A Year of Cut Flowers

Bridget and Henrietta display their selection of essential garden tools and give practical tips on how to use them and how to avoid losing them in the garden. They also show the best methods for cleaning, sharpening and storing tools to maintain them in top condition.

It is the end of April and The Land Gardeners are in the informal part of their Cornish garden, picking self-seeding plants for an early spring flower arrangement.

In this lesson, Bridget and Henrietta encourage us to grow fruiting trees, not only for their fruits but also for the impact their blossoms make in arrangements.

Shrubs are one of Bridget and Henrietta’s passions, valued for being low-maintenance and for their usefulness in spring floral arrangements. Discover some of their favourite flowering shrubs as well as must-have foliage for arrangements.

In this lesson, Bridget and Henrietta explain the differences in growing annual and perennial tulips, and give advice on how to harvest their flowers to create long-lasting, strong blooms for colourful indoor displays.

The Land Gardeners grow a range of striking, multicoloured tulip varieties that bloom from early April till the end of May. In this lesson they discuss the attributes of their favourite tulips while making two impressive arrangements.

Learn how to use grasslands as low-maintenance gardens by planting bulbs and shrub roses to have a supply of cut flowers throughout spring and summer.

A step-by-step demonstration of how to make a teepee to support sweet peas. This lesson also includes practical information on sowing, planting seedlings, and picking sweet peas to keep them flowering from early summer and into the autumn.

The Land Gardeners are dealing with a new exciting project in an old garden in France; they are developing a walled garden for cut flowers and working on improving the soil with green manures and compost teas.

In this lesson, the spotlight falls on long-flowering summer plants: cosmos, Verbena bonariensis and peonies. You will find recommendations for the best varieties of early, mid-season and late-flowering peonies that flower in succession throughout spring.

Lilacs and philadelphus make excellent cut flowers provided they are properly prepared. In this lesson, Bridget and Henrietta share tips on keeping these plants in top condition, and advise on growing lilies and foxgloves.

Perennial plants come in a great variety of shapes, heights and colours. In this lesson, Bridget and Henrietta talk about the joy of growing perennials and discuss the ones they use frequently in summer arrangements, such as delphiniums, phlox, catmint, phlomis, feverfew and penstemon

Bridget and Henrietta present a selection of their favourite annuals - gypsophila, poppies, cosmos and antirrhinum, as well as herbs, cornflowers and nicotiana. Planted in February and March, these annuals give pleasure through much of the year both in the garden and indoors.

In this lesson the focus is on planting, caring for and picking peonies. You will also find many practical tips on when and how to move peonies, the best ways of getting maximum light into their roots, and how to deal with an invasion of black mould (peony botrytis).

These impressive but delicate plants need special care to help them flower from early June to late September. The Land Gardeners explain what to do to make delphiniums grow tall and strong.

This lesson provides a step-by-step guide to preparing and planting dahlia tubers - from inspecting the tubers for root damage, to planting them in specially enriched soil.

Bridget and Henrietta demonstrate how to divide a large, tuberous dahlia root by cutting or pulling it apart to create more plants, as well as how to take a rooted cutting.

In this lesson, we learn how to differentiate between various types of roses: continuous and once-flowering ones, climbers and ramblers, old roses, shrub roses and hybrid teas. Also included are useful tips and the names of the best rose growers in the UK.

The Land Gardeners are in France in September, dealing with the challenge of staking their favourite dahlia variety, ‘Otto’s Thrill’, with bamboo canes and string. Also included are tips on prolonging dahlias’ flowering time well into the autumn, as well as when and how to pick the blooms to create the longest stems possible.

Bridget and Henrietta frequently use dahlias in their cut flower arrangements. In this lesson, they discuss the characteristic features of their favourite 14 dahlia varieties and advise on the resources available to help you choose the most suitable varieties.

The Land Gardeners are in their French garden, discussing the best ways to plant, stake and cut cosmos. They also introduce us to their four favourite cosmos varieties.

In this lesson we learn what to do to extend the flowering period of sweet peas from summer into the autumn.

The focus in this lesson is on the naturalistic planting of bulbs - crocus, narcissi, snowdrops, camassias and tulips. In this lesson you’ll also find demonstrations of different planting techniques, depending on the size of the bulbs used.

Bridget and Henrietta give a step-by-step guide to preparing a tulip bed and planting the bulbs in a trench, to provide an abundance of blooms to cut in spring. They give advice on how to treat perennial tulips to avoid tulip fever and recommend four of their favourite tulip varieties.

The Land Gardeners have picked a great variety of cut blooms, shrubs and herbs appearing in an impressive range of sizes, shapes, colours and scents. In this lesson they create an arrangement using dahlias, cosmos, roses and verbena, as well as sage, fennel and dill

In this lesson, Bridget and Henrietta challenge us to bring nature into our homes every week of the year by using trees, shrubs, bulbs and blossoms as an inspiration for creating winter arrangements.

The Land Gardeners have transformed an unproductive patch of ground into a heaven for hellebores. In this lesson they give advice on how to lift and pot up hellebores for decoration indoors.

These tiny flowers growing under an old chestnut tree can be dug up, potted up in china bowls, brought inside for decoration, and returned to the ground once the flowers are over.

A guide to the best plants to use in making small and large winter arrangements. They range from tiny cyclamens and violets to quinces and winter-flowering cherries.

Forcing bulbs enables us to have some colour indoors in winter. Bridget and Henrietta advise us to plant the bulbs in pots in October/November and keep them for a few weeks in a cold and dark place before bringing them out for display inside the home.

Contrary to common belief, peonies benefit from being moved, and in this lesson Bridget and Henrietta demonstrate when and how to move peonies, how to divide their roots, and how to store them in winter.

Winter is the time to plant bare root roses. This lesson guides you through all the steps necessary to produce healthy, strong roses by the summer.