River Meadow Flower Farm

Name: River Meadow Flower Farm
Address: Brecon, GB
Telephone: +447831652574
Rating: 5

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River Meadow Flower Farm

23/10/2024

It’s that time of the year again! The annually required and annually dreaded bulb-planting is upon us!

I’m helped along mightily by the dulcet tones of podcast. It’s just brilliant, isn’t it? And it makes the laborious work of digging bulb trenches that little bit easier.

I’m trying my Tulips in crates this year but the Alliums, Narcissi and Snake’s Head Fritillaries are going in trenches 💪🏻 They’ll bulk up over the years and come back again and again (apart from Allium Sphaeracephalon which often needs replacing in my plot) so it’s worth the effort.

Onwards!

16/10/2024

Oh the possibilities! I haven’t dared to look at our beautifully rotavated field today!

Luckily our hill farm does what it says on the tin and our hilliness tends to protect us from the worst of the rain and flooding.

Still, it’ll be nice to get the membrane down quick smart and get those Peonies in when they arrive.

Watch this (very soggy) space!

03/10/2024

The rather less visually dazzling side of flower farming but oh-so-important!

The end of season weeding (meditative but dull), lifting and dividing of perennials (free plants!!!) and mulching (annually required and annually dreaded) form the tail end of one season and the beginning of another.

Returning with reassuring familiarity to these tasks is a timely reminder of the cyclical nature of working on and with the land.

I intend to cover as much bare ground as possible this autumn to mitigate the near Sisyphean struggle I had this Spring with weeds.

The joy of growing on clay loam is that flowers romp away but then so do the weeds. Without having recourse to chemical controls, dense planting, covering bare ground with membrane, cardboard or sheep’s fleeces (or a mixture of all three) is the best line of defence in a war of attrition.

Stay tuned for more distinctly bland pictures of ‘behind-the-scenes’ Autumn work…I’ll throw in the odd flower every now and then!

01/10/2024

A lovely morning spent at in Herefordshire admiring the beautiful gardens and partaking in a cheeky sausage sandwich in the tea room 😋

It’s a busy time of the year as a flower grower and I have an impossibly long to-do list but it’s still so important to get off the farm. I always return from a garden visit feeling re-invigorated and with a new sense of purpose (and a few plants too-naturally!)

And October is a lovely time to see the Autumn colour creeping in 🍁🍂🍃

11/09/2024

Beautiful Hindringham Hall, our hosts for the week. What a magical house and garden they have. A 12th Century moat envelops a walled kitchen garden, orchard and herbaceous borders.

I’ve come away with lots of ideas for my garden ( espalièr pears, cottage garden mix of ornamentals and edibles to name a couple) and a few tips for the farm too 🌾🌸🌻

09/09/2024

On holiday in beautiful North Norfolk and, of course, there’s always time to pop in to a garden (or two!)

31/08/2024

Behold! The workhorses of the August cutting garden…

1. salvia viridis - what a beautiful filler/foliage with unusual flowers and a gorgeous shade of violet. It looks fantastic in a bouquet or jam jar posey!

2. Annual Lupin ‘Blue Javelin’ - Having always been something of a Lupin snob (perennials only, please!), my heart has been wholly won by this little corker. And it’s blue! Well, sort of.

3. Marjoram - Oh Marjoram, what would I have done without you this season! This intrepid little interloper has self-seeded itself all over my herbaceous border and I couldn’t be happier about it. Fragrant, pretty in flower and virtually indestructible out of water, it’s a winner!

4. Nigella - Because, what would any flower grower do without this staple? Great in flower and once it’s formed a seed head (always a bonus!) and it’s blue! (A colour flower growers are so often asked for but struggle to grow for cutting)

5. Bupleurum - My first season growing this acid-green little rocker and boy has it been great! It’s a lovely, unusual foliage and great out of water. It also stands for a good while on the plant

6. Eryngium - What a tough cookie this plant is! It’s my go-to for buttonholes and any out-of-water work. The range of colours (mainly blues and violets) are great too

7. Antirrhinum - You truly can never have enough of this cutting patch stalwart. A true workhorse! A dazzling array of colours and indispensable in wedding work.

20/08/2024

What an honour it is to be asked to flower a wedding! It’s a particular joy when the bride happens to be a laidback gem like Kayleigh ❤️ with the best family!

The whole process was great fun from beginning to end and it was wonderful to be given the freedom to be creative. So thank you very much, lovely lady ☺️

I still have availability left for 2025 so please get in touch with any enquiries asap!
cutting.garden.st.devereux thank you girls for the pizzazz! 😍

12/08/2024

This burst of sunshine has been glorious 🌞 but it has encouraged already stressed plants (wind speeds were 40mph+ here last week and the rain was horizontal!) to go over rather quickly.

Short bursts of very hot weather interspersed with cold, wet and wind have to be managed by the intrepid grower- not an easy task, I assure you!

My perennials have, as ever, been a bulwark against climate change, performing whatever the weather. And my Sweet Peas! Well, they’ve been simply stunning ✨

It’s important to take heart in the victories as well as the defeats. There’ll certainly be enough of the latter when you’re growing flowers on a hill farm in Mid-Wales 😎

01/08/2024

As we creep into August, the garden takes on a different character; richer colours dominate, redolent of heady late-summer days and the smell of spice hangs in the air (thank you Mathiola Incana).

For me, in this strangest of seasons, my Sweet Peas are finally hitting their stride, filling jam jar after jam jar. The Roses are now flouncing offstage after a dazzling season and the cottage-garden classics are coming into their own.

Cornflowers, Chinese Forget-me-not, Dahlias (finally!), Gladioli, Sunflowers, Achillea, Antirrhinum and annual Lupins are just some of the flowers gracing the garden.

There is a melancholy about August, isn’t there? The shortening of the days, the abundance of seed heads where once there were flowers and the fledging of the House Martins all mark the end of something as well as the beginning.

Still, there is plenty yet to enjoy, as well as the crucial task of reviewing the season’s successes and failures, there is yet a commitment to make to another year of growing flowers: planting out the biennials. Onwards!

21/07/2024

Yesterday I had the honour of providing farewell flowers for a very special man indeed.

I loved every minute of choosing and picking the flowers, thinking of their significance all the while: Oak for Strength and Rosemary for Remembrance, a dark Crimson Rose for Mourning and a Pink Rose for Happiness; all of these felt appropriate in remembering Elwyn.

Thanks also go to my mum, my helpmeet who did such a marvellous job of arranging the jam jars and jugs and Hati for providing a bucketful of loveliness to bolster the vase arrangements ☺️

16/07/2024

🎉 🍾🎉 Coming soon…Epynt Peonies 🎉🍾🎉

Planting Autumn 2024…2,300 Peonies
Planting Autumn 2025…600 Peonies

Making a total of 2,900 Peonies over the next 18 months!

Can you imagine how beautiful this meadow will look? 😍

We can’t wait to share our progress with you all 🌷

Stay tuned for our new social media feeds 🌷

13/07/2024

Well it’s been a funny old year! Sweet Peas sown in January are finally making an appearance now 🧐 Better late than never, these fragrant beauties have the longest stems!

Every year I wonder if it’s worth sowing them but I’m so glad I have as a cottage garden is bereft without them and they’re one of my most asked-for flowers.

They’re very little bother really, you just have to keep picking them and they multiply in abundance and will reward you with jam jar after jam jar of the sweetest smelling, daintiest little gems!

Jilly, Emily and Pandemonium are the varieties I’m picking at the moment ☺️

03/07/2024

In this strangest of growing seasons, there is one plant above all else that has been remarkably resilient to the bafflingly changeable weather: The Rose.

I grow an array of roses at home. Modern English Roses by David Austin form the backbone of River Meadow but in my own garden, Old Roses take centre stage: ‘Charles de Mills’, ‘De Rêscht’, ‘Tuscany Superb’ and ‘Alain Blanchard’ are all favourites.

Their voluptuous flowers are a joy in the herbaceous border and their heady scent is unmatched by many modern varieties. Equally at home in grand stately homes as they are in tiny cottage-gardens, a garden feels rather empty without them.

30/06/2024

My own garden has been a little slow this year! My first sowings of roots failed to germinate due to the appalling spring. My second sowings are bouncing along nicely now and the potatoes, onions and garlic look good (they’re always a failsafe, aren’t they?!)

Despite growing flowers for sale, I still love to garden in my spare time; a hobby and a job 🙏🏻

My own little patch can occasionally look a little forlorn but it’s also where I experiment with new flowers before committing a bed to them so by July I hope this little corner will also be transformed by an abundance of colour 🤞🏻

21/06/2024

Not quite flaming June but the garden is really beginning to sing nonetheless. The flower field is yet to hit its stride as the annuals are slow to appear this year.

The perennials are romping away, reliable as ever!

Particular successes this year include:

🌷 Lupins (sown from seed and looking jolly healthy)
🌷 Ranunculus - tunnel grown were truly fabulous but outdoor took a real battering
🌷 Sweet William - an old fashioned favourite and stalwart

There have been failures too from which I’ve taken many pointers and will make changes next year to avoid in the future. I don’t dwell on these; they’re all part of growing flowers for profit.

Now to get my biennials sown and carry on selling!

14/06/2024

at the NEC, we had a fabulous time chatting to nurserymen and women, sampling yummy food and, of course, picking up the odd plant or two!

It doesn’t quite have the same rural appeal as the RHS Malvern show, that’s for sure, but it was a great showcase of British growers. I just had to dodge the one national flower subscription company 🤦🏻‍♀️ although I did manage to tell the rep to ‘Support British growers!!’ very loudly 🤓

04/06/2024

✨ Time for a re-introduction in time for British Flowers Week ✨

- I’m Becky from River Meadow Flower Farm, located in Merthyr Cynog in the beautiful Brecon Beacons

- I grow seasonal, chemical-free Cottage-Garden style flowers on our family farm

- Weddings, Bouquets, Funerals are the main focus of my business at the moment

- It’s all a juggle with my 2 young children, holiday cottages on the farm and, of course, the farm itself!

- Do you know who your local flower farmer is? If not, please do look at the Flowers from the Farm website (or just a quick internet search) and you will undoubtedly find a super duper, knowledgable grower who is devoted to growing the best and most sustainable blooms for you!

- Please support British growers and farmers where you can 🙏🏻 With your help we can cut down on chemically grown, imported blooms from thousands of miles away that offer no traceability whatsoever. The human and environmental cost of the cut flower industry is truly appalling. Let’s try and turn things round a bit!

01/06/2024

Is there anything more exciting than new beds and the possibilities they present?

I’m reserving these for annuals that are fast outgrowing their pots and will need planting out in the next few days. It’ll be all systems go for the coming weeks, as I’m busy sowing biennials for next year and planting out all this year’s annuals and perennials.

Phew! There’s no rest for flower growers from here on in 🥵

29/05/2024

Late Spring flowers are some of my favourites; ethereal, delicate blooms before the pizzazz of bright summer colours.

Polemonium, Ranunculus, Geum, Silene, Ragged Robin, Allium, Astrantia and Hesperis are all nestled into this bouquet.

Standard gift bouquets and special gift bouquets are available. My website currently says ‘sold out’ (I’ll change asap!) but for now, please message me if you’d like to order ☺️

Funeral flowers are also available as of now! Sheafs, Sprays and Wreaths are all available to order.

21/05/2024

What a relaxing way to spend a gloriously sunny Sunday; strolling around the beautiful grounds of house, open for

Followed, of course, by a trip next door to the heavenly where we purchased a few plants- well, it would have been rude not to, wouldn’t it?

17/05/2024

Ranunculus, or Persian Buttercups, are one of my top 5 favourite flowers.

Typically ‘chitted’ or grown on a little in plug trays to keep the pesky rodents at bay (ranunculus corms are manna from Heaven for mice!), they can be planted straight out in the garden or grown undercover. I do both in order to hedge my bets; it means I have an earlier crop inside (typically blooming from April onwards in succession) and then the outdoor ones crop into the summer.

I’m trying a few different ways of growing ranunculus to see what works best for me. As my tunnel space is limited I’d like to expand the amount I grow outside for next year, perhaps with the aid of caterpillar tunnels although these aren’t essential.

Perennially popular with customers, eliciting more ‘oohs’ and ‘aahs’ than any other flower I sell, they’re always a winner.

And a tulip is at the end because it was looking oh-so-pretty!

10/05/2024

was particularly enjoyable this year thanks to crystalline, azure skies and ample sunshine 🌞

There were some incredibly inventive and charming music-inspired show gardens created by local school children too.

And of course, we had the obligatory photograph in front of the RHS letters ❤️ What a splendid job our members did of that display too. Bravo!

06/05/2024

Last week I attended a wonderful day course with Justine at learning about funeral flower arrangements. We even had a beautiful willow coffin from on which to rest our flowers.

What a lovely opportunity it was to meet fellow flower growers, swap growing tips, share our frustrations with the weather and look forward to spreading the joy of seasonal flowers.

All arrangements were 100% compostable, treading lightly on the earth, leaving behind no trace of unsightly plastic packaging or foam.

‘By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread,
till you return to the ground,
for out of it you were taken;
for you are dust,
and to dust you shall return’

Genesis 3:18-20

Isn’t it right that our flowers should do the same?

14/04/2024

Spring has finally sprung here today 🐑🌷🌞

The lambs are gambolling in the fields, the bulbs are finally hitting their stride (after a very late planting-oops!) and the first sowings of carrots, parsnips and turnips are in!

River Meadow is finally shrugging off its impersonation of Passchendaele and my first Spring markets are just around the corner.

I was gutted to miss Brecon Farmer’s Market yesterday as my bulbs (which form the backbone of my April flowers) were looking so sad and battered after the appalling weather we’ve had that I felt I didn’t have quite enough saleable stems 🤷🏻‍♀️ It’s all part of farming!

Here’s to better days ahead and there’ll be plenty more flowers (and markets) this season so watch this space 💪🏻

Address

Brecon

Telephone

+447831652574

Website

http://www.rivermeadowflowerfarm.co.uk/

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Videos

Work at Epynt Peonies is well and truly underway 🥳 We’ve been liming and rotavating the soil in preparation for planting later this month. We’ll need to get the weed-proof membrane down pretty soon and then patiently await our special delivery of 2,300 Peony roots… Our Peony field has the most beautiful views and is surrounded on one side by beautiful native woodland and a waterfall. I’ll share that with you soon! #peonyflower #peonyseason #peonygrower #flowerfarmer #flowerfarmers #flowerfarmerflorist #flowerfarms #flowerfarmerlife #farmerswife #weddingflowers #weddingflorist #weddingswales

How green is my valley 🍃 River Meadow is nestled in the bottom of this steep-sided valley, protected on both sides by native woodland and meadows. On a sunny autumnal day, with the cattle lowing and nearby Yscir river meandering its way to the Honddu it is pure paradise. Most of the time farming can be really hard work, both the livestock and flower variety. Yet, when you’re surrounded by views like this it’s hard to imagine doing anything else 🌷🐑🐂 #itsafarmerslifeforme #flowerfarm #flowerfarmer #breconbeacons

And she’s in! A successful move for the old girl and clever Hubby even managed to avoid squishing my fledgling hedge. Hoorah! #flowerfarmer #flowerfarm #breconbeacons

Man Vs Rotavator Part II… Now he’s off like a pro! Goodness, he’s efficient now, though much less entertaining 😂 Just look at the expert handling and he’s even mastered changing direction 💪🏻 The new perennial beds are taking shape! 3 down, just another 3 to go 💐 #manvmachine #flowerfarm #flowerfarmer #breconbeacons

Ooooh that satisfying first scoop of earth 👌 And joy of joys! What do we find beneath but beautiful red clay with good drainage. By ‘eck! Now to liberate my parched perennials from their 9cm prison pots and let those roots breathe 🥵 #diggertime #boysandtheirtoys #flowerfarm #flowerfarmer #perennial #perennialflowers #perennialplant