AN artisan flower farmer wanting to ‘make a difference’ is opening her floral farm to the public for a ‘pick your own’ event.
Melanie Farrow hopes to share her passion of organic and home-grown flowers with the community in her upcoming event which will take place on Saturday, September 24 in Thelwall.
With 160 metres of fresh wild flowers to choose from, there will be something that appeals to every attendee, all of which cannot be bought from a supermarket.
Some of the flowers that will be featured for picking include cosmos, zinnias and 500 of the widely popular dahlia’s grown in a variety of different colours.
As well as picking your favourite flowers you will also be able to attend flower arranging demonstrations presented by Melanie and there will be tea and cake stalls to round off the relaxing afternoon.
Melanie detailed how the event, which will go from 11am to 3pm, will promote wellbeing and promises to be a ‘calm’ and ‘relaxing’ experience.
She said: “Everything we do is organic, natural and very sustainable. It’s a nice place to go and sit and relax for an afternoon. All the flowers are British and grown from seed.”
The 56-year-old from Lymm first found an interest in the hobby of flower farming during lockdown after being furloughed.
She said: “It began as a bit of a hobby which then eventually grew into a small business. I have always enjoyed gardening, and this then became a lockdown project after being furloughed. I began picking flowers in the garden and creating flower arranging videos and grew a platform from that, it all started from there.”
She added: “I love flower arranging but I am no trained florist, these flowers aren’t what you would buy as a bouquet from a supermarket, they are very natural and wild looking vases.”
Melanie detailed how there is a movement within the flower industry and an urge to source flowers locally within the UK from natural grown flower farms instead of importing them from Europe.
‘Flowers from the Farm’ (FFTF), a large organisation belonging to individual artisan flower farms all over the UK, states that “an estimated 90 per cent of the flowers sold through florists, supermarkets and wholesalers are imported not just from Holland but flown in from growers as far afield as Ecuador, Colombia, Kenya and even Ethiopia.”
In addition to this, FFTF detail how the charming aromas usually at the essence of a flower bouquet are sadly becoming less present due to the chemicals used in the process of shipping them over.
They state: “Delicious scent is what we all expect but all too often we are disappointed. This is because most commercial flowers will have been bred to withstand the rigours of international shipping and mass production rather than to possess intoxicating fragrance.”
Melanie hopes not only to give members of the public a chance to pick her organic home-grown buds but also to shine light on the ever-growing community of flower farmers.
The ‘pick your own’ event will be one of many upcoming to keep an eye out for, to book tickets or find out more details visit Melanie’s website smellaniesgardenflowers.com or her Instagram page @smellaniesgardenflowers
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