Blooms that will bring smile to your face

Rob Smith loves his cut flowers, so much so that he has worked together with Dobies of Devon to produce a range of delightful blooms that will bring a smile to your face in the garden and in your home.

The Dobies and Rob Smith Cut Flower range brings varieties which are the perfect mix of texture, colour and scent to make your home displays of flowers sunny and sassy. Arrange them in an artisan creative style and bring the sunshine indoors.

Rob will be familiar to readers as the winner of the BBC2’s ‘Big Allotment Challenge’ and admits it was an incredible experience.

He knows that producing your own food can be rewarding and fun and he has a real passion for heritage veg.

Speaking about his work with Dobies he explains that for him cut flowers are addictive, from easy to grow calendula and borage to the more particular larkspur: “I’ve chosen varieties I grew on the Big Allotment Challenge, so you can have a go at them and even challenge your gardening friends to a grow off“, he says. He points out that there are companion plants to help encourage insects, flowers to use for cooking and of course, plenty of beautiful flowers to grow, cut and enjoy.

The range has launched with these two varieties but there are more on the way and we will bring you news of those as they are introduced.

Rudbeckia ‘Green Wizard’
Green Wizard (left) are a fantastic cut flower.  They form perennial plants up to 4-5feet height, with gorgeous green foliage.

The magical thing about this wizard, is that the flowers have no petals!!!

The sepals (the bit that normally protects the flower when it’s a bud) are larger than normal, and look like green petals when it opens.

This variety produce large black cones with a golden crown, they look amazing in the garden and in a vase.

They also work well as dried flowers, as they have no petals to dry. Truly magical.

Height 150-200cm (4’11”-6’6”).                 

Aquilegia Nora Barlow Mix –new on Dobies for 2016  
A favourite of Rob’s in the early spring (pictured right).  This mix will give you a beautiful mix of solid and bi-coloured flowers with that unique flower shape.  Aquilegia will produce sprays of flowers for a good couple of months on upright stems that are just begging to be cut and used in your home.  All of the plants you get from this mix are perennial, they will come back again and again to reward you with a flurry of cut flowers.

Flowers May-June (Year 2). Height 63-90cm (25-36”); spacing 38cm (15″).

Click here to find out more about these new introductions from Dobies.