The Cut Flower Podcast

March Jobs for your Cutting Patch

• Roz Chandler

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0:00 | 11:32

Text Agony Aunt Roz with your Cutflower Questions.

Roz Chandler shares a comprehensive March checklist for flower growers, covering soil preparation, sowing, perennial management, support installation, and wildlife-friendly practices to ensure a successful growing season.

Takeaways

  • Soil preparation and feeding
  • Seed sowing under cover and direct sowing timing
  • Perennial division and support installation
  • Spring bulbs and wildlife-friendly planting
  • Common mistakes and March checklist


Rosalind Chandler (00:00)
Hello and welcome back to the podcast. Today we're talking about March in the cutting patch and I'd go so far as to say this is one of the most important months in the entire growing year in the United Kingdom. That is a pretty bold statement isn't it? But I've always said to people in all my groups and memberships please sit on your hands before March. Anything you do or haven't done, March is the time to do it because it will all catch up.

The only thing before March is really sweet peas and a few perennial seedlings. But March is that funny in between months. One day it feels like spring has arrived. The next day you're scraping frost off the car again. The light is returning, the soil is beginning to warm and everything is starting to stir. What is that children's book where they're there's quite in the house and not even a mouse? Somebody tell me that and put me out my misery.

but we're actually not out of the woods yet when it comes to weather. So today I'm going to talk you through step by step exactly what we'll be doing in the cutting patch throughout March. So this is for flower farmers, for gardeners, for anyone growing flowers for cutting, whether that's a full field or just a few beds at home. Think of this as your March checklist. If you do these things this month, your summer patch will thank you for it.

So number one is always the soil. The soil always comes first. Before we sow anything, before we get excited about seedlings, March is about getting the soil right. If your beds are still messy from winter, now is the time to clear them. We leave ours deliberately messy so that the wildlife can use it as a habitat in the winter. And then we take this time now to make them all tidy, remove any old stems, any rotting mulch, and get them ready to plant the seedlings. And this is important bit.

Feed the soil. March is perfect for adding well-rotted compost, farmyard manure, leaf mould, soil improver. Spread it generously over your beds. You don't have to dig it in heavily. Just laying it on top is often enough. The worms will do the work for you. If your soil is very wet, don't walk over it because you'll compact it. Work from boards if you can. Compaction now causes problems all season if you do that.

There is also the time to check, are your beds clearly marked? Do you know what's going in there? Have you got your supports ready? Have you got your fleece ready? Should we be getting a frosty time? March is a planning and preparation month, just as much as a sowing month. And a quick note on frosts, because we'll absolutely get some, I'm sure. Keep fleece handy, keep cloches handy, and don't pack them away yet. March sunshine, come lull us to the full sense of security.

It has this week, we've just had some sun and all of a sudden you think we're in spring, the first day of spring, but we're not. Today we're back to wind and rain again and it is fairly cold. So the second thing is sewing, the big one. March is when sewing really begins in earnest. We bring in more people in March to help with our sewing. If you're thinking about direct sew, I wouldn't be doing direct sew in the UK until late April.

So I know lots of people say you can do direct sew outside if the soil is workable and not frozen. Things like Nigella's, cornflowers, Larkspur, calendula, Ami-Major and Orlea. But we don't do direct sew until late April. It's still going to get frost. There's no benefit to doing it. We do all our sewing undercover in March. So we do it in our polytunnels and in our greenhouses. I'll be sewing Scabius Stocks Sweet Peas.

again we'll be doing a lot of those snapdragons, serenity you don't need lots of heat just protection for these on gentle heat indoors towards mid to late March we'll be doing cosmos, zinnias, sunflowers and dahlias from seed but don't rush if you sow too early you'll end up with leggy plants and nowhere to put them I always say sow when you can grow on well

Successional sowing, this is the secret to any cutting patch that keeps producing. Instead of sowing everything in one go, sow a bunch now, another one in two or three weeks time and another one in April. That way you don't get a huge glup followed by nothing. It's a bit like being a vegetable gardener isn't it? That everybody gets their lettuce at the same time and you can't give it away. It's the same thing about flowers which is why successional planting is really important.

Number three, perennials and structure. March is brilliant for tackling those perennials. And I would say in any cutting patch, it's great if you can build your stock up to about 65 % of your stock to be perennials. If you have established clumps of Achillea, Phlox, Echinacea, Rudobeckia, Hellenium, you can divide them now. Lift the clump, split it with a spade, replant strong species. You'll get healthier plants and more of them.

And also this is something people forget, put your supports in early. Get your netting up, get your stakes in, get your framework sorted. Trying to support plants in June when they're already flopping is really miserable. Do it now while the beds are clear. The same goes for irrigation as well. Here on the farm this week we've been testing out all our irrigation, our tea tapes, and we need to do that before things start growing because otherwise it's a really big job.

Bulbs and spring flowers, by March your spring bulbs are coming Tulips, Narcissus, Ranunculus and Anemones are all coming Just check for slug damage, frost damage and dry soil Yes, March can be dry but not in the UK at the moment even if it rains occasionally If beds are under cover they may need watering Don't remove bulb foliage after flowering, let it die back naturally so bulbs can recharge Here at Field Gate Flowers

We plant over 30,000 tulip bulbs and we're growing them as annuals and we're pulling them out with the bulbs so we get a longer stem because we're a commercial grower. Now, we find that the bulb the second year, the tulip won't be as great. It will still come back so it's great for the garden, but not as a commercial grower. You can start cutting Narcissi once buds show colour and condition those ones separately before mixing with other flowers.

Pollinators, I like to put a little note to pollinators. March is when life begins. You've probably heard a lot more birds outside. Bees are out on warmer days. Hover flies appear. Birds are definitely starting to nest. Make sure there's something flowering for them. Hellebores, primroses, early shrubs and don't tidy everything up too much. I think a tidy garden means there's not enough for the habitats. A cutting patch can be productive and also wildlife friendly.

So what you can cut now, it's very early in the season in March, but things like flowering branches for Scythia, Willow and Blossom, Hellebores, Hellebores are best cut actually as they're going over to seed and they have a particular way of being cut and conditioned. Early Narcissi and Evergreen foliage, things like Byvernum, Tynus. These all form lovely spring arrangements, but really it's the hope of what's going to come, isn't it, March? So common March mistakes.

Let's talk about what not to do. Don't sow everything too early. I say this time and time again. Don't plant into a cold soggy soil, ours is definitely soggy at the moment and it's definitely cold. Don't forget your fleece. Buy it now, have it handy and watch the night time temperatures. Ignore the spacing. March seedlings become June jungles. Just bear that one in mind. Pace yourself. March is a marathon start, not a sprint finish.

So if you take nothing else from today, here's your March cutting patch check list. Clear your beds, feed your soil, do your hardy annuals and half-hardy annuals under cover. Divide your perennials, install your supports and look at your irrigation. Watch the weather, keep your fleece really handy. March does set the tone for the whole season. That's why it always seems so pressurised in March.

But don't forget, you always have another go in April with direct sow. So it's not the end of the world. Just get yourself ready. Think about mulch. Think about the mulching you're going to do. Get your compost ready. Obviously, Peat Free Compost had a great speaker over last night called Kate Turner of Garden Guru, if you want to look her up, talking about Peat Free Compost. And it was an amazing speech in one of our memberships, the best bunch membership. And I learned so much. So think about your compost, your Peat Free Compost.

Have a look at what's in it, have a look at the date of it. There are lots of things to bear in mind when you're buying compost. So if you're in the patch this week, take a moment, just have a stand and look. The light is different now, the soil is waking them up and we're on the cusp of it all beginning again. Right, I'd love to know what you're sowing in March. Come and tell me over on Instagram at Field Gate Flowers what you're doing. And next time we'll talk about April in the cutting patch.

because that is when things really take off and we'll be talking about direct sowing. Until then, happy growing and please don't forget to fleece.