodils in the Garden

If you prefer your daffodils to be growing in the garden, but want some early flowering varieties for your January and February vases, take a look at Rijnveld’s Early Sensation. This lovely classic all yellow, trumpet daffodil can flower as early as January. It grows about 40cm tall and looks fabulous planted with snowdrops and crocuses.

Other varieties like February Gold and Tete-a-Tete can be available to pick in February but you must plant them in full sun if you want early blooms.

Something I’ve just learned is that cut daffodils release a sticky sap, which can prevent other flowers from taking up water, so it’s best to use daffodils alone in a vase. How interesting!

Iris Reticulata

If I’d known back in September I was going to be embarking on this challenge of having ‘no air miles’ vases I’d have included Iris reticulata in my blog on bulbs to plant in September. That’s because this is a lovely early flowering iris. It produces pale blue to purply blooms with central yellow splashes down the middle of each petal, from late winter to early spring.

Next September I will plant an absolute heap at the front of my sunny bed. I may also put some in pots and bring them indoors to see if I can encourage even earlier flowering. Isn’t it interesting how gardening can open up a whole new idea to explore!

Snowdrops

Although I underplayed them earlier, snowdrops (Galanthus) are a beautiful plant for vases in the tricky early months.

But if you are going to grow them as cut flowers it makes most sense to grow the varieties with the best scent and that means going for Samuel Arnott and Straffan. Samuel Arnott is a larger snowdrop and has bigger flowers too. It also has a lovely honey scent. Straffan is one of the oldest snowdrops and is slightly later flowering. Also smells wonderful and it produces two flowering stems per bulb so has a longer flowering season than some of the other varieties. What’s not to like?

To be honest, I have no idea which varieties I have growing in my garden. But in the spirit of forward planning, I’m going to order some Samuel Arnott and Straffan now so I can plant them while they’re ‘in the green’. This means after flowering but when they still have leaves. (I have grown some snowdrops from bulbs – planting them in October/November – but I’ve been more successful when growing snowdrops in the green.)

Daphne

If you’ve had enough of bulbs, there are shrubs which are beautiful in February such as Daphne. Daphnes are also gloriously scented so will add fragrance and beauty to a February vase. There are so many to choose from.

The variety Jacqueline Postill has intensely fragranced pink flowers with white centres and it doesn’t grow too huge, so is good for a smaller garden. The bees will love the nectar in her flowers but you could trim one or two of them for your February display.

Winter Honeysuckle

Another lovely flowering shrub, with a wonderful fragrance is Winter Honeysuckle. It’s an ideal plant for a container near a window or doorway, where its scent can waft in. You can also grow it in a border. I’d suggest against a protective sunny wall for the best display of flowers.

The good news is this beauty will provide blooms for your cut sustainable flower displays right through the tricky months of January to March. Be warned though, the plant’s foliage is rather dull throughout the rest of the season so I’d make sure you’ve other, later flowering plants in front of it. Otherwise you’ll have lovely flowers on your table in February but a lump of uninspiring green to view in your garden for the rest of the year!

There are three varieties which do well in the UK Lonicera Fragrantissima, Lonicera Purpusii and Lonicera Standishii.

I’d probably go for Lonicera Standishii as you get ‘more bang for your buck’. It’s deciduous to semi-evergreen, whereas a Fragrantissima is definitely deciduous. It’s a lovely bushy shrub and as it matures the plants often develop really attractive peeling bark. Although it reaches 8ft in height, it also grows with a more compact habit – a consideration if you’re growing it on a patio in a container.

Lonicera Standishii has gorgeous scented, white-cream flowers, often tinged pink and these appear from November to March on bare stems. So that’s several months of tricky vases which the stems could contribute to! What’s more, red berries are produced in early summer. So if you want berries in your early summer vase, it may have some to offer.

I’d personally leave those berries for the birds as surely by early summer my garden will be producing plenty of flowers for a vase. Gosh I hope so!

Witch Hazel

Witch Hazel produces wonderful winter flowers that are perfect for homegrown and therefore more sustainable flower displays. It adds so much drama that you only need a few lengths in a vase to create impact. And the fragrance is to die for. If you’re after colour, the blazing orange and red varieties like Jelena and Diane are worth looking at. If you’re more focused on fragrance I’ve read that  Brevipetala has the most powerful lovely fragrance.

Wintersweet

If you’ve a sunny decent sized space for it, you’re onto another scented winner with Wintersweet – or Chimonanthus praecox to give it it’s formal name. The shrub which grows 12 ft tall with a 10 ft spread, produces small, pale yellow blooms with a funny purplish brown inner petals. These are held along the length of leafless branches in winter.

I’m making it sound rather uninspiring but the blooms are really fragrant and look dramatic on the branches, which you can cut longer lengths if you want your floral display to have some height.

What’smore there’s a variety called Luteus whose flowers are pure yellow and a bit larger. It’s not as fragrant and it blooms a little bit later (in January), but if you’re more interested in the colour that might be a good one to go for. Plant it in full sun.

Hellebores

I’ve blogged about Hellebores as they’re one of my favourite plants. So rather than tell you all about them here I suggest you check out my hellebore blog. It’s packed with Hellebores goodies.

However, I’m mentioning them in this blog as they are a possible cut flower contender for your January to March sustainable vases. Now I use the word ‘possible’ as there are some things to consider. As I have found to my cost, they don’t make the best cut flowers. Their drooping heads mean they will need propping by other flowers in order to be visible. And even if you manage that, Hellebores are notoriously tricky to keep in a vase. They often flop and can’t be revived. In fact they often look awful after one day.

“So why are you mentioning them Louise?” I hear you shout. Well, I’ve found tips to keep them in better shape. These include keeping them in deep water and scoring the stems lightly so they take up more water, and keeping them cool but not cold.

But the best tip I’ve read is using Hellebores in your cut flower arrangements once they’re forming seed heads. Apparently when they get to this point, their vase life is often over a week, the stems are stronger and longer, and although the colours are slightly less fantastic than when the plant is in its early stages of flowering, they are still lovely and so interesting. So, I’m going to give them a go in my vases over the next few weeks and see how I get on.

Sustainable Flowers – Join Me

So those are 9 suggestions of plants which will help you enjoy home grown vases of cut flowers from your garden in January, February and March. I don’t have many of these plants in my garden. So I will have to modify my plans in the coming months, to put them and others in, to ensure I’m growing plants which will give me much more sustainable flowers for my vases all year round.

Do join me on this journey and let’s see if we can do it and therefore reduce the air miles, chemicals and plastic wrap used to put flowers on our tables.

Next week I’ll cover off April, May and June.

Meanwhile don’t forget to checkout my weekly vases on my Blooming Lucky Facebook Page, and on Instagram.

Happy gardening X