The dahlia fields at Hall of Heddon, Northumberland
There are lots of ways to choose plants for your cut flower business. You can search online, look at what other people are growing, hunt through seed catalogues for the best varieties. However, one of the most enjoyable ways to find new varieties that will grow well in your area is to visit local gardens, plots and nurseries. There’s nothing quite like seeing a plant in real life to make you realise that either it’s not what you thought it would be, or that it’s perfect and a must-have for next season.
This week I popped to Halls of Heddon, a specialist dahlia and chrysanthemum nursery in the Tyne valley. It’s north enough to be relevant to my own growing, they raise all their own stock and also breed new varieties. I know I’ll need additional plants for next year as I already have lots of orders and wanted to look at what was good in late September - I had a list of possible varieties and colours I wanted more of. It had rained a lots over the weekend so I knew that anything looking perky could withstand autumnal weather. It’s easy to get distracted by the colour and number of different varieties at a specialist nursery so it’s important to be fairly focused.
The dahlia fields were fabulous, a riot of colour, with lots of different shapes and sizes, amazing to see en masse. I used my phone to take photos of the varieties I liked, plus a corresponding photo of the label so I wouldn’t forget what it was. What was striking in this instance was the variation in height of the plants. Some that I’d marked as possibles were really much shorter than I’d like and are now off the list. Others were a slightly different shade, a lot of the whites had a lilac tinge and I already have plenty of lilac. As for the yellows…I’m a big fan of yellow but but even I’d struggle to find an outlet for some of the enormous, dayglo, fluorescent flowers. Magnificent most definitely, but not easy to use in arrangements.
It’s still early for chrysanthemums in flower, but that was one of the other reasons for going to see them. I wanted to check the flowering times of new varieties. I’ve had a lot of chrysanths in the past that have flowered in November, which is lovely but by then I don’t have a lot to go with them. I really want some early autumn outdoor flowering varieties, and now I have a short list of a few good blooms to add to the field for next season.
For saving a lot of wasted time and money, visiting gardens or specialist nurseries is worth fitting into your schedule as well as being a lovely thing to do on a sunny autumn day. I have my list, which is a bit longer that it was before I set off, but at least I know they’ll be what I need and will do the job as cut flowers.