Frary's Fresh Flowers

The first question has to be why?
Why do I want to grow flowers for a living ?
Why flowers - why not vegetables which everyone seems to be getting into at the moment.
Because - when it comes down to it - I enjoy growing flowers so much more than I enjoy growing vegetables. That's not totally true I love growing flowers and things that you can eat raw, herbs like fennel and chives, peas - which have nice flowers and which can be eaten straight from the plant and berries particularly raspberries and brambles - I love eating raspberries and brambles from the bush. Basically I'm a grazer - forget being a hunter gatherer - I'm a grazer.
I grew up being taken bramble picking every autumn - almost every year with my mam (and granny too earlier I think) and we knew all the best local areas around old clee to pick brambles. And then I used to take the kids brambling around Seaton in Aberdeen - along the Don at Brig of Balgownie was the best palce by far - I loved it and I hope the kids did too - noithing beats eating the berries straight from a bramble bush. And then when you take them home and soak them overnight - and all the worms float out you think of how many worms you must have eaten yourself while picking - and you couldn't care less. Brambling is the highlight of any September - and it's a good few years since I've done it as the kids are now grown (youngest is twenty) and we don't live in Seaton. We haven't looked round for brambles in our new place yet. Have to try this year - although I'm overseas for most of September - that is the other main reason - I work overseas (8 weeks overseas 4 weeks home) and have done for the last 4 years. I kidded myself that everyone wanted the money more than they wanted me around so everyone was happy. Only I know that isn't true from my side at least. the 4 weeks off is great but how can I plant much when I'm away for 8 weeks at a time - I plant seeds and by the time I'm home the seeds have sprouted, grown and died again... I can't grow things, grow a business and work overseas something has to give and I've decided that it is the working overseas. The wee uns only have another couple of years at University so once they are finished and the banks paid off I'll be back to the UK. In the meantime I have 2 years to learn and think and plan and gain some expereience - two years is too long...
The other bery picking experience I have to write about sometime is strawberry picking - your Ma filling her handbag with berrys while you stuff as much down your own throat as you put into the baskets. I love berry picking. If I could make the kind of money I need for this life with just picking berries I think I could be very happy.
Pick your own - that's another possibility - pick your own berries and flowers...
And now I find that I haven't answered the question - why I want to grow flowers - I've answered the question - why I don't want to keep on working overseas. Next post will be why I want to grow flowers for a living - for sure.

Tied in with Sunday's note is my favourite gardening joke - I'm starting to sound like "thought for the day" - just filling in time while I wait for some more Photos from the Aberdeen contingent.
So - the joke...
A vicar is strolling along on a glorious sunny day. From the side of the road he spots a beautiful big garden. There are neat, close trimmed bushes, luscious red roses, white lilies and every kind of flower all arranged in intricate patterns forming wonderful shapes - a real show garden. He spots the gardener standing further the road gazing over the beautiful garden.
The vicar strolls along amazed at the blaze of glory and stops by the gardener.The gardener notices the vicar, smiles and nods.
The Vicar says and says, "Ahh what a beautiful garden, truly beautiful.
What a wonederous work of God is this."
"Aye," smiles the gardener, "But you should have seen it when he had it all to himself."

As on many Sundays when thinking about the garden I am reminded of my one of my favourite misquotes; namely "Closer to God in a garden than anywhere else on earth."
It's a misquote because the quote should actually be the 4th verse from a poem by Dorothy Frances Gurney that goes a little something like this:
"The kiss of sun for pardon,
The song of the birds for mirth,
One is nearer God’s heart in a garden
Than anywhere else on earth."

I prefer my misquote because that is how I remember from the stone plaque in my Grannie and Grandad's garden. Until I was about 14 I used to go to church most Sunday mornings (Park Congregationlist) then from there to my Grannies house - now I think about it it was always Granny's house though Granny and Grandad both lived there the enitre time I went there.
So I get to granny's house for Sunday lunch to watch the Sunday morning farming programmes (that's where the other ambition - to be a pig farmer - comes from)with the adverts for herbicides - pre-emergent herbicides I seem to remember - or something like "tumbleweed" - and then there would be something like Department S, the Baron, Jason King or Dangerman.
By then the roast would be ready - roast with roast potatoes, gravy and boiled carrots and cabbage. No TV while you ate. Then watch Grandad play paitence while I would read the "True Detective" or the Sunday papers that were hidden under the cushions of the sofa in the front room. I rarely went in the front room and only went upstairs once in my entire my life. Smell of coal fire, outside toilet too. Where was I... oh yeah the garden - well outside there was a patch of grass - not a lawn by any stretch - at around twelve foot by four feet (doesn't seem right to use metres for a memory) with some shrubs around the edge. I remember a gooseberry bush - I never really liked gooseberries- and a lilac and, buried among the grass was the plaque, with the poem.
And bluebells - there were bluebells in my memory but probably not in reality - more likely a few daffodils. I definitely remember Queenie's wild cats that lived next door - under the shed - there were always a few kittens hanging about.
Anyhow that was Sunday - often one of my aunts or cousins would turn up in the afternoon or my Mam come round to pick us up. If we were lucky I was sent with a pudding bowl to the ice-cream factory at the end of Donnington Street for sixpence worth or a shillings worth of icecream with wafers and then a cold meat tea - why was Sunday evening always cold meat, cold potatoes and a salad (i.e. lettuce leaves, quartered tomatoes, cucumber slices - half boiled eggs - no dressing - though you could add salad cream if you can stand that muck), pork pie if you were lucky, sometimes scotch egg, very occasionally sausage roll and some sliced meat - haslet (love it,) brawn (alright), or tongue - hate sliced tongue (beef tongue rolled in gelatin and then sliced across the roll - I'm shuddering even now). I still prefer meat cold to reheated or refried (which annoys my wife and has only taken 20 years of insistance that I prefer cold meat to get her to leave some cold for me for Sunday tea). Now we have crinkle cut chips too - and mayonaise - for a traditional Sunday tea if there is plenty of roast left over which there rarely is.
Once I turned around 13 or 14 I rejected the church (following the insistence of a Sunday school teacher that you can't be a good person if you don't go to church - it was a congregationalist church after all) and soon rejected god too and have never felt the need to go back (apart from the occasional monkey urge to fit back into a heirachy and have someone take all responsibilty away from me - but more about Desmond Morris and the Naked Ape at another time.) Then a few years later it was me taking Granny or Grandad out - pushing them in a wheel chair to our house or to Cleethorpes.
But sometimes on a Sunday I remember that plaque in the garden - being "closer to God in a garden than anywhere else on earth" - and cold meat teas and I know why I like bluebells and gardens.

For an update on this poem please see two other posts I have made about it. Teh first is the poem in full.

http://frarys-fresh-flowers.blog.co.uk/2009/01/11/the-poem-in-full-5358976/

http://frarys-fresh-flowers.blog.co.uk/2009/02/09/closer-to-god-in-a-garden-rabbits-5540653/

Over the last few months I've been reading entrpreneurship books, small business books and "starting a nursery book" along side the normal seed and plant catalogues and the flower books esp. Dr Hessayons "Expert" guides.
The latest is Donald Trump and Robert Kiyosaki - "Why we want you to be rich" - a Father's day pressie - thanks Jackie.
They are both seriously rich - Robert Kiyosaki is the writer of Rich Dad Poor Dad in case you hadn't heard the name (I know I hadn't heard the name). The book is basically about mindset - self belief and financial education - if we can do it so can you.
What I found the most interesting so far is their belief that basically my dad's generation could rely on the state or their ex-employers to look after them when they retire. My generation will need to look after themselves (because the state and employers won't be able to afford it) and the next few generations are totally on their own. Don't even bother with the state and getting a good job etc is totally out - you need to look after yourselves because no-one is going to look after you.
This is very depressing - probably true - and they have the stats to back it up, but still depressing. Schools prepare you for employee status - or specialist status if you're fortunate to be brainy. While it is possible to get rich as both of these (our ex-CEO was on around $5 million (plus share options)) you now need to be seriously rich - seriously, seriously rich - to ever hope to retire nicely. Simple ecomnomics show that to be true - if interest rates are around 5% then you need 500,000 quid in your pension fund to get £25,000 a year in pension., Now I know that this is a good income - but it is less than the national average. And once you retire the value of your pension is going to go down not up - likely.
In other words I have to try to save half a mill if I'm going to retire on less than I earn now. Now my kids are going to have to save a million - a million pounds!!!! by the time they retire - so they are going to have to get seriously rich.
Fortunately I think they may do it. Maybe I will do it if Frary's Fresh Flowers ever takes off. They're smart, good-looking and I'm trying to instill in them - they need to work for themselves.
I was raised with the previous generations mind set and it's only the last few years I even contemplated working for myself. It is not part of my (immediate) family's history. All of my brothers and sisters (and parents) were employees. My wife is an employee - in fact my kids are employees too at the moment. But I'm plugging away at them about the advantages of working for themselves and not being a wage slave so that, hopefully, they will not wait as long as I have before even thinking about striking out on their own.
Actually we did (me and my wife) have our own business for almost a year - a farm in Fiji - 7 acres - but a military cooup knocked that on the head - and I rack that up as the first failure. I'll write about this farm - with photos - in future posts.
But here comes the depressing part. They, or I, can only get that far ahead if the vast majority of the world's people are well below that level - there is only so much room for so many seriously rich people in the world. Most of the world - 99.999999% of the world are never going to be rich - hell, loads are never even going to be comfortable let alone rich. And that is depressing.
I always thought I was a socialist but maybe I was just poor - the politics of envy.
Anyhow the world has been running on permanent growth up to now - that is the delusion of win-win-win in that the size of the pie - the amount of money and things in the world - has been increasing each year - and maybe that can keep going for a few more years so that I, and the kids - can get rich while every one else gets more too - but that won't keep going indefinitely - of that I am sure.
Plus not everyone did have more - we in the UK and the West have had more and more each year by subsidizing ourselves with the wealth of others, mining the planet and - even worse - mining the soil. Others have less so that I can have more - I'm a consumerist not a socialist.
Seeing yourself as others see you - never a pretty sight.
So back to The Donald - there is an awful lot of back-slapping in the book each of the author telling us how good the other one is - but the basic tenet is kind of inspiring - We want you to be rich because, if you aren't, you're screwed.

By far and away my favourite link when thinking about the garden are the Thompson and Morgan websites.
http://plants.thompson-morgan.com/ for plants and http://seeds.thompson-morgan.com/uk/en/ for seeds. If I'm planning for the business I'll usually look at the commercial site too - http://wholesale.thompson-morgan.com/uk/en/?set-country=uk - for plug plants so that I can try to work out how much things cost and what they could be sold at. I have found Thompson and Morgan seeds to be the widest range and the most reliable giving me the highest percentage of seedlings so far. Overall I've tried Nicky's nurseries, Suttons, Unwins, Johnsons, Town and Country, Mr Fothergills and eBay.
I was, therefore, very pleased to see that an independent seed trial by Gardening Which agreed in the germination rate tests. This is T&M's own press release http://seeds.thompson-morgan.com/res/pdf/press/TMUK0810.33.All%20Round-1.pdf - but I also read the same in Gardening Monthly in their review of the Which trials.
Most disappointing of all the ones I've tried are eBay (various sellers) but that is mainly because of the lack of information that arrives with the different seeds compared to the information on the commercial seed packs.
That's not to say that T&M seeds give perfect results everytime but I think that this is more due to my lack of experience in applying the necessary conditions (wrong temperature usually - on top of the boiler in the outhouse just didn't work too well):
stuffing up the planting out (e.g. the pumpkins which have died everytime I have put them out)
the climate in NE Scotland (Sweet corn and french beans have never got higher than a few inches before the summer has finished and the cold has stunted them to face eventual death in autumn)
the damn slugs or rabbits have got to them because I haven't grown them to a decent maturity before shoving them in the ground in the main part of the garden (lupins - everytime the rabbits and or slugs get to any lupin that is under 2ft tall when I plant out first year seedlings)
rather than the seeds themselves. This is probably true for the other companies too - either not enough instructions or I haven't been rigorous enough - and, as I said - for ebay it is generally the lack of instructions that condemn them to death at my hands. So to sum - I recommend T&M seeds - and I haven't even had commercial sponsorship to say that - though i am open to bribes.
Plug plants - next post I think - JD Parker, T&M or Van Meuwens usually - and that is mainly because of the freebies - I am still a real sucker for giveaway and freebis - but that's another post.

A quick confession - I like looking at pictures of our flowers from the garden - but don't like taking them. And I've no idea why.
Now Jiurie takes lovely photos and I'l try to share some of hers (and mine) when I don't have much to say - a picture is worth a thousand words after all.
Here's tulips from the garden in April 08 - beautiful flowers and lit from one side - she gets them big and sharp. I try to be all arty and look for the 'interesting angle' whereas jiurie just takes the photo and gets on with the next one. Ask the kids about me taking photos - think I'm David Bailey and go for the high position or the low position - the sun behind etc - overthink it I reckon.
Anyhow tulips from the garden - first year of growth (naturally - they're big and bright) - because next year they won't be as big because we haven't force fed them artifical fertiliser - the steroids of the plant world. However we did leave the leaves on for as long as I could so the bulbs may have built themselves up naturally - we'll see.
I mean the black tulips (Queen of the Night) from last year also didn't receive any fertiliser but still managed to throw up a fair display this year - those that the slugs didn't nip out or the rabbits have a go at - the wild rabbit youngsters like to nip at young plants just to see if they are edible - tulips aren't but they won't know that until they've given them a go. Unfortunaely the wild rabbits where we live bring up a litter every year - sometimes twice a year... so cute the wee un's until they have a go at the tulips - drifting Neil - drifting - FOCUS, FOCUS - David Bailey - yeah - I'll put more details on t'others I can find.
These are tulips - a couple of white parrot tulips in there too - but barely open and didn't fluff up like they do in the pictures in the flower brochures - filled in nicely between the end of the daffs and the start of the Alliums in May.

I favour - psychadelic thistle.
Judy favors the sooo fresh approach
Jackie thinks "the logo needs completely changed. to do this best effectivly & to incorporate the the essence of the business, the business vaules and what it stands for need to be established so strong brand id can be created. ohhh exciting"
While Vika want to finger paint.
Bless.

Followup
Judy's future ex (okay - she said future son-in-law... she says son-inlaw, I say ex, son-in-law, ex, let's call the whole thing off...) can't tell what the psychadelic thistle is so they've come up with the second thistle - nice but needs more colour I reckon - let's adapt

What do we need to do
1 Find some land - preferably close or next to our house
- how much price wise, how much area
- garden centre or nursery or grower
2 Where do we sell
- direct from field, farmers market, carboot - Thainstone
- to intermediary - flower shops, supermarkets, traders e.g. knowles
- Are me and Jiurie sellers?
3 Describe our current garden
- Aberdeenshire climate
4 Decide what will grow where we are and will be commercial and won't be undercut by imports
- acid soils - heathers, rhoderdendrons
- local plants - mulleins - verbascum - already ready good in garden
- old style flowers that won't travel well - violas, sweet peas,
- flowers that are already commercial - snapdragons, verbena
- flowers we like but can they be used for cut flowers - fuschia - I used to hate them and now I love them
- roses - can we compete with imported? doubt it.
- Decide what to specialise in -or whether to specialise.
--- Medicinal herbs,
--- Local plants
--- Hardy exotics
--- Alpines
--- Shady perennials - Ajuga (Bugle) doing really well
------- Need to look at market...
5. Get the logo - psycho thistle - working on
6. Get the direction - the unique selling point - carbon neutrality - cost of importing flowers - air travel - I read somewhere that a bunch of roses from Kenya produces the same ammount of carbon as using a light bulb for 8 hours - need to find that out.
Local flowers for local people - there's notheing for the likes of you here.
7. Display garden - become the equivalent of IKEA for gardens
The competition
8. The source of materials - propagation - bought in liners or produced ourselves, seed or vegetative.

Anyway - 2 days after this I decided to write a list of things (and pictures) I think I could write at least a couple of paragraphs about related to gardens and trying to set up a business.
I only got to 92 different topics (forget about the subtopics) so hopefully I should be able to get at least a couple of months into this blog eventually - which will help I think - FOCUS< FOCUS< FOCUS at least I think that's what Jiurie mutters under her breath when I tell her my big plans for world floricultural domination.

So me and Jiurie (my wife of 23 years - Rotuman - that is Polynesian from Fiji) are looking for ways to grow flowers for a living - one day soon. Awful lot of plans and ideas and not too much happening.
Why is it not happening - because we still both have to work - me full time overseas (Libya for the last 8 months after 3 years rotating to Angola) and Jiurie part time in Aberdeen. Therefore - thanks to the UK draconian tax laws - I am only allowed back to Aberdeen 3 months a years before tax kicks in - 40% tax - not good.

Anyhow we want - okay I want - to grow flowers for a living. Jiurie, I think she's not so interested in the business aspects or the growing but in the garden maintenance (the only person I know who loves weeding!) and in the flowers in the house - cutting flowers. Lots of our email communication is reports from Jiurie of what is coming up in the garden or what is blooming - while I reply asking her to water the tomatoes or check the onions or whatever.

So why a blog - I'm going to try to document the thought process and actions about trying to set up the business - and what flowers we are trying - create some content that will eventually form the archive for the commercial website. Don't know why anyone would want to - or whether anyone will read - but a good way to keep focussed on the object - a life growing and selling flowers - we have plans - we have plans.