Becoming a Cut Flower Grower
Join new cut flower grower Lydia for a behind-the-scenes look at how she's starting to grow and sell cut flowers in the south of England. Over the course of 2025 she'll be sharing everything she's doing to get her cut flower business up and running, from the planning stages all the way through to harvesting flowers, by way of highs and lows, hints and tips, lessons she's learning along the way (often the hard way) to the production and selling of beautiful cut flowers.
If you're thinking of starting your own cut flower business or you'd just like the low-down on what it's really like, this is the podcast for you. Lydia talks very honestly about everything she's doing and she would love you to join her on this journey.
Lydia is a professional gardener and garden consultant who is establishing a cut flower business in 2025. She records this bi-weekly podcast as well as writing monthly articles for The Country Smallholder magazine.
Follow the Show & Stay Connected
✅ Find Lydia on instagram @henhillcutflowers
✅ For more information visit her website www.lydiathegardener.co.uk
✅ Follow the podcast so that you don’t miss an episode
✅ Please support the podcast by leaving a review or some kind words and consider sharing this podcast with someone who loves flowers - thank you.
- Update frequency
- every 3 days
- Average duration
- 21 minutes
- Episodes
- 67
- Years Active
- 2025
Two New Florists Visit & Buy My Cut Flowers! Working Out My USP, Eucalyptus & Setting Up A Studio
Hello and welcome to Friday 5 September 2025.
Where has the week gone?!? I have no idea. Time is just flying by. I've been busy on the plot deadheading, cutting things back and collecting seeds, in be…
Cutting Foliage in the Rain, Visiting The National Dahlia Society Show Today & Did My Flowers Survive the Flower Festival?
Hello and welcome to the latest episode: it's Tuesday 2 September 2025.
Lots to tell you in this episode and I've divided it into two parts with a tiny bit of music in between so please don't switch o…
Rain Stops Play, Shattering Dahlias, Learning Where I'm Going Wrong & the Fabulous Flower Festival
Hello and welcome! It's a wet Friday 29 August 2025.
Good news: my electrics are fixed, yippee! We've had a lot of rain this week which has caused some issues on the plot by flattening things and adve…
Selling Restarts, How To Pronounce 'Dahlia' & Plant Spacings: How Many per Square Metre?
Hello and welcome! It's a warm evening on Tuesday 26 August 2025.
Tonight I share with you all the latest news from my plot and also talk through the seeds I've just received for 2026 including stunni…
Let the Hens Out WIth Me, De-Mystifying Cool-Season Annuals & Prepping for Multiple Orders Next Week
Hello and welcome to today's episode: it's Saturday 23 August 2025 (not the 22nd like I say on the podcast).
Join me on on the plot this morning as we let the chickens and ducks out together. It's bee…
Eye-Opening Flower Farming Books, Fence Panels are Up, Electrical Problems & Enormous Dahlias
Hello and welcome to today's episode: it's Tuesday 19 August 2025.
Lots of successes over the weekend: the fat hose worked brilliantly to transfer water from the back of the van to IBC1; the fence pan…
It's Time to Learn Some Business Skills, Fat Hose, Press Releases & My Top Tips for Setting Out a Cut Flower Plot
Hello and welcome to tonight's episode on Friday 15 August 2025.
Lots to tell you! No more navel gazing about how badly I feel I'm doing! This week I was sent a message by a very kind listener from th…
Heatwave Hell (Again), Doubts About Everything, The Key Colours I'm Growing in 2026 & Being Brave
Hello and welcome. It's Tuesday 11 August 2025 and it's really hot (yet again).
We're in the midst of heatwave no. 4 right now and so I've been busy watering and mulching with bark to keep the moistur…
Made It Through Another Week, Dahlia Dis-Budding, Emergency Staking & Bracing for (Yet) Another Heatwave
Hello, it's Friday 8 August 2025.
You're joining me for this episode on the plot: it's a truly beautiful evening and at one point a bat actually flies right over my head. This week has been good in te…
Visiting a Fellow Grower, How My Availability List Works, Pumping Water & Shirley's Babies Have Arrived!
Hello and welcome to a warm and sunny Tuesday 5 August 2025.
I'm back to cheerful business this week. However, apologies for my voice on this episode: I have got a cold at the moment.
I've topped up o…
Rain, My Car Broke Down, Sweetpeas & Zinnias Purchased for 2026, Jobs For The Weekend & Do I Need a Niche?
Hello and a warm welcome to Friday 1 August 2025.
Bit of a meh week! After praying for rain for months, it massively disrupted all my plans yesterday so today was a bit of a rush to fit everything in …
A Fellow Grower Visits, Something Ate My Apples & Grasses, The Lavenders Are Coming Back & The Zinnias Are Kicking Off
Hello and welcome. It's Tuesday 29 July 2025 and I hope you had a good weekend. It's a warm and sunny evening tonight and I'm recording on the plot.
I've been busy clearing thistles and watching fence…
Peri-Meno-ing and Cut Flowers, Most/Least Profitable Flowers & the Potted Lavenders Saga
Hello and welcome. It's Friday 25 July 2025. How is it Friday already?!?
Today's episode is a little different: the first part is me talking frankly and honestly to you about the challenges of establi…
Dahlias: Re-Staking & Thwarting Earwigs, Blush Flowers Needed, Dynamic Pricing, and How Intention & Values Shape Growing
Hello and welcome. It's Tuesday 22 July 2025 and I've had to put a jumper on this evening for the first time in months.
So much to tell you about this evening: I've been batch cooking dinners, collec…
I Have Dahlias Flowering (At Last), Lots of Cutting for Weddings, Unwelcome Earwigs, and Rain Arrives At Last (Phew)
Hello and welcome to warm evening on Friday 18 July 2025.
Tonight I'm sharing all my news about cutting and selling my flowers: this week I've been cutting and conditioning for a Thursday morning coll…
Pricing: I Don't Know What I'm Doing, Oversharing (Am I?), & Challenges When Prepping For Upcoming Weddings
Hello and welcome to a windy and cloudy Tuesday 15 July 2025.
Today's episode includes a chat about the challenges of prepping for supplying the weddings that I have coming up and the problems I'm hav…
Big Problem: The Greenfly Are Back, Ridiculously Wrong Plant Spacings, Dahlia Labelling Disaster & My First Florist Plot Visit
Hello and welcome! It's the evening of Friday 11 July 2025 and I'm recording from the plot so the audio quality is a little bit up and down. I hope it doesn't bother you too much. It's so much nicer …
Heatwave No. 3 is Here, My Shower is Full of Annabelles, Difficult Growing Conditions Mean Difficult Choices & Why I Don't Want to Sell my Nigella
Hello and welcome to this episode. It's a hot Tuesday 8 July 2025.
I've been very busy on the field with dahlia staking (thanks to my birthday present of road pins), deadheading, staking and weeding.…
Selling Has Finally Started, Nigella Finally Flowering, Zinnias Driving Me Mad, No Rain Yet, and It's My Birthday!
Hello and welcome! It's Friday 4 July 2025 and it's my birthday! And Happy American Independence Day if you're celebrating that today!
I'm on a massive high after selling 100 stems of cut flowers to m…
Hot Flushes in a Heatwave (not fun!), New Gates, Prepping for a Wedding Order, Flower Hub News (it's very exciting!)
Hello. It's Tuesday 1 July 2025 and I'm sweltering, even at 8am.
Lots to tell you: we made some new gates to enter the plot over the weekend so that I don't have to go into Roland's enclosure every ti…