Susie’s garden

This week is British Flowers Week, a celebration of the growers, wholesalers and florists who work with UK- grown flowers.

It was set up a decade ago by New Covent Garden Flower Market and is now run by Flowers from the Farm. This lovely organisation brings together more than 1,000 flower businesses, many of whom are small scale growers of seasonal British cut flowers.

On their website

flowersfromthefarm.co.uk

you can search a directory for growers near you. It’s full of inspiring photographs that make you want to rush out and fill your house with flowers!

These are creative businesses, full of ideas for special times like weddings or simply for every day.

There are events across the country such as flower-arranging workshops, dahlia days, hand-tying bouquets, making willow plant supports and tours of flower fields. Many are being held during British Flowers Week.

There’s often tea and cake too, as in the best tradition of garden visiting!

In London, the Garden Museum in Lambeth has an exhibition of show-stopping floral installations from June 6-10, created by five of the country’s top floral designers using British cut flowers.

If I buy cut flowers – and I rarely need to as I grow so many in my garden – I always make sure they are grown in the UK. I don’t like to think of flowers being flown across the world when there’s plenty of seasonal variety here. For 23 years I ran a plant nursery, and I know how important it is to support British growers.

Last year I made the arrangements for a friend’s son’s wedding. They wanted a natural look, so we set 10 glass jars down the centre of a long table at the venue, and I filled them with things from my garden. Delicate white roses from the arch to the veg garden, blue sea hollies, scabious, marjoram, pink betony, lady’s mantle, and the little white pompoms of Fair Maids of Kent.

I grow flowers for cutting in the vegetable garden, where they attract pol