The Practice of Hortus: Cutting Garden Course, June
A session focused on planning your cutting garden and understanding what needs to happen in June.
We’ll begin the day by sowing later-flowering annual seeds such as helianthus and zinnia, all in a distinctive HP colour palette, ready for you to take home. We will then look ahead to the following season by sowing biennials such as digitalis, hesperis and lunaria. Sowing these in June will provide you with a strong backbone of plants, invaluable in bridging the hungry gap between late spring and early summer.
Together, we will explore how to care for your late annuals and biennials — from soil type and watering to potting on, planting out and considering aspect.
The afternoon takes us further into our growing gardens and fields, where we will practically apply techniques to prune and manage current annuals for greater stem length and an extended flowering season.
We will spend time in Gillie’s cutting garden, observing what it is producing now and how it has evolved since early spring and Day One of our course.
Our florists will discuss what they are currently picking, how and why, and how carefully selected grown and foraged stems enable them to create the distinctive Hortus palette in their arrangements. As this is a growing course, the session focuses on the art of the curated pick rather than a demonstration of floral arranging.
Lunch will be provided, along with a selection of late annual plants and seeds in the distinctive Hortus Poeticus colour palette for you to take home, offering instant planting satisfaction, together with comprehensive course materials.
Over tea and cake, we will return to the lovely Hortus Barn for a discussion on planning a full cut flower garden year. Referring to the course materials provided, we’ll explore sowing times and variety information, concluding with a focus on bulbs for early spring flowers — including an inspiring exploration of narcissus varieties and divisions to set your imagination alight.
This course is led by Hortus’ Senior Grower, Caroline, who heads up the HP growing team with extensive experience in private gardens and the National Trust. Together, she and Gillie have shaped this course, designed to enable you to cultivate your own cutting garden, and to enjoy stems in every season.
At the heart of Hortus lies a profound respect for both land and stem. Caroline, Gillie and the entire HP team look to tread as lightly as possible in the way we grow, harvest and gather, mindful always of the rhythms of the soil and the significant wellness benefits that come from tending flowers. These principles are woven throughout our teaching and considered as important as the flowers themselves.
This growing course unfolds across three separate days across the year, in March, June and September, guiding you through the Hortus year at our sides. You will learn how to plan a Hortus cutting garden and explore our growing techniques, such as sowing, propagation and plant care, in step with the seasons. Each day may be booked individually or as a complete series, allowing flexibility while offering the richness of the full annual journey.
Each course day also includes a seasonal talk from one of our florists, exploring the palette we cherish at that moment in the year. You will learn how we pick and condition our stems, what the hedgerows and wild places offer for foraging, and how - as growers and floral designers - we thoughtfully select both grown and foraged materials to create depth, texture and detail. This is not a demonstration of arranging, but rather an insight into the art of the curated pick: how to choose a harmonious, characterful gathering of stems that sing of their season.
For an expansion of each day, please see our Field Notes on the March, June and September Sessions. As always, your day will include a full tour of the farm, rarely open to the public, and a homemade seasonal lunch.
Details
Thursday 26th March, 10:00 - 16:00
Thursday 3rd June, 10:00 - 16:00
Thursday 17th September, 10:00 - 16:00
Individual days are £225. Two Sessions - £425. Three Sessions - £600