Layne Angelo
Layne is an avid gardener, seed starter, and engineer who loves learning and applying her technical knowledge to all areas of life, including gardening and growing flowers. She and her husband grow a variety of annuals, perennials, and shrubs on around an acre of land near the James River in Williamsburg, Virginia. Layne has a Bachelor of Science in Bioengineering and is the Seed Manager at The Gardener’s Workshop, the creator and co-host of the Seed Talk with Lisa & Layne podcast, and the co-creator of the Cool Flowers from Seed to Harvest online course.
Lisa Mason Ziegler
Lisa Mason Ziegler is a cut-flower farmer, author, and teacher of cut-flower gardening and farming. Lisa has been farming since 1998 in Southeastern Virginia on the Ziegler family homestead. In season her urban three-acre farm produced thousands of stems of flowers each week. Lisa has sold her flowers to florists, supermarkets, at farmers markets, and her members-only on-farm market.
Lisa authored Cool Flowers: How to Grow and Enjoy Long-Blooming Hardy Annual Flowers Using Cool Weather Techniques (St. Lynn’s Press, 2014), the award-winning Vegetables Love Flowers: Companion Planting for Beauty and Bounty (Cool Springs Press, 2018), the award-winning The Cut Flower Handbook (Cool Springs Press, 2023), and The Easy Cut Flower Garden in 2011.
In 2018 Lisa created and produced Flower Farming School Online. She has gone on to become the publisher of other industry leaders' online courses including additional Flower Farming School courses, Farmer-Florist School Online, and Florist School Online. Lisa is the owner of The Gardener’s Workshop; an online garden shop offering her books, online courses, and the gardening tools, seeds, and supplies she uses in her gardens. Her podcasts, Field & Garden and Seed Talk, and many videos are also hosted on the website.
Lisa has been a member of the Association of Specialty Cut Flower Growers since 2001 and served as the Mid-Atlantic Regional Director from 2016 to 2019. She is also a member of the Garden Communicators International.
Show Notes
It pays to plan ahead when it comes to ordering supplies and seeds.
Cool flowers may take a little more time and thought to schedule, but once you figure out the timing, they’re absolutely worth it.
Lisa shares details about her soon to be available brand-new Jumbo Calendar Journal — a tool that helps you map out what, when, and how to plant, with space for your own notes and custom instructions so it works for your garden, not just a generic plan.
We also touch on the different timing needs for biennials, perennials, and hardy annuals. Layne mentions the process of stratification and why it’s important to be aware of it for certain seeds.
If a batch of seed didn’t germinate — even when you know it’s fresh and from a reputable supplier — the best thing you can do is go step by step through what you did. Most of the time, you’ll discover the problem, whether it’s temperature, water, soil-it’s usually easily solved.
We talk about how heat mats can be a game changer for seed starting, with tips on adjusting them for different crops.
If your garden is for cutting and not landscaping, don’t leave flowers standing. If you’re not saving seed, cutting regularly before plants go to seed will keep your blooms coming or be a maintenance preventative.
Finally, Layne reminds us that it’s not just about what to do, but understanding why you’re doing it. Take what you learn from others, adjust it to fit your needs, and don’t be afraid to experiment along the way.
