Claim OwnershipBecoming a Cut Flower Grower
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© 2025 Becoming a Cut Flower Grower
Description
Becoming a Cut Flower Grower is a raw and honest podcast about growing and selling cut flowers and the realities of what it really takes to build a cut flower business from the ground up.
Hosted by a working cut flower grower, the podcast combines practical insight with thoughtful reflections on the decisions, trade-offs, and rhythms of the work — from production and selling, to confidence, sustainability, and shaping an off-grid business on a tight budget.
Episodes will be useful whether you’re starting out with cut flowers, developing a small-scale flower business, or simply interested in the craft, economics, and rhythm of growing cut flowers for sale.
With twice-weekly episodes, this podcast is an intelligent, steady companion for anyone curious to know what growing and selling cut flowers with intention and care really looks and feels like.
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98 Episodes
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Hello, it's Tuesday 23 December 2025. It's a shorter episode tonight - I'm feeling a bit blue. I'm missing my regular routines and I'm not enjoying the disruption. I also have a mole on the field which I was very excited about and then realised it may well cause havoc with everything I've planted so far (and what's still to come). Routines are a mainstay for me: I need them to stay sane and I like to have structure in my day so I really struggle at Christmas time, and this year is no ex...
Hello, it's Friday 19 December 2025. Phew - we've made it through another week and I've had so much rain here in the UK. My Six Figure Flower Farming course with Jenny Marks of Trademark Farmer has come to an end and I'm feeling rather sad about it: I will miss everyone. I realised in the final graduation video call just how much material we have covered in the last month (it's been a lot!) and just how many techniques and tips I've acquired. My list of jobs to do on the field remains e...
Hello, welcome to Tuesday 16 December 2025. I've been busy since we last spoke - lots of digging and planting on the field and most of the dahlias are now in the ground, together with my new geums, veronica, astrantia and peonies. I went on a wreath-making course with a friend over the weekend and we had the best time making mini wreaths, eating s'mores cooked on an open fire and making stars out of sticks. I also tested out the compost toilet! I've also (finally) finished my own wreaths than...
Hello, it's Friday 12 December 2025. Another busy week: wet gloves, wet tools, muddy clothes, and never-ending lists of things to do. I hope you've had a good week. All of my roses have now been delivered which is wonderful and now they all need planting asap. My dahlia mentor, Richard Bailey, has kindly given me more of his unwanted dahlia tubers including Weston Pirate and some incredible Kilburn Glow (which has petals which actually do seem to glow). In tonight's episode I talk about a bre...
Hello and welcome to Tuesday 9 December 2025. What a wet and windy few days! Another named storm has rolled in and everything is very wet. The plants on the plot are fine (benefit of being on a slope) but everywhere else on the field is somewhat treacherous (downside to being on a slope). I've had a busy time since we last caught up and tonight I talk about having lunch with my best wholesale florist client and the useful things we discussed, including a heads-up on her wedding colour s...
Hello and welcome to Friday 5 December 2025. It's been a very wet and chilly week: I've been soaked too many times to remember this week and it's not been nice! Thank you if you sent me a comment about the last few episodes - it's always good to hear what you think. I have (finally) placed my large rose order and I can't wait to get them and see the blooms next year. My course is going well and I'm just starting a module on marketing, which I hope will prove useful. I take a deep dive into wr...
Hello, it's Tuesday 2 December 2025. Welcome to December! Tonight's episode is all about buying imports vs British-grown flowers (or wherever you're growing if you're not in the UK). It's a very hot topic and this episode is based entirely on a podcast I listened to this morning between two UK florists who talk about the pressure they feel to only use British flowers, and why they actually have to use Dutch imports. There are many reasons why florists can't rely on British flowers for 12 mont...
Hello, it's Friday 28 November 2025. Today's episode discusses the million-dollar dahlia question: to lift or not to lift tubers? It's a question that many growers have a dilemma about every year and I'm no exception. This year I'm leaving mine in the ground and I'll explain why here. The majority of this episode is therefore a discussion of the pros and cons of lifting - or not lifting - and the growing conditions that native dahlias thrive in. In other news, I've been busy measu...
Hello and welcome to a chilly Tuesday 25 November 2025. Tonight I'm talking about the foliage that I'm growing for 2026 and beyond. I realised that I needed more foliage about mid-way through this year when I suddenly started selling buckets and buckets of beech and hazel. Then I thought that perhaps I needed to buy some more foliage plants for adding to bouquets and mixed buckets and that's what I've been doing over the past few months. So in this episode I'm sharing what I'm growing a...
Hello, it's Friday 21 November 2025. Welcome - I'm in a much better mood tonight! It's been a busy week, both indoors and outdoors. My course is going well: module 2 has just dropped which is all about pricing. Can't wait to start that. Pricing is such a huge topic and one that not everyone talks about. I know I've struggled with it this year. I've also just taken a free online floristry tutorial with top florist, Joseph Massie, and I'm working my way through a Lennie Larkin course. She...
Hello, welcome to Tuesday 18 November 2025. Winter is here! The temperature has plummeted and I'm bundled up in so many layers that it's hard to even bend down sometimes. Tonight's episode gives you an update of my progress on the new course with Jenny Marks of Trademark Farmer in the US, and news of what I've done with my dahlias over the weekend. Yesterday I visited a fellow grower's plot for a meet-up of local fellow growers which was very interesting and gave me the biggest plot env...
Hello, welcome to a very wet Friday 14 November 2025. I've just taken part in the first online 'welcome' meeting for the new course I've just enrolled on with Jenny Marks of Trademark Farmer and it was great. I've made a start on module 1 and there's a lot to take onboard. Today has been a wash-out in terms of heavy rain all day so I spent time this morning unblocking a gutter and getting soaked. Check your gutters before the rain comes! Tonight I'm talking about factors to consider whe...
Hello and welcome to 11 November 2025. There's so much to tell you about in this episode! Life in the cut flower field has been busy: my young cockerel, Lion, finally has his own enclosure and a wife (!); I've been drying more stems in the unlikely event that someone wants to buy them (or they end up in wreaths); physocarpus shrubs have been planted; achillea 'The Pearl' is being moved to a new bed; a new florist came to the plot to buy a mixed bucket this morning (very exciting) and it...
Hello. It's Friday 7 November 2025. Welcome to tonight's episode. Tonight it's all about mistakes I've made in 2025 because I've been thinking like a gardener rather than a cut flower grower. I have therefore compiled a list of the Top 10 mistakes I've made and I thought I'd share them with you in the hope that you won't make them! There are many benefits to having a background in gardening if you're thinking of establishing a cut flower grower (although I'd argue that a knowledge of marketin...
Hello. It's Tuesday 4 November 2025. Welcome to the latest episode. Another busy week: lots of planting new plants, particularly foliage in my new dedicated foliage bed, lifting and dividing of perennials, moving peonies, weeding, and watching the last of the strawflowers that the chickens haven't trampled putting on a lovely colourful display. I talk about how I'm getting on with making leaf mould this autumn, as well as the benefits of inter-cropping cut flowers amongst other plants t...
Hello and welcome, it's Friday 31 October 2025. Happy Halloween (if you're celebrating it). Lots to tell you: today I bumped into my fabulous dahlia mentor, Richard Bailey, and he has lots of dahlia tubers for me. These are tubers from plants that he no longer wants and I'm very lucky to receive them. I have also been offered some beautiful pink Japanese anemones which I will be gratefully digging up next week. I've been learning a lot from fellow podcasters this week (links to the show are b...
Hello, it's Tuesday 28 October 2025. Welcome to the latest episode :-) The clocks have just gone back which means shorter days and longer evenings: it's a great opportunity for plenty of studying in the evenings but I have to remember to get the hens to bed an hour earlier... I've had the busiest weekend planting out my new shrubs including the Hydrangea Limelights, Eucalyptus, Lilac and Cotinus, plus some raspberry canes and peonies that I transplanted from home. I also relocated my Verbena ...
Hello and welcome to a slightly rainy Friday 24 October 2025. Straight into it tonight: let's talk about bouquet recipes. What are the categories of flower type and what months of the year am I growing in? What do I have flowering in each month and in each category? I've made (yet another) spreadsheet and this one has been illuminating so I'm going to talk you through it in this episode. I answer some really great questions from a listener about growing perennials and annuals and I hope...
Hello and welcome to Tuesday 21 October 2025. Lots has happened and there is so much to tell you. I went to a fantastic peony sale held by a local cut flower grower on Saturday and picked up three new beautiful varieties which I'm excited about. I also finished prepping bed 4 and supervised the installation of a sink in Kylie's Room (aka the new studio/workshop), and cleaned out gutters to collect the incredible volumes of rainwater we've just had over the weekend. The main part o...
Hello, it's Friday 17 October 2025. Welcome to today's episode! The hens are causing havoc in the flower area: I hope the vast amounts of poo they are depositing everywhere compensates for the destructive behaviour and that my echinacea recover from being trampled and used as a dust bathing area. I've been shopping for woody shrubs this week and the main part of this episode is me talking about my experience of growing Hydrangea paniculate 'Limelight' this year and why I'm such a huge f...
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