Pinch, Punch, First of the Month!

My favourite time of year 🍂 Autumn 🍂

I still anticipate a good 6 weeks left of cut flowers and then it’s a few months of looking after seedlings, tidying up the farm and getting ready for Spring. Tulip bulbs are on order and I’ve already done quite a bit of seed harvesting and sowing of snapdragons, cornflowers, sweet williams, shasta Daisies & a late season sowing of stocks & wrinkled cress to add to our late Dahlias. So much more to go though. It’s never ending, a wonderful never ending story.

There’s been some really exciting news over here as I embark on some personal study with the RHS. It’s a three year commitment and I can’t wait to start, it’s time to really elevate our future in the Horticultural world & focus on the next steps. Personally I want to shake the feeling of being an imposter in this field to give me confidence to achieve various personal goals, watch this space.

Alongside that I have taken some time to re-evaluate the business, our values & where we fit.
Our Pretty Wedding brand is not reflective of who we are anymore and so much has changed. Being accepted by the RHS to study feels the right time to share the future of OPW…

There’s a huge amount of work and plans going on behind the scenes but we are thrilled with the new name and logo ~ it fits with who I am and I can’t wait to share more on this news but I’m afraid that’s going to take a bit of time. I hope you like it!

Nature Notes: The main news for me is the Buzzards are back and I’ve had some fantastic encounters in the last month as they buzz around the skies. There has also been a large number of blackcaps on the farm which I assume is due to the abundance of berries, I just hope they don’t eat all the sloes as I’m making Christmas Gin at the weekend!

So what’s blooming and happening at the moment? Well, like most flower farmers this season the Dahlias have been slow - interestingly the ones I haven’t watered or looked after have been doing amazingly.

 

  Asters, Zinnias, Snapdragons, Statice & Roses have kept us going but again we need more to satisfy demand. It’s such a balancing act to grow & sell but it was said to me once that a flower farm full of colour is a travesty for a business. So, I suppose the fact that I’m cutting everything every week is a success in itself!
Next season I will be increasing the volume of late summer blooms, like these Asters…

Lastly we will be back with our Christmas Shop this year, hoping to launch around October time so keep your eyes peeled for some beautiful winter arrangements & gifts