GROW SMALL SPACE PICKERY
A pickery is thrifty and bountiful and you don’t need a big space to do it
We love cut flowers on the table, even from a tiny spot. Step forward Jonathan Mosely, flower expert.
‘A good cut flower is one that lasts well and has versatility. When you are growing cut flowers you are trying to cultivate plants that are repeat flowerers and that will last a long time in the garden. The perfect cut flower should have a degree of fragrance, carry strong colour and be easy to condition for indoors’.
Jonathan recommends Zinnia, Sweet Williams and Sweetpeas for smaller spaces.
Sweetpeas can be grown in tiny spaces, in a big pot and trained up wigwams. The more you cut sweetpeas, the more they flower. Sow the seeds in small pots of compost, 3 seeds to a pot. They germinate quickly. When the plants are 10cm high, plant out each complete pot around a teepee of tall canes.
Zinnia are compact plants that flower throughout the summer. Use seed, and sow directly, where the zinna will flower so their roots don’t get disturbed.
Choose small sweet william plants rather than seeds, in order to pick flowers sooner. We love bright magenta Dianthus ‘Oeschburg’ and black D. ‘Sooty’.
Jonathan says: Always take care to cut early in the morning or late in the evening and cut straight into buckets of water
We say: Roll on summer
Jonathan is the floral expert on The Big Allotment Challenge, BBC2 and founder of #flowertalk
