Terri Chandler of Worm London, flower arrangements at a trendy restaurant "Raw Duck" in London
Terri Chandler of Worm London, based in Stoke Newington. Part of a recent 'start up'. She and her partner set up last year after taking diplomas in flower arrangement. They run a local business with local British Flowers which they buy from New Covent Garden Market. They work for restaurants, weddings and functions.
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.