If, like me, you are an organic flower farmer in the making, or simply someone who loves to grow flowers to cut, you find many of the world’s most talented growers and floral artists sharing tips on the internet, through blogs and social-media accounts, on how to grow and arrange seasonal, sustainable “eco blooms”.
My favourites? Floret Flowers, the online offerings of Washington-based flower farmer and floral designer Erin Benzakein (floretflowers.com), is one of the very best, combining tons of sumptuous imagery with oodles of hard-earned practical advice.
Situated in “damp, foggy and ultra- rainy western Washington, about an hour north of Seattle”, the Floret Flower Farm enjoys a climate not dissimilar to that of Ireland, meaning Benzakein grows a similar range of flowers. Cue lots of dreamy shots of sweet pea, dinner-plate dahlias and paper-thin Iceland poppies, as well as a host of useful growing tips, all contained in her award-winning blog. Another US-based flower farmer whose wild-inspired flowers will have you reaching for your packets of seeds is Ariella Chezar (ariellaflowers.com), the internationally regarded, New York-based grower-cum-florist.
There is a wealth of excellent online content from the UK to choose from, including the website/blog of well-known Somerset-based flower farmer and author Georgie Newbery (commonfarmflowers.com); Wiltshire-based grower and floral artist Fiona Haser Bizony's Electric Daisy Flower Farm (electricdasiyflowerfarm.co.uk), if only for the deliciously eccentric floral crowns featured; well-known flower grower and gardener Sarah Raven (sarahraven.com); Rachel Siegfried's Green and Gorgeous flower farm (greenandgorgeousflowers.co.uk); and A Life of Earth and Petals, the drop-dead-gorgeous Instagram account of Shropshire-based flower farmer and artist Juliet Glaves, which is filled with exquisite images of her seasonal, sustainably grown flowers. Glaves's work has featured in Vogue while her field-grown flowers are stocked by no less than Liberty of London.
Of the Irish sites, I like the offerings of two West Cork-based flower farmers, Ruby Harte of Bumblebee Farm (rubyharte.com) and Hana of Hanako Floral Studio (hanako.ie). Like so many of the small-scale flower farmers mentioned, Hana concentrates on growing varieties you’ll never find for sale in a conventional florist, for the reason that they are too difficult to ship or store. The result is sustainable, seasonal arrangements that are a universe away from the chemically preserved blooms seen in a standard florist’s window.
