If you're someone who has a pressure for cut flowers, our environment and wants to make
the world more beautiful, you're in the right place.
Whether you're growing flowers for pleasure or profit, I'm on a mission to empower flower
enthusiasts and professionals to help change the world around me.
If you're just starting out and need to help me hand, or looking to scale a substantial
flower business, I'm your cut flower woman.
Welcome to the Cut Flower Publicness.
Today I'd like to welcome you to Eleanor.
It's T.V.
I was a T.I.V.Y but I hope I'm pronouncing that properly.
I want to tell you what Eleanor does because Eleanor can come and introduce herself.
Eleanor, tell us about your journey, how you got.
I know we spoke about a year ago, but where you are now and what you're up to and how
do you come to do what you're doing?
Okay.
Well, I'm known in the world as the P&E farmer.
So that kind of explains itself.
Yeah.
So I grow peonies.
Just peonies.
I have a field of about two acres of early mid-season late varieties that I grow for florists,
writing all of our organizations, and I do pop-ups.
So it's a commercial operation that I've started as a bit of a pivot out of being a
teacher because I really enjoy flowers, always love flowers, and got bitten by the gardening
bug in my 20s.
But only when I met my partner who had some land that it became obvious that I could do
something a bit more commercial.
Lots of ideas around that.
Over time, we discovered that focusing on one plant growing well and creating a really
good high-end quality product with that one plant would be a really nice thing to do.
So we started thinking about different plants, but then really, there was only one, wasn't
there?
I'm a huge peony lover, I don't know anybody who doesn't say they're my favourite flower.
When as soon as I say I'm a peony farmer, they go, oh, they're my favourite.
So I was wandering around my garden one January morning, and I saw the first shoots of the
red charm peony, which is a bacious peony, which I'd put in my garden a few years before.
And I thought, oh, flipping out.
Of course, peonies.
You know, they're so long-lived.
They're so high-end.
They're so beautiful.
And that's where it all kicked off from.
And we thought, well, why not peonies?
So we looked into it, contacted a guy over in Holland where I've got my original stock
from, and I said, I've had this crazy idea that I want to grow peonies on a farm.
And he went, great idea.
And so we went from there, really.
We talked about various varieties that were good for cutting.
I did a lot of research into different varieties.
I went around florists with a book of like peonies that I'd made up and said, which ones
do you like?
Which ones do you think your customers like?
Which ones do you think it's sell?
What are you bothered about in peonies?
And of course, they all said, if they opened reliably, that would be fantastic.
So, you know, because they are quite, they don't be quite naughty.
So we then went ahead and planted 4,500 pounds in potato ridges in our field, which I feel
it's only seven acres.
So we planted, yeah, just under 5,000 in November 2017.
Both Richard and I are still working full time.
And just went from there, really.
We didn't harvest anything for the first three years because you have to let them establish
we took all the flowers off in the first year, which is common practice in production, commercial
production.
And then we let them flower for a couple of years.
And then just as we were about to start with our first cutting year, guess what happened?
So that kind of put us in the, in a position where we were a little bit flummoxed because
we basically composted an entire harvest.
Well, we let them flower, we didn't compost them, but, you know, we should have been selling
in 21, in 20, so in the famous year.
So in 2021, we went for our first harvest.
And I'm so pleased to say that from there, we've just been without using the pun growing
quite nicely.
The plants themselves are so fantastic to grow.
So I think we made the right decision.
Yeah, I mean, like you say, it's a short season, but it is the flower that you mention every
we want.
Listen, if you say to a florist, you want some penis, there's no doubt they want peony.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
They are a pain sometimes, but that's when you pick them really.
I have known people pick them, wrap them and refrigerate them and to extend the season.
But I know that's possible, but now if we could extend the season to 12 months of the year,
that would be lovely.
I think it would be fantastic.
But there are quite a few different growers now.
This is really interesting stuff because down in New Zealand and over in Alaska, they are
getting into peony production for the low season in this part of the world, which I think
is amazing.
You know, I mean, they're kind of bombproof.
So, yeah, if you can have them 12 months a year, would they still have that same allure?
You know, no, they wouldn't know.
So, are you still teaching?
Yeah.
Well, kind of.
So, I was at the same school as I had in music for 10 years.
And when I asked for an interview with my head teacher last, well, I have to resign like
a term in advance.
So I left last spring, at the end of spring term.
And I said to him, right, I don't know if you know this, but I grow peonies and I'm
going to have to quit my job because I can't do both in like May and June.
And it was just absolutely impossible last year with my first cut in 2021.
So I said, right, so I'm leaving it Easter.
And he said, of all the things I thought he wanted to talk to me about, that wasn't
it.
And I didn't think you were going to say, basically, I quit because I'm going to go and be a flower
farmer.
So I said, yeah, but the thing is, what is that?
I am only growing one particular flower in this flower and he flowers in May and June.
So I can come back in kind of autumn to.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And I can do supply.
You know, what would you think that that would be?
You know, do you think that'd be OK?
Absolutely brilliantly.
And he said to me, yeah, that sounds great.
And I have basically, I do supply when I'm not busy in the field.
And I still love it.
I still get to spend time with the kids that I've known and the colleagues that I've worked
with for the last 10 years.
So if you want the ideal pivot, it's been absolutely perfect.
And really, really forward.
Yeah.
And of course, it keeps the wheels ticking over while, you know, in those slow ones.
I've said that.
Obviously, we run courses for flower farmers.
And my number one piece of advice is always transition out of a career or a job into flower
farming.
Do not give a flower.
Do not give you a job up on Friday and expect to be making Monday because it can't work
like that.
You know, if you're going to be a foliage farm, you've got three years.
If you're going to do peony, you've got three years.
And that's even before you start to make any revenue after you've made all the investment.
If you're going to be a flower farmer with a very mixed crop, you're going to go through
a massive, massive learning curve about where your markets are, what you're actually doing,
who you're selling to, what price you're selling at.
And just so much learning because you're dealing with loads of crops, then it's going
to take probably two years before you've even paid them even.
So you have to be realistic with, I mean, the investment you made in peon is the investment
that you make in everything.
No, I mean, we put in 33,000 tulips this year.
The 33,000 tulips investment is a lot.
You have to think, okay, how are you going to pay for that?
So yeah, that's the realisation.
But if you get it right and you can transition or you can have a role that allows you to be
flexible.
You know, I see lots of people who are sort of doing flower farming who have been doctors
or nurses or teachers or people who can have flexible lives.
And this really lends itself to you.
Yeah.
And I think, you know, the fact that I was a music teacher as well, I mean, I've always
been creative in that aspect.
I think that's kind of supports doing something this differently.
But I'll tell you something, you know, flower farming on only level is hard work.
And I think if you, if you, you know, are thinking, oh, I'm hacked off with my job, I
want to go and be a flower farmer so I can float around, you know, on a little patch
of ground, you know, then that it's not for you.
It's something that, you know, I'm on a farm on 18 hour days now for the next six weeks.
Yeah, 100%.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I mean, I've been platforming for 12 years and I do a lot of online teaching and I have
two businesses online teaching is part of it.
And then obviously I've got the platform.
So I'm actually got two businesses, which is an actual fact, you know, is it a seven
day a week job?
Yeah, a certain time to do it is do I have a big team?
Yeah, I do.
But do I work every day?
Yeah.
So, and so the year, you know, you wouldn't take your holiday in peak season, you'll be
taking your whole day now.
So yeah, it's, I mean, we love it and that's why we do it.
But it has, yeah, it's physically and mentally quite demanding and you have to get it.
Yeah, 100%.
I mean, you know, I often say to my partner, you know, we've worked seven days a week for
the last six years because, you know, on a Saturday and a Sunday, you've got, you know,
because we both were working full time.
He's also in education.
So it was the case of it was, you know, work all week and then it's, you know, lay in
membrane or disboding or putting into pull.
And that's difficult as well when you've got to work with the weather.
You know, you've got five days a week when you're working, it can be absolutely glorious
outside.
It's Saturday and Sunday, it hammers it down and that's it.
You've lost another week.
You know, and you're like, you're there at work on Monday going, oh, well, we didn't
get that done.
Oh, I mean, I think it's stress levels there as well when you're trying to move from one
type of employment to another, you know, two businesses sounds absolute madness to me,
rather than I don't know.
I know sometimes people can do ask myself exactly that.
So what does a day look like for you now?
Like a day on the peony farm?
What's the first thing you do?
Okay.
So today I was about to feel about seven.
It was glorious today.
It's been beautiful.
I've actually picked my first peonies today.
I've taken my first cut of my red charms.
I've pulled about 300 stems off.
Yeah.
So I have been cutting today and that will mean the start of now me cutting for the next
five, six, five weeks, you know, while the early is the mid to the late or come online.
Of course they all come together.
Of course they do.
You know, no such as early middle and then you know, you know, yeah, I did that.
And then I came back had a cup of coffee and answered a few emails because obviously people
are starting to go, you know, when can I have them?
Have you got this wedding?
It's been so cool this year.
You know, I, you know, my whites are at least a couple of weeks away and a lot of people,
a lot of weddings this weekend and next weekend.
So, you know, just trying to keep in touch with people just to let them know where things
are at.
So quite a lot of communication goes on.
When we've done this, I've got to go back up the field because you never know what my
term is quite warm afternoon.
So I just go and have another look over and make sure I haven't missed any on the field.
And then, yeah, so this, that will kind of be a pre-season.
And then, coming to the main drag of it, it will be a case of packing boxes first thing
in the morning, then getting up, doing the first cut.
If I'm going to a farmer's market, I'll go up to a farmer's market, come back, then again,
communication, that's huge.
You know, I spend a lot of time on email alone, you know, picking two, three times a day when
it's hot.
Then I get home and then I have to print out all my labels and book all my career for the
pick up from the next day, make me boxes.
Usually, you know, actually my flat-pack boxes, I make those up and get everything ready for
the next morning.
And then you just do it all again.
It's a sprint.
As I say, it's long hours.
But the one saving grace is that the picking bit actually doesn't take, you know, as I
say, that'll be four or five weeks and we'll just pull everything that's ready at the right
time into the fridge units and from there we pack the boxes and send them out when people
order them.
So that's quite handy.
We don't have to worry about, oh, this one got picked today, so it's got to go out tomorrow.
That's something I suppose that would be an nightmare.
Yeah, fridge units is absolutely for peonies, 100%.
Oh, absolutely.
So you've got earlier switch of red chimes, did you say?
And then what do you move?
And then corals, come on, next, coral charm, which are really, really popular.
I was advised by a couple of...
Well, I saw a lot of it on Instagram before I started and I thought, yeah, they're nice
and a lot of people were raging about this new variety, coral charm.
And I thought, go on then I'll bite the big one because obviously you've got that three
year waiting period.
I thought, are they still going to be in vogue three years later?
But they seem just to be gaining in huge popularity.
I think it's because they're just so open and big and they've got that lovely way that
they fade into apricot.
And I mean, some of the stems in the field today are like, I mean, to high, they're
such good growers and they're really, really popular.
So they're next up, but I'll be cutting reds and corals at the same time.
They overlap.
And then the reds will kind of finish up and then I'll be onto my white bed, like the
princess bride, which are my mid to late season.
Yeah, extremely popular again, whites for weddings.
And then the last big bed I've got the last big variety is called.
Here we go.
Peter Gervrion Vaganar, which is a doctorate.
It's kind of speckly, it's cute and kind of multi-stemmed.
So that goes in that sort of some kind of crossover and, you know, but sometimes it
depends on the weather.
They can all come within two or three weeks.
And it's just a case of get them off and get them in the fridge when they're ready.
Yeah.
Yeah.
That's the advantage.
Like say, they're ready, get them off.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So what are your top five peonies that you've already mentioned, though, is what's your
favourite, your personal favourite?
Well, I was thinking about this before we were chatting.
And I should say red charm because that's what started the whole thing off for me.
I was seeing this red charm in my garden and thinking, oh, bloody, how could you grow
peonies?
And they are brilliant and they grow.
They're bombproof in the field and they sell brilliantly.
Really love them.
But in my heart, I suppose the Princess Bride is one of those peonies that you just pick
it up when you go, oh, and it's, you know, it's got this beautiful, like light blush on
the outer petals and it's all frilly on the inside.
You know, the quintessential peony.
And I just love that.
I think that's gorgeous.
And red charm doesn't smell, doesn't smell as much.
But Princess Bride has got a tiny light scent.
So the ones I grow, they're my favourite, I'm really looking forward to growing.
I've just planted one called Gardenia, which I'm really looking forward to, which is smells
like gardenias, which is like a match made in heaven, right?
It's like a blush, herbaceous bomb and it smells like gardenias.
I'm really, really excited about growing that.
And I suppose the only other thing that I really love in my garden, I've got a Bartsella, it's
the only tree peony I haven't killed yet, which for a peony farmer is a bit embarrassing.
But, you know, the Bartsella, because I do like the big, really tree peonies.
I mean, obviously they're no good to cut, but they are fabulous.
For the garden.
Yeah, we don't grow any tree peonies for exactly that reason.
We just keep with mainslaying.
Yeah, they don't have the same length, do they?
So any tips on growing peonies, what would be your top three tips for growing peonies?
Patience?
Well, the top three, well, yeah, well, you say that, but yeah, I mean, there's a little
adage in the peony growing world that says, if you plant a peony, the first year it will
sleep, the second year it will creep and the third year it will leak.
And the idea is, don't mess about with them.
Once you've planted them, try not to move them, people say that they're, you know, there's
a term up here, be a mardie, they don't like being moved, they get grumpy at the hook tip.
But actually, that's not that true.
What you really need to do is if you're going to plant peonies, the main three things that
you need to consider is you must get six hours a sun.
It's as simple as that.
They must be in full sun.
If you want them to bloom well, they've got to have at least six hours.
They don't plant them where they're going to get part shade in the afternoons and things
like that because they just want sun to flower well.
I think everybody knows that you shouldn't plant them too deeply, but when they think
too deeply, they may think, well, what does too deeply mean?
Well, basically, you only want an inch of soil over the top of the crowns.
You know, the eyes are very, very temperature sensitive.
So you want them too deeply and people perhaps fall down by mulching, thinking that they're
protecting them and then that will stop them flying because eventually, if you keep mulching
and mulching, you're basically burying them deeper and deeper.
So don't mulch.
You can mulch around the crown where the roots are.
There's no need because they're very, very hardy, but don't put any more than an inch
or two inches of soil over the top of the actual crown because it won't flower very well.
And the last thing is that the only thing that we're really killing here is, as I say,
they're very hardy, but the thing that will kill them is to sit in wet because they are
tubers and a bit like you daily as a group of potatoes, if they sit in wet, they'll rot.
They'll rot away.
So you must have good drainage.
Yeah.
So they are the three hardened fastballs.
Don't plant it too deeply.
Good drainage and lots of soil.
Sounds like me.
I always say to people, dailyists don't like swimming.
So it's the same.
No, absolutely right.
Yeah, hence, in the field, we have them, as I say, planted in potato ridges.
So they are off any standing water.
So they get that extra drainage.
Yeah, I've seen that in the US, actually, in terms of peonies and dailias and potatoes,
in order to get in quick drainage.
I've never, yeah, that's interesting.
I mean, we sit on a gravel pit.
So drainage isn't our issue.
We've got the other issue is where we haven't got any water.
It's obviously very dry, but things like peonies and dailias love that.
That's like, which is why I say, you know, if you've got soil, it's a very wet.
It will be very, it will be hard work, yeah, for sure.
Yeah, yeah.
So one of my questions was going to be, if you weren't a peony grower, what would you
do?
But obviously you were a music teacher, which is there anything else you had a childhood
dream of being?
Excuse me.
When I was at 15, 16, I had it in my head that I was going to be a wardrobe mistress in
the theatre or film.
That's what I decided I wanted to do.
I was very keen on, so still I'm very keen on sewing and textiles and that kind of thing.
So actually, yeah, I went off to do a degree in music and theatre, but it just, you know,
somehow the music kind of took over and ended up, you know, in that world for 20 years.
But yeah, wardrobe mistress was my career of choice.
I could just imagine doing all the costumes and Harry Potter, and that would be amazing,
wouldn't it?
Oh, yeah.
Oh, that sort of thing.
Yeah, yeah.
That was what my childhood dream was to do.
Don't quite know why I didn't follow it up, but, you know, life goes in the way.
I think when you find the music or musical theatre or grammar or, you know, having had
a child who's done more musical theatre, it's very difficult then when you come out to
think, okay, what am I going to do now in your audition and do lots of different things?
And so the teaching route is very natural route to go, actually, when you need to actually
find a job and work and it's...
That's it.
Yeah.
It sounds a bit boring, but I kind of tell myself, well, the fact that I now have moved
into doing something at least, you know, for half the year, I've kind of gone back to
my, you know, you know, I'm not falling in the teacher trap.
It's easier to do, but I mean, teaching on the right day is one of the best jobs in the
world.
Absolutely.
You know, there's no feeling like, you know, being with the kids after a really fantastic
concert or something like that, you know, or a kid getting up on stage the first time
and, you know, you're there at the piano and you're like, right, go.
And you know, and they, you know, it is.
It's a brilliant, brilliant job.
I would never decry teaching.
I didn't see myself doing 15, but, you know, yeah, no, I married one.
I married mine, actually, which you shouldn't talk about, but that's my little secret.
That was a long time, 30 years ago, which we married 30 years, so I'm allowed to say
that now.
But it was one of those relationships and nobody thought it would last.
But we won't tell anybody.
That was very un-
Well, clearly it has to be.
I was nearly 18 and he was 24, but yeah, it was very un-
Yeah, that's the thing, isn't it?
So that's my little secret.
Love it.
So who's inspired you in your career?
Ah, now this is probably one of the most difficult questions that I've thought about.
When I was really getting into gardening, I absolutely adore.
And it's probably a cliche, but I love Monty.
I think Montydon is probably one of my favourite gardeners.
I love the way he's so enthused, but also so relaxed about how he goes about creating
his gardens.
And yeah, I suppose when I was just thinking about gardening as such, yeah, I liked Monty
and who else did I know I like?
Anyway, but when it came to thinking about doing this in terms of production, I was really
inspired by Joshua, who I got in touch with about doing it, because he was so enthusiastic
about his own business of cultivating P&E roots.
He was like, you know, you get involved with somebody who's dealing with people from all
over the world and they're buying all these different varieties that he's cultivated and
grown and he's also got a breeding programme.
And I just thought, wow, you can actually dedicate your entire life to one plant and
really build up a master that one plant.
And I thought that was really cool.
And I thought, yeah, if I'm going to do this, I don't want to.
You know, people ask me all the time, so what are you going to do when you're peeling
to finish?
What other flower are you going to grow?
And I'll go, well, that's not the point.
I'm the peeling farmer.
You know, I'm not really bothered about growing anything else.
I want to just do that and do that well.
So I found him really inspiring.
Since I've been cutting and selling, it's opened my eyes hugely to the British flower
movement, obviously.
I didn't realise how blinded we are in this country about the provenance of the flowers
that we have on our kitchen table.
I mean, I've always been a set of always love flowers.
So I've always got a bunch of something on the kitchen table.
Yeah.
So I started growing them in this country, did I realise how I did a bit of research, realised
what these other flowers were going through, how they were produced, what they were being
put into them, which I didn't necessarily agree with, how many air miles have travelled.
So more recently, I've been really inspired by the likes of Shane Connolly, Sabine D'Aral,
you know, florists that are really pushing this British flower movement, whether like,
come on people, we grow beautiful flowers in this country.
You know, you do not need to buy, you know, Ecuadorian roses or, you know, stuff that's
just shipped in from Holland, just because it's a habit.
You know, we need to break that habit.
We need to be thinking more stateless.
You know, and, you know, searching out people who are around us who are growing, you know,
beautiful British flowers.
And I think that movement is only growing.
So, yeah, each of those two, I think they're really inspiring people to just look a little
bit closer about what they're doing.
So I think it is a habit buying flowers.
People don't necessarily go to a church.
And also it's a lack of, for me, it's a lack of labelling.
So if you buy some super market flowers, they're not labelled anyway.
So nobody can make that educated choice about where they come away.
So why would they know that the flowers, the roses came from Ecuador?
The only time you see labelling in a supermarket is if they are British, you will see a British
flag on them.
So things like stocks generally, you will see them labelled, but rarely is anything else.
I've got some tulips on my kinsh trouble that I only bought because they've got a British
flag on them.
I've really started questioning where I buy my flowers from.
And I think that's something that has been a kind of positive upshot of not only growing
flowers because I love them and in the UK, but actually being part of this real growing
movement, I think it really is growing.
I mean, the king having British flowers in Westminster Abbey, I thought it was a huge
moment for the British flower movement.
And just so proud to be part of that.
I think it's something that's important.
I've loved more publicity around it, but it was a good thing.
We all noticed it, but it was needed to be bigger.
But it was the one thing, of course, as farmers, we would notice.
But hopefully that would help.
So any thoughts on your future plans?
What comes next?
More pianists?
More people in Italian?
Well, as I say, I've just...
Now, the trick is that when you want to think about the future of piano growing, you've
got to think at least three years in front because...
So what we've done is we've taken the plunge and planted another 2,800.
So it takes us up to about 7,500 cr.
That's going to be...
When those come online for harvest, that's when I think I'm going to get myself in a
little bit of a position.
How many stems is 7,500 plants?
Is it?
Well, if you only get one, you only get one flower of one plant.
You're talking 7,500 stems.
If you get two flowers, you're talking 15,000.
So on average, on my red charm bed, I'm probably getting 4 to 7, possibly 8 per plant.
So it's big numbers.
So that's our future plan is how to logistically deal with that.
Yeah.
How to get the platforms in place that will buy that number of flowers that isn't wholesale.
We don't sell wholesale because we want to be.
Yeah, I don't want to sound like an idiot, but I don't want to be a commercial grower
that then just flogs on to somebody else who then sells on.
There doesn't need to be a middleman between me and as a grower and British florists who
wants for British flowers.
That is one of the reasons why we haven't planted 30 acres.
Do you know what I mean?
It's almost like an artisan business.
It's high-end, every single stem is hand-picked at the perfect time.
And so logistically with 7,500 plants, that's my future plan.
It's getting me around that.
Yeah.
Yeah.
That was 5,000, around 33,000.
And if I mechanized it, I would have done.
But I didn't.
So we were manually.
Exactly.
And you can't actually do it.
Not sensible.
So we find that which side of the pool, the bulb, debate to you.
Oh, do you pull the bulb?
I do, yeah.
I don't think it didn't.
They didn't always work.
So some that we didn't pull or some that actually we didn't sell every single 32,000
stems.
So some were went over.
So the ones that went over, we cut the heads off and we've allowed them to get back into
the ground so the bulb is still there.
So we will use that next shift.
It may not be as tall, but we'll give it a go.
So the learning is obviously you've got to have, if you're going to grow 32,000 tulips,
you've got to have a market 32,000 tulips.
This is the same for you.
If you're going to go 40,000 stems, a pianist, you've got to know you can sell 40,000 pianists.
Yeah.
So because once they've gone, they've gone, it's kind of like it's a bit like it's parishable
products and that's what you've got.
So yeah.
And that's what I say to the team here every day.
I say, right, okay, we need to sell 10,000 stems this month.
Well, are we growing enough?
Where is it coming from?
So you can see this 10,000 stems.
So you know that if you want to sell 10,000 stems at a pound to make 10,000 pounds revenue,
have you got enough in the field to be able to do that?
And if you haven't, and you haven't got a market to sell it to, and that's an issue.
So yeah.
Yeah.
I've got like three years to worry about this.
So that's a great thing about here is, you know, they're not going to come online next
year.
So the thing is to build, hopefully that's the idea is that by 25, 26, we will have, you
know, that you're not a fan base.
You know what I mean?
That customer base has been established before the next lot come online.
I know I'm really pleased.
And don't forget, I think he does well outlive us.
So the thing about a piece of this is, isn't it?
It's almost like thinking about you have to think forward for a penny.
You know, who do you live your penis doing your will?
Because actually that's the real value that they live.
I remember we've been, they live as long as a donkey.
And I was thinking, well, that's why there's so many donkeys in donkey sanctuaries, because
they've outlived their owners, which is going to be the same as a penny.
So think about a piece of donkey sanctu you do.
Oh, just a very sweet little anecdote, anecdote that kind of reaffirmed that I knew I was
doing something kind of destined to be doing is that I went to visit my 80 year old uncle,
my dad, my mum's oldest brother.
And I said, oh, uncle Jeff, I said, I've done something crazy.
And I bought nearly 5,000 peonies and I'm going to grow them for sale.
And he goes, oh, well, that's the only plant I bought with from my mum's garden.
And I said, really?
He says, yeah, they're in the front.
Do you want to clump?
And I said, yeah, of course I want to clump.
Now, my grandmother died while my mum was pregnant with me.
So that peony route that I now have in my garden is a link to a lady I never knew because
that plant is so old, you know, I'm nearly 50.
And you know, I'm there with a clump of my grandmother's peonies that my uncle had made
sure he saved because they are so beautiful.
And so, you know, long lived.
And so now I have a peony from my grandmother who I never knew in my garden.
And it gets kind of rung true.
It's like, ah, maybe I am going down the right track here.
Maybe, you know, the peony farmer suits me a little bit.
So I want to thank you for coming over to this afternoon and talking to us.
It was really lovely to talk to you and get some advice on peonies and to understand,
yeah, the three things you do need to take into consideration on growing peonies.
But yeah, number one, I still think is patience.
Because I'm thinking three years from now, how could I possibly know what the market
is doing in three years from now?
Well, I'm hoping that the market will be more...
Well, I'm hoping that the market will be more...
I'm more than a peonies.
Well, peonies are more British, let's say in three years' time.
Yes, yeah, yeah.
I would hope so.
Yeah.
I'm a bit more awareness of people that we do grow peonies in the UK, you know.
You do, absolutely.
And we grow loads of beautiful flowers in the UK, you know, and let's support our British
flower growers.
Definitely.
Thank you very much for coming over.
It's really nice to talk to you.
Oh, it's been...
Yeah, it's been really good fun.
Thanks for us.
I look forward to next week's episode.
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