Our flower farm in March

March on the flower farm

So a very peculiar month – this post seems to be a list of cancelled activities. One thing that can’t be cancelled though are the plants that are growing and flowering.  Although we can’t get out to deliver flowers, and florists everywhere have shut up shop, we have decided to carry on sowing and planting with the hope that we’ll have lots of blooms when some sort of normality returns.  We’ll keep writing about what we are doing and what’s flowering. 

Flowers on their way
There are narcissus and tulips in bloom this month and ranunculus almost ready in the tunnel.  The first ranunculus to flower will be the clementine variety – a lovely bright orange.
We have a big seed sowing schedule which lists the seeds to be planted each week throughout the season.  March is one of the busiest seed sowing months – mainly the hardy annuals, cornflowers, snapdragons, ammi, cerinthe, nigella  – all of which germinate within a week or so, get pricked out for a couple of weeks and then planted out.  They’ll be flowering by the end of May or beginning of June.  They flower for about 6-8 weeks before we pull them out and plant some more.  Its important to have a continuous supply of flowers all through the season so a schedule is essential. 

Cut & Arrange Workshops I’ve cancelled these for the moment Open days These have all been either cancelled or postponed until later in the year when we may know more about what is happening On-line shop Our on-line shop is temporarily closed until we have confirmation about whether we are able to deliver flowers. We’ve been putting spare bunches of flowers outside the gate for locals to help themselves as they walk by.   Look after yourselves Nic & Zoe – Orchard Farm Flowers