Cultivated a few -- sounds horrible (8)
I believe the answer is:
gruesome
'horrible' is the definition.
(I've seen this in another clue)
'cultivated a few' is the wordplay.
'cultivated' becomes 'grue' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'a few' becomes 'some' (both can mean a small amount of something).
'grue'+'some'='GRUESOME'
'sounds' acts as a link.
I am not very happy about this link. It may be part of another bit of the clue.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for gruesome that I've seen before include "Repulsive, horrid" , "Go, resume being revolting or gruesome" , "terrible" , "Sickening, macabre" , "Causing horror or repulsion" .)