Rachel picking flowers at her farm 'Green and Gorgeous'
Rachel is the owner of "Green and Gorgeous" Flower Farm in Oxfordshire. She is well known for the flower arranging courses she offers. Her flower farm also caters for events, weddings and private picking
British local flowers, grown nearby, count for around 10% of the UK market, traveling less than a tenth of their foreign counterparts which are often flown in from abroad. Nearly 90% of the flowers sold in the UK are actually imported, and many travel over 3000 miles. Local flower farms help biodiversity, providing food and habitat to a huge variety of wildlife, insects including butterflies, bugs, and bees. Often local flower farmers prefer to grow organic rather than using pesticides. British flowers bloom all the year around, even in the depths of winter, and there are local flower farms throughout the country.
Many people like the idea of the just picked from the garden look, and come to flower farms throughout Britain to pick their own for weddings, parties and garden fetes. Others come for the joy of a day out in the countryside with their family. Often a bride and her family will come to pick the flowers for her own wedding, some even plant the seeds earlier in the year.