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[helend]

I have just attended a very informative talk on growing cut flowers by a truly genius gardener, Sarah Raven. She has a completely different approach to most of the traditional books, and her advice is so practical, I have several of her gardening and cookery books.

So I wanted to offer to share some of this info if anyone is thinking about doing this. Although her books talk about growing cut flowers (and veg) for your own use she does it herself on a grand scale at her farm. She runs cookery and gardening/floristry courses, and does the flowers for events like weddings, she really knows her stuff.

I am planning to do this as a side enterprise; I struggle to find British flowers to buy, even on-line, so I am exploring the potential with local outlets - florists, village shop etc. I think flowers will complement my other produce - for the right person who appreciates locally grown fruit and veg in season, why not flowers? Throw in the low carbon, highly ethical tags and it's a feel good product - people can feel good about buying it rather than wary or unsure, that's my whole ethos with the farm!

The point I found most interesting with Sarah's approach was that it was very commercial - she doesn't use expensive plants that take loads of maintenance and years to come into flower. She concentrates on annual flowers grown from seed with some bulbs, perennials and shrubs thrown in. She only uses varieties which have a long flowering time, and crucially are "cut and come again" so one plant can be harvested from many times.

This should make it possible to sell the flowers at a competitive price without doing yourself out of profit. The flowers need to be more affordable, my florist friend says spending is down at the moment, even in the fairly affluent town she works in.

The cutting garden is treated much like the veg garden as opposed to a flower border; once the annual plants are over they come out, and the area is replanted straight away with plants that have been coming on from seed sown previously.

It's not revolutionary in itself, and her influences are the likes of Geoff Hamilton, (my own personal favourite) and also her links with Great DIxter and Christopher Lloyd. But her practical, common sense approach is not common at all - it's the complete opposite of the starched, prescriptive books we all have on our shelves.

The two books I would start with are: Grow Your Own Cut Flowers and The Great Vegetable Plot - Highly recommended!