Book Review of The Cut Flower Patch by Louise Curley

If you would like to grow your own cut flowers - then this book is for you!

I'm always very happy when the postman delivers new books and this turned out to be a little treasure.

The Cut Flower Patch is written by Louise Curley -  who also writes the blog Wellywoman and it's published by Frances Lincoln. Louise is a trained horticulturist and also writes for The Garden Illustrated and the Guardian newspaper's garden section.

The beautiful photographs are taken by Jason Ingram - a Bristol based photographer who has worked with a lot of big names in the gardening world.


Louise takes you through step by step how to create a cut flower patch. Starting with basics and the importance of doing some planning as well as different planting plans depending on the size of your plot. 

She recommends what flowers to choose - everything from annuals, biennials to bulbs, corms and tubers, 35 in all, as well as foliage and fillers.

Louise takes you through how to make your patch and how to maintain your flower garden.

My favourite chapters are the last three called Cutting Time, Showing Off and Rich Pickings. In Cutting Time she gives advice on how and when to cut your flowers and how to condition the flowers to make them last longer.

"Daffodils look good arranged on their own but the addition of some zingy green young foliage can increase interest"

  

The chapter called Showing Off is all about making quick and easy arrangements.

"Simple arrangements are often the most pleasing. Small bottles and jars make perfect receptacles."

"Among this hand-tied mix of seed heads and grasses are to be found teasels, honesty,love-in-the-mist, poppies and the orange seed pods of montbretia.

In Rich Pickings Louise mixes flowers from the cutting patch with other stuff you might have growing in your garden or find elsewhere - season by season.

Just like with growing your own vegetables you need time and patience to produce flowers from a cutting patch - but with the enjoyment you get while doing it and when the end result is buckets full of flowers - it's all worth it in the end! 

"Keep your flower arrangements simple by using only a few stems of flowers such as chrysanthemums, and enjoy the fruits of your labour."

Have a Wonderful Floral Day!

See you later in the week!

xoxo Ingrid