In February 2021, we celebrated our first flowery decade. Read more about how Flowers from the Farm began, its achievements and how through collaboration and hard work we continue to spread the word about beautiful British blooms.
FFTF founder and Honorary President, Gill Hodgson, explains why she started the organisation and how it’s proved to be a much more vigorous grower than she ever expected.
Gill explains how Flowers from the Farm has grown beyond what she ever imagined when she set it up in 2011.
Since 2011, FFTF has welcomed over 1000 member businesses. With an ethos of friendliness, and of collaboration over competition, FFTF has kept these values at its core.
Overwhelmed by the public response to her scented British bunches at Driffield Farmers’ Market, Gill turns her passion for flowers into a business. At her breakfast table in Yorkshire, she decides to set up a flower growers organisation. Gill and her daughter are the first member business with Fieldhouse Flowers.
After 7 years at the top, and 540 member businesses later, Gill becomes Honorary President of FFTF. Regional co-ordinators lead activities in their areas across the UK. Paula Baxter (Millpond Flower Farm) and Linda Clark (Spotted Dog Flower Company) are appointed the first Co-Chairs for FFTF.
Bouyed by FFTF’s gold medal haul at county and RHS flower shows, Gill secretly submits an application for RHS Chelsea. More than 90 members pull together with flower donations, logistics and helping hands to build our “Going to Market” display and we’re ecstatic to win gold. This spotlight on FFTF takes membership numbers to nearly 600.
Flowers from the Farm launches its own special weekend with members inviting the public onto their flower farms to see where their cut flowers are grown, and to meet the people who grow them. More than 100 members take part with pick your own days, opportunities for tea and cake in their flower plots, workshops and demonstrations. Membership numbers pass 700.
Covid crisis hits the UK. Lockdown sees demand for locally grown bouquets surge as people look to support small independent businesses and to send floral hugs to friends and family. Diversity Action Group is launched in response to the Black Lives Matter movement. Diversity scholarships set up to encourage BPOC flower growers.
5 Diversity Scholarhships awarded. FFTF recruits its 1000th member in the week of the 10th anniversay. Gill confesses amazement and delight at the growth in the movement she founded at her breakfast table. Flowers from the Farm now has members in every part of the UK, including a growing number in Northern Ireland.
Working with renowned floral designer, Shane Connolly, Flowers from the Farm was proud and delighted to make a gift of seasonal, locally grown blooms from all corners of the UK to decorate the Coronation.
Flowers from the Farm was the first organisation to build a Chelsa floristry display without the use of floral foam – proving that it’s possible to arrange flowers using more sustainable methods and still achieve fantastic results.
In 2020, in response to the Black Lives Matters movement, a group of members came together to form our Diversity Action Group to ensure that the policy of including people who might otherwise be excluded or marginalised is at the heart of how we move forward.
Views on our work from across the world of horticulture and floristry.
Alan Titchmarsh: "You're doing a wonderful service to this country in making sure that people who grow flowers in Britain manage to find an outlet."
Jonathan Moseley: "What a journey to receive this fantastic recognition within the floristry industry and within the country, promoting beautiful British flowers."
Rachel De Thame: "We're now so much more aware of British home grown flowers and people really want to use them and see the benefits of them in so many ways."
Simon Lycett: "Your bunches and blooms are more life affirming than almost anything else I can imagine."
Philippa Craddock: "Thank you from the bottom of my heart for growing and providing such a beautiful array of flowers. You certainly make my job so much easier."
Shane Connolly: "Flowers grown in Britain have roughly 95% smaller carbon footprints than imports so it stands to reason that this is the way forward. Flowers from the Farm is a leader and an inspiration."
Flowers from the Farm is an organisation which quite literally keeps on growing! We’re looking forward to the next decade and getting more British grown blooms into vases across the country.