A year of flowers

A sample of home grown blooms from the Blue Borage soil farm, a reminder of the diversity that can be sourced on your own doorstep.

Scroll down to read my tips for a year round flower garden in Auckland/Waikato, New Zealand.

January 2025, I’m preparing to move house, and looking over the bouquets to make sure I dig up the favourite bulbs.

What’s coming with me:

• Dahlias x25, will dig up all the tubers
• Hydrangeas (have started cuttings)
• Lavender x3 types (will dig up, and also take cuttings)
• Amyrillis Naked Ladies — will dig up the bulbs
• Gladioli x2
• White daisies — will take cuttings, start these afresh.
• Seeds saved for: cornflower, shungiku, calendula, borage, sweet peas, bright orange cosmos, sunflower.
• Geranium — need to take cuttings of red/white ones, salmon pink, pale pink.
• Scented Geranium — will dig up, but also need to start cuttings.
• Hibiscus — take cuttings
• Funny coloured yellow/orange bulbs — dig up.
• Tansy — dig up
• Yarrow — dig up
• Roses — take cuttings

5 Tips for a year round flower garden

• Know the seasons, create a routine twice a year of splurging on bulbs — once in spring and again in autumn. Get these in the ground and you will thank yourself when they are blooming.
• Go for walks in neighbourhoods with pretty gardens, or in parks with floral displays. Take photos of the flowers you love, and put these on your wish list for that season next year. You can often take cuttings from flowering plants and get those flowers a year later, and have as much as you want, for free. Shopping at the garden centre though, will leave you feeling like you can only have as much as you can afford.
• Bring the flowers inside and enjoy them — create a routine for meditation, or a vase where you work, make it a signature part of your interior decor. This will help you avoid the temptation of buying imported flowers (which are often grown in toxic environments), and it deepens your connection with the seasonality of your own space.
• Decide on your flower : edibles ratio, and let it be flexible. If you have decided half flowers & half food, then you may have to be strict when it comes to tomato season, and prioritise dahlias and sunflowers.
• Mark the spots where there are bulbs that will pop up again next year, so you don’t accidentally plant over them, or damage them digging around them. I use a garden planner, which helps to keep track of what I have bought, and what flowers are coming out soon.

Need help planning your garden? Try the DIY Almanac approach.

More information here.