Isn’t it time we thought about flowers as we increasingly do about food: valuing seasonal, fresh, locally grown, unusual varieties over mass imports?
At Flowers from the Farm, we think so.
Your first reaction on receiving a bouquet of flowers is, naturally enough, to bury your nose in them and to inhale. Delicious scent is what we all expect but all too often we are disappointed. This is because most commercial flowers will have been bred to withstand the rigours of international shipping and mass production rather than to possess intoxicating fragrance. Today, an estimated 90% of the flowers sold through florists, supermarkets and wholesalers are imported not just from Holland but flown in from growers as far afield as Ecuador, Colombia, Kenya and even Ethiopia.
Now, dip your nose into a beautiful bouquet of fresh cut flowers grown by your local British flower farmer, and the experience is altogether different. You will be enveloped in a heady concoction of delicious fragrances, charmed by their natural, soft beauty and fascinated by their variety. When you see or smell a British flower bouquet, you can be transported by fond, childhood memories of flower-filled gardens.
Flowers grown by your local flower farmer will be freshly picked and locally delivered, giving you flowers as fresh as possible and saving thousands of travel miles. Each individual flower will have the natural, unique, informal beauty that can only come from small-scale, local production. Your local flower farmer grows with the seasons and is motivated by the excitement of harvesting the first of the sweet peas, dahlias, garden roses, anemones, larkspur, snapdragons and cornflowers rather than by predictable, year-round crops.
Perfumed and perfect: summer sweet peas.
Traditional and delicate country garden varieties.
Grown with care not chemicals.
All flowers are lovely and there’s room in the world for all of them. So why should you seek out your local flower farmer to buy locally produced blooms, growing in their natural season?
Our members grow mainly outdoors without additonal light or heat and choose flowers that love their particular growing conditions. Picked fresh from the flower plot and arranged for you, there is no need for our flower farmers to extend vase life with chemicals. Our members care for their soil, enrich the land, create food for bees and butterflies and generate rich habitats for soil microbes, inverterbrates and everything that depends on them.
British flowers travel a fraction of the miles covered by their imported cousins. People talk of ‘Dutch flowers’ but while The Netherlands does grow flower crops its flower auctions are a relay for flowers grown across Europe as well as for those air-freighted thousands of miles from South America, Africa and Asia. Approximately 86% of the UK cut flower market is currently made up of imports.
We don’t choose our flowers because they’ll produce a predictable acre of identical blooms. We grow small quantities of a large number of varieties because we think they do something wonderful to arrangements. Stems may wiggle and twist, tendrils may reach and sprawl and this natural character is exactly why we love them. We grow flowers to make you say “ooooh!”.
By supporting your local flower grower, you’re also supporting your local ecology and economy. Locally grown flowers can be picked at the perfect stage straight into water and don’t have to travel dry through the commercial supply chain, so will reach you almost as fresh as those you’d pick directly from your garden, and without the need to wrap them in plastic.
Using the best cut flowers which the UK season provides, our members’ bouquets, bunches and buckets bring a garden into each and every vase. Enjoy the seasonal bounty at close quarters and don’t forget to inhale the intoxicating scents!
If you love flowers, you’ll love Flowers from the Farm and the beautiful blooms its members produce: flowers that relax in a vase rather than stand stiffly to attention, which look and smell divine and which you’ll struggle to find in the commercial supply chain. Flowers that tell stories, flowers just for you.
Freshly picked into water, treading lightly on the planet.
Because they're beautiful.
For variety and few flower miles.
We want to get more British grown blooms back into vases across the country. Find out more about UK seasonality and why buying local is always a good idea.
Rebecca Swinn and Anglea Coulton explain how the carbon footprint of a bouquet bought from your local flower farmer is likely to compare with that of an imported bunch.
Watch the seasons turn with our ever-changing array of sensational flowers and fabulous foliage in this gallery of images from Flowers from the Farm members.
Check our events diary to find workshops, pick your own sessions, pop up shops and more. Learn more about working with British flowers whether you’re a new floral enthusiast or a florist wanting to find out more about sustainable flowers and arranging techniques.
