From seed to stem…

Finding pockets of time for creative freedom have been rare this year. Yesterday after an rarer night out with my husband, I got a good 90 minutes to just play with my flowers without any time pressure or school pick up looming. I’d spent most of last week starting to dig up my dahlias and plant over 800 tulips and as a reward I harvested a full bucket of flowers just for me to experiment with.

I’ve been wanting to spend some time working on bouquets all summer but kept selling out of flowers. With flower stalls finished for the year an unexpected and peaceful Saturday morning was the perfect opportunity. I made up two bouquets one used a soft pink colour palette and a second was richer full of deep oranges, pinks and mauves. There is still room for improvement as I feel slow and clumsy when I put them together.  But with anything I learn – a lot of reading followed by plenty of practice is how my hands and heart grow into a new skill.

These dahlia seed pods are pure magic. I’ve been collecting them for weeks and am so excited to see what grows next year. Each one will be different from the parent flower so there is enormous potential for some spectacular blooms. As part of my growing cut flower business I’m SO excited about cultivating my very own varieties of flowers. Watch this space for some truly local flowers.

I wasn’t expecting to have sunflowers in November but here we are! These Italian White sunflowers were a very late sowing but here they are blooming in November. I find that as the season moves to a close, flower colours take on muted tones of their summer selves and are even more beautiful for it, like these Penhill Watermelon and Cafe au Lait dahlias.  The zinnia’s have now gone from the garden and the occasional rose will still give me a bud or two if I’m lucky – each one treasured.

These flowers were for a Saturday delivery for my friends at But First Coffee. I’ve been supplying them every week with fresh flowers and in return they have been keeping me caffeinated. I’m so proud that I’ve been able to deliver a continuous supply all from the garden and hoping I can squeeze a few more deliveries from the flowers before winter kicks in.

Fed up with the the Instagram algorithm, I took last week off posting and it’s amazing how much more brain space I’ve had to reflect about the past growing season. I always find that doing a non-pressured creative activity is the best way to unwind my mind and let new thoughts in. It’s no coincidence that the hard manual work I’ve been doing outside in the beds, clearing away summer and bulb planting for spring is reflected on how I feel inside. Making space physically, mentally and emotionally for new opportunities is something I can find quite scary but giving myself just a little time and space to wrap up for a year has given me so much confidence for the next. Like the seeds (still) sat on my workbench I can see and feel the potential for what is to come and I’m excited about it.