Hello, it's Friday 23 January 2026.

The laptop is back and normal service has been resumed so today's episode has the proper introduction and music, phew. However the audio quality isn't brilliant at the beginning so apologies for that. It does get better about five minutes into the episode so maybe I did something silly with the microphone.

Tonight I'm talking about photoperiodism: what it is and why it matters to cut flower growers. I have been looking into this recently so that I can treat my plants in the best possible way to get long stems and predictable flowering periods. I feel that the more I know about my plants, the better my harvests will be (that's the plan anyway).

I share my final list of annuals that I'm growing in 2026 and it's not as long as I thought. Perhaps you're growing some of the same as me? And also in tonight's episode I'm continuing my plant profile series with Orlaya. This is a gorgeous white flower that I grew in 2025 and it was so popular with my wholesale wedding and event florists that I'm growing more this year. If you haven't tried Orlaya before, give it a go this year and let me know how you get on.

I hope that you will come back and join me for the next episode - you're always very welcome.

Connect with me

If you like what you hear, please follow/subscribe to this podcast so that you're the first to hear new episodes when they become available every Tuesday and Friday. And if you enjoy this episode, please take a minute to leave a review because it really does help more cut flower-lovers just like you to find the podcast.

Follow me on instagram @henhillcutflowers for a behind-the-scenes look at life on my cut flower plot. And you can find my website at www.henhillcutflowers.co.uk.

Join me on my journey through a year of growing and selling cut flowers in England. I'm giving you the low-down on what it's really like, how I'm getting started, what you do and don't need, what I do when and why, the successes and failures, and just about everything in between. All in real time. With guest appearances from my chickens every now and then.

Hello, it's Tuesday 20 January 2026.

Tonight’s episode sounds a little different because there’s no introduction or music because my laptop is at the repair shop and I’m having to upload this episode in a completely different way.

Since last week’s episodes I have received lots of really great questions from listeners about my seed sowing plan so I thought I’d answer these in this episode, including the point of a financial goal, how planning now makes things easier when it gets busy, and how the notes I’ve made about my annuals will help me when it comes to conditioning stems this year.

I also share exciting news that I’ve just bought more annuals (when I said I wouldn’t). I’ll give you all the details when I get my laptop back…

Fingers crossed, normal service will be resumed so please do come back and join me for the next episode on Friday - you're always very welcome!

Connect with me

If you like what you hear, please follow/subscribe to this podcast so that you're the first to hear new episodes when they become available every Tuesday and Friday. And if you enjoy this episode, please take a minute to leave a review because it really does help more cut flower-lovers just like you to find the podcast.

Follow me on instagram @henhillcutflowers for a behind-the-scenes look at life on my cut flower plot.

Join me on my journey through a year of growing and selling cut flowers in England. I'm giving you the low-down on what it's really like, how I'm getting started, what you do and don't need, what I do when and why, the successes and failures, and just about everything in between. All in real time. With guest appearances from my chickens every now and then.

Hello, it's Friday 16 January 2026.

My seed/crop planning is still in progress and just when I think I've cracked it, I discover more things that I need to work out. So I have been drowning in a complicated spreadsheet this week as it has poured down with rain outside. I've also ordered a new wall calendar plus thousands of sticky dots to stick on it. And I've realised all the additional data that I need to collect this year.

In the second part of tonight's episode, I continue my Plant Profile series with Sweetpeas. These are some of my favourite flowers because they're beautiful and they smell divine. I talk about how I grew mine last year including sowing, planting, support and harvesting, and then list all the improvements I'm making for 2026. Finally I end with some tips that I go by and you may find helpful.

Finally, I end with a reminder to take care of yourself because before long we're going to be super busy and normal service tends to fall by the wayside. We need to get ready now for what's coming! Please come back and join me for the next episode on Tuesday - you're always very welcome.

LINKS

https://www.timeanddate.com/date/

Connect with me

If you like what you hear, please follow/subscribe to this podcast so that you're the first to hear new episodes when they become available every Tuesday and Friday. And if you enjoy this episode, please take a minute to leave a review because it really does help more cut flower-lovers just like you to find the podcast.

Follow me on instagram @henhillcutflowers for a behind-the-scenes look at life on my cut flower plot.

Join me on my journey through a year of growing and selling cut flowers in England. I'm giving you the low-down on what it's really like, how I'm getting started, what you do and don't need, what I do when and why, the successes and failures, and just about everything in between. All in real time. With guest appearances from my chickens every now and then.

Hello and welcome to a rainy Tuesday 13 January 2026.

Lots of things going on at the moment including a broken inner car door handle, more rain than I thought possible, outrageously elevated hormone levels and getting into the Alpine spirit with home-made Tartiflette.

Crop planning started in earnest today and I'd like to share my thoughts with you on this episode. I started out with an enormous list of plants I planned to grow (which needed revising down to start with) and ended with a concise (and far more manageable) list. But the actual 'seed-starting dates' element of the planning has yet to be done so that's for another episode.

Today I have been using a very useful collection of free crop planning tools from Johnny Seeds (link below) which calculate seed starting dates based on your desired harvest date. Have a look - it might make your planning quicker and easier.

LINKS

https://www.johnnyseeds.com/growers-library/online-tools-calculators.html

I hope you enjoy the episode and that you'll come back and join me for the next one. And if you're interested, my new website is www.henhillcutflowers.co.uk.

Connect with me

If you like what you hear, please follow/subscribe to this podcast so that you're the first to hear new episodes when they become available every Tuesday and Friday. And if you enjoy this episode, please take a minute to leave a review because it really does help more cut flower-lovers just like you to find the podcast.

Follow me on instagram @henhillcutflowers for a behind-the-scenes look at life on my cut flower plot.

Join me on my journey through a year of growing and selling cut flowers in England. I'm giving you the low-down on what it's really like, how I'm getting started, what you do and don't need, what I do when and why, the successes and failures, and just about everything in between. All in real time. With guest appearances from my chickens every now and then.

Hello, it's Friday 9 January 2026.

Welcome to the latest episode! I've been hunkered down indoors this week finishing my new website, which I'm excited to say is now live. It has taken me a while because I wanted to write the text using all the information I learnt on my recent flower faming business course with Jenny Marks. So I hope that I have captured the spirit of the plot on the website.

The second part of this episode is the first in a new series of flower profiles that I thought would be interesting to share with you: tonight I'm starting with Didiscus. As well as talking about the plant itself and its ideal growing conditions, I talk about how I grew it last year and how it worked out for me, and why it makes a great cut flower.

I hope you enjoy the episode and that you'll come back and join me for the next one. And if you're interested, my new website is www.henhillcutflowers.co.uk.

Connect with me

If you like what you hear, please follow/subscribe to this podcast so that you're the first to hear new episodes when they become available every Tuesday and Friday. And if you enjoy this episode, please take a minute to leave a review because it really does help more cut flower-lovers just like you to find the podcast.

Follow me on instagram @henhillcutflowers for a behind-the-scenes look at life on my cut flower plot.

Join me on my journey through a year of growing and selling cut flowers in England. I'm giving you the low-down on what it's really like, how I'm getting started, what you do and don't need, what I do when and why, the successes and failures, and just about everything in between. All in real time. With guest appearances from my chickens every now and then.

Welcome. It's Tuesday 6 January 2026.

We had more snow today! It was so pretty and fluffy but it did settle on the plot and made negotiating the slope a nightmare. It's melted away now but in the next few days we have a named storm coming in bringing with it a ton a rain. Always useful for topping up the water bowsers but not so good for getting any physical work done.

With that in mind, I've created a list of nine things I could be doing when it's not possible to work outside. Topics range from auditing last year's activities to double checking seed orders and sorting photos into proper albums. All very helpful things and those which really need doing on rainy/snowy days before spring arrives and everything goes to the wall.

I hope you find the episode interesting and that you'll come back and join me for the next episode - you're always very welcome.

Connect with me

If you like what you hear, please follow/subscribe to this podcast so that you're the first to hear new episodes when they become available every Tuesday and Friday. And if you enjoy this episode, please take a minute to leave a review because it really does help more cut flower-lovers just like you to find the podcast.

Follow me on instagram @henhillcutflowers for a behind-the-scenes look at life on my cut flower plot.

Join me on my journey through a year of growing and selling cut flowers in England. I'm giving you the low-down on what it's really like, how I'm getting started, what you do and don't need, what I do when and why, the successes and failures, and just about everything in between. All in real time. With guest appearances from my chickens every now and then.

Welcome. It's Friday 2 January 2026.

Tonight I'm talking about the new year resolution I've made to improve my time management and fingers crossed I can do better in 2026. I really must stop running around like a mad thing.

I'm also answering three brilliant questions from listeners in this episode that I've received in the last couple of days and I hope you enjoy the answers. The first one is about my rose planting technique (and how this differs from how I would plant roses in a garden); the second is about the interplanting of my bearded iris amongst the peonies and how to ensure that the rhizomes get enough sunshine; and the third is about how I'm succession sowing this year. Do please keep your questions coming: I'm not an expert but I'm always happy to share how I'm doing things and (sometimes) I do know what I'm doing.

Please do come back and join me for the next episode - you're always very welcome.

Connect with me

If you like what you hear, please follow/subscribe to this podcast so that you're the first to hear new episodes when they become available every Tuesday and Friday. And if you enjoy this episode, please take a minute to leave a review because it really does help more cut flower-lovers just like you to find the podcast.

Follow me on instagram @henhillcutflowers for a behind-the-scenes look at life on my cut flower plot.

Join me on my journey through a year of growing and selling cut flowers in England. I'm giving you the low-down on what it's really like, how I'm getting started, what you do and don't need, what I do when and why, the successes and failures, and just about everything in between. All in real time. With guest appearances from my chickens every now and then.

Welcome to Tuesday 30 December 2025 and the 100th episode of this podcast!

To celebrate this milestone, today's episode is an extra long one because I wanted to include the hens and then take you on a walk around the plot to chat about what's going on, and then finish part 2 of my review of 2025.

The hens are an integral part of my cut flowers: they provide much needed organic fertiliser for the soil and they do help to keep pests away and aerate the soil. They're also the best company and I love working with them around.

I thought that part 2 of the review wouldn't be long because some of the letters are tricky but it turned out that there's so much to talk about. I hope you enjoy listening to the successes and failures I had on the plot this year - and maybe you can relate to some of what I talk about!

Please come back and join me for the next episode - you're always very welcome.

Connect with me

If you like what you hear, please follow/subscribe to this podcast so that you're the first to hear new episodes when they become available every Tuesday and Friday. And if you enjoy this episode, please take a minute to leave a review because it really does help more cut flower-lovers just like you to find the podcast.

Follow me on instagram @henhillcutflowers for a behind-the-scenes look at life on my cut flower plot.

Join me on my journey through a year of growing and selling cut flowers in England. I'm giving you the low-down on what it's really like, how I'm getting started, what you do and don't need, what I do when and why, the successes and failures, and just about everything in between. All in real time. With guest appearances from my chickens every now and then.