British Flowers Week – the national campaign to encourage everyone to buy more seasonal, locally-grown cut flowers – is taking place on 13-19 June, and here at Snapdragon, we will be celebrating in style with beautiful flowers in our shop from Mill Pond Flower Farm in the Scottish borders. We have recently started to buy from Mill Pond and plan to do so every Thursday so there will always be some lovely fragrant and seasonal local flowers in our shop towards the end of each week. Be quick though! The posies we made last week were snapped up on the day Paula from Mill Pond delivered them!
This annual event is a celebration of British-grown cut flowers and foliage that aims to bring British flowers back into British homes. It is the brainchild of the team at New Covent Garden Flower Market, where British flowers have been traded for centuries. Up until the 1970’s most cut flowers in the UK were grown here by British flower farmers, but since then, flowers grown in Holland, South America and Africa, imported via the Dutch auctions have dominated the market. Whilst the British growers will be unable to meet the sheer volume of demand for cut flowers in the near future, they can supply a greater volume than they do now, so let’s support our local industry and buy British when they are available.
And right now, British cut flowers are enjoying a renaissance. Just as interest in locally grown food has risen, people are also interested in appreciating the value of locally grown fresh cut flowers. You’ll find flowers that are scented, beautiful in colour and either delicate (think sweet peas or cornflower) or bold and blousy (think dahlia and peony) … and their fleeting nature is one of the reasons these flowers are so special.
So, over the next few weeks, we will have a quirky little window display and there will be posies in jars for sale made from our wonderful locally grown flowers. So please pop by, have a look and support our local growers and florists! And do follow us on Instagram for some lovely images sure to inspire…