Planning Your Cut Flower Garden

Love flowers? We want to inspire you to successfully grow beautiful cut flowers for yourself and to gift to your friends and family. From early Spring bulbs to late Autumn blooms, we will share with you the simple secrets behind our cut-flower garden.

Join us at the historic St Ann's Allotments for an afternoon of learning and beauty.

• Plan a cut-flower garden suitable for your growing space
• Learn what varieties provide sustainable bouquets for the seasons ahead
• Take your ready to plant design home
• Leave with some seeds to help you on your way.

Your host will meet you outside the main gates on Ransom Road, so please wait there.

Facilitated by Jo from Staa, this workshop takes place on the beautiful St Ann's Community Orchard at St Ann's Allotments.

Capacity: The maximum group size will be 10 people.

Tickets: The ticket price includes materials, and all tools will be provided.

Facilities: A compost toilet is available at the Orchard with hand sanitizer for hand washing.

Clothing: Please dress for the weather, and wear comfortable foot wear. The garden is a 5-minute walk from the entrance to the allotments.

Parking: There is plenty of free roadside parking along Ransom Road.

Contact: If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact the organiser Kayleigh at [email protected]

Jo is Staa’s CEO and Chair of the Nottingham Growing Network. She’s particularly passionate about seasonal, sustainable British blooms.

You might think that the family floristry business sparked an early interest in all things floral. But it wasn’t until running a training centre in the 1990s, where Jo set up City & Guilds horticultural qualifications (as she has also recently done at STAA, too) that her spark for growing ignited.

From growing up without a garden to growing on 1.75 acres, Jo’s love of all things floral really bloomed with the emergence of garden style floral arrangements. Nothing beats gorgeous, highly scented cut flowers fresh from farm to gate. Jo’s style shows that flowers don’t need to be flown across the world or sprayed with chemicals and wrapped in plastic to be show-stoppers.

This workshop will be run from the Strawbale Building on the Community Orchard. This unique building is hand-built from bales of straw and weatherproofed with clay sourced on site. It’s also off-grid, being naturally insulated by a living roof, with solar panels and a log-burner.

The Community Orchard is a garden maintained by Staa for educational purposes featuring a variety of mature fruit trees, many of them heritage varieties, and also includes a pond and a stream.

St Ann’s Allotments are Grade II* Listed by Historic England, and designated an Area of Importance for Nature Conservation. It is the oldest and largest are of Victorian detached town gardens in the UK, with over 700-years of history, 500 gardens, and 32 miles of hedgerow.

This event is organised by Staa, a small charity that manages a number of highly regarded projects across 30+ plots at St Ann's Allotments that provide community benefit and offer a wide variety of volunteering opportunities.

Host or Publisher STAA