Kilcoan Gardens in Northern Ireland
July 27, 2010
Kilcoan Gardens is a recently established business, growing & arranging cut flowers in Co Antrim, Northern Ireland.
Kilcoan mixed jug arrangement
Cherry Townsend took up gardening as a hobby about 12 years ago, after her son was born. This hobby soon turned into an obsession and a few years ago Cherry decided that she would like to be able to earn a living from her love of flowers.
Inspired by an article in Country Living magazine about Jane Lindsey at Snapdragon Gardens in Scotland, Cherry set about converting some of her parents land into her dream business and Kilcoan Gardens was born.
Their old shetland pony was swiftly moved from the prime spot and Cherry started planting. She was fortunate to have an extensive mature garden in situ of 2 acres, featuring a wide range of shrubs and perennials.
With plenty of material to propagate from, the gardens soon started to bloom. A mild maritime climate on the peninsula of Islandmagee (but with plenty of wind!) means considerably less frost than inland, so flowers like dahlias continue for several weeks longer than in gardens further from the coast.
Kilcoan Gardens is currently selling at local farmers’ markets and delivering hand tied bouquets to the local area and through the
Kilcoan Gardens are ablaze with summer colour
website, Cherry hopes to be delivering freshly cut, locally grown flowers throughout Northern Ireland very soon.
Everything at Kilcoan Gardens is seasonal and tended by Cherrys’ own hand. The extensive range includes; annuals, perennials, herbs, roses and cut flower foliage and berries.
Fresh cut flower arrangements, range from hand tied posies to larger bouquets. Kilcoan Gardens also sell organically grown perennials and herbs.
Seasonal Christmas products include; wreaths, table arrangements and narcissus and iris bulbs which have been forced for a beautiful indoor display. Seasonal arrangements are also available for Mother’s Day and Easter.
All enquiries are welcome, with mail order flowers available soon.
Kilcoan Gardens take pride in being environmentally aware and use recycled materials and packaging wherever possible.
More information
British Cut flowers in May
June 30, 2010
Sue has been asked to arrange the flowers for the wedding of a close friend and whilst she has some knowledge of what is available she would like to find a definitive list of the cut flowers that bloom in the UK in early May. This is both those that she can grow herself or that may be available from suppliers.
Can anybody help?
RHS Flower Shows
June 26, 2010
Britain is basking in sunshine and the Royal Horticultural Society flower shows of 2010 are in full swing.
Every year the RHS put on a myriad of shows throughout the country, providing inspiration for planting designs, growing your own floral garden and of course the stunning arrangements in the floral marquees.
The world’s largest flower show at Hampton Court Palace takes place on the 6th – 11th July.
More information
Royal Horticultural Society – Shows and events
World Cup Flowers
June 12, 2010
Many florists are getting into the football spirit and producing window displays featuring World Cup themes.
Vandella Flowers in Carlisle is one such high street florist.
Vandella Flowers of Carlisle
They have produced three large window displays at their store in Carlisle, Cumbria.
With an England theme limiting the designers to white and red, the colours of St. George, the challenge of producing a display was no doubt quite hard.
Sadly they may have had to resort to some non British cut flowers to pull the task off.
Limited colour pallet
With Scotland, Ireland and Wales not in the World Cup the British florist is somewhat stuck with two colours to work with.
Carnations are the staple of the flower designer providing a multitude of colours.
Here are a few ideas for seasonal flowers to populate your display
World Cup floral display with England theme
England colour scheme – red and white
- Carnations – red and white
- Roses – red and white
- Poppies – red and white
- Daisy family including agyranthemum
- Ranunculus – red and white
- Lilly – including Lily of the Valley, Asian Lily,
- Red fruits including the strawberry would work for a short duration table display.
- Cow parsley in abundance from British hedgerows is an ideal white bulk flower to fill out any display.
- Japanese Iris and Iris Germanica can be garden grown and provides structure and architecture.
- Pieris – new leaf growth on this shrub is often in shades of red.
Share your designs
Have you produced a World Cup themed display for your window or maybe produced an exhibit for a local horticultural show?
You may have gone really wild and produced displays for all 32 teams.
Let us know about it, via the contact us form, so we can feature a gallery of your designs and plant lists over the next few weeks.
Holker Show 2010
June 6, 2010
Floral arrangements at this Year’s Holker Garden Festival, took us on a journey around the world.
Reds, oranges and yellows featured in some very creative designs.
Floral demonstrations were hosted by Ken Hough and Noreen Fishburn who will both be on the Chelsea Flower Show team for 2011 representing NAFAS.
Best in show was won by Mrs S Wareing, with her simple but stunning design “England’s Green and Pleasant Land” made from native plants that could easily be sourced from any garden.
The wonderful miniature arrangements in the “Luck of the Irish” category were truly captivating.
