The weather is cooling off and the flowers are winding down but we are still busy here on the farm.  At the end of a busy season there are still plenty of jobs to do, and although you might think we take the winter off, there is definitely still lots going on.  
Usually trying to create some kind of order out of the chaos is one of the first jobs.  Late summer and autumn are one of the busiest times, with harvesting in full swing and seed sowing for the next season already begun, it's hard to know whether you are coming or going sometimes.  Bulb orders start to arrive, making you dream of spring flowers during the heat of summer, and the mad rush of Valentine's Day and Mother's Day creep up on you before you know it and there is hardly time to take a breather.  There is certainly no time to tidy up after yourself!  Hence one of the first jobs in the 'quieter moments' of the cooler weather.
I like to think of it as 'putting the garden to bed' and this usually consists of me throwing a lot of things on the compost pile.  Older dahlia tubers that never made it into beds, paper packaging from bulbs and corms and copious amounts of weeds from all the summer beds that I spend hours clearing.  
A fresh dumping of compost has arrived, a truck and trailer load, two massive piles of soil improver that need wheelbarrowing and shovelling onto beds to freshen them up, as well as being used to create new no-dig garden beds.  My children are often bemused at my squirrelling away of cardboard boxes to create said beds...although they are often embarrassed when I approach every shop assistant in sight and ask if I can pinch their boxes as they are unpacking stock.  "Mum!  You and your cardboard boxes!!"  It's becoming a familiar catch cry.
I pruned some roses early the other day, those that unfortunately got hit with some weed killer, but thankfully they seemed to have survived.  Hold off on your rose pruning until about July, I will be doing the rest of mine then.
The seeds I started in late summer are tucked away in their new beds and will now over winter nicely, giving me a quicker start to spring flowers.  The beauty of hardy annuals, plants that don't mind the cold, can handle a bit of frost, and they will establish their roots well enough through the winter to really give you a good jump on spring.  It does, however, seem like we are in for a milder winter...I already have autumn sown stock flowering and some of my sweet peas that I planted in February.  Looks like another odd season on the way.  
I have been diligent with my succession sowing this time around so next season (which will be Blooms on the Hill's 5th season!!) we will have flush after flush of beautiful spring flowers and later on waves of summer blooms.  I've put in lots of bulbs too....about 1500 tulip bulbs for spring (eek!!) and there will be ranunculus, anemones and lots of gorgeous heirloom daffodils, with plenty of ruffles and double blooms.  There is plenty to look forward to.
Trays of seeds have gone into the greenhoue....it's finally cool enough outside to move them in, and not roasting in there to fry everything.  Summer is definitely a no-go zone in the greenhouse, especially after this summer where some of my plastic seed try lids actually melted while in there.
Autumn is also the time to plant new perennials.  I've been putting in a new collection of Bearded Iris, a highly underrated flower.  There are so amazing, their colours and the way some sparkle is divine.  They also have the most crazy names!  Love the creativity.  I have put in some new hydrangea as the foliage is fabulous in bouquets and florists are always looking for some blue in late summer. I am also collecting more perennials specifically for foliage because as a flower farmer/florist....you can never have enough foliage!!
The other massive job for winter is digging and dividing the dahlia tubers.  This job I can hardly write about ....I'm dreading it that much!  The tubers will get divided however, despite my reluctance, and tubers will be available to purchase come spring.
Despite the flowers slowing down we are still selling bunches at the Yinnar Bakery, so pop on down and buy some colour for your kitchen.  Bouquets for special occasions are still available to order via the website and we are open for any winter weddings.  We actually have one booked for July at the Budgeree Hall and can't wait to share the beautiful woodland theme that the bride has requested.  Flowers throughout the cooler months will be sourced through Melbourne Suburbs Wholesale Florist although some will still come from the farm as there is always something in flower. 
Feel free to drop a comment on this post and share your gardening journey!

Half-way through May, and with the cold weather approaching, it's time to start thinking about digging and dividing your dahlia tubers.  As a home gardener this is not a necessary step here in the southern hemisphere, however who wouldn't want more dahlias the following seasons!?!
So why do we dig and divide our dahlia tubers?  As a flower farmer this is an easy one to answer.  You either want to increase your stock of particular varieties, you want to have dahlia tubers available to sell for the coming spring, or a bit of both.  Here at Blooms on the Hill we have been steadily increasing our stock through both dividing and purchasing new varieties each season, but we also have tubers for sale in the spring, usually around September.  This year we are aiming to have our sale up and running a bit earlier and our systems working so our sale can take place with orders via our website. (In the past orders have been via direct messages and bank transfer)
As a home gardener you also may want to increase your stock of a particular variety, depending on your garden space and your love for dahlias, but it is also a lovely way to share the flowery love and pass tubers onto friends, family and neighbours.  This is just one of the extraordinary things I find about gardeners....they are the most generous lot of people you can ever meet...always wanting to share tubers, bulbs and cuttings.  It's almost like passing on pieces of their gardens is passing on pieces of their hearts and souls and nothing gives them more joy than sharing something they have grown, and loved, themselves.  
If you don't want to dig and divide your tubers, here in the southern part of the world you certainly don't have to.  Dahlia tubers can remain in the ground quite happily, as long as they are not sitting in standing water.  If they are they will most likely rot.  Your dahlia plant will naturally die back over the end of autumn and early winter and then re-sprout for you come next spring.  The single tuber that you originally planted will have turned into a sizeable clump, storing its nutrients safely until it's ready to grow again the following season and produce another bounty of beautiful dahlia flowers for you.  Leaving the plant in year after year is perfectly fine, however you will find that over a few years that the plant will produce more foliage and less flowers, so this is the time when it is a good idea to dig up the clump (which by this time will be enormous!) and divide.  You don't have to divide into individual tubers, unless of course you want to, but simply cutting it into half or quarters with your spade is enough to give your dahlia plant a new lease on life.  Re-plant the parts, maybe give some away, but you will find that your dahlia will produce a lot more flowers the following season.
In the northern hemisphere, in areas where the ground freezes over winter, it is necessary to dig up your dahlia clumps, as the tubers can't handle the freezing temperatures and will basically turn them to mush.  Storing tubers over the winter can be a challenge but is not an impossible feat if you have the right set up. The same rules apply here in the southern hemisphere as they do in the north. This need not be complicated or expensive but getting the temperature right and the level or humidity, is important.  Storing your tubers in some kind of medium, like potting mix, saw dust or vermiculite can help keep your tubers safe through the winter.  You will also need to keep the temperature above freezing.  The other thing is you don't want your tubers getting too warm otherwise they may wake up too early, which you don't want as the plants are tender annuals and don't handle frost well.  You certainly can't plant them out in the garden until the last frost has passed.  In terms of the humidity, you do need to make sure that your tubers don't dry out too much otherwise they will shrivel up and potentially die.  Check your stored tubers regularly and spritz them with water if you feel they are drying out. You may find that some still do shrivel but often these are fine and still viable.  Often do we find that a tuber that looks way past it and almost dead goes on to produce a perfectly good shoot and grow a fantastic plant.  So don't give up on them too soon!
This weekend here at the farm we will be hosting a dahlia tuber dividing workshop with bookings currently open through the website.  For the cost of $150 you will learn how to dig up the tubers and you will then be given your own clump of tubers to have a go at dividing.  You are free to take home your divided clumps and extra tubers will be available to take home.  The more participants we have on the day is an added bonus as you can share tubers amongst yourselves so you can take home a good selection of varieties for your garden, so be sure to invite your friends and family!  The workshop is taking place on Sunday the 18th of May at 10.30am with morning tea provided.  

Hope to see you here at the farm!

Amber

Here on the farm we like to run a few workshops throughout the blooming season.  There is nothing better than choosing your own flowers and creating a big, beautiful bouquet to take home.  Our workshops include the opportunity to take a leisurely stroll through the dahlia field, take as many photos as you like to pretty up your socials (!) and learn how to create a hand-tied bouquet.  You will also be shown an easy way to wrap your bouquet for gifting, a handy skill when picking your own flowers at home for friends and family.  Afterwards you will be served a relaxed country-style morning tea.

Bookings are currently open here on the website on the "Workshops" page.  The date is Sunday the 23rd of February at 10.30am, the cost is $100, which includes all flowers, tuition and morning tea.  The workshop will run for approximately 2 hours.  Note that places are limited to 10 people.  Depending on the season, and popularity, potential future dates may be organised.

As well as fresh flowers Blooms on the Hill also grows and dries a lot of our material.  Workshops using dried flowers, such as wreath making workshops, are in the pipeline for the cooler months....so let us know if this sounds like something you'd like to do!

Have a great day!

Amber

It's that time of the year again, the dahlia tuber sales are well underway and the pressure of the Dahlia Hunger Games has gripped us all!  I always tell myself I have enough varieties but somehow I've ended up with another eleven for this coming season, although potentially I could end up with more.  I know....I'm booking myself in for therapy!  Many flower farms have had their pre-sales and are now starting to ship out their orders as the tubers are starting to wake up.  Other farms are on to their second release sales and this year there has been a flood of garden growers selling their excess tubers.  It's great that so many people are spreading the dahlia joy!  It's definitely a stressful time of year however as some varieties are coveted and often rarer.  These varieties usually include the more blush, peach, pale pink and neutral tone blooms...yes...they are still exceedingly popular.  I know personally I am trying to build up my collection of these treasures as they are fantastic for weddings and are popular at farmer's markets, when I sell them in-store and are also the most requested colour with bouquet orders.

Scoring the unicorns!
This is probably one of the hardest (and most stressful) thing about buying dahlia tubers.  Everyone is usually after the same ones and so often you will miss out.  I see comments online from people who have missed out yet again on their desired purchases but are happy to try again next year.  Growers can produce only so many each season, and they are also at the mercy of the weather and a whole host of uncontrollable factors, so there is no point in being upset about missing out.  We can only do so much.  The best thing is to make your list and gradually whittle it down.  There are lots of dahlia groups on Facebook and with lots of gardeners now selling you might be lucky in finding the one you want.  Often growers are keen to make swaps so do a bit of a search.  The other tip is to make sure you subscribe to the various newsletters that you will often find on flower farmer's websites.  This way you will be among the first to receive the news about sales and once you know the date and time you can set your alarm and get those fingers (and credit cards!) ready.
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If you are new to dahlias the whole process can seem a little daunting.  You see these beautiful images of gorgeous flowers, you jump online and battle the Olympic Games of Dahlia Tuber sales, add to cart and finally your new tubers arrive.  But what then?  A brown lumpy potato looking thing turns up and confusion (may!) set in.  This is supposed to turn into that???  

What is a tuber?
Amazingly yes, a dahlia plant will grow from the tuber...which is essentially the same as a bulb.  Everything the plant needs to grow is stored in the tuber and what has been posted to you is a piece of live plant material.  First thing is to check that your tuber is of good quality, which no doubt it will be if purchased from a reputable seller.  The tuber should be firm, have a neck (that is not broken), a crown and an eye.  It is from the eye that the shoot will grow.  Sometimes your tuber will already have a shoot.  If it happens to break off don't panic as another will grow in its place. You can get a tuber that doesn't have a long neck but still has a crown with an eye.  These are also fine.  Tubers come in all sorts of shapes and sizes.  Also, size doesn't matter so it is not an issue if you receive a smaller tuber.  Some plants are smaller too, so will naturally produce a smaller clump of tubers.  Some bigger online retail sellers will send you pot grown tubers.  These will look a lot different, usually grey in colour and will be a small clump.  Personally I have had no success with these as they have been too dried and eventually they shrivelled up completely and died.  This is not to say that they will all do this, however I recommend potting them up in some moist potting mix or compost if they are too dry.  

Storage and care
Once you receive your tubers you will need to put them somewhere safe until it is time to plant.  I keep mine in the bags they arrive in, as long as they are paper bags.  Plastic bags may retain moisture and you run the risk of your tubers rotting.  I am also careful about any that are sitting in sawdust or wood shavings.  You don't want them to dry out too much either.  Usually you will receive them not too long before you can plant them out so short term storage is not often a problem.  You can also pot your tubers up early to get a jump on the season.  Do not water too much as you actually don't water tubers in when you plant them in the ground.  A slightly moist potting mix is ok.  Grow your tuber on in the pot like a normal plant and once it is warm enough you can plant it out in the garden.  If you plan on taking cuttings from your tuber (which is a whole other topic) you would also be potting up your tubers.

Planting out
When do I plant them?  This is the question I get asked them most.  Simply put you plant out your tubers once all risk of frost has passed and your soil is warm enough.  It is good to wait until you are having night temperatures that are 10 degrees Celsius or higher.  The timing of planting out varies for everyone, particularly here in Australia as temperatures are so different depending on location.  For us here at Blooms on the Hill in Budgeree I will generally wait until mid to late October, and that is very dependent on the weather.  Sometimes we have warmer spring weather and I can plant out early, although usually I then get caught out and we have torrential rain afterwards and then I lose some tubers to rot due to getting too water logged.  It is always a tricky one to call.  In Victoria the standard is "around Melbourne Cup weekend" for planting out dahlias, so that is often a good time to stick to.  If I can plant out earlier I will but this is due to wanting the flowers as soon as possible because obviously as a flower farmer I sell them and I also have weddings booked for February and March that are very keen for dahlias.  I actually have some left in the ground and a good indicator for me is that these tubers will start shooting.  I then know that the ground is warm enough.  From here I will keep checking the forecast for night temperatures and keep on eye on the long term rain forecast.  It is certainly not an exact science, the weather is so unpredictable, so don't let it worry you, it really is out of your hands.  As growers we can only do our best! 

Here at Blooms on the Hill we still have plenty of tubers available in lots of lovely varieties.  Pop over to the Dahlia Tuber page on the website and see the list.  You can shoot me a message via the contact form or send me a text.  

Happy Dahlia tuber buying!

​Amber

Having a garden full of flowers is a joy.  After the cold deary days of winter those first pops of colour with early jonquils and daffodils in spring are like a breath of fresh air, followed by the explosion of blooms and waves of fragrance that follows in the summer, when the true bounty of a flower garden begins.  As gardeners it is very easy to be hesitant to pick any of these precious blooms, typically we're fearful of spoiling the look of our gardens, and if it's something we've grown lovingly from seed, or spent a fortune on at the nursery, the idea of taking a pair of snips to a plant can bring us out in a cold sweat.
But it shouldn't be like this because flowers truly are a gift from nature and there is nothing quite like bringing them indoors to enjoy.  Gifting flowers to a friend or family member is actually quite thrilling...knowing that you grew it yourself adds to the moment....but even cutting flowers for yourself, it brightens your home, lifts your mood and will give you days of pleasure.  Once they fade you have the luxury of going out to your garden and cutting some more.
Perhaps a good way to work around these fears of cutting from your garden is to specifically grow a cutting garden.  Put aside a patch that gets full sun, even if it's only a small bed, (for example a 1 metre by 3 metre space) and grow yourself some spring and summer annuals.  This way you can cut as much as you like, as often as you like, and you are not spoiling the look of your ornamental garden at all.
So the question now is...what do I grow?  Hopping online and scrolling a seed website might confuse you all the more because there are so many different and beautiful things to grow and the variety of flowers available seem almost endless.  The more you research you will also find that your confusion levels begin to escalate because not all flowers are equal.  Some are great cut flowers, some not so much.  Some have tall stems perfect for a vase or bouquet, others only grow short stems, more suited to a border or bedding.  Some last well as a cut flower, others wilt the second you take a pair of snips to them.  There are those that produce only a single stem and others that will bloom copiously over the entire season, giving you more flowers than you know what to do with.  So which is it?  And where do you start?
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A little bit like baking a cake...but the way to simplify it is to grow the ingredients you need to create a bouquet or vase arrangement.  A well structured arrangement will have five things; a focal flower, a secondary flower, filler, foliage and an accent flower, which is either a spike flower, something wispy or textural.  Knowing these five ingredients gives you the backbone to help decide what to grow for each of the seasons; so what flowers will fill these roles in spring, summer and autumn?
If you are a newbie grower probably the kindest thing you can do for yourself is grow flowers that are a bit user friendly.  Choose something that has seeds that are easier to germinate, flowers that prefer growing in your climate and preferably those that will flower profusely over the course of the season.  It's a real confidence boost for a new grower if you have armloads of blooms to harvest, compared to trying to start the tiniest of seeds (for example Iceland poppies), and certainly slaving away over seeds and seedlings and to then have it produce a single flower (like a stock), can certainly put a dampener on things.  There are quite a few seeds, as well as bulbs and tubers, that are easy to start, will produce a glut of flowers and have you filling your house all season.

To save you the leg work here are my favourite cut flower varieties to grow by season.  Note; do make sure you research when to sow or plant these varieties in your specific climate and whether you direct sow or start in trays.  Depending on your climate you may be able to start your spring flowers in the autumn before, which gives you a jump on the season.  Do some extra research, but if a plant is a hardy annual it means it can generally over winter and can be started in the autumn.

Focal flowers
Daffodils and tulips are planted as bulbs, which are about as easy as it can get.  Although they will only give you the one flower they are great easy care for the beginner cut flower grower.  Order at the end of summer and when they arrive in autumn plant them in the ground.  Directions for how deep etc. are always included.  Tulips are especially showy and come in so many different colours and amazing forms.  For the longest stems for arranging pull out the whole bulb instead of cutting (it's what flower farmers do), although you will only have the flower for one year.  You can of course cut low at the base of the flower and they will come back next year, you'll just have shorter stems.  Daffodils are great because they will naturalise, meaning they will multiply over the years and you will gradually have more and more flowers to harvest.  Daffodils also come in a huge range of colours, from soft lemons to white to pink and the usual bright yellow.  They can be ruffled or trumpet shaped or gorgeous double blooms.  Don't just think bright yellow bog standard daffs, they are so much more than that.  With both tulips and daffodils make sure you allow the foliage to die back after their season has finished so they can absorb the sugars back into the bulb so they will bloom again next year.

Secondary flowers
The secondary flower will offset your focal bloom.  The colour can be completely different to the focal flower, being one that is complimentary on the colour wheel, or it could be the same colour but just in a different shade, either darker or lighter.  Often a secondary flower is a daisy shape, like a ranunculus, or could even be a group of three small flowers bunched together, like three cornflowers.  Ranunculus are another easy flower, as they are grown from a corm (similar to a bulb) and are started in autumn.  They belong to the buttercup family, and although their soft billowy petals seem fragile, these flowers can last up to ten days in a vase.  They come in a gorgeous array of colours, from pastels through to striking deep reds and bright orange.  For the largest blooms and the best cut flowers order the Italian ranunculus corms.  They are slightly more expensive but definitely worth it.  They will give you more than one flower and after they finish blooming you can dig up the corms and store for the following year.  You will also find that they will multiply.  You can leave them in the ground if you prefer, and they will come back the next year, but in the meantime you can plant a summer crop over the top.  Cornflowers are a good one too, although these you start from seed.  They prefer to be direct sown as they don't like their roots to be disturbed, but this limits the amount of work for you, less fussing around with seed trays and planting out.  They come in a nice mix of colours, from pinks and mauves, and a very classy dark magenta called Black Ball.  The typical bright 'Cornflower blue' is great too, although it is a hard colour to work with amongst other spring flowers.  

Filler
By filler a florist or flower farmer will mean the fluff that fills up the bouquet.  Often it is a flower that has a large head made up of lots of smaller flowers; for example like Queen Anne's Lace.  A good one is Chocolate Lace, which looks the same, but comes in an interesting mix of cream, brown and a dark rose pink.  It blends really well with a lot of different colours and if you start it in the autumn you may find that you have it blooming by late spring.  Another great filler I find is Sweet William.  This flower is actually a biennial, meaning it will produce foliage the first year and flower in the second.  However you can trick a biennial into giving you blooms the year after you start it.  Sow your biennial seeds at the start of summer, then plant out your seedlings at the end of summer before it starts getting cold, and by the following spring you will have flowers.  Sweet William is a great one because it fills that 'hungry gap' (that time between the spring flowers finishing and the dreaded wait for the summer ones to start) and you can even use it before the flower petals open up; the fuzzy green heads make a really interesting fill in a bouquet, particularly with the fresh pop of bright green that is so lovely in spring bouquets.

Foliage
If you are lucky enough to have a good garden then you can simply ransack your shrubs and trees!  Whatever you have growing, give it a go.  See how it behaves when cut.  Eucalyptus is a standard foliage in bouquets, and generally one that everyone thinks of, but step outside the box with your foliage and give everything a go.  The trick here is just making sure you condition everything properly, which means that once you cut it make sure you let it have a really good drink in a bucket of clean water.  For a woody stem it can help if you snip up the length of the stem by about an inch (3 centimetres) and give it a twist upwards.  Some foliage (or even flowers for that matter) may go floppy after cutting.  These are what is know as a 'wimpy drinker'.  To help remedy this stand the ends of the stem in boiling water for about ten seconds, then plunge back into cold water.  This is known as searing and usually will bring a sad flower or piece of foliage back to life.  Great foliage examples that I use include pelargonium, camellia leaves, mint (and other herbs), branches of blossom trees and pittosporum.  In spring bouquets the fresh bright green foliage is particularly nice.

Accent flower
I grow snapdragons, which are a fantastic flower, a beautiful spike shape that has florets all up the stem, shaped somewhat like dragon faces.  They come in the most gorgeous colours and some are extra ruffly.  Snapdragons aren't for the faint hearted though as the seed is tiny and takes quite a while to germinate, but if you are keen, and patient, I highly recommend them.  Just make sure that you start them in trays and bottom water them, which means have your cell tray sitting in a solid bottom tray that you put the water into, instead of watering in the usual overhead method.  Spray them with a hose and you risk blasting your seeds all over the place.  They can be hard to sow because they are so tiny but if you get clumps of little seedlings don't panic, once they are a few inches high you can carefully transplant them and spread them out into other pots.  I find that they don't mind being moved.  Snapdragons will also give you more than one flower, particularly if you pinch them, which means snipping off the centre growing shoot, down to a set of leaves, when they are about 20 centimetres tall.  By doing this they will branch out from the pinch and you will get more flowers.  Another lovely accent flower are sweet peas.  For not only the gorgeous colours and curly green foliage that will create lovely cascading shapes in your arrangement, they have the most amazing scent.  Sweet pea seeds are a larger round seed which is really easy to start.  It helps to soak them overnight, and I start mine in seed trays because I don't trust the mice not to eat them.  They love them.  You will need netting or a trellis to grow them on, but they will reward you with an abundance of flowers.  You will need to keep on top of picking them otherwise they will very quickly go to seed.  You can pick just the flowers on their long straight stems, or you can cut more deeply into the plant and use the foliage as well, which creates a lot of interesting angles, plus the curly tendrils look amazing.

Focal flower
Hands down the best and easiest focal flower is the dahlia.  I am, of course, biased when it comes to dahlias as these are by far my favourite and were the flowers that got me into this whole shenanigans in the first place.  The varieties are almost endless, the colours sublime and they produce more flowers than you will know what to do with.  These plants do need to come with a warning, however, because once you start growing them you will suddenly need to own them all and your addiction will start.  You have been warned!!  Dahlias grow easily from a tuber that you plant once it starts to warm up and all risk of frost has passed.  The plants generally grow tall, depending on the variety, and you will find yourself harvesting buckets of blooms over the entire summer and autumn.  They are the most giving plant.  You can also start them from seed, which is a whole other rabbit hole, but when starting from seed you don't know what the flowers will look like until they bloom.  Dahlias have quite complex genetics (a whole other blog post) and it's a huge game of chance as to what the bloom will look like.

Secondary flower 
Zinnias are a great one for the beginner grower.  They come in a fantastic range of colours as well as different varieties, from the larger Benary series, to the smaller and often double Oklahoma series, to the unusual colours of the Queen Lime series.  These three varieties are all good ones to grow as cut flowers because they have longer stems.  Zinnias are a tender annual, so they don't like being planted outside until the risk of frost is over, but they are easy to start from seed (they have nice larger seeds, so easy to handle) and can even be direct sowed.  

Filler
Good fillers for summer and autumn can include Feverfew, which is a perennial, but it's not difficult to start from seed.  It has a bit of a weird smell, but I actually don't mind it.  It's a cute little daisy type flower and there are a few different varieties.  It looks really sweet in a bouquet.  Yarrow is also a great filler, again another perennial, but it's a good one because it spreads easily so once you have it....you have it.  It comes in some lovely colours that look stunning in summer and particularly autumn bouquets.  

Foliage
Once again use what you can find when it comes to foliage.  I find that the sage green of eucalyptus ties in nicely with dahlias, especially the pinks and pastel colours.  I did an autumn wedding earlier this year; the bride choosing burgundy, oranges and soft yellows for her colour scheme, and I found that the sage green blended really well.  I also used dark foliage in burgundies and even in slightly brown tones.  Foliage is definitely underrated and I think it's something that, if you be creative, can make your bouquets stand out from what everyone else is doing.  Autumn is a perfect time to try something different too, the autumnal colours are spectacular.

Accent flowers
For a nice little wiggle in your arrangements you can't go past cosmos.  It's so easy to germinate and there are lots of different varieties in a whole range of colours.  It flowers and flowers and flowers too, just make sure you pinch the plant when it is smaller.  You may find the plant needs support too, so either corral or stake it.  To stop it going to seed you will need to keep on top of harvesting but if you cut deep, and into the foliage too (which is also lovely in arrangements), you should find that it sees you through the season.  Another good one is scabiosa as it dances above an arrangement well.  I also like celosia too, particularly the plumed varieties.  The seeds are smaller but worth it when you are feeling more confident.  

I hope this helps with your new cut flower garden!  Good luck!

Amber

Dahlia tuber sales are already upon us, with many flower farmers already announcing pre-sales, and some have had their sales already!  While I'm still making beds for spring annuals and planting fifty new roses, it is hard to get my head around the next dahlia season to come.  That doesn't mean, of course, that I'm not dreaming of the field of dahlias that will be here in summer.
Our tuber sales here at Blooms on the Hill will be a little different to most, perhaps a little more sedate, as I am only one person not a team, and I also have to dedicate time to sheep, cattle and homeschooling.  So this year our tuber sales will work like this:

* Dahlia tubers available will be listed on the website in the next few weeks so you can see what I have available.
* Once tubers are beginning to show viable eyes (most likely October) I will open the sale.
* To order you will need to either fill in the contact form on the website or phone me directly with your tuber requests. (Currently I do not have the ability to take credit payments online so payment will be via direct deposit.)  I will be in contact with you to organise fulfilling your order.
* Tubers will be posted once payment has been received.  Postage will be approximately $15 to $20, depending on number of tubers ordered.

Stay tuned for available dahlia varieties and good luck in this year's Dahlia Hunger Games!!

​Amber

 My name is Amber Rhodes and I'm the flower farmer behind Blooms on the Hill.  My farm is located in the hills of Budgeree, which is a rural area in Gippsland, Victoria.  Budgeree means "A Good Place" in the local Aboriginal language and that it most certainly is.  Rolling hills, lush green paddocks, native bushland, meandering creeks and plenty of wildlife roaming happily around the countryside is all part of the regular scenery in Budgeree.  It truly is a good place and the perfect place for my little flower farm.  I have plenty of space to grow my flowers, good red soil and a constant fresh supply of fertiliser by way of our sheep and cattle who share our farm with us!
One of my first loves is cattle...I'm a little bit cow obsessed, so the cattle on our property are technically what I call "my department".  I let my husband be in charge of the sheep.  I have Angus/Friesian cross-bred cows and I use a Speckle Park bull, which is a beautiful Canadian breed of cattle that is black and white speckled, as the name suggests.  My other love, of course, is flowers.  I'm mostly dahlia crazy but having grown different varieties of flowers over this season it's pretty safe to say I love all flowers...except maybe zinnias.  I have a love/hate relationship with zinnias.  
The idea of a flower farm actually came to me before we even had a farm, so going back to the start of 2017 I discovered Floret, a flower farm in America.  At the time Erin Benzakein was running Floret from a small plot of 2 acres and was totally revolutionising the flower farming world.  It was a single photo of hers on social media, a ute full (or should I say a 'pick up' full) of dahlias that caught my attention, and I have been nuts about them ever since.  The 1800 plants I have to date is a good testimony to my dahlia nuttiness!  At the time I discovered her she had also just released her first book, 'Cut Flower Garden' and as I, of course, ordered it directly from her, I was lucky enough to receive a signed copy.  From there I could be found digging up the lawn of my tiny back garden, in the regional town of Trafalgar where we then lived, trying to grow flowers in every spare spot of soil.  Hmmmm....
Fast forward to later that year in August and somehow we were moving off to our own farm.  With sheep and cattle and homeschooling three of my four children I was pretty busy so it wasn't until the following year in 2018 that I planted my first dahlias.  I had 4 beds, that were of course meant for vegetables.  (Phfft).  I loved them but wasn't very good at it and it would be another two years before I was brave enough to start ignoring new buds and ruthlessly cut long stems.  After that first season I dug and divided my tubers and so next season I had 16 beds, then the following season I suddenly had 450 plants.  That was last season and here I was dealing with the terrible conundrum of too many flowers.  Oh what to do?!  So I started selling.  That was last season and now my fall into 'half accidental' flower farming has seen an expansion into spring flowers like ranunculus, tulips and sweet peas as well as other summer annuals like cosmos, zinnias and celosia.  I have also planted more roses, peonies, chrysanthemums and other perennials, as well as now having to shift my dahlia collection to a paddock due to the fact that there is 1800 of them.
I can mostly be found crawling about on my hands and knees in my flower patch, although sometimes I have to tend to livestock work on the farm, and each morning I can be found under my dairy cow that I milk for the house.  Most Saturday mornings I am at local farmer's markets around Gippsland selling my flowers and talking all things dahlias to customers, and during the week I do a run to the local post office in Boolarra with fresh bouquets to sell.  I teach workshops from the farm on weekdays and some weekends and would like to teach online to reach a wider audience.  I have started reaching a more global audience via my YouTube channel, which is certainly not to become famous, I'm a middle-aged, fairly introverted woman who never wears makeup and always has dirt on herself somewhere, but I find it a good way to talk about my little flower business and share it with my customers.  I have lovely people pop up to the farm to buy bouquets and buckets of blooms, which usually results in an impromptu tour of the flower patch.  I have done a couple of lovely weddings over the season and have already started taking bookings for the spring of this year, 2023, and also for 2024.  Bookings for weddings are most certainly open.
As this season begins to wind down and the dahlias begin to fade it's full steam ahead with planning for next season and getting stuck in with sowing and planting out hardy annuals.  Already I have beds full of ranunculus corms; pinks, whites and salmons the perfect wedding colours. I have statice, stock, scabiosa and sweet peas planted out...why does everything start with 'S'....and the tulip and daffodil bulbs will be going in next week.  Over winter it will be time to catch up with other things a bit, namely writing, as believe it or not, writing was my major at university.  Among my cow/dahlia/general flower obsession I also have a love of flower books, flower farming books, flower arranging books....basically anything to do with flowers....and really one day I'd love to write my own.  On that venture I'll keep you posted.
In the meantime enjoy the last of the summer blooms here in Australia and for those of you in the Northern Hemisphere, I hope you have a beautiful spring.

Happy flowering!

Flowers flowers everywhere.  The supermarket and the florist are probably two places that automatically spring to mind.  The florist might be dearer, but they have experience in creating amazing bouquets and incredible floral installations.  A definite go-to for your wedding or for that extra special gift.  The supermarket.  They're certainly convenient but exactly how fresh are those flowers?  And come to think of it, how come you managed to buy roses from the florist in the middle of winter?  Aren't they normally blooming in spring and summer?  
These are the questions that people are now asking and if they're not then they should be.  Exactly where did those roses come from in the florist?  How far did they travel before they ended up in your wedding bouquet?  What is their country of origin?  Are they actually even safe for you to handle?  How come those supermarket flowers look like they've been dragged through a bush backwards?  (they probably have)  These are all good and very relevant questions.  Unlike food products flowers do not have to be labelled with their country of origin.  How far have your roses travelled....well that's really a grey area.
The Netherlands is the highest exporter of cut flowers in the world, something like 65% of Europe's flowers come from there and are shipped to countries like Germany, Italy and the UK.  The US imports a huge volume of its cut flowers and, I'm sorry to say, so does Australia.  Most of our flowers are imported, and in winter, approximately 90% of our flowers have come from overseas.  These babies have done more mileage than I have.  That's not a good statistic, particularly if you're conscious of the sustainability of the products you are purchasing and their environmental impact.    Australia mostly imports flowers from countries like Kenya, Colombia and Ecuador and unfortunately the international trade is forcing smaller Australian growers out of business.  It's the age old story.  They can produce them cheaper overseas and ship them in, all for less than what I, and others, can grow them for on our small micro flower farms.  The price might be right, and the volume and variety of flowers a bonus, but what about the negatives?  
Firstly, there is the environmental downside, which I have already mentioned.  The carbon footprint of an imported flower is huge.  They're flown from where they are grown, sometimes on to an international market in a different country, and then on to their destination.  From there they are unloaded off planes and put on trucks and shipped around the country to the cities flower markets.  There they will sit a bit longer (after an already mammoth journey) and finally be picked up by the florist.  How many days since they have been picked?  Not really farm fresh are they?  
Secondly, and probably the main question you should be asking here really is...what on earth have they been treated with to last this long?  What kind of chemicals have they been sprayed with to keep them alive?  And worse...what have those in charge of Australia's biosecurity sprayed them with as well??  Australia has some of the strictest biosecurity laws in the world so you can bet your sweet chrysanthemums those suckers have been doused in all kinds of nasties.  Yep, these guys aren't fresh, and worse, they're also toxic.  Burying your nose into your wedding bouquet or bunch of Valentine's Day roses is probably not the best idea.
Thankfully there are alternatives.  There are a lot of small growers, like myself, popping up all over the place.  A lot of them are women who find themselves blessed with a small, or sometimes even slightly largeish, patch of land to grow flowers.  Often they are stay at home mums, women who want a more fulfilling job, something where they can get back to nature, get outside and get their hands in the dirt.  All of us simply can't function without the beauty of flowers in our lives.  Through buying from a small flower farmer you are buying directly from a real person, not a company, someone who works and lives on their farm, who pours everything into their patch of land, who works through the heat and the rain, the wind and the cold, who is out there madly staking up their dahlias in the middle of a storm.  You are buying from someone who truly loves their product and pours their soul into their existence.  Purchase from a flower farmer and you are not only buying the freshest flowers possible but you are putting money straight into the hands of a local farming family, not sending it overseas. 
A lot of florists are now buying their flowers from smaller local growers, and making a point of doing so, sourcing out growers that are nearby to them.  They are consciously buying in flowers that have done less miles, that are grown sustainably and where they know they are supporting a small local grower.  In doing so they are also able to source flowers that they simply cannot buy from overseas.  Things that just don't travel, like dahlias, sweet peas, cosmos and lilacs.  Seasonal flowers that are old fashioned but are still beautiful none the less; in fact probably even more beautiful than the perfectly straight stemmed roses that have been flown in from overseas. Farm grown flowers are fragrant, which is something that is often lost in mass produced flowers, and the variety of blooms is almost endless.  
Your local grower can often be found at a farmer's market, along with the freshly grown vegetables and locally baked bread and other goods.  Instead of thinking of flowers as a luxury why not make it a weekly purchase along with your bread and potatoes?  They certainly do in Europe.  It is likely that you will find flower farmers have quite competitive prices for blooms, particularly as we don't have the same overheads as a florist, but also we usually offer more simple bouquets.  
Often people get into the mindset that flowers are a bit of a waste of money because they don't last forever but here is where the benefit comes from buying direct from the flower farmer.  The blooms will have been picked either that day or the night before and they will not have travelled far to reach you.  You will also find the flower farmer is a wealth of information on how to care for that specific type of cut flower and will certainly be more than willing to pass on any tips or tricks to help extended their vase life.  
Look for your own local flower farmer via Instagram, there is a whole happy family of growers sharing the beauty of what they grow on that platform, or keep an eye out at your local farmer's market.  Perhaps even ask your florist where they get their flowers from and if they don't purchase from local growers you might even be able to request that they check some out.   

As a local grower in Budgeree (near Boolarra) I sell my flowers from the farm gate, and I also have a stall at various farmer's markets.  I sell small, large and extra large bouquets and you can also buy a 'bucket of blooms' which includes mixed flowers and foliage so you can create your own arrangements at home.  Bunches and bouquets, as well as jars of blooms, are also stocked at the Boolarra Post Office.  Flowers are also available for weddings and events and I run a series of flower growing and floristry workshops.
To follow me on Instagram go to @blooms_on_the_hill