Working with the seasons and natural conditions is an important part of honouring flowers and our work with them. That’s why we made the conscious choice to grow our own flowers on our farm in Kent and work with flowers in a slower, more sustainable way.
Why we started growing our own flowers
Maybe it’s never crossed your mind before, but the flower industry as it stands isn’t always so kind to the environment or to the people who work in it.
Imported flowers (which is what makes up the vast percentage of flower stock you see just about everywhere) are grown on a huge commercial scale, are covered in chemicals and pesticides (which make harmful working conditions for the people cutting and tending to them), and are transported en masse by air or refrigerated lorry. Oftentimes these flowers also aren’t fair trade, which means somewhere along the line, people are being forced to work in the flower industry for unfair wages, in poor conditions, to keep the price of this large-scale operation low enough for its end consumer.
We would like this all to change, so we’re opting to grow as much as we possibly can, whilst honouring the land we have here and the seasons as they come and go.
As our farm grows, we’re able to reduce the environmental impact our little slice of the flower industry has as well as being confident in knowing no one had to work unfairly for us to get your bouquet to you. We’re also able to grow some of the most unusual, special flowers any of us have ever seen and we get to put them in your orders and in our shop nearly every day.
What we grow
The patch has given us an opportunity to start growing our own offering of beautiful, seasonal flowers to stock our shop, create special events with, or provide wholesale to other florists. From our farm and cutting patch in Kent, we also grow a variety of foliages and herbs and use these season to season. Here’s a look at the flowers we grow at the farm:
How we work
Lovingly planted
We choose to grow interesting varieties and colours that you might not see so often. And we absolutely always honour true seasonality.
We stopped and thought about the varieties we would really miss if we stopped importing, and we thought about what we struggled to get elsewhere from local growers, and we started planting that!
Our flower menu will change regularly. If you can’t get something from us at a certain time, it’s because that flower won’t grow here, in nature, at that time and in real conditions.
Naturally grown
Unlike commercially-grown flowers, we don’t treat our flowers with any chemicals.
We use organic growing methods, providing food for pollinators and composting all our studio’s green waste.
That means no nasties in your house and no harm to us or the environment. It also means you get to enjoy the individuality of each and every stem because we aren’t forcing uniformity or artificially influencing them.
Harvested by hand
We cut flowers 1-2 days before delivery. Each stem is cut by hand from the plant and any foliage below the water line carefully removed.
The flowers then rest overnight in deep water before being arranged, ensuring each stem is fully fresh and hydrated when they reach you.
Imported flowers can take days and days to reach their destination, but it’s important to us to work in a more farm to table manner, which means fresher flowers for you.
Follow the patch
We are constantly learning more about growing our own flowers. There are trials and tribulations: Neel the brown dog is often laying on a bit of dirt we desperately need to get to, a lot of biscuits are consumed and there’s always some bendy, twisty, double-headed, weirdo, forgot-we-planted-you, thought-you-were-meant-to-be-yellow flower moments that keep us going. Have a look at our journal or Instagram for updates.
