HOMEstead GROWN, South Park, Macclesfield (2025)

16/04/2025

Snipping narcissi, pulling tulips - bulb and all… blooming nicely, just in time for some Easter weekend bunches and bouquets.
I’m saving all the purples for a wedding, so it’s a gorgeous, scented tuttifrutti selection of apricot, mango, peach, pale lemon, tangerine available this weekend.
Message me if you’d like some, or pick up a bunch with your coffee at wildtatama in Macclesfield’s sunny South Park.
Happy Easter! 🌷

15/04/2025

Farewell flowers. Entrusted with another special, personal request: this time, a wild flower posy to rest on the casket in a minster of an aunt who loved wild flowers and loved to paint them with watercolours.
For me, this was also a throwback of memories for someone whose childhood was a compulsively wild-flower picking one... they were different times.
But these were all grown and naturalised in my garden - over twenty delicate and scented varieties, all sustainably tied with raffia so as to return to nature again.

01/04/2025

Just a few more pictures following on from the last post - yet more stunning spring workshop wreaths made in the loveliest of company, and now adorning the doors of Macclesfield and beyond!

01/04/2025

"Could there be a more blissful way to spend a Saturday afternoon" was one verdict of our soft launch of small groups learning to make a living spring wreath. It's the first year we have offered them as a workshop experience. Everyone else present agreed and I must say that I had THE best time too, in both evening and afternoon sessions when the barn, farm and surrounding countryside were both atmospheric and peaceful.
Safe to say that most guests didn't quite know what to expect at the start but took to it like ducks to water, fuelled with home-made lemon, almond & rosemary cake and fresh Random apple juice, naturally. Sometimes lovely chat and sometimes mindful concentration and, at the end of it all, everyone went home with an absolutely unique and gorgeous door wreath that they were rightly proud of.
Doused thoroughly with water every day or so, the wreaths will continue to grow and bloom like mini gardens as they hang on the door, through Easter and beyond, until the bulbs and plants can finally be planted out to make an appearance again next spring. Creativity with beautiful, natural ingredients to celebrate the coming of the spring, the lighter days and the turning of the seasons.

28/03/2025

10am - 3pm, Saturday & Sunday.
Celebrate Mother’s Day weekend and the end of a lovely Springy March…🌷☀️☕️🍰
There will be beautiful, freshly picked HOMEsteadGROWN flowers, locally pressed Random Apple Company juice and wildtatama artisan, fairly-traded coffee on sale at the Wild Tatama coffee trailer in South Park, Macclesfield. Also, our hand made mini vial stem vases…. Very, very cute ☺️… the perfect pocket money gift!
A chance to treat the ladies in your life to some specially chosen gifts and support local businesses too.

21/03/2025

Prepping with anticipation for the first of two living wreath workshop tonight, hurrah!
Wreaths are not just for Christmas oh no.
Whether it feels like a Springy day or not, the sight of one of these is guaranteed to bring sunshine and a happy sigh. They look so beautiful and so fresh decorating a door or gate: a garden in miniature. And that’s the point … they continue to grow and flower if kept damp, and then after Easter when they begin to fade, the moss-protected bulbs and rooted flowering plants can be popped in the ground or in pots to enjoy year after year.
Last minute places are still available for the Saturday 22nd March workshop - with plenty of home made cake I should add - and I also make the wreaths specially to order in two sizes.
See link in bio.

13/02/2025

Say it with British tulips 🌷 ❤️🌷
A walk in the park, a wildtatama coffee and a bunch of these beauties to cheer up the grey days…
Available from Thursday 13th Feb onwards while stocks last.

Smith and Munson

11/02/2025

Living Spring Wreath Workshops
21st March, 7 - 9:30pm
22nd March, 2:30 - 5pm
23rd March, 2:30 - 5pm
£60 per person
At The Random Apple Co, Swanscoe, Macclesfield, Cheshire.

Welcome the brighter, lengthening days by joining me to make a beautiful, fresh, ‘living’ wreath in the wonderfully rustic barn of The Random Apple Company on the rural edge of Macclesfield.
Settle into the session with home-made cake and juice pressed on the farm from the fruit of the heritage orchards.

Using British-grown seasonal flowers, we will moss-wrap the roots of flowering plants and tie them, along with spring bulbs and foliage, to a cushioned base of moss. Complete it with the final touches of hand-blown quail eggs, feathers and twigs, and the finished wreath you’ll take home will continue to grow and flower beautifully for several weeks to come, through Easter and beyond.
Plant the bulbs afterwards for a colourful spring display next year.

No experience is needed and all materials, tuition and help will be provided.

Why not gift a workshop voucher for Mother’s Day, or to a friend or family member for some other special occasion.
Places are limited to 12 per workshop, so do book soon!

https://www.byhomesteadgrown.com/workshops
Email: [email protected]

28/01/2025

Never stop learning, they say! And oh my, what a weekend of learning and inspiration it was at the Flowers From the Farm national conference. Not to mention the energy that comes from networking and making new flower-growing buddies from among so many enthusiastic kindred spirits.
In case you've not come across it, Flowers From The Farm is a UK trade association gathering momentum as it advocates for a financially and environmentally sustainable British cut flower industry. It coordinated the stunning array of thousands of seasonal blooms grown and gathered from every corner of the UK to decorate Westminster Abbey for the coronation service, and connects growers to support and encourage each other in their businesses, to join up the dots.
At the conference, the themes of sustainable and ethical practice were serious and vital because the challenges (geopolitical/economic/climate crisis) are complex and great ... but the opportunities are great too! There was a real 'now is the time' optimism and resilience at large. The number of small-scale to larger artisan growers is booming and the demand is clearly surging for gorgeous seasonal flowers with a minimum of negative environmental impact, as fresh and local as it comes. That's my experience as demand for my HOMEstead GROWN flowers increases year on year. It's also my experience and a wonderful feeling every time I hand a bouquet of flowers to an appreciative customer and can tell them when and where I first sowed the seeds, show them the garden plot where they were picked early that morning, or whenever I arrange flowers specially propagated in a certain colour palette for a local bride. I reckon that, whether growing or buying, we can all be kinder to the planet one beautiful British bloom at a time.

07/01/2025

Wintering. While nature is in retreat today under the magical white world of the garden and the park beyond, so am I. Snow day: a gift of time to slow down and enjoy the scented paperwhite narcissi I 'forced' in pots in the dark shed a few weeks ago - the scent is incredible for such a small flower and I'm glad I made the effort among the busyness! In years gone by, I would have rushed out and bought a bunch or two of unseasonal, imported tulips or lilies in plastic wrap from a supermarket to cheer me up after the Christmas decorations come down, but now I try to resist. Time also to enjoy the wonderland mostly from the warm inside, and trust that under the heavy snow, my resilient plants, bulbs and seedlings will be blooming again when the time is right. I'm excited to have a poly tunnel just now where there's some protection for the hardy seedlings I planted in autumn to get a head start on the growing season - seems to be doing the trick so far🤞

02/01/2025

Looking back at 2024: a year in bouquets! Just a few photos from the last growing year, tricky as it was, which capture for me the joy of watching the seasons change. Every gathered bunch is different, every single bloom locally and sustainably grown. In fact, almost all that you see here are from my garden and growing patch.
Many of these stems have been nurtured from seed to bloom, so the reward and sense of achievement in cutting and giving them away and seeing the surprise and pleasure that they bring, is just wonderful.
British flowers for weddings, for birthdays and anniversaries; to say thank you or I'm thinking of you...
Some had been ordered as part of a gift subscription, a monthly bouquet from my garden to your vase, and could not have been fresher: https://www.byhomesteadgrown.com/products
Hands up if you think there is always a good reason to have a bunch of beautiful, scented, seasonal flowers in your possession - or come to that, for no particular reason at all?!

HOMEstead GROWN

16/04/2025

15/04/2025

01/04/2025

01/04/2025

28/03/2025

21/03/2025

13/02/2025

11/02/2025

28/01/2025

07/01/2025

02/01/2025

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