NOTES FROM A GROWER

HORTUS POETICUS & HELLEBORES

INTRODUCTION

Welcome to the first in a series of conversations with Flower Growers, sharing their passion, story and delving into the detail of one flower they particularly love.

During the cold month of January, I was looking for expert tips on boosting the cut life of hellebores and I knew Gillie, founder, and Fi of Hortus Poeticus would help me … with enthusiasm abound.

I could have spoken with Gillie and Fi for hours … we discussed their enthusiasm for growing flowers, their unique way of seeing and working with flowers, stepping away from weekly “availability lists”, their focus on creativity and in turn giving florists a greater sense of creativity, ensuring the Hortus Poeticus brand grows and remains both unique and authentic, working as a direct reflection of what’s important to them.

GROWING FLOWERS

Gillie founded her Hampshire flower farm, Hortus Poeticus, in 2019, with Fi joining in 2021, and although relatively new, Gillie and Fi are quickly establishing themselves as serious growers, with their own voice, in the world of British grown flowers.

Their approach is inspiring, with a focus on each flower’s character, fragrance, colouring and “sense of a life well-lived” - a beautiful poetic take on the changing seasons and the charm of flowers. Gillie and Fi grow their flowers first and foremost to support birds, bees, and other insect life, before they are intended for a vase. When their life is over, they are returned to the land as compost to support the cycle of life once more.

Gillie trained and works as a corporate lawyer. Following an expression of interest in her cut flowers from a local florist, she sought permission to establish her flower farm, from both a love of growing and with the wish to become one of the leading growers of British flowers, available to all who love them, especially florists. Her story is unique and truly wonderful, and it is a privilege to share it ….

“Flowers have always utterly beguiled; their poetry, their history; their fleeting gift of loveliness, that moment when they stop the world; their birth and their decay. They are so redolent of life; joy, celebration; sorrow, consolation; inspiration, meditation; as essential as life itself.”

— Gillie, Hortus Poeticus

CREATIVITY WITH FLOWERS

This was the part of our conversation I loved the most!

Unusually, Gillie and Fi do not create weekly availability lists, instead, they simply ask the florist for their moodboard and they walk through the fields, cutting the flowers that match the brief perfectly, only selecting the stems that are at their prime to cut. Not only does this aid creativity with florists, and introduces new flowers, it also ensures the Hortus Poeticus team remain excited and creative about their own work.

I take little inspiration from black and white lists, and I love listening to and putting my faith in others’ expertise, so to step away from long written flower lists and to have the confidence to let a grower select my flowers, is a dream. To open carefully wrapped bundles of flowers, grown with love and passion, that fully match my brief and to discover new varieties, fills me with excitement and creativity.

To note, I would use this sourcing method for my clients who are relaxed, and put focus on colours and style of design rather than specific flower varieties. As a florist, you could also happily work this sourcing method into a larger flower order, sourcing from a combination of flower growers/suppliers, where the “surprise flowers” make up a proportion of a larger “specific flower” order. I have used this method successfully for a number of weddings/events.

DEVELOPING AN AUTHENTIC BRAND

There were many synergies with the way Gillie has created and is developing the Hortus and Poeticus brand with Fi, as there have been to developing and maintaining my own brand. We both discussed the importance of focussing on exactly what is important to us, the need to ensure authenticity, and also setting very clear goals and deciding what works from a wholly practical point of view, rather than directly following what is already out there.

We both agreed though that looking to other forms of creativity for inspiration, is definitely to be encouraged; we spoke about the inspiration we often find in art galleries, pouring through design books and in Gillie’s case, the beautiful written language, specifically within poetry.

Creating a strong brand identity from the beginning was very important to Gillie; she appointed Laura Brown, a designer, photographer and brand strategist, to create her visual brand. Laura designed the logo and packaging, taking Gillie’s written words and using these to form the visual identity and brand message.

Every part of Hortus Poeticus has Gillie’s and Fi’s personalities and beliefs firmly stamped on it, and I finished our conversation excited about working with more local growers in a cohesive and wholly creative way; Gillie and Fi are fabulous ambassadors for independent flower farms.

HELLEBORES - CARE GUIDE

I loved hearing Gillie’s and Fi’s passion for hellebores, describing them as “one of our most treasured late winter flowers … we love their subtle painterly colouring, their grace of form and their line. When much seasonal flower material at this time of year is straight (narcissi, tulips, at least initially) to be offered a curve, a nodding head, a cluster of blooms.” It was also great to hear of the demand for hellebores, both in their own work (the Hortus Poeticus team are exceptional florists in their own right) and for their florist clients. I spoke with Gillie and Fi at length about conditioning methods. Conditioning hellebores can be tricky and various approaches can be taken:

FIRST APPROACH - wait until the flowers are fertilised by the bees as otherwise even with good conditioning, including searing the stems and giving them a long drink in cool water, whether they will hold or not can be uncertain. Some find the dark hellebores are easier to condition than the others for which we see some evidence.

SEPALS - with the above approach, it is important to understand the hellebore flower … “what we think of as their gorgeous petals are actually their sepals, designed to protect the flowers.” The petals and stamens are right at the very heart of the flower and they wait until the stamens fall and seed pods start to form, swell and ‘ripen’, before they are cut. As the seed pods swell, so does the longevity of the flower.

SEARING THE STEM - “Once satisfied they are ready, we cut and then place the stems into just boiled water for about 15 -20 seconds to ‘sear’, until the stems blacken.” They then plunge the flowers into deep cool water for a few hours, after which we find they are “pretty bomb proof”.

FERTILISED - “We find we need at least one flower head per stem fully fertilised, or ripened, for that stem to last well. Remember that as further stems grow from a mature plant they will naturally be fertilised at different times giving a long, much valued, season of eight to ten weeks from a good sized plant depending on weather.” And then towards the end of season, they find that they can revert to classic conditioning, side stepping the “scoring” (description below) and “searing” (description above) stages completely.

ROBUST STEMS - “You can also see this new found robustness in the turgidity, thickness and colour of a hellebore stem as the season progresses which change from fresh and quite sappy looking early on, to a much tougher, thicker, older looking stem, later. “Such stems will have more lignin in their cell walls; lignin is Nature’s natural stiffener and strengthener ( think wood) so learning to recognise greater amounts of lignin leads to more successful picking and vase life.” These are all signs that you can pick much more freely.

CLEAN - “As growers, hellebores benefit from being kept clean over winter (cut away all dead, dying or diseased leaves) with a top dress of bonemeal and manure applied in December or early Jan.”

DIFFERENT LOCATIONS - “We grow our hellebores in a variety of locations to extend the season through the difference in our microclimates.” Some are deliberately planted closer to the scented winter flowering shrubs than others, to help the early arriving bees to find and fertilise them. “Adjusting how you grow is a good way of extending the season both early and late.”

SCORING THE STEM - scoring the stem (a fine slit up the side of the whole stem) was a new concept to Gillie and Fi, “we knew many swore by the method, even on fully unripe hellebores”. They conducted their own experiment - cutting a series of young flowers and gently scoring a very fine slit up the full length of each stem (from the bottom and almost up to the flower head). Each slit was about 1-2mm deep, just into the outer coat. The stem is then plunged into deep drink in water, covering the slit fully.

Usually a flower this young would wilt within a few hours, yet supporting what many others have said, the scored stem lasted and remained robust. Once the flower had been conditioned for 24hrs, it then stood firmly in flower arrangements. “We have had tremendous results with this method - with newly flowering stems lasting brilliantly without needing to wait till they ripen and with buds on the stems opening just as they usually would. After five days cut in the vase, the flowers are still looking gorgeous, some of the hanging heads have straightened, others are gently nodding, the stems are curving beautifully, none have wilted.”

You can read more, and view step-by-step images, about ways to help you boost hellebore longevity in this GUIDE.

TO ORDER FLOWERS

To order flowers from Hortus Poeticus - both florists and home arrangers are welcome - send Gilli and Fi an email at info@hortuspoeticus or a DM via Instagram @hortuspoeticus. You can also find contact numbers on their website.