Tag Archives: garden gate flowers

Buttercups Runneth Over

This year’s Tulips

In January I reported on my continuing efforts to grow Ranunculus.  Commonly known as Persian Buttercups, these flowers were initially a breeze for me to grow, but more recently they seem to just die for no reason.  I have no idea why.   

But this year, I seem to have cracked it, thanks to some info sourced on the internet.   The method involves starting the corms packed tightly together in a shallow seed tray, barely covered by compost.  Given a light watering, within a few weeks there were small shoots coming through.  I transferred them to 9cm pots and now every single corm is flourishing.  All 101 of them.  It seems too easy.  I do not have the early blooms that I have tried for in previous years (and often failed) but maybe it is worth the delay.

Last week, we were in a ‘collab’ producing flowers for Ellie’s wedding (daughter of our good friends Steve and Lesley).  It was joyful affair and we felt honoured to be able to contribute to the day in such a positive way.  Being so early in the year, it was touch and go as to what stems we would be able to provide, but in the absence of any early ranunculus, the Garden Gate tulips came good, doing much of the floral heavy lifting.  But ranunculus was there too, albeit stems that had been sourced from a Devon flower farm by our collaborator, Nat, Ellie’s sister-in-law.  Nat was the primary organiser of the arrangements and utilised the ranunculus to create some wonderful bridal bouquets and buttonholes.  She had also made some awesome dried flower rings for the smallest bridesmaids. It was a pleasure working with Nat.

I have said it many times, how gardening and horticulture teaches us about patience and humility.  Our flowers bloomed because of some careful planning, nurturing and, above all, time.  We did not have to shout, swear or use excessive force to get the results we wanted.   

Although we might not have had ranunculus in time for the April wedding, we are quietly confident of a good crop of them in due course.  As the Middle East is in danger of being bombed ‘back to the Stone Ages’ by our one-time allies, it seems ironic that I am about to produce my best crop of Persian Buttercups.

Ranunculus in March
Not quite ready for the Wedding
Table Decoration and Bud Vases
Bridal Bouquets
A Welcoming Display
Glorious Persiana
Prepped for the service
Spring Wedding
Pew Ends
Another delivery of table decs and bouquets to Kimbers’
Freshly cut

Midlife Latin

Chrysanthemum Rainbow Hippy Lovechild

This week’s Cultural Wednesday took Mrs B and me to Barrington Court.  Our first visit to Barrington was with Josh, so it felt apt to be here on what would have been his 33rd birthday.  I remember enjoying wandering around the gardens and on another, subsequent visit, I we watched a small child staring into the ornamental pond, yelling “Oh my God!  Oh my God!” at the top of his voice, entranced by an enormous Koi Carp that lurked between the lily pads. 

This week there were no child-eating Carp in the pond, but there was an impressive range of shrubs and flowers in the well-ordered borders.  It being a school day, small children were notable by their absence, and so we could amble around the well-laid paths enjoying the warm sunshine in the company of folk against whom we ranked at the lower end of the age range.

But we are beginning to feel our age (‘midlifegardener’ is an increasingly tenuous nom de plume) and further evidence that we are becoming our parents, is provided by our increasing habit of attempting to name every plant we see.  I am surprised by our degree of success.  There was a time when I had to Google them or just describe a plant as “that pink flower with the green bits; well behaved plant or whatever”.  Now, “physostegia” just trips off the tongue. I know my Eryngium from my Echinops and Veronicastrum from Verbena Bonariensis.

This fluency in horticultural Latin feels to have happened suddenly, but it’s no coincidence that it manifested itself as we embarked on our cut flower journey.  I guess we need to know exactly what we are growing in our garden, and now we can identify them in the National Trust’s gardens too.  With knowledge comes power and confidence and the MLG side hustle is starting to turn into a pivot, evidenced by the creation of Garden Gate Flowers (BA22), with our lovely neighbor, Kate.  We have a regular Friday stall at Galhampton Village Hall, and we take orders and offer a delivery service to the village.  There are tentative enquiries about weddings, including a “DIY, Rustic Festival” style wedding, which matches our vibe perfectly.

You can even find us on Facebook and Insta so we really do exist.

Who knows where this will lead us?  Up the Garden Path, through the Garden Gate…

Veni, Vidi, Vendidi.

I came, I saw, I sold.