“Growing your own flowers for cutting is all about bringing the outside into your home, reconnecting with a sense of seasonality and nature. Flowers are food for the soul, and it’s time to rediscover the beauty of blooms grown in tune with the season.”

Never have we had such an availability and selection of cut flowers where modern science and transport can deliver material from almost anywhere in the world yet none match the pleasure of plants picked fresh from your own garden. Many gardeners have come to realise that there is greater pleasure in the fresh flowers grown in their own gardens that in the almost artificial-like blooms supplied by today’s florists. This movement parallels that of a general move towards a lifestyle more in line and in touch with nature, with the movement of growing and enjoying one’s own fruit and vegetables and with the trend towards a more natural style of gardening with an avoidance of chemicals and a greater appreciation of native flowers.

Celestina Robertson began her cut-flower venture in a small and limited way with a bed for flowers as part of her allotment. The enjoyment of having her own flowers available to her through the seasons encouraged her to grow more and more so that the vegetables were displaced and the flowers took over and she later expanded her project to a larger area. Her book is based on her own experiences, on lessons learned and mainly on her enjoyment of growing and having her own flowers for her home. As a result, the advice given is practical and sensible with sections in the book dealing with the selection of plants most suited to being cut – not all plants do well as cut flowers, an inability to take in water after being cut being the main problem – how to grow from seed, bulbs, tubers and how to cut, condition and create beautiful displays for the house. There is a substantial section with a selection of recommended plants arranged season by season with comment on how to grow, care for them and make the best of them as cut flowers.

[Cut Flowers: Prepare the ground, sow seed, nurture, harvest, fill you vases, Celestina Robertson, Bloom for France Lincoln, London, 2022, Softback, 159 pages, £12.99, ISBN: 978-0-7112-6995-8]