RHS The Little Book of Cut-Flower Gardening
Flowers brighten our homes, our lives and, when they are homegrown, they also brighten our gardens - not just for us, but also for the buzzing wildlife that loves their nectar. Growing your own flowers gives the huge satisfaction of harvesting something from a plant you have nurtured, and brings a greater connection with nature and the seasons. It also allows you to have a house full of flowers at a fraction of the cost of buying them, all with a sustainable, positive environmental impact.
RHS The Little Book of Cut-Flower Gardening is the perfect introduction to growing your own blooms. Whether your cut-flower patch is a handful of pots or half an allotment, you'll find accessible information on successful and sustainable growing, to keep your plot healthy and as productive as possible. As well as introductory chapters on planning and gardening basics, there are details on how to cut your flowers and extend their vase life,
and how to dry flowers for everlasting arrangements.
More than just flowers, the directories break down the blooms and foliage into their different groups. There are sections on annuals from seed, such as love-in-a-mist, zinnias and sweet peas; growing bulbs and tubers such as tulips and dahlias; perennials for flower and foliage, such as lady's mantle, lavender, roses, apple mint and ornamental grasses; and shrubs and trees for foliage, flower, spring blossom and colourful winter stems.
Holly Farrell trained at RHS Garden Wisley, where she gained the Wisley Diploma and RHS Certificates in Horticulture. Since then she has worked in gardens large and small, and written numerous books. RHS Gardening for Mindfulness was a finalist at the 2017 Garden Media Guild Awards, as was The Jam Maker's Garden. Holly is also the author of Growing Herbs (Kew Gardener's Guides), Grow Your Own Cake, RHS Happy Houseplants, RHS Miniature Garden Grower, and RHS Plants from Pips (winner, Prix PJ Redouté 2016). Get Growing is her latest in a series of titles all aimed to inspire people to get outside and take up gardening; forthcoming titles for 2020 and 2021 are Do Bees Need Weeds? (co-author) and Healing with Plants: The Chelsea Physic Garden Herbal.
Holly also regularly contributes to magazines such as The Garden, In the Moment, Breathe, The English Garden, Kitchen Garden and Teen Breathe. Her Instagram account, @hollyfarrellgarden, follows her in her own Shropshire garden and out in the countryside.