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Perfect for gardening enthusiasts at any level, this podcast is your companion to cultivating success and beauty in your own backyard or flower patch. Hosted by Jane Westoby from Fuchsia Blooms Florist and The Hampshire Seed Company.
Each episode is a treasure trove of practical tips, expert advice, and insider flower farming guides designed to help you sow and grow with confidence and harvest with pride. Whether you’re dreaming of rows of neat vegetables or cutting flowers for bouquets all year round, we’ll walk you through every step.
Let’s grow together!
Hey flower friends and welcome back to the podcast that believes flowers should be local, seasonal and grown with love, not wrapped in plastic and flown halfway across the world. I'm Jane, the founder of the Hampshire Seed Company and a flower farmer florist who's gone from wedding chaos to seed packet chaos these days. But I also help other growers to build blooming good businesses. So whether you're planting your first tray of cosmos or scaling up for serious sales, you're in the right place.
And today I'm going to dive into one of those topics that doesn't always get the limelight. It's not a sexy topic, let's be honest, but it can make or break your bunches. And you don't need to be a florist to use these tips. If you've ever cut flowers and wondered why your blooms only last a few days, then listen in, because I'm talking about flower conditioning. What it is,
why it matters and how to do it properly. And crucially, when to cut each type of flower because timing makes all the difference. So this podcast today is actually going to cover both beginners and what I would call experts because even I see expert flower farmers cutting their blooms at the wrong stage. So listen in.
I know you will already know all the basics about conditioning if you're an expert flower farmer, but let's talk a little bit about everything today because you've spent weeks, maybe months, sowing, pinching, potting on and planting out and you've fed your plants, you've fended off the slugs, you've maybe even picked them off by hand and you've done battle with all those late frosts and now finally your plot is blooming.
but if you don't cut and condition those stems properly, all of that hard work can go to waste. Floppy cosmos, drooping tulips. You know that, swear those looked better yesterday feeling. So poor vase life means unhappy customers, refund requests, lost repeat business, and just a lot of sadness. So really you want flowers that last. And if you do want that,
conditioning, really isn't optional. Cutting at the right stage is not optional. Do not let your flowers go over because this is essential. So one of the biggest mistakes that I see is people cutting their flowers at the wrong stage. Every flower has its moment and cutting too early or too late, it just ruins the vase life or they might not even open up properly.
So let's just go through a few of the varieties for you now. So, tulips. Tulips need to be cut when they are tight, when they're in bud and just showing a little bit of color. If they're not showing a little bit of color, they won't open up properly.
if they're too open they won't last in the vase. So at this stage when they're still as a bud showing a little bit of colour you can actually pull them up bulb and all and put them in the fridge for three weeks. You can literally just wrap them in some paper, pop them as long as they're nice and straight, you can pop them either flat or upright maybe in the door of the fridge which I've done before. They don't need to be in water just dry and that bulb holds everything
that they need, but you do need to make sure that the stems are kept straight. So that's tulips. So next up, let's talk zinnias. So for zinnias, you need to do a bit of a wiggle test. So just kind of wiggle the top of the flower a little bit. And if that stem bends, if the flower wiggles around too much, it's too early. You need to wait until the flower is really rigid and it doesn't bob about on the top of that stem when you give it.
wiggle.
sweet peas. Don't wait until all of the flowers on that stem are open. You need to pick sweet peas when only one or two of the flowers on the stem are open and then the rest will open up after cutting. That will give you the longest vase life. Then snapdragons and larksbur, you need to cut when the bottom, I'd say quarter to a third of the flowers are open.
The rest will then open up after cutting. Again, that will give you really great vase life. Now, dahlias. So, dahlias are very different. So, dahlias will not open up anymore once they're cut. So, they need to be cut when they are almost fully open, like the day before they're going to be fully open. Okay? And you can check how old a dahliabloom is.
by looking at the back, just turn it over and have a look at the back of it. And just look at those flower petals around the back. If they look a bit tired, then it's old, it's too old and it's not going to last in the vase. Because let's face it with dahlias, you're only going to get about five day vase life anyway. And if those petals on the back, and five days if you're lucky, we're talking three to five. If those petals on the back are already looking tired, when you cut,
you'll only maybe get a day out of it, which is not great. You need to make sure that they're really fresh. You cut them often and that they've only just opened up. Now let's move on to scented stocks because scented stocks are completely the opposite. So scented stocks need to be cut when all of the blooms on that stem are open. So
Don't cut your scented stocks when you only have two to three rows of flowers with a few on the top when they're really short and stubby. From that stage, if you can just wait and wait two, three weeks, that flower stem will grow longer and longer and longer and it will have more flowers going around it. So wait till there's at least five to seven and I would say seven's good.
rows of flowers on them. Don't cut them until then, don't cut them when they're short and stubby, Leave them a little bit longer. Now let's talk poppies because now you've got the opposite again. So something like an Icelandic poppy, you need to cut Icelandic poppies before they open. So when they're in that cracking bud stage and you can literally just see a tiny tiny tiny little bit of colour so that that bud is just kind of
cracked open just slightly and you're most likely to see this really early in the morning because once the sun is up and the sun hits that bud it will open up, it will crack open completely and the flower will open. So you might have to get up really early doors at like six o'clock in the morning to catch them at that stage but that's when you will get them at the right stage. But if you're growing your poppies for seed pods
So let's say you're growing Giganteum poppies for the huge seed pods. Once the flowers have dropped off, you then need to wait. Don't cut that seed pod yet. Don't cut it as soon as the petals fall off because it won't be big enough. They'll just be like average sized. But if you can wait another, I'd say two to four weeks, let those pods swell. They will swell to a giant size.
then you cut them. So you can cut them just before the little holes start to appear in the top, or you can wait for the holes to start to appear as well. That's when you know they've reached their maximum size is when the little holes start to appear around the top, which is where the seeds will then fall out from. I cut mine just before that stage because I like them when they're really, really green. OK, so that's just a few to get my full guide.
I will pop a link in my show notes, I've put together a full guide for you so you can just download that from the show notes because I can't go through everything today. So let's just talk about a little bit of a flower conditioning routine, let's say. So you need to be harvesting early or late when the plants are really well hydrated.
You've maybe already watered them. So if you water your plants at night, like I do, you water them, you wait a couple of hours, then you harvest them. Or you leave them overnight to hydrate and you can harvest them in the morning. I tend to harvest mine in the evening. I like to water, go round the water first, leave it a couple of hours, then go round and cut. And then I leave my stems overnight. I like to leave my stems for a good 12 hours overnight.
And you need to use really, really sharp snips or scissors to avoid crushing those stems. And you need to get them straight into clean water. So skip those aesthetic trugs. I know they look pretty and I've taken photos in pretty trugs as well. But if you are cutting for actual use in a bouquet, then they need to go straight in water. OK, and make sure that that bucket or that
Vase is clean. It should be clean enough for you to actually drink from. That's how clean it needs to be because bacteria, any bacteria that forms in there at all will kill your Vase life. So maybe a small dash of bleach, like a drop of bleach or vinegar will do the job just to give it an extra bit of a clean. Don't just swill the bucket out, give it a good clean. And then
before you put that stem into the bucket make sure you do strip those lower leaves so anything that is going to be below the water line has to go because leaves in water equal rot which equals bacteria and that equals dead flowers within a couple of days so that's super important. You need to then just rest them in that cool water.
and leave them somewhere cool and dark for between, I'd say, four to 12 hours, just to rehydrate. So somewhere like, you know, maybe a shady shed or a dark garage, that's perfect. I leave mine in my garage. And then you might need to treat the stems if they are special stems. So anything which is soft, like poppies, syrinth, maybe even mint.
And I do this with roses as well. So you can see the stems in boiling water. So go and put the kettle on. Boil your water as if you were going to make a cup of tea. Pour your water into a mug. Just don't put the tea bag in there. Don't put anything else in there. It's just a cup of boiling water. Take that into your studio or wherever you are arranging your flowers and dip the ends of these stems into the water.
and count to 20. Once you're done, then dip those stems back into your buckets with your cool water in and then leave them. And that will sear the ends. It will stop them from flopping. So in the morning, if you haven't maybe done this for some of your stems and you've conditioned your flowers for four to 12 hours, whether it's the morning or not, it could be the afternoon, whenever.
and you notice that they flopped and this happens a lot they will get air up the stems and then they are no longer able to actually take up water it stops the take up of water so if you see the ends in boiling water
will ensure that all of those air bubbles are sucked out of that stem and then it can really easily take up the water. So if you've had this happen and you've got some drooping stems of something try popping them in a little bit of boiling water just to sear those stems and revive them. It does work, it works really really well. And then you might have some sappy stems, so the two main flowers that I look out for with this are daffodils and euphorbia.
So they have toxins in their sap and as soon as they're cut this sap starts to leak. So you need to seal those sappy stems and again you can do this in boiling water to stop it from kind of leaking everywhere. And then you would condition them separately in some separate water for four to twelve hours again to stop all of those toxins from leaching out.
The next category in the special stems is the woody stems. So anything like maybe lilacs or the burnums, you would split them. So you'd just, you'd cut up the stem, maybe a couple of centimeters with your secateurs. You might even bash the end with a bit of a hammer ⁓ and that will help to improve the uptake of water. So they're the three main categories that you would put things in. Soft stems, which you need to sear in boiling water.
sappy stems which you need to again sear in boiling water and then your woody stems that you would maybe bash or snip. And then there is a fourth group and because some blooms they look really dreamy in the garden but when cut they can really quickly turn your vase water into a horrible murky mess. So the culprits here, the main culprit is zinnias and sunflowers although I think Cosmos
and dahlias and even marigolds do this too. So they are notorious for turning water brown. They shed pollen, petals and sap which clouds the water, makes it go brown and shortens the vase life. Zinnias can literally turn your bucket water brown within a few hours. Okay. So what you can do is you can just pop
just a touch of bleach in there which will just clean that water or maybe a touch of vinegar as well.
You also need to just refresh that water on a daily basis and just clean your buckets more frequently than usual if you are using those stems. So, just as a quick recap, here are the most common issues that I see. The first one is cutting in full sun. Don't cut in full sun. Wait until the end of the day or early in the morning to cut.
dirty buckets and dull tools. If you've got dirty buckets and dull tools, you're just inviting bacteria and your vase life will literally come down to only a matter of a few days if you have bacteria in that water. So skipping the resting stage is the next biggest mistake I see. If you don't give the stem the time to hydrate, they will just flop. Okay, so four to 12 hours is what they need.
leaving the foliage below the waterline, again inviting bacteria, that's not great, make sure you strip the foliage and then not changing water daily, again it's just inviting that bacteria, get rid of that bacteria, okay. So just remember that your post harvest routine is just as important as your growing technique because you've already done the hard part, you've already grown the flowers and now it's time to just give them the full care.
that they need to actually just shine in the vase. you don't just, don't need to, it doesn't need to be perfect. You just need to be consistent, thoughtful and very clean. And then your customers will notice the difference. So if you've been cutting too late or skipping the steering step or maybe letting your snapdragons flop in a bucket, it's time to upgrade your post harvest game.
So if you want a printable version of my five step conditioning guide and my full conditioning guide for the most popular flowers, then just head over to the website. I will pop the link into the show notes for you. You can head over there, okay? So if you love this episode, just do just three things. follow the show so you don't miss what's coming next. Leave me a review. It means the world to me and I would love to know what you want to hear about next. Let me know.
what you want me to podcast about next and share it with a flower friend, someone who needs these tips, well thank you for it. Okay, so keep cool, keep hydrated and happy harvesting and I'll see you next time.