If you’re a gardener who adores flowers, then you’ll know the importance of growing varieties selected for their garden-worthiness. These are the plants that earn their place by virtue of their vigour, ease of cultivation and dependability, their generally undemanding nature and their long season of interest. Somehow, they keep going where others falter, withstanding bitter frosts, sodden deluges and searing droughts in the kind of way that makes seasoned gardeners regard them with a mixture of awe, respect and gratitude. The Cut Flower Sourcebook lives up to its promise, offering invaluable advice for anyone beginning to grow their own plants for cutting, as well as prospective flower farmers. The author, Rachel Siegfried, is a grower and florist who uses the seasons’ parameters as a spur to creativity. With her partner Ashley Pearson, she started Green and Gorgeous Flowers in Oxfordshire, England, 15 years ago, doing innovative (yet quite traditional) things like selling at the farm gate on Saturday mornings. Now there are many more competitors, but hers is the cool, level-headed voice, demonstrating that beauty can also be found in slow-growing and permanent plants, reducing work and environmental damage. Above: Rachel Siegfried making full use of crab apple trees in blossom. Photograph by Rachel Siegfried.

Growing your own flowers for cutting brings the pleasure of the season indoors and cuts out the air miles associated with many shop-bought flowers. In ‘The Cut Flower Sourcebook – Exceptional perennials and woody plants for cutting’ Rachel Siegfried identifies the best perennials and woody plants to grow for cutting. A supremely practical, dirt-under-the-fingernails seasonal guide based on long years of experience, Siegfried’s new book does just this by highlighting 128 resilient, floriferous, long-lived species – hardy bulbs, perennials, climbers, grasses, and trees and shrubs – that can be counted on to perform well for a long time with only minimal intervention required on behalf of the gardener. I can attest to the quality and hardiness of Taylors Clematis. You plant in hope rather than anticipation of resilience and are resoundingly and reassuringly proved to land on hope. I am essentially a plant addict looking for an excuse to buy more plants,” declares Rachel. The florist farmer of Green and Gorgeous is brutally honest and always supportive with her extensive lists and suggestions for “cultivating natural ease .” Rachel Siegfried, The Cut Flower Sourcebook There are plenty of useful tips on creating your very own seasonal foam-free arrangements, as well as oodles of photographs of mouth-wateringly gorgeous arrangementsSiegfried soon made the decision to put the focus on resilient species, or what she calls ‘trusty performers with a relaxed attitude and natural style’ A shelter belt of fast growing wood cuts is what many of us desire as well as need with flower farms that grow in less than perfect conditions, i.e. all of them.

What I can say is currently reading Piet Oudolf and Noel Kingsbury’s book on designing with plants, I can see where Rachel has gleened her philosopy of naturalistic vase arrangements. There is no line to my mind between the garden and floral designs, both of whose “arrangements” are inspired by the natural world. One of my greatest pleasures is walking around the garden to select flowers for the house and then enjoying them, the colours and scents, for the days to come. No matter how small our garden, many of us grow flowers specifically for cutting – my roses come to mind right away but also cosmos, dahlia, salvia and geranium. In her book, Rachel introduces us to a wide canvass of plants, in addition to the favourites we know so well. The ferny foliage of Thalictrum for example, perfect for arrangements and the robust bushy perennial Goat’s rue (Galega officinalis). Of course, there are plenty of useful tips on creating your very own seasonal foam-free arrangements, as well as oodles of photographs of mouth-wateringly gorgeous arrangements created by Siegfried exclusively using material from her flower farm. Very generously illustrated with lushly atmospheric images by the well-known photographer Eva Nemeth (herself a keen gardener) and published by Filbert Press, it’s destined to become a gardening classic.

What every cut flower grower wants to know is the specific varieties to plant that give beautiful but useable stems in productive and coverable colours, oh and when to cut the flowers so they reach their peak – e.g. in the hand of a bride as she walks down the aisle or in the floral tribute for a departed loved one that comforts and consoles. Rachel and Clare will discuss some of Rachel’s tried and tested favourites as featured in The Cut Flower Sourcebook and will offer advice on how to lay out and maintain these garden plants for cutting. For florists, the floral arrangements are a master class in textured combinations of colour and shape and scale. Excellent advice is given on the all important care required to achieve optimal conditioning. It’s Siegfried’s increasing use of these long-lived varieties of hardy bulbs, perennials, climbers, ornamental grasses, trees and shrubs over the kinds of short-lived, high-maintenance annuals more typically associated with cut-flower growing that makes her work so interesting to gardeners. As extreme weather events become more frequent and growing short-lived annuals becomes more and more of a costly, labour-intensive, time-consuming gamble requiring the use of heat, compost, regular tilling of the soil plus careful cosseting to get the plants through late spring frosts and summer droughts, many of us are searching for easier, more sustainable, longer-term alternatives.

How did we become so disconnected with the natural world? Perhaps it has to do with having too much choice. Even in a place like England, with its enviably long growing season and perfect conditions for gardening, people choose not to grow their own fruit, vegetables, and flowers, buying them instead from a supermarket. And yet with flowering material, gardens and hedgerows are much more interesting, if only we could make the connection. My belief in garden-grown cut flowers has been severely tested over the years. The vagaries of our weather, an army of pests, and high expectations from customers have certainly put my plant choices through their paces. I discovered that it was the perennials and shrubs I knew best from my work as a garden designer that met the practical challenges of growing for market. These stalwarts have also played a central role in developing my natural floral style as I moved from garden designer to flower farmer and florist. Step by step guide to making floral arrangements, with all aspects of the composition discussed and illustrated. So when she was confronted with the complex challenges of climate change, as well as the practical demands of ensuring a steady supply of cut flowers for her business throughout the growing year, she soon made the decision to put the focus on resilient species, or what she calls “trusty performers with a relaxed attitude and natural style”. There is none of that guessing what variety has been used in the arrangements, guarded in some books like secrets.

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Over the last few evenings I have had the pleasure of reading “The Cut Flower Sourcebook – Exceptional Perennials & Woody Plants For Cutting” by Rachel Siegfried. The author makes a great case for seeing the cut flower potential of existing perennials and planting more perennials in beds as you would annuals. Annuals do use up way too many resources, including your time!, when there are so many longer lived alternatives. So I'm sold. Following that, there isn't a bevy of really unique information here. Beautiful photos though. I was also pleased with the range of grasses Rachel introduces in the book as these are often valuable in arrangements and sometimes much overlooked. Directory of 128 tried and tested perennials and woody plants selected, based on years of experience, for their reliability and natural style. I was first, and hope last to be, a gardener, it was an unanticipated combination of circumstances that led me to do professionally something I did once only as a relaxation, and much as I love doing it, I don’t like the groove to be too deep.” Constance Spry, 1940