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Hi, Pippa @ethicalblooms on the #flowersfromthefarm Instagram takeover this week. Having my hands in the earth; The love of growing flowers, sustainably and the joy of exquisite, scented blooms & textured foliage spurred a passion to make the greatness of local flowers & their enjoyment accessible to all. I hope I have inspired or encouraged you this week to find your local flower farmer or grow your own flowers to cut. It's the end of my week hosting and I want to give an appreciative thanks for your comments, messages and likes this week. Next week we celebrate 10 years of supporting British flower farmer's. Carole @tuckshopflowers @greenfuneralflowers will be your host. As an introduction, Carole has had an eclectic career including a miniature painter, a sock turner and a typist in a shed for a man who used to run camel races in Alice Springs. It's going to be a great week of celebration. I am around today for any questions. Just pop a comment below. Enjoy your Sunday. #ethicalblooms #britishflowers Photo by @ejphotography.uk
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Hi, Pippa from Ethical Blooms. Thank you so much for joining my first live today. Such a shame it was wet and windy. Plus I couldn't work out how to change the camera!! It would have been lovely for you to have seen the field full of flowers and grasses. Perhaps I will do another live in the summer. I've posted a video on IGTV of a quick tour. Well, it will be there when rural broadband plays ball. Still windy though. If I missed your question or you want to ask anything please comment below. Meanwhile, have a fab weekend. #ethicalblooms #britishflowers #flowersfromthefarm
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A year in flowers Although not much is happening as I wait for blooms on Ranunculus & Anenomes I'm already planning ahead. The dahlias come out of storage this week & go on heat for cuttings to double my stock. In spring I order spring bulbs for 2022 just as this year’s start to flower. In September its time to order dahlia tubers for next year, whilst sowing seeds ready for planting in November. It's a year-round job even if the flowers aren’t always there. I’m often behind, it’s a problem when you also have a paid job. Hedges still need cutting and new hedging (foliage) is sat in pots waiting to be planted. November is time to tidy away support fencing, pull up dahlia tubers for storage and prep the beds with a thick layer of local mushroom compost. I then cover beds to prevent weeds from growing. Although some beds will have September sown germinations planted in them. December to February is catching up time. Not just where I am behind on the farm but also the housework! February is the time I take my soil samples so I can understand the quality of the soil and what I need to add nutrient wise to promote good blooms. Then seed sowing starts and I find myself sowing every week dependent on the variety, the warmth and the light levels. (Some plants need short days, others long days to germinate and grow). If plants aren’t hardy, they are sown around six weeks before the last frost date. So, keeping records on the weather is vital. As are records on when plants flower, how many stems and any information relevant to the next year. Throughout the year a lot of time is spent deadheading, cutting flowers to dry and checking plant health. It won’t be long until I am heading into the field at dawn to cut blooms or to do bi-weekly compost tea brewing. Cutting flowers is an early morning job as you want them at their best so it's a 6am start. They then sit in a cool dark place in water for 24 hours. I think of myself as a personal artisan shopper, all hand-picking to order, to give you the best vase life and to allow you to experience flowers grown with love. Anyone fancy a live session tomorrow? It will be weather dependent, around 12.30 GMT.
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Hi, Pippa @ethicalblooms on the #flowersfromthefarm Instagram takeover this week. Ok, so the photo isn’t very flowery. But its one of the most important steps in growing flowers to sell. Having a plan of what goes where, how many seeds you need to germinate and what you can put in a bed once the crop is over is essential to meet demand. My farm is small. I have a 10x3 meter polytunnel, some perineal beds including roses, peonies, Achillea and Lupins, a mint bed, hedgerow for foliage and 7 beds all 7mx1.2m used for annual flower production. Its surprising how many plants you can get in a bed. A 1mx1.2m area can fit up to 47 plants (dependent on plant spacing required). Some of the 7 beds will have biennials (seeds sown in autumn for this year's flowers such as Scabiosa, Cornflowers, Stocks, Antirrhinum [snapdragons], Cerinthe Honeywort, Umbellifers. And annuals such as Cosmos, Sunflowers, Phlox, Monarda, Zinnia. There is also room for Tulips, Ranunculus and Anemone which are dug up at the end of season to make room for annual plants. Succession planting is key to getting the most out of the season. So, I plant Phacelia (loved by bees and great for vase life) and then pull this up to plant dahlias. The Ranunculus & Anemone’s will make way for flowers that love heat such as Basil, Tithonia and Amaranthus. Biennials & annuals need different spacing, so I have 15cm, 23cm and 30cm beds. The aim with cut flowers is to grow as many as possible in a small area without compromising the quality. For example, Foxgloves and Cerinthe would need 30cm spacing in your own garden. Because I am pulling the plants up shortly after flowering and feeding the soil bi-weekly I know I can grow them at 23cm. Learning is continuous. Whether it's researching cut flower trials to ensure my choices are productive with stems; last year, reading ways to eliminate pests/disease (lupin aphids & crown gall) took a lot of time. For now my focus is on seed sowing. I'm truly happy outside with my hands in the soil. On Saturday, I'm hoping to do a live event. If you have any flowery questions do post below. #ethicalblooms #britishflowers #flowersfromthefarm
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Hi Pippa @ethicalblooms on the #flowersfromthefarm takeover. Flowers from the Farm is 10 years old this year. This is an amazing feat considering the organization is run by volunteers. You can often find us at shows such as @the_rhs @chelseasflowershow @harrogateflowershow where we champion British cut flower growers across the country (and are known to win awards). There is certainly a resurgence in demand for British cut flowers as more people look for sustainable choices in their blooms. And with 1000 members across the country the opportunity to buy local has never been better. (See our website to find your local growers – link in bio). For me, being a member has many advantages. I have met and learnt from other growers through our annual conference, local networks and workshops. We all support each other with advice, sharing time and flowers for events and providing each other with flowers if we need certain types. When you grow flowers there is always something to learn. For the public we have our Facebook page alongside our website, where you can find blogs. Each August we hold the flower farmer’s big weekend. Last year we held it virtually and the videos are available under the event tab on our website. Flowering farming can be an isolating career as many of us work alone. Our colleagues and members are important because they can advise, empathize, brighten up a hard day when life or the weather throws a curve ball. We are all different. Some are purely wholesale @flowersatclowance and we all grow on differing size plots. Some grow in innovative ways: Catrinel @gorgeous.blooms grows on her roof, Sarah @tropaze_flowers & Sarah @sarahsgardens both grow in ways to accommodate their disability, Jackie @futureflowerfarm grows alongside her canal boat, Frances @clodhopperblooms uses the WW2 bunker in her garden to to store dahlias, Pat @the_forgotten_garden_flowers is off grid and uses rainwater. However, or wherever we farm we all do it because we love what we do. And what to share the joy of British flowers with you. Photos are some random ones around the farm last summer. #ethicalblooms #britishflowers #flowersfromthefarm
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Hi, Pippa @ethicalblooms on the #flowersfromthefarm Instagram takeover this week. Today I thought I would talk about sustainability. Taking responsibility to protect the ecosystem, by growing using organic methods and sustainable resources motivates me. Especially when, in two years I’ve seen fox families move into the field and had hedgehogs for the first time in the ten years. If I can encourage one person to grow their own flowers, shop locally or be ethical in their choices I would be delighted. British flowers have a 90% lower carbon footprint than imported flowers, buying locally grown flowers supports us as members and the florists working with British blooms. I recently wrote a blog (see the link in my own profile) on ethical choices when buying flowers. As part of this I worked out, for me to fly from Bristol to Rome is about the same as the carbon emissions produced from 10 Kenyan Roses imported to the UK. I’m not going to get on my soap box, there are many opportunities for me to be more ethical and sustainable in my own life. I just think we can all do better when it comes to flower choices and the impact the flower market has on communities and the land. The decisions and choices I make when growing flowers are done to protect the land where they are rooted. My passion to grow British flowers is balanced with my values to do as little harm as I can. I feel I have to protect and enhance the biodiversity I now have in the field. It doesn’t take long to see a difference the flowers can make to our important pollinators. A few rows of Zinnias draw in Painted Lady's; Tithonia and Phacelia are loved by so many different bees. Growing flowers in tune with the seasons is so fulfilling, it gives me a sense of pride. Of course, sustainable farming encompasses so much more than biodiversity but that's for another day. Cel @forevergreenflowerco has been highlighting sustainability on her grid. It's a must read for anyone wanting to understand the impact flowers can have on the environment. Photos: home grown bouquet, Zinnia, Tithonia, Phacelia #ethicalblooms #britishflowergrowers
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Hi, I’m Pippa @ethicalblooms and I am going to be your #flowersfromthefarm host this week. I’ve been a member of this wonderfully supportive and inspiring organization almost as long as I’ve been growing flowers to sell (this year is my third season). I live where the flowers grow, in Somerset. I am fortunate my Somerset barn stands on an acre of land. When I moved here 10 years ago, I started my own cut flower cottage garden with the aim to have easy access to my own jugs of blooms. I started growing flowers to sell, to share the beauty & richness of seasonal, eco-friendly flowers & foliage which are not found in supermarkets. The scent of Sweet Peas & British roses; quintessential cottage garden types (Foxgloves, Lupins, Cornflowers); big, blousy Dahlias; unusual seedheads; grasses picked from the farm’s meadow; aromatic herbs & foliage, you get the idea. If I’m not working in the field, I am working in paid employment. I have been a Registered Nurse for over 30 years. Nursing and farming have lots of similarities: ensuring I provide the best quality and care to patient’s isn’t much difference to growing the best blooms for you. They both require patience, dedication and a lot of handwashing (especially in the past year). I plan to focus on sustainable flower growing, the year ahead and highlight a few of our members this week. And perhaps a live session in the field on Saturday if you are interested? Please do ask questions as the week goes on. Most of us growers are or will shortly be starting to sow annual seeds so if you want advice, direction or have a question please do add a comment. I hope I can inspire and educate you on the beauty of British flower growing this week. #ethicalblooms #britishflowergrowers #britishflowermovement
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It's Paula from @millpondflowerfarm in my final day hosting this account I started Mill Pond Flower Farm with an empty field, totally overgrown & weedy. It was also empty of people. I worked with people all my life until I became a flower farmer. I resisted bringing people into the flower farm but somehow they still came, as volunteers, freelancers, passing flower farmers & visiting florists. When I was part of the Flowers from the Farm committee, we launched the Flower Farmers Big Weekend, designed to throw open the gates of our farms & get people in to see how flowers were grown in the UK. It was a brand new thing & I admit to feeling a certain pressure to sign up & open to the public. We cleared & tidied & baked cake, advertised our Big Weekend activities and took a deep breath. We sold out of tickets, our visitors loved what we did, & to my astonishment, so did I. The success of the weekend encouraged us to look at the business differently & build in opportunities for people to share what we do more often. Last year, we ran Cut Your Own Flowers sessions most weeks throughout the summer. We had visitors from our local village and from miles away. For some, it was their first trip outside the home since lockdown. There was a lot of emotion in our field and a few tears, friends meeting up and families celebrating birthdays. Cutting flowers in the open air caused their shoulders to loosen and smiles to return after a difficult few months. This year, we have a whole calendar of Open Days, Cut Your Own sessions, & we'll add workshops if we can. We're looking forward to having people in the field, & seeing them leave with buckets of flowers & the biggest grins. If you fancy a lovely few hours cutting flowers in our flower field, or a visit to find out what we do, you can book now on our website 😃 Thanks to everyone this week, for your comments, messages and encouragement. I've loved telling you a little bit about what we do half-way up a hill in the Scottish borders & how we got here. Like many of you we're still growing and developing, our story isn't over. Keep watching, listening & talking to us over at @millpondflowerfarm See you there Paula x
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It's Paula @millpondflowerfarm hosting for this week My first contact with @flowersfromthefarm was an Introduction to Flower Farming workshop in a Yorkshire village hall run by @fieldhouseflowers It was a great day exploring the world of flowers and Gill introduced an organisation that was open, honest discussion knowledge sharing and support skills and use them where we can. Unlike many other industries, there is an a huge amount of collaboration among independent businesses. I've brought my adult teaching background with me and use it to help other growers to develop their skills and their businesses. I started off with on-farm workshops, fantastic days with new growers full of enthusiasm. Through @flowersfromthefarm I met @carolsiddorn and @plantpassion & we started working together to learn from each other, then started sharing what we were doing as @businessofflowers Being in separate corners of the UK created a few challenges in organising in-person workshops, so three years ago, Claire led us in the move online, where we could deliver more sessions without leaving our own farms. We have a range of courses from a short introduction to our flagship The Business of Growing Flowers which runs from autumn to spring each year. We're committed to helping to increase the quality and quantity of UK grown cut flowers by supporting the development and success of other growers. It's currently unusual for flower farming to be a first career and we all bring experience and expertise along with us. It's really important to acknowledge our transferable skills and continue to use them. I've always loved teaching & helping other people to develop skills and understanding, it's an integral part of the way I work. Flowers from the Farm has lots of great people who share their skills in an accessible way, however you like to learn there'll be someone who can help. Look at the events calendar or search for workshops on the website. I've suggested some great members who run training below 👇 If you're at the very beginning of thinking about whether flower farming might be for you, we're running a free zoom session over at @businessofflowers next week.
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Hi there, it's still Paula from @millpondflowerfarm in the Scottish borders Where do I work? In the flower field, I'd like to answer, but the reality is that I spend a fair bit of time on a laptop, on the phone or inside, sorting, conditioning & arranging flowers. I started doing flowers in our porch, a 2m X 3m space that included 2 doors a sink, freezer, washing machine, coats, boots & dog leads. I would cut flowers in the evening (I was still working) leave them in water in the porch overnight, sort, bunch & wrap them in the morning then put them out for sale on the stall before heading off to work. I moved 'workshop' 3 times in a few years, taking space in whatever room was the most usable in our derelict-cum-renovated house. Eventually the rooms ran out & I ended up in a temporary garage during the Beast from the East, battered by wind & with water running through it over my feet. When the sun came out it was an oven and impossible. My lovely husband then 'offered' the use of his shed. North facing & a good size, it was perfect...once we'd added doors, a floor, ceiling, walls and insulation. Anyway, it's brilliant and lovely now, a space for conditioning & sorting flowers, taking photos, meeting customers, selling flowers, storing all sorts of essentials. I did run workshops until 2020, and hopefully will again. The investment needed was significant, even though we did all the work ourselves, and the flower farm has had to pay for it over the past 3 years. It takes a lot of bouquets buckets and bunches to pay for a building and we needed a sound plan to recoup the costs. It does allow lots of different options though & we've kept it as a flexible space. There's always a balance between investing in what you need and making sure costs are low enough to maintain a sustainable business, but there comes a time when you need more than a corner of a porch hemmed in by wellies and washing powder!
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It's Paula from @millpondflowerfarm here in Berwickshire, your host for this week Let's talk about floristry. When I started growing flowers for sale, I knew what a florist was, but not much more than that. I certainly didn't want to be one. I wanted to just grow flowers. My plan was to sell them at the farmgate and to florists. However, no florists wanted to buy my flowers, the ones I approached at that time were very firmly wedded to their Dutch lorry & didn't want to buy locally grown. So I cut and bunched and sold direct to lovely customers, but I was quickly asked about flowers for weddings 😱 They were met with a definite NO for a good while but I realised that a lack of floristry skills was holding me back. At that point, flower growers chatted through a Google Group (it was long long ago...) so I asked about floristry training. A quick discussion followed & in true @flowersfromthefarm style a weekend of floristry training was organised in Harrogate led by @theflowerfarmlancashire and @fionapicklesfloral What a fabulous time we had! And I learned the basics of floristry. Flowers from the Farm is really fortunate in having fabulous floristry members who love using British grown flowers & I've learned a huge amount from them, particularly my pals @simplybyarrangement and @hedgerow I'm happy to be a farmer florist these days, whizzing up bouquets, bunches, buttonholes and the occasional arch. It feels like a natural extension of growing flowers. It has taken a great deal of time and a lot of practice. It's OK to find your way with some things, but skilled tuition from generous teachers can make it so much easier.
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This is Paula from @millpondflowerfarm in the Scottish borders as your host for the week Thanks so much for your lovely feedback on my posts so far What do we grow? When I started, I planted annual and perennial seed. The perennials took till year two to flower so the first flowers I sold were annuals like marigolds, cosmos and cornflowers. Over the years I've steadily increased the perennials and planted shrubs & trees. I now have hedgerows and trees from the pond field to cut from and I'm continuing to add to them. Although I've invested small amounts in plants, the majority have been grown from seeds and cuttings. Annuals now make up around a third of our flower field and less than a quarter of sales. The flowers I sell now are very different to the annuals I started with. We have a huge range of varieties, well over 250 across the season, shrubs, roses and perennials that make a unique bunch or bouquet every time, there's no single 'look'. It takes time to get to this stage. Plants need to establish and grow big enough to cut from. You can choose a list of annuals to grow and sell those every season but if you want richness, depth and scale in your buckets, it will take a few years. It's worth waiting, planning and working for though! [Photos are both of 2 standard black buckets of flowers, 7 years apart]
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It's Paula from @millpondflowerfarm in the Scottish borders and I'm your host for this week I started flower farming by sowing seeds. We'd moved to a derelict smallholding without any sort of garden and money was tight. In the first year, I planted hardy annuals and perennials in the spring, as if I was a gardener. I had a large garden sized bed. They flowered well, I sold some, they were done by the end of August. It was a very short season 😳 But that was fine, I knew there was a market for my flowers, and I knew I needed to do it all better. I was also working so still had money to pay the bills. In the following 3 sessions, the growing area trebled each year to meet demand. I sold lots of flowers. When I got to an acre of intensively grown flowers I stopped expanding. I could plant and maintain an acre by myself, with some help harvesting, and that was enough. There's an assumption that a successful business should keep on getting bigger, that bigger is always better. Every government scheme to 'help' small businesses is focused on physical and measureable growth. I'd always been clear that I wanted to do the actual flower farming myself. I'd spent a long time managing people and didn't want to create a different sort of business only to end up giving other people the jobs I wanted to do while I sat at a computer. My focus since year 4 has been on increasing efficiency, productivity, profitability and customer care. I don't have any other income so it has to be profitable first. Success for me is doing what we do really well, producing high quality flowers and running a sustainable business.
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Good morning from Foulden in the #scottishborders This is Paula from @millpondflowerfarm and I'll be your host this week. Huge thanks to Zanna from @spindleflowers for a really interesting week, there'll be flower farmers all over the UK looking up Schezwan pepper and seeing if it'll grow for them! I'm now in my 9th year of growing cut flowers for sale from our 4 acre smallholding. Things have changed a lot over that time so I thought I'd use this week to show you where we are now and how we got there. I started growing flowers for sale with a plan to sell some outside the house to pay for the seeds. I did a bit of online searching and up popped the newly created Flowers from the Farm. You'll find that members always say how this organisation has got them to where they are. It's not part of a script that we have to follow, it's 100% true. Seeing other people starting to grow flowers for sale made me think it could be more than a few bunches to pay for seed. Pic 4 is me at the end of season 1, with the bulbs I'd bought for season 2. I started doing this on my own, with people shaking their heads at the idea of flower farming in Scotland. I've employed fantastic freelancers, a few volunteers, and now work with my husband Ray (pic 1). The aerial shots are from 2014 and then 2018. We grow intensively on about an acre, have an acre under water as a mill pond and cut wild flowers, grasses and foliage from the rest. Through Flowers from the Farm I also met @carolsiddorn and @plantpassion We were at about the same stage in our businesses & started to talk to each other, sharing how we grew, what we planted and who we sold our flowers to. After a while, we also started delivering an Advanced Flower Farming course together, which turned into an online course The Business of Selling Flowers. This year we formalised our partnership as The Business of Selling Flowers and the third picture is of the three of us in Claire's barn this time last year. More tomorrow on how we've grown at Mill Pond Flower Farm. I'll pop some photos from today on stories when I go out to feed the sheep 🐑
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Hi, Zanna here from @spindleflowers on my last day of taking over the FFTF Instagram 💚 So why do we import so many flowers from overseas when we have such wealth of floral beauty on our doorsteps? During the time I've been growing and selling flowers and foliage I've noticed a huge growth in demand for British cut flowers and foliage. What we can offer is an amazing alternative to the material that has been available to florists over the past few decades. I am seeing contemporary florists looking back to a time when imports were the exception rather than the rule, re-discovering our cooler-climate foliage and flowers and creating arrangements that really make the most of texture, scent, colour and form. For me, I will continue to doggedly insist on bringing beautiful British flowers and foliage to the floristry party, because I think they are truly lovely and I want to share them. It has often occurred to me that there aren't many professions in which you get to see a product right through from initial tiny part 🌱to final product. Giving someone their bridal bouquet and seeing their joy when they stick their nose in the flowers, and breathe in the smell and delight in the beauty and freshness of it all 😃has got to be one of the best feelings in the world. I feel a great surge of power beneath this new British flower growing movement, and I'm proud to be a part of it! Thanks for reading my ramblings this week, and special thanks to @wildwoodmoth for many of these photos 😘 Over to Paula @millpondflowerfarm 👋💕🌱🌿
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Hi, Zanna here again from @spindleflowers. This is Jonny, my beautiful man, helping me harvest the pittosporum. He has helped me cut a LOT of foliage, as well as putting up with many re-written spreadsheets from me over the years, and so today I want to touch on the money side of things, as well as explaining a bit about planting foliage in rows, coppicing and pollarding. I read recently (in a book that should know better) that apparently it's easy to grow flowers for a pittance. I suppose this might be true if you didn't care how good they are. But for a British flower grower this is simply not true. Costs are between 30% and 50% (if you've really streamlined the production) or more (if you haven't) of income. And another thing that people don't think about is that the harvesting and conditioning take a great deal of time. I mean a looooong time! Then there’s finding your market. Researching, and establishing your market has really got to be the first thing you do, not the last. You really don’t want a field full of beautiful flowers/foliage that you can’t sell (this year notwithstanding). There’s a screenshot in stories of a brilliant post by @sylvanaquafarms which says this more eloquently than I can (except it’s about farming bison!). I recently came across a fabulous online platform called @flowerscoutuk who connect florists with growers in their area providing wholesale flowers and foliage. If you look in stories you’ll see a graphic which indicates the interest they have already generated. Do check out their website. So for new entrants to flower farming, the mountain is already quite high. And it is yet higher if you are from a more diverse ethnic background. Access to land is a key part of the puzzle. Either you rent, or you’re lucky enough to buy (although in either case finding the right piece of land can take years), or you own it in the first place. Now that the FFTF diversity action group have successfully initiated the first diversity scholarships (congratulations again to those finalists @idreferdi @divinabotanica @dulceandflor @wildersoulblooms and Charlotte Merryweather) we are now looking .....(continued in comments below)
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Hi, Zanna here from @spindleflowers 😊 With COVID blowing a big hole in 2020 I spent the first part of lockdown weeding and listening to radio 4. The wholesale cancellation of everything was a huge knock, but I am ashamed to say that at the time it was also a massive relief. It was summer, the kids were suddenly off school and we were living on our beautiful field in a static caravan, a touring caravan and a yurt (for Joe Wicks, Zoom, and somewhere quiet to hide). I kept my head in the sand for a long time. However, by mid-summer I realised I needed to do something fast to plug the hole in our finances, so that was when I started going up to first Bristol market, and then to London to sell to New Covent Garden. Getting up very early in the morning is something I enjoy, so that wasn’t too much trouble. And it was so great to have my material being appreciated by people who know! I describe this in a bit more detail in a short video I made for the FFTF conference later this month. But when it came to selling my beautiful stems wholesale, some went down better than others. For example, Szechuan pepper. Firstly, I must declare an interest. I’m completely besotted with it! The elegant shape of the branches, the way the leaves spread, the seeds, the scent … I’ve taken it with me to many places, revealing it with a big ‘TA-DA’ but others don’t seem to love it as much as me!! I think it’s the inch-long thorns, or perhaps the smell. Mostly, though, it’s because I’ve been trying to encourage flower shop florists to use it, when in fact it’s an event florist’s thing really. Frankly, the leaves curl rather too quickly for anyone with a shop’s liking, fair enough! I know it will find its place in the event floristry world but it hasn’t yet, so unless this part of my post speaks to you, don’t go and buy one. Maybe just come and see me and take a cutting! Speaking of cuttings, I want to share a bit about that. I don’t have the budget for buying lots of new stock every year, so apart from a few bulk buys my approach has always been to buy one or two of everything and propagate the rest (licence allowing). Continued in comments.....
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Hi, Zanna here from @spindleflowers. As a florist, I'm after shape, scent, freshness, unusual variety, and for the larger installations I'm looking for scale. Us grower-florists can offer something unique which is knowledge of floristry as well as knowledge of the plants. I am constantly learning what lasts best, when, and under what conditions. I am interested in knowing how everything performs in the vase so that I can offer advice to my customers about what will suit their particular brief. Those of you who are florists (or, indeed, appreciators of good floristry) will know the importance of lovely foliage for a balanced bouquet. I'm not sure why, but I'm often more excited by the arc and curl of a particular stem of foliage than in the blooms with which they dance! So I'd like to offer you a seasonal list of some of my favourite foliage and perennials. WINTER: abeliophyllum viburnum tinus alder catkins pussy willow myrtus flambeau SPRING: broom apple blossom euphorbia viburnum opulus berberis koreana pearl bush corylopsis SUMMER: philadelphus whitebeam spirea myrtle rosa glauca elaeagnus crocosmia foxgloves AUTUMN: cretageus (hawthorn) rowan spirea cotoneaster spindle (of course) szechuan pepper heptacodium physocarpus cotinus
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Zanna here, from @spindleflowers. I specialise in foliage and flowering shrubs, and today I'd like to talk a bit about my growing methods. This first pic is of the lovely alnus rubra. The rest of the pics are from a bit later in the season. The second pic is from the summer (sigh...) and it shows 5 years' growth. The field had originally been used for grazing, so there was nothing but grass when we first started. You might say that I was being quite ambitious, aiming to make any money soon from selling British grown foliage. And as it turned out, in the first few years I needed to diversify into flowers pretty damn quick! It is certainly a long game, as many of you will know from watching your foliage plants grow, willing them to be bigger than they are, and perhaps taking rather too much off them than you should. Ring any bells?! It takes time to grow foliage. I have experimented a lot with growing many different kinds of foliage. From a business point of view I am learning what is lovely but grows just too slowly to be a viable crop. Most of these plants went in the ground as bare roots. This helped us keep the initial costs down, but it's also because we have good, but very stony soil. The plan was to plant into black plastic initially (because with three small children I knew I wouldn't be able to keep on top of the weeds otherwise) and under-plant with ground cover plants like woodroffe and pulmonaria so that they could spread and one day replace the black plastic. But I'm realising now that the plants that went straight in to grass, rather than in the beds, are requiring much less maintenance. Just a quick mow rather than needing to be weeded and mulched twice a year. It's all a learning process. We feed the with bonemeal and granular plant feed as well as seaweed meal, chicken manure pellets, and a dose of lime in the winter to keep the PH balance right. We also mulch using well-rotted wood chip which we usually get from a local tree surgeon who dumps it when he's passing. I do find that foliage is more forgiving of deficiencies in the soil than, say, annual flowers which are so hungry.
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Hello! :-) I'm Zanna from @spindleflowers taking over the instagram posts this week, and this is a photo of me cutting physocarpus diabolo in flower, and it's one of my favourites. If you cut it to the ground in winter you won't get the flowers until the second year, so I keep a rotation of stands of it, so that I can get that lovely straight first-year's growth of foliage as well as the flowers and seed heads on the second year's growth. I specialise in foliage, growing. We have a medium-scale 1.5acre flower farm in West Dorset and I live three miles away from the field with my husband, Jonny, and our three kids. I am sure I’m not alone in having had feelings of being defeated by even the slightest thing in the last few months. Recently it's been hellish difficult to get anything done with the kids at home (and my kids aren't even little any more). But, this week I am going to focus on some positives, as well as keeping it real. Today I want to talk about weeds. If you scroll right, the picture of the nettle rather romanticises the b@stard things, but it is a gentle reminder that nettles, at least, are beloved of butterflies and host to many useful critters in the garden, and that it's not the end of the world if you have some, or even lots. I remind myself often that the garden can wait - it's very patient and forgiving. Of course there's 'best practise' (you have planted out your biennials in the autumn, there are few weeds, all the beds are mulched, you've divided those perennials and taken those cuttings), and then there's reality. I still haven't weeded the lunaria, or divided the stachys, or many of those other very important jobs, but I know that one good morning out in the sunshine, and all my usual positivity and energy will return and I’ll get to those jobs that need doing. The most important thing is not to beat ourselves up about these things. Mental health needs to be top of our 'to do' list at the moment. For me that means getting out there in my muddy waterproofs, remembering each time I laugh out loud, and finding the beauty in small things.
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With great excitement, we can finally announce the 5 recipients of the very first FFTF scholarship! We want to thank everyone who took the time to spread the word about the scholarship and help us connect with so many talented aspiring flower farmers. We spent much of January pouring over each and every application and were so impressed with the achievements, passion and aspirations of the applicants. The standard of entry was incredibly high, with submissions from so many deserving candidates, and it was an extremely tough decision-process to whittle down the applications to just five winners. Having had so many brilliant and strong submissions, it's clear how vital this scholarship programme is and we're excited that we can already confirm Flowers from the Farm will open applications for a second time at the end of 2021. The scholarship is of course just one component to the work of the Diversity Action group and we're committed to continuing creating space for new talent and opportunities for accessing land going forward. Over the last few months, the DAG has been writing a detailed programme of seasonal classes for the scholarship. A flower farming mentor has been enlisted for each recipient, and the year’s programme includes training at the mentor's flower farm and a generous starter kit of books, seeds, compost, and resources (thanks to all our supporters @sage.flowers @botanical_tales @clarenolanuk @plantpassion @gracealexanderflowers @niwaki.hq @floribundaroseflorists @commonfarmflowers @milliproust @fertilefibre @soilsandfleurs and Moles Seeds). We’re so excited for the year ahead, and are thrilled to introduce you to the 2021 FFTF Diversity Scholarship winners: Andrea Ferdinand @idreferdi Anais Carrillo-Hawkins @dulceandflor Charlotte Merryweather Elsie Harp @divinabotanica Jenny Yeong We are acutely aware that one of the key reasons people applied for the scholarship was to have access to mentorship, support with flower-farming, and the know-how of setting up a small business. (All applicants for this year's scholarship have been invited to join an on-line zoom session and Q&A with (continued in comments below)...
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My week hosting @flowersfromthefarm has brought me to review living through the strange times of the last 12 months. How could we have known? I lost all my preconceptions of a stable income from fixed contracts, commissions, holiday let’s etc but re found such good will & support. Having my children back home full time was lovely, revisiting our old home in Somerset which we had left badly..working hard, filling it with flowers & selling it on with love. New relationships built selling flower orders with food & cake deliveries to those in isolation. Deliveries & collections all days of the week, I couldn’t pick & prepare quick enough. Learning to create multiple bouquets & posies suddenly to pay all our bills & mortgage or go under. People fighting for their lives all over the country, yet never have I heard so many say that British locally grown flowers are an essential for their mental health..not a luxury at all! We were not sad, angry or feeling trapped, we have creativity & we had adopted kittens..I finally achieved my wild flower strip around the flower field edges, and @higgledygarden bee friendly flower patch. I broke my foot, exhausted working so hard, but it healed fast & I fell back in love with Cornwall..the quiet roads, beaches & lanes. Talked to family & friends much more & learned my job brought joy & inspired others to grow. Just this weekend a busy time planting & sometime well spent in discussion with friends setting up a community growing space. I remain grateful & optimistic for the future. Thank you #flowersfromthefarm & in particular @fieldhouseflowers the revolution may not be televised but it is #homegrown #flowery and everyone loves it more now than ever. #flowerpower #sustainable #britishflowers Balls to Brexit. Now to collect my own seeds, barter or charge a bit more but not giving up on the magic. Patience & finally building a web site is the plan for this spring. Happy gardening everyone. @spindleflowers will be with you next. Best of British flowery good luck. 🙏
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Today I am sharing a kaleidoscope of colourful flowers to distract from a grey, wet & muddy day, our morning dog walk was hazardous! Yet I am completely thrilled to see how many new seedlings are bursting through the compost, spring on the way, ranunculus & anenome budding up in my outside flowerbeds. Looking through my photo record of flowers & some flowery events up to Autumn 2019 has been inspiring me again. What a great time I have had.. I highly recommend everyone keeps a regular visual diary of their growing spaces & flowers. It is not easy, jobs can be frantic, weddings too personal to snap away on the day but I think it can keep us on track planning the next year, and spirits buoyant in tough times & during winter. I have regularly supplied shops, cafe’s, hotels, holiday let’s, gift bouquets, event & private home decorations as well as my honesty box on the sea front. 2019 was a wonderful year with many workshop classes & some testing commissions plus a proud moment when a small group of us won a gold at Cornwall garden society’s annual show for our FFTF stand. A new relationship with the organisers began, there will be more to follow! I feel Magic, flower growing is magic... only good results from the hard work it can entail. #magic #alchemywithflowers #colour #happiness #keepingfaith #beautifulworld #workingwithmagic #sowingseeds #growinghappiness #grownnotflown #britishflowers #flowersfromthefarm #cornishflowers #flowerinspiration
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Hello kerry here from @rarecreation._ sharing my journey with growing and flowers. I have learned most of my weaknesses/strengths, & gained the wisedom to plan for the deficit by working together with others, I cannot do it all nor spend a fortune to ensure perfect blooms. I do need a book keeper/accountant, friends/family & must listen to advice even if I do the opposite anyway. I am an idea’s person, I think a lot & read. If someone tells me there are rules, I will break them trying to prove more fun or cheaper solutions but not just to be awkward. I’ve been poor & learnt to make a feast from an onion & 2 potatoes. I can redecorating a room well with just one tiny tube of paint, I like to consider things, not just throw money at projects. I buy things then barter/give them away when I need space because I do hate waste including learning to save time so #nodig gardening makes complete sense as why waste top soil, why expend energy rotavating & disturbing the ground that feeds your plants & wildlife if you can avoid it? I am not creating a garden, I will be happy if my growing spaces return to nature when I give up cultivating certain flowers. I love commissions, budgets where I can achieving more for less & then be able to throw in something for free if I can, integrity is important when running your own business, kindness is kind. Some rules ARE essential, I have learnt that preparation is everything... this is so true with gardening. Good soil, pacing yourself by keeping fit, cutting flowers when the plants are turgid with water in early morning or dusk, sowing from seed, propagating, cleaning equipment and work spaces regularly etc. I have also learned to keep an open mind & say yes to things which may just be fun, educational etc. A big part of flower farming to me is to see the enjoyment of others, how brilliant to see a field of people wearing mad, flowery creations on their head at a local festival? Or someone buying a rainbow bouquet of flowers for a friend who usually like pastel colours because they saw your flowers at a farmers market. Taking risks is necessary, as is the support while you do it. #worktogether #sharingiscaring #planahead #budget