Growing with the competition……
Here in the beautiful Chilterns we are home to many local flower growers who are more than eager to sell you their beautiful, sustainably and locally grown blooms. Ranging from cutting gardens and allotments to walled gardens and farmland with acreage, a whole new vibrant industry is starting to make a real difference in the fresh flower industry both locally and nationwide.
Three such local flower farmers have recently come together in an exciting collaboration working together on events such as the Humble Country Fayre Marquee at Thame Food Festival on 30th September to the 1st October this year.
Fiona from Chiltern Sky Flowers, Anna from Sprigs Holly Flowers and Debs from Holly House Flower Farm are all established flower farmers in their own rights. Fiona is based in Bledlow Ridge and Debs and Anna not far from her in Crowell Hill and Radnage. The three recognised that by working together they could make much more of an impact and thereby further their reach as small businesses. Whilst all flower farmers now, they each have very different backgrounds and skill sets meaning that they can all bring something unique to the collaboration.
“For large events such as the Thame Food Festival I simply wouldn’t be able to produce enough flowers on my small plot to make an impact but by working with Chiltern Sky and Sprigs Holly Flowers we can pool our resources and work on opportunities that would otherwise be unobtainable to us as individual businesses.” Debs, Holly House Flower Farm.

Chiltern Sky Flowers is a small cut flower farm run by Fiona McLeod six hundred feet up in the beautiful Chiltern Hills. "We have been growing our flowers just outside Bledlow Ridge, since 2019 and 2023 marks our fifth growing season. We offer mixed varieties of seasonal flowers & foliage from April to October, inspired by a natural, garden-gathered style of floristry. We work hard to grow environmentally friendly cut flowers which we are proud to sell to our local community and local florists. My background has been in the world of garden photography, where I regularly photographed gardens for books and magazines. My love of photographing flowers has now transformed into a love of growing them and I am very lucky to have the chance to do both. A happy place, where two worlds collide".
07831 278 771

Sprigs Holly Flowers was started by Anna Gray at the beginning of 2021. Based at Barnfield Farm in Radnage, Anna grows seasonal flowers which are sold by the bucket for DIY weddings and events or made into bouquets to give as special gift.
Find Anna on instagram.com/sprigshollyflowers
07527601041

Holly House Flower Farm finally came to fruition in 2022 when Debs got up the courage to turn her passion for growing and arranging cut flowers into a fully-fledged business. “Formally an events organiser I know the pressures many of my clients are under when they are planning their big day, whether it be a wedding or a party, farewell flowers, or a simple birthday bouquet I listen to what my customers want and am happy to advise on seasonality and suitability of particular blooms. Providing beautifully arranged blooms is a passion but I am equally happy to sell buckets of flowers for someone to arrange themselves."
07973 172420
“All of us are very much individual businesses with our own values, branding and customers but it’s great that we can work together when we need to; not just on big projects but often we use each other for smaller projects too – maybe I have sold out of one particular flower but Debs or Fiona will have some to spare and vice versa. This way we can offer our customers a wider variety of flowers than we might otherwise be able to”. Anna, Sprigs Holly Flowers
All three flower farmers and many others locally, are members of the Flowers from the Farm initiative, a volunteer-led community which now has nearly 1000 members and stretches right across the UK. “Members work together on a founding principle of fostering friendship and sharing through meetings, activities and communication and this local collaboration is certainly a good example of this in action”. Fiona, Chiltern Sky Flowers.
Flower Facts:
Did you know that British-grown cut flowers represent only an estimated 14% of the flowers sold in the UK, with the majority imported from the volume glasshouses of Holland or even as far afield as Ethiopia, Ecuador and Colombia. This is a shame as flowers grown locally in their natural season have a relaxed beauty and delicious fragrance palette, not to mention a fraction of the travel miles of imported blooms.
Did you also know that in May 2023, Flowers from the Farm’s members (including our own Chiltern Sky Flowers) filled Westminster Abbey with fresh flowers from Scotland, Northern Ireland, Wales and England for the Coronation of King Charles and Queen Camilla and proved beyond doubt that flowers grown locally, in their natural season and arranged without the use of any plastics, can grace the biggest and most majestic events in the whole world.
Find your nearest Flower Farmer now by going to the Flowers from the Farm website www.flowersfromthefarm.co.uk
September 2023
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