Grow Your Own Flowers - A Year of Colour

A picture-perfect cutting garden or an incredible ‘stop-you-in-your-tracks’ vase of flowers are visions of beauty. These are both eminently achievable, wherever you live. In our Signature Workshop, you’ll learn how to achieve that goal to ensure the seeds you order, the flowers you grow and the stems you pick will come together to make that dream a reality.

Part 1:  Right Plant Right Place

Plants that are happy in your space will be the easiest to grow and will provide you with the best cut flowers. You’ll learn how to:

-       assess the conditions in your garden

-       take small steps to improve your garden’s resilience

-       select plants that will be happy in your growing conditions

We’ll provide you with a personalised list of plants (good for cutting) that will be happy to grow in your garden.

Part 2: A Great Cut Flower

Our favourite evening or inclement weather activity is to pour over books, seed catalogues and gardening websites in search of new and interesting plants. Narrow down that list by learning what makes a great cut flower:

-       flowering window

-       stem length, vase life and fragrance

-       season of flowering

-       the most generous producers and favourite unusual varieties.

We’ll share exceptions to these rules so you can benefit from each season’s bounty.

Part 3: A Perfect Bouquet

Learn how to ‘grow the bouquet’. When planning your cutting garden, we’ll cover the importance of growing:

-       a mix of flowers shapes and sizes

-       flowers in complementary colours and tones

-       focal, filler and focal flowers for each season

Colour theory and flower fashion are some favourite topics - important in planning what will be on trend and what you’ll want in your vases next season.

Part 4: Flower Bar

Enjoy a tour of the garden or flower farm. Forage for foliage and pick some extra filler flowers to complement the focal flowers we have brought from the flower farm.

Choose flowers for your arrangement from buckets of freshly pickedfocal and filler flowers. Add texture, airy elements and match your colour scheme to the season and your home décor. Take home your beautiful bunch and get inspired when dreaming what to grow in your cutting garden this year.

What’s Included:

-       A welcome gift on arrival

-       Afternoon tea with sweet and savory treats.

-       Garden / Flower Farm tour, all course material, small group instruction.

-       Your bouquet from the Flower Bar

-       Planting plans and seeds - personalised to the conditions in your garden

The Locations:

We are running this class in two locations:

The Oaks is conveniently located in Blakiston in the beautiful Adelaide Hills. The workshop is held in the beautiful studio of the heritage home of acclaimed journalist and author, Christine McCabe. We will tour Christine’s incredible garden and visit her fenced, (rabbit proof) raised cutting garden.

The Flower Farm is located between Robe and Kingston SE. Only open to visitors attending our workshops, tour the working lower farm and learn how we grow thousands of flowers year-round. Workshops are held in our beautiful flower studio.

Notes:

Please wear closed toe shoes for the tour and bring sun protection with you. We are able to provide vegetarian options for the tea but sadly don’t have the resources to cater for other diets. If you have specific requirements, please bring your own refreshments.