British-grown spring flowers

The warm, sunny weather has brought on a good variety of spring-time flowers. This week we have included precious stems of lily of the valley. We've had our best growing year so far for this, despite the lack of rain, as we now have a few well-established patches. This dainty shade-loving flower is a symbol of purity, love, happiness and luck, and it has a beautiful scent. It was the late Queen Elizabeth II’s favourite flower, and hopefully it’s one of yours too!

Now we’re into May, the cutting garden is coming to life and we are cutting the first of our sweet williams and peonies. Other ingredients include solomon’s seal, apple mint, salal, pittosporum and rosemary plus iris from Lincolnshire and ‘Cabana’ parrot tulips and ‘viola’ ranunculus from Norfolk. We've also tucked in some of mum's pasque flower seed heads, once a common sight on chalk grasslands, but now a very rare native found in just a handful of locations due to reduced grazing and habitat loss.

If you'd like to place and order for next week's flowers, please click here.