Where Bracken&Fleur flowers grow

The sourcing of flowers is an integral part of Bracken & Fleur, and what makes my business and flowers different from the masses. All of the flowers and foliage I use are British grown; for reasons of quality, beauty, ethics, environmental impact and because I love growing flowers. Fortunately this has been no barrier; importing dried flowers to the UK is absolutely not necessary - there is an abundance of beautiful, British grown flowers, and dried ones of course, are available every month of the year!  Being British grown does not necessarily make them more expensive, or less interesting - sometime quite the contrary. They are absolutely the best choice for me, as I will explain.

Where they grow

A large proportion of my materials, I grow in my own garden.  It really is astounding what you can grow in a small space when you plan carefully and gather year round. Hydrangeas, eucalyptus, grasses, strawflowers, nigella, echinops….. all from a small garden and a few pots at the front. I am also fortunate that friends and family who understand my eagerness to get my hands on something I can dry, are generous with their own garden cuttings.  A lovely lady about a mile away allows me to cut from her 3 huge pampas grass plants in the Autumn; a friend who has lined her paths with limelight hydrangeas and eucalyptus gunnii saves boot loads of pruning for me to dry; another friend a two minute walk all away has a wonderful mimosa overhanging her garden that she and her neighbour have both kindly let me take some loppers to; I return from visits to my aunt in Somerset with curly hazel branches on the front seat; and visits to my family in Wales where the gardens are bigger, provide further materials.  

In addition to these garden grown flowers, I also buy from a number of British growers- my cousin’s wonderful smallholding on the Scottish Borders, and a most beautiful Flower Farm in Gloucestershire are two growers who have supplied me with exceptionally beautiful flowers, grown on a relatively small scale.  LDF wholesale, are a grower in Shropshire that I buy from on occasion, who grow on a much larger scale, but still with a focus on minimising their environmental impact. 

I also forage some materials where permitted, always ensuring that I am not depleting any area of its natural resources - leaving plenty of berries and seeds for the wildlife and to ensure repeat seeding. Bracken is a beautiful resource, both dried in its green state, or ready dried and crispy towards the end of its life. It’s abundant and not particularly desired by land owners. What could be better?

Low carbon footprint

By using only British plant material, of course the transport miles and pollution associated with imported goods, are avoided.  All materials I purchase from British growers come packed plastic free, and nearly always in recycled materials. And just by their nature, smaller growers require so much less in terms of automation and heavy machinery.

Exceptional Quality

In my experience quality of dried flowers from small-scale British growers is far superior to the imported alternatives. Long, strong stems, and truly perfect, beautiful flowers.  This all comes from individual plants being observed and cared for, single stems being hand picked at the perfect moment, carefully stripped of foliage, dried naturally and slowly, and selected to ensure that each stem is in in great condition, before sending to me.

A few years ago, (my first selling dried flowers) facing a number of Christmas workshops with dwindling supplies of my own, I ordered some bunches of dried strawflowers imported via Holland. They weren’t by any means cheap, but the quality was awful and I see that same quality in bunches sold in many UK retailers. They arrived plastic-wrapped; a bunch of thin, black, tangled stems, complete with black, shrivelled foliage; some flowers going to seed, or undeveloped, contorted and pretty ugly. This condition is innevitible when a large crop has to be harvested mechanically, en-masse. A huge agricultural operation simply cannot wait to observe and harvest individual stems when they are ready. This resulted in a lot of waste from stems that were just not good enough for me to use, further increasing their cost. Never again. It’s neither necessary nor preferable in any way.

Especially Beautiful

It goes without saying that flowers are beautiful- it’s almost always the case. But small-scale growers are at a great advantage in being able to grow a wide range of varieties- interesting varieties that add subtle layers of colour, texture and form to an arrangement. Some of these can be slightly trickier to grow and harvest than the usual varieties you will find with a dried flower wholesaler, and just not feasible to grow on a large scale. They may be too fragile, their stems too curly and tangled, or may need more precise timing and care with the drying process. But with the care that a smaller grower can afford them, these attributes make for beautiful flowers to create with: blooms both tiny and large; curving stems and variety in texture, form and colour.

These characteristics all enable the creation of pieces that evoke the way plants grow in nature: in a whispy hedgerow or meadow of wild flowers; or that remind us of the most beautiful gardens, crammed with colour. Never the poker straight bunch with colours provided by dyed materials, which is the staple of mass-market dried arrangements.

Using flowers that I and other like minded flower-florists have fallen in love with, to the point of struggling to keep up with the huge variety of species and bursting boxes of seed packets, means offering something only available using small, British growers (not quite true- there are wonderful artisan growers all over the world, but when we have such beautiful produce on our doorstep that evokes the best of our own countryside, it would be madness to look further).

Sustainability

I, and the smaller British growers who supply the flowers and foliage I use, are people who grow because we love the tie we have to nature. We grow smaller quantities of a great many plant varieties, which support a wide range of pollinators and the wider ecosystem. We use organic approaches to growing - no chemical fertilisers or pesticides, and only peat-free growing mediums. The soil is fed with the goodness of our garden waste and carbon locked in the soil is left largely undisturbed. I know that when I buy flowers from these growers, I am supporting biodiversity as well as a wonderful small business.

When I do buy from larger British Growers, some of this ideal approach is not possible due to the scale of crops, but as much as possible, impact on the environment is kept to a minimum.

Sadly, most buyers of imported dried flowers will never know where in the the world they have travelled from (there is no requirement for this to be disclosed). Imported plant materials will almost certainly have been grown as very large mono-crops, but any more detail on how they have been grown, with what they have been treated, we do not know. I won’t be selling anything that I cannot fully vouch for.

I do know that this is not a sustainable approach for a large business supplying a mass market, but by choosing to buy from small businesses, you can choose to support people choosing to do things in a more sustainable way.