They serve her well, because she is a bespoke florist as well as a planting designer. Her sage-green potting shed is where she creates bespoke bouquets and hand-tied bunches picked from her garden, supplementing them out of season with dawn raids on the New Covent Garden Flower Market.
“I’m on a mission to get everyone growing their own cut flowers,” says Duster, who presses the point in her book, Urban Flowers: Creating Abundance In A Small City Garden.
“It’s so easy. Just buy a few seed packets and get sowing. Through trial and error, you’ll find what works best. You don’t need a big garden. Most flowers I grow are fine in pots, crates and window boxes
“I’m on a mission to get everyone growing their own cut flowers,” says Duster, who presses the point in her book, Urban Flowers: Creating Abundance In A Small City Garden.
“It’s so easy. Just buy a few seed packets and get sowing. Through trial and error, you’ll find what works best. You don’t need a big garden. Most flowers I grow are fine in pots, crates and window boxes
RANDOM GARDENING
Duster belongs to the random school of gardening, because she covered most of her back garden with gravel, so that everything would self-seed and pop up everywhere, which it does, especially the foxgloves.
Aside from half-hardy annuals, which she starts about now in sheltered trays, she sows hardy annuals by pushing aside a bit of gravel, scattering the seed and pushing back the gravel.
“Germination is quick because the gravel keeps the ground warmer. I fit a lot in because I space the seeds more closely than recommended.”
Duster belongs to the random school of gardening, because she covered most of her back garden with gravel, so that everything would self-seed and pop up everywhere, which it does, especially the foxgloves.
Aside from half-hardy annuals, which she starts about now in sheltered trays, she sows hardy annuals by pushing aside a bit of gravel, scattering the seed and pushing back the gravel.
“Germination is quick because the gravel keeps the ground warmer. I fit a lot in because I space the seeds more closely than recommended.”
Her stalwarts include Black Beauty opium poppies, which she grows for their showy seedheads, clary sage, cornflowers and ice-green nicotiana. Cosmos is renowned for pumping out flowers all summer, and Punsters choice is bright pink Antiquity.
For impact, she grows the huge allium Globe master and displays them solo. Roses she grows in deep pots. “My favourite is Blush Noisette, which has small, fragrant, pale pink pompom heads. It’s important to use compact varieties in small spaces, so follow the breeders’ advice.”
FRAGRANT FOLIAGE
Foliage is more important than flowers. “You always need much more foliage than you think you’ll need. A lot of green in a bouquet makes the composition look natural.”
For impact, she grows the huge allium Globe master and displays them solo. Roses she grows in deep pots. “My favourite is Blush Noisette, which has small, fragrant, pale pink pompom heads. It’s important to use compact varieties in small spaces, so follow the breeders’ advice.”
FRAGRANT FOLIAGE
Foliage is more important than flowers. “You always need much more foliage than you think you’ll need. A lot of green in a bouquet makes the composition look natural.”
Her leaf list is acid-green Euphorbia oblongata, which needs stems seared in boiling water to stop the sap irritating skin, evergreen ferns, Alchemilla mollis and florists’ favourite, Bupleurum rotundifolium, which even has a little green flower.
For More Information:- Pattie Barron
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