Becoming a Cut Flower Grower

Hello, welcome to Friday 10 April 2026. 
We had a one-day heatwave this week and it was roasting! 24 degrees centigrade! Wow! And today it's back to 13 degrees - quite a change. It's musical chairs in the greenhouse with the seedlings: one minute they're in, then they're out, and keeping everyone moist is proving challenging. In tonight's episode I'll share with you the ones doing well, the slow ones, those giving me nightmares and the top performers.
I've been casting a critical eye over the shrubs in my garden and wondering which ones I should dig up and take to the field to be sold because they're so lovely. I'd be interested to know if you're growing any of the plants I talk about. 
I have an update from the field tonight too: I've been doing battle with creeping thistle, which is an issue for me. I don't think I'll be able to get rid of it so it's just a question of managing it. I'm also crossing my fingers and toes that the rats don't start eating my alliums (the only bulbs they haven't touched yet!).
Finally I touch on Chelsea Flower Show ticket prices (eye-watering), the new setup I have for saving dirty duck water, plus my Plant Profile of the week and tonight it's Hydrangea paniculate 'Limelight'. This is a terrific plant and I highly recommend it to you.
I hope you have a great weekend: please come back and join me for the next episode - you're always very welcome.
Connect with me
If you like what you hear, please follow/subscribe to this podcast so that you're the first to hear new episodes when they become available every Tuesday and Friday. And if you enjoy this episode, please take a minute to leave a review because it really does help more cut flower-lovers just like you to find the podcast. 
Follow me on instagram @henhillcutflowers for a behind-the-scenes look at life on my cut flower plot. And you can find my website at www.henhillcutflowers.co.uk.
Join me on my journey through a year of growing and selling cut flowers in England. I'm giving you the low-down on what it's really like, how I'm getting started, what you do and don't need, what I do when and why, the successes and failures, and just about everything in between. All in real time. With guest appearances from my chickens every now and then. 
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Hello, welcome to Tuesday 7 April 2026. 
I hope you had a lovely Easter weekend. I spent the weekend on the field and was mostly doing battle with nettles, clearing beds and making space for all the annual seedlings rapidly filling up my greenhouse. I can't wait to get them out onto the plot and growing away. The rats continue to test my patience: they've had a go at my final remaining batch of crated tulips which I finally planted in the ground. It's very unfair and I hope they all have indigestion.
My local hub has opened for 2026 and I'm looking forward to welcoming the owner of it to the field soon to show her what I'm growing this year. She set the bar very high when she invited growers to her plot last year so I'm doing a lot of tidying before she comes to mine.
Finally I answer a great listener message I received by DM on insta about pricing and I hope you find this of interest. Pricing is one of those topics that I continue to find challenging: I'm still working out how to do it and I like to share my thoughts with you. 
I love hearing from you so do get in touch and please come back and join me for the next episode - you're always very welcome.
Connect with me
If you like what you hear, please follow/subscribe to this podcast so that you're the first to hear new episodes when they become available every Tuesday and Friday. And if you enjoy this episode, please take a minute to leave a review because it really does help more cut flower-lovers just like you to find the podcast. 
Follow me on instagram @henhillcutflowers for a behind-the-scenes look at life on my cut flower plot. And you can find my website at www.henhillcutflowers.co.uk.
Join me on my journey through a year of growing and selling cut flowers in England. I'm giving you the low-down on what it's really like, how I'm getting started, what you do and don't need, what I do when and why, the successes and failures, and just about everything in between. All in real time. With guest appearances from my chickens every now and then. 
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Hello, welcome to Friday 3 April 2026. Happy Good Friday!
Storm 'Dave' has landed and it's very windy here. My honeysuckle arch blew down, the cockerels are getting blown across the field and anything I put down gets whisked away.
I've spent most of today in the greenhouse sowing more hardy annuals and it went really well. I'm going to need a lot more shelves in there at this rate. I've also been sowing seed that I collected from some of my unsold flowers in 2025 and I can't wait to see how they turn out.
I recorded tonight's episode on the plot and a rat made a guest appearance as I was mid-sentence. I was planning to do a walk-around the field with you but it's too windy and the audio would have ben terrible. 
I hope you have a wonderful Easter or (if you're not celebrating it) then just a great long weekend. Please do come back and join me for the next episode - you're always very welcome.
Connect with me
If you like what you hear, please follow/subscribe to this podcast so that you're the first to hear new episodes when they become available every Tuesday and Friday. And if you enjoy this episode, please take a minute to leave a review because it really does help more cut flower-lovers just like you to find the podcast. 
Follow me on instagram @henhillcutflowers for a behind-the-scenes look at life on my cut flower plot. And you can find my website at www.henhillcutflowers.co.uk.
Join me on my journey through a year of growing and selling cut flowers in England. I'm giving you the low-down on what it's really like, how I'm getting started, what you do and don't need, what I do when and why, the successes and failures, and just about everything in between. All in real time. With guest appearances from my chickens every now and then. 
Text The Podcast Here!
Support the show

Hello, welcome to Tuesday 31 March 2026. 
Fuel prices are shooting up really quickly and it's already impacting many of us, in one way or another. I've often mentioned the statistic that 80 to 90 percent of cut flowers sold in the UK are imported but here’s the important question: where exactly are they imported from? And how is the current crisis going to affect the market and what does it mean for British cut flower growers?
Tonight I'm looking at what’s really going on behind the scenes of the cut flowers imports into the UK and where the opportunities may exist for UK growers. It's not just the increasing fuel prices causing problems: the impact of rising fertiliser prices will also significantly impact the market.
When these changes really start to bite, what are we likely to see? What shifts in consumer behaviour will happen? What will florists do? Will they start changing what they offer to brides? How are UK growers positioned in the market to offer competitive alternatives to imports? There's a lot to unpack. 
Please do come back and join me for the next episode - you're always very welcome.
Connect with me
If you like what you hear, please follow/subscribe to this podcast so that you're the first to hear new episodes when they become available every Tuesday and Friday. And if you enjoy this episode, please take a minute to leave a review because it really does help more cut flower-lovers just like you to find the podcast. 
Follow me on instagram @henhillcutflowers for a behind-the-scenes look at life on my cut flower plot. And you can find my website at www.henhillcutflowers.co.uk.
Join me on my journey through a year of growing and selling cut flowers in England. I'm giving you the low-down on what it's really like, how I'm getting started, what you do and don't need, what I do when and why, the successes and failures, and just about everything in between. All in real time. With guest appearances from my chickens every now and then. 
Text The Podcast Here!
Support the show

Hello, it's Friday 27 March 2026. 
** Apologies for the terrible audio quality in this episode. I don't quite know what happened but I think there's something wrong with the microphone (and the spare one because I changed mic midway through) **
The battle with the rats for ownership of my tulips continues and I have finally given in and put the tulip crates in the back of my car. Victory to me. I will put them in the ground over the weekend and hopefully that will fix the problem although it will add substantially to their cost of production. I've also been doing battle with my car headlamps this week but that's now all fixed. 
Thank you very much for sending your questions for my wedding & event florist - please keep them coming! There are no stupid questions (I promise) and I'll have plenty of time to ask your questions. You can send them via DM on instagram or by using the link at the bottom of these show notes.
Tonight's Plant Profile Series continues with Scabious. This was a fantastic cut flower for me in 2025 and I'm looking forward to growing them again this year and I have chosen some new pastel colours which I hope my florists love. If you haven't grown them before, I can highly recommend them.
Have a great weekend and please do come back and join me for the next episode - you're always very welcome.
Connect with me
If you like what you hear, please follow/subscribe to this podcast so that you're the first to hear new episodes when they become available every Tuesday and Friday. And if you enjoy this episode, please take a minute to leave a review because it really does help more cut flower-lovers just like you to find the podcast. 
Follow me on instagram @henhillcutflowers for a behind-the-scenes look at life on my cut flower plot. And you can find my website at www.henhillcutflowers.co.uk.
Join me on my journey through a year of growing and selling cut flowers in England. I'm giving you the low-down on what it's really like, how I'm getting started, what you do and don't need, what I do when and why, the successes and failures, and just about everything in between. All in real time. With guest appearances from my chickens every now and then. 
Text The Podcast Here!
Support the show