Sustainable wedding flowers and working with British growers
As we move into a world where everybody is more aware of our environment. I found myself looking at ways in which Hibiscus could be more eco-friendly.
The floral industry is making baby steps to be more ‘eco’ and creating designs that are kinder to the environment.
Florists are being more aware of the sustainable materials available and thinking about the mechanics of designs such as going ‘free foam’ or using just chicken wire and moss to create larger structures all help to make more sustainable choices.
In February this year, I travelled down to Cambridge for a professional florist workshop. I learned about and created all sorts of free foam designs from hanging installations, to staircases, to free foam arches.
This helped me see more possibilities for eco-friendly arrangements (you can see pictures like this one from the day on Instagram).
This on its own is a huge turning point, but florists are also looking to where they source their flowers from. Every year I see more British growers pop up, and even florists growing and using flowers from their cutting gardens. This is amazing and although I love my flowers, I am no gardener, so I leave that bit to the professionals!
If, like me, florists are not willing or able to grow their own, using local British growers is a great option.
It means flowers are transported shorter distances, saving on fuel and CO2 emissions. This of course must be balanced with the final product though. Wedding flowers must be perfect - no one wants to see dropping dead flowers at the church on a hot day! There is a fine balance between making a sustainable choice and a practical choice, and good florists will carefully consider the mechanics with the short window of time they have to create them, so they still look perfect all day long.
With that in mind, during lockdown last year I spent some time exploring some local businesses to be more ‘Green’ with the flowers that I buy.
I have several wonderful and reliable Dutch suppliers with whom I have worked for over 12 years. The quality of their flowers is spot on every time, so I am very lucky to have such a choice, but I wanted to also support more locally grown.
I have to say I was astounded by the quality of the British grown flowers. I soon met with Anna at her flower fields based North East of Banbury, Oxfordshire very early on in the season.
The quality of her flowers were outstanding and her dahlias were just incredible. Fast forward a few months and the whole field was covered in beautiful blooms.
Now from April through to October, I have the pleasure of supporting a local business whilst knowing the product is of outstanding quality and grown locally. It’s quite thrilling to know the flowers I use are cut from the field the day before I work with them to be at a wedding the day after – from field to wedding in 48 hours is pretty impressive!
If you are interested in seeing more of my designs, on Wednesday 11th May 2022 I will be creating a showcase at one of my recommended venues – Crockwell Farm.
The venue is celebrating 20 years of hosting weddings, so Crockwell are opening their doors to all past and present couples and suppliers alike. They are keen to promote their sustainable attributes too so we will use as much British seasonal foliage and flowers as possible, so I’ll be creating naturally styled designs inspired both by Anna’s beautiful blooms and Hermione’s in the gorgeous grounds of Crockwell Farm.