Becoming a Cut Flower Grower

• My Absolute Best Performing Cut Flower of 2025, How I'm Saving & Storing Seed, and Balancing Things to Reduce Chaos

  Hello and welcome to Friday 12 September 2025. It's feeling quite autumnal tonight: the nights are drawing in quickly and there's a little bit of a chill to the air.My two wedding orders have gone out and I hope the brides enjoy seeing them. I managed to cut the flowers in the dry (one order by torchlight which is not ideal) but the foliage ended up getting cut in the rain, which was a messy business.Tonight I'm answering some questions that I've received. I love answering your questions so do feel free to ask away. I'm not an expert but I can talk about what I'm doing, and in the first part of this episode I talk about my dahlia choices, how I'm collecting and storing this year's seeds, plus how I balance learning about being a grower and simultaneously doing it (you can probably guess the answer to this one!).In the second half of the episode I talk about my star performer of the year so far: my hydrangea paniculatas. These shrubs have been my most popular for cut flower stems and have sold at a good price. The plants have been super-easy to look after, productive and very popular so I'm planning on buying more for 2026. Compared to growing from seed, shrubs and perennials are invaluable but they're expensive to buy when getting a cut flower growing business established, so it's a bit of a catch-22 situation. I hope you enjoy this episode and that you'll come back and join me for the next one: episodes come out on Tuesdays and Fridays every week and you're always very welcome to join me. Connect with meIf you like what you hear, please follow/subscribe to this podcast so that you're the first to hear new episodes when they become available every Tuesday and Friday. And if you enjoy this episode, please take a minute to leave a review because it really does help more cut flower-lovers like you find the podcast. Follow me on instagram @henhillcutflowers for a behind-the-scenes look at life on my cut flower plot.Join me on my journey through a year of growing and selling cut flowers in England. I'm giving you the low-down on what it's really like, how I'm getting started, what you do and don't need, what I do when and why, the successes and failures, and just about everything in between. All in real time. With guest appearances from my chickens every now and then. 

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• Problems Galore, Hormone Chaos, Poorly Hens, Over-Selling Hydrangeas & Baffling Sales Figures

  Hello. It's Tuesday 9 September 2025.Well it's been a weekend of bad stuff: an attempted fraud on my bank card, a cancelled bank card, failed card payments which meant no phone contract renewal (which meant no working phone), together with hormone dramas, plus poorly chickens and sadly one of them, Florence, passed away unexpectedly yesterday. So it's been a lot. I'm still busy on the plot: deadheading, cutting back, tending to the dahlias, negotiating sales with florists, co-ordinating availability lists, cutting and conditioning, practising my spiral hand-tied bouquets and wrapping them (with some success this time), plus the obligatory weeding and tidying. I've also been sorting 'Kylie's room' in preparation for turning it into a flower studio/workspace. The second part of the episode is me talking you through my sales goals for 2026 which, quite frankly, are now baffling me. In order to make the sales goal I came up with, I have to sell a large volume of stems (at the right price). There's a lot to factor in, such as plant spacings and price per stem, and I need to keep crunching the numbers until it all makes sense. I hope that I'll have some sensible figures soon!I do hope you enjoy this episode and that you'll come back and join me for the next one: episodes come out on Tuesdays and Fridays every week and you're always very welcome to join me. Connect with meIf you like what you hear, please follow/subscribe to this podcast so that you're the first to hear new episodes when they become available every Tuesday and Friday. And if you enjoy this episode, please take a minute to leave a review because it really does help more cut flower-lovers like you find the podcast. Follow me on instagram @henhillcutflowers for a behind-the-scenes look at life on my cut flower plot.Join me on my journey through a year of growing and selling cut flowers in England. I'm giving you the low-down on what it's really like, how I'm getting started, what you do and don't need, what I do when and why, the successes and failures, and just about everything in between. All in real time. With guest appearances from my chickens every now and then. 

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• Two New Florists Visit & Buy My Cut Flowers! Working Out My USP, Eucalyptus & Setting Up A Studio

  Hello and welcome to Friday 5 September 2025.Where has the week gone?!? I have no idea. Time is just flying by. I've been busy on the plot deadheading, cutting things back and collecting seeds, in between the heavy rain showers. I can't wait to do a big tidy up and let the chickens enjoy rummaging around and fertilise the soil.I've had two new florists visit the plot and buy cut flowers from me, which has been great. I love showing people around and chatting about what's growing and what's to come in 2026. When it has rained I've been studying like mad and really thinking about potential local clients and my USP. There's plenty more work to be done but it's a good start.This weekend I'll be starting off some hardy annuals and tidying up an area on the plot to create a proper dedicated workspace for my flowers and equipment. At the moment everything is crammed into the feed room for the chickens and it's not ideal so I have plans for a new studio space.I hope you enjoy this episode and come back and join me for the next one: episodes come out on Tuesdays and Fridays every week and you're always very welcome to join me. Connect with meIf you like what you hear, please follow/subscribe to this podcast so that you're the first to hear new episodes when they become available every Tuesday and Friday. And if you enjoy this episode, please take a minute to leave a review because it really does help more cut flower-lovers like you find the podcast. Follow me on instagram @henhillcutflowers for a behind-the-scenes look at life on my cut flower plot.Join me on my journey through a year of growing and selling cut flowers in England. I'm giving you the low-down on what it's really like, how I'm getting started, what you do and don't need, what I do when and why, the successes and failures, and just about everything in between. All in real time. With guest appearances from my chickens every now and then. 

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• Cutting Foliage in the Rain, Visiting The National Dahlia Society Show Today & Did My Flowers Survive the Flower Festival?

  Hello and welcome to the latest episode: it's Tuesday 2 September 2025.Lots to tell you in this episode and I've divided it into two parts with a tiny bit of music in between so please don't switch off when you hear the music and think the episode has ended!I've been cutting flower stems and foliage for two florist collections tomorrow. These are new florists for me so I'm looking forward to welcoming them to the plot. I've also had an order from my lovely wedding florist for this weekend which needs cutting on Thursday. I went back to the Flower Festival on Sunday to see how my flowers survived the weekend and I talk about this.The second part of the episode is my review of the National Dahlia Society Show that I attended today at RHS Wisley. It's a great show and my mentor, Richard, was exhibiting so it was lovely to catch up with him and see how he got on. It was truly fascinating to hear how the show works from Richard's perspective and see how other growers have coped with their dahlias in the massive amount of rain we've had in the last week. There is so much to share with you!I hope you enjoy the episode and come back and join me for the next one. It's always great to hear from you: feel free to contact me on instagram @henhillcutflowers.Details of The National Dahlia Society Show at RHS Wisley:https://www.dahlia-nds.co.uk/events/2025-nds-national-show-rhs-wisley/https://www.rhs.org.uk/gardens/wisley/rhs-garden-wisley-flower-showConnect with meIf you like what you hear, please follow/subscribe to this podcast so that you're the first to hear new episodes when they become available every Tuesday and Friday. And if you enjoy this episode, please take a minute to leave a review because it really does help more cut flower-lovers like you find the podcast. Follow me on instagram @henhillcutflowers for a behind-the-scenes look at life on my cut flower plot.Join me on my journey through a year of growing and selling cut flowers in England. I'm giving you the low-down on what it's really like, how I'm getting started, what you do and don't need, what I do when and why, the successes and failures, and just about everything in between. All in real time. With guest appearances from my chickens every now and then. 

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• Rain Stops Play, Shattering Dahlias, Learning Where I'm Going Wrong & the Fabulous Flower Festival

  Hello and welcome! It's a wet Friday 29 August 2025.Good news: my electrics are fixed, yippee! We've had a lot of rain this week which has caused some issues on the plot by flattening things and adversely affecting the quality of some of my cut flower stems. I was up on the plot super early on Thursday to cut for the local Flower Festival in a nearby town. I attended the Festival tonight and it was quite emotional seeing my blooms in a range of beautiful arrangements.My studying continues with Lennie Larkin's incredible book, 'Flower Farming for Profit', which is an amazing source of information. I've been reading about all the things I've been doing wrong (there are a lot!) and having a laugh at how silly I have been sometimes. There is so much improvement to be done and I hope that you'll stick with me on my journey. Please enjoy the episode and come back and join me for the next one. It's always great to hear from you: feel free to contact me on instagram @henhillcutflowers.Book:Flower Farming for Profit by Lennie Larkinhttps://www.amazon.com/Flower-Farming-Profit-Complete-Successful/dp/1645021769/ref=zg_bs_g_5262_sccl_1/143-6181273-7259911?psc=1Connect with meIf you like what you hear, please follow/subscribe to this podcast so that you're the first to hear new episodes when they become available every Tuesday and Friday. And if you enjoy this episode, please take a minute to leave a review because it really does help more cut flower-lovers like you find the podcast. Follow me on instagram @henhillcutflowers for a behind-the-scenes look at life on my cut flower plot.Join me on my journey through a year of growing and selling cut flowers in England. I'm giving you the low-down on what it's really like, how I'm getting started, what you do and don't need, what I do when and why, the successes and failures, and just about everything in between. All in real time. With guest appearances from my chickens every now and then. 

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