August and September are colourful months in the walled garden, not least because our four huge cut flower beds are in full bloom. We grow over 50 varieties of cut flowers from seed and this year we’ve added a selection of roses and herbaceous perennials.

Each of the beds has a name and colour theme; ‘Golden Peat’ is a mixture of hot shades and contrasting darker colours, ‘Glowing Heather’ is predominantly soft pinks and purples, ‘Icy Glen’ is our white bed interspersed with greens, and ‘Scotch Thistle’ is based around cooler blues and purples.

The planting combinations are carefully designed around complementary and contrasting shades and textures making them not only very productive but also beautiful right through the summer. Some of my favourite combinations are the wonderful Dahlia ‘Purple Haze’ with its subtly striped purple petals growing through larkspur ‘Fancy Purple Pictoee’, or the vibrant pin-cushion flowers of Scabious ‘Summer Fruits’ surrounded by Nicotiana mutabalis and the striking Dahlia ‘Vassio Meggos’.

Our beds are incredibly productive at this time of year, packed full of Cosmos, Cornflower, Nigella, Gladioli, Salvia, Delphinium, Didiscus, Ammi, Helianthus, Gypsophila and many more varieties providing us with thousands of flowers to decorate the castle and café. We grow about 50 metres of sweet peas each year, 6 varieties of all different colours, all scented and chosen for their quality as cut flowers. We also grow plants for their foliage such as the vibrant green Bupleurum rotundifolium and Moluccella laevis.

We don’t just keep them to ourselves though, you can buy fresh-cut flowers every day from our produce stall in the garden and we’ll happily cut to order. If you are a florist or require flowers for a special event please get in touch for a full list of what we grow and what is looking good now. We sell our flowers by the stem or by the bucket and happily take orders for just a single bunch right the way up to hundreds of stems, and we’ll even let you pick your own by appointment.

If you want a huge choice of Scottish-grown cut flowers with no air miles please drop in and take a little bit of the walled garden away with you to brighten up your home! Read about our #flowersforthefuture campaign and join in the conversation. 

Download our full cut flower list and email headgardener@gordoncastlescotland.com to place an order.