The field is now completely planted up and our main range of summer flowers is starting to bloom. Every week it feels like we have a new variety ready to harvest. Some of our all time favourites such as calendula have taken a while to get into their stride this year but we are now picking 100s of flowers from them each week.
We have had some fantastic colour schemes this month, from classic white to bright colours such as coral and sky blue. It's always really interesting to see what colours people are picking for their weddings.
The weather has been a challenge. We have been working hard to make sure the flowers reach people as fresh as possible during the recent heatwave. We’ve been picking as early as possible before the flowers warm up - we’ve had some very early mornings! We have then been dropping them off at the post office at the last possible moment so we can keep them in our cooler for as long as we can. Everything has been sent out with extra icepacks and insulation. We are also considering what flowers we include in punnets. Violas can be tricky in the heat, but cornflowers and snapdragons hold up really well.
Believe it or not June is also the point where we start planning our crops for next year. biannuals such as Hesperia and Sweet William will grow leaves (and roots) in the first year and flowers the second plus need a period of cold to flower. This means we sow them in June, plant them out in September to get flowers in May.