Green and Gorgeous Flowers

After we left Scotland we headed south to England, first through London for a visit to Shane Connolly's studio (more on this in a future post) and then a bit further to Green and Gorgeous, a flower farm led by Rachel Seigfried. Read our other British Flowers Week articles here.

I was delighted to see Rachel was hosting a course about growing sweet peas so I signed up and away we went.  We learned about timing, planting and variety choice.  We clipped and "tied in" the winter and spring sunshine varieties, which I learned were developed in California for cultivation under cover. 

After I left I read two books about sweet peas:
- SWEET PEAS: AN ESSENTIAL GUIDE
- THE SWEET PEA BOOK

I found myself so interested in all the information about breeding and plant DNA.  These are a highly malleable plant!  

My old fashioned purples from the Amsterdam airport are blooming in the garden now.  The ones from Roger Parsons (who wrote the essential guide book) are about to take flight soon!  The key is starting them in the fall and growing them tough as nails.  I was just a little late to the party on that last year and am looking forward to getting the timing just right next year!  Growing is so counterintuitive in so many ways.  This growing sweetpeas in the wintertime is one example.  

I'm so thankful for the people out there who have taken the time to record their experiments through books and video to help the next generation of growers build upon their achievements and continue the work.  Rachel is one of those people.  

Enjoy the tour, and if you're interested in a quick sweet pea read, I love Erin's article.

Connect with Green and Gorgeous: WEBSITE + INSTAGRAM + WORKSHOPS + BOOK

Looking for British growers? Check out these resources:  British Flowers Week, Flowers from the Farm and The British Flowers Collective

Interested in traveling to England with Team Flower?  Be notified when dates are set.