We really thought Jan would be a sleepy month for us but it has been anything but! Through frozen ground and frankly miserable weather we’ve had no excuse but to tackle ‘that giant pile of admin’, with the only highlight being adding new workshops into the diary. If last year was all about getting the new flower field up and running, this year is about not forever ‘chasing our tails’ and leaving enough time for promotion.
Highlights include
St Dwynwen, Mother’s Day workshops, and a Build a Bunch Tulip Bar. (For the non Welsh readers, St Dwynwen is a cherished saint who had a heartbreaking love affair. The story ends on an island off the coast of Anglesey with some magic fish in a well… worth a read if you like a tragic folk story)
We have partnered with the stunning LLanbenwch caravan park for our workshops, and just minutes from our farm with the most picturesque views of the Clwydian hills. The workshop will be held indoors in their beautiful new cafe and farm shop so you can take in the views and grab a fresh coffee and some homemade cake.
Speaking of Valentines Day… we need to talk about roses…
As any sustainable florist knows;- roses are NOT in season - so we definitely won’t be selling a dozen roses on our website shop! For the discerning lover we DO have the most stunning (British grown) red tulips.
Red tulips are a symbol of love, passion & romance but the mainstream Valentine’s advertising is very red rose focused, so we often miss out on many sales this time of year. We hate to use stereotypes, but it is traditionally men who will go out and buy their partner a bunch of red roses for Valentine’s Day, and often (now this is a generalisation) these men tend to leave things until last minute… so we suspect that they probably pick up a quick bunch of roses without thinking about whether their sweetheart would actually prefer a bunch of sustainably grown tulips, wrapped in crisp brown paper with a selection of seasonal foliage and tied up with love (and compostable twine)
*Did you know that every February, an estimated 570 tonnes of roses are shipped into the UK, travelling thousands of miles (usually from Kenya), sprayed with a shocking 200kg of pesticides per hectare, then ‘lovingly’ wrapped in non-recyclable cellophane.
This month we took to social media to talk about the rose situation and we got lots of support… so we will let you know next month whether tulip sales were up this year! Keep your fingers crossed for us.
In other news:
one of our favourite spring products is back in stock. These adorable little bulb jars flew out last year and we are hoping they are just as popular again. They make a lovely little gift, look stunning on a window sill or as a table decoration (we sold so many to local cafe’s and restaurants) get in touch if you are interesting in buying these for your venue as we do a discount on multiples and also collect and refill the jars to make your repeat orders a bit cheaper. If they are kept damp they last for weeks.
As you may have seen on my social media that I celebrated my 21st Birthday. I have spent so many years feeling embarrassed about my age, worried that people wouldn’t take me seriously due to being so young. That people wouldn’t want to book me for their weddings and events, or trust me to take on big projects. However my outlook has changed somewhat this month after I attended the LANTRA award show as I was nominated for “Young Learner of the Year”. Much to my surprise, I won! I was shocked, but on reflection I have decided to ‘own’ my relative youth in the industry.
The award was lovely, to get the recognition (and I am so grateful for that), but it brings into sharp focus for me what motivates me in the first place. It’s my interactions with customers, my lovely workshop participants and their creations, it’s being a part of a couples most special day, it’s the support form local people and the engagement that brings.., it’s the partnerships I nurture, and it’s the ethics I hold dear. All these things are immeasurable yet the greatest reward.
Garden Tasks - Organise your seed packets and order any more seeds you need for the year ahead, ready for sowing hardy annuals at the beginning of February.
Flowers of the month - Muscari, one of the bulbs we use in our bulb jars, it is the cutest little blue flower, perfect for bringing a bit of spring hope.
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