Branch-out mk CIC

Branch-out mk CIC Our aim is to encourage positive emotional, mental, physical health & wellbeing through gardening 💚

We are located in the wonderful and vibrant York House Community Centre, our workshop is in room 3.1. We have our own garden patch within the community gardens where we also help to manage and maintain the grounds. We offer work opportunities to adults living with learning difficulties & Autism in MK. We grow flowers for sale as cut flowers and we also dry our own flowers for making floral product

s. We make and sell Wreathes, hand tied bouquets, herbal teas, pot pourris, incenses, cards, garden gifts & more. Due to Covid-19 we are currently open as a pop up shop once a fortnight from 10am to 2pm but you can also order flowers and teas online for delivery.

Thanks to everyone who ordered Valentines flowers this year, your support is truly appreciated 🫶We’ve had a big restock ...
15/02/2025

Thanks to everyone who ordered Valentines flowers this year, your support is truly appreciated 🫶

We’ve had a big restock in the shop with new products, such as these unique primroses with their crinkly variegated petals, roll on essential oil blends which you can pop in your bag or pocket to use when the need arises, and incredible lip balms from Agnes and Cat
*All cosmetic products are vegan friendly

We are open Thurs, Fri and Saturdays from 10am to 4pm

You can also order flowers online for collection or delivery

Shop local, shop social, shop Branch-out MK; your one stop shop for top quality flowers & houseplants & plant based products in Wolverton

Which would you prefer? Seasonally grown British flowers in sustainable packaging, grown with love and care for you, you...
07/02/2025

Which would you prefer?

Seasonally grown British flowers in sustainable packaging, grown with love and care for you, your beloved and the environment with fabulous fragrance?

Or out of season flowers, doused in chemicals, leached into the environment and shipped from 4000 miles away?

Valentine’s DaySo who was this Valentine person who is now responsible for the global production of 250 million roses fo...
07/02/2025

Valentine’s Day
So who was this Valentine person who is now responsible for the global production of 250 million roses for a single day and a multi billion pound industry? One account from the 1400s describes Valentine as a temple priest who was beheaded near Rome by the emperor Claudius II, because he helped Christian couples wed when it had been decreed that single men made better soldiers and therefore should not be married.

However, the actual identity of St Valentine remains a bit of a mystery. There are a dozen possible candidates for the title, one being a woman and another a Pope. To add to the problem the monika ‘Valentinus’ (from the Latin word for worthy, strong or powerful) has been applied to many martyrs resulting in numerous saints bearing the name.

Whoever he (or she) may have been St Valentine is the Patron Saint of Beekeepers and epilepsy, as well as Lovers, engaged couples and happy marriages of course. In addition you can also call on their assistance in times of plague, fainting and traveling.

But why is Valentine’s Day celebrated in February and why do we gift roses even though they are not at all seasonal?

It is generally believed that the Christian church decided to place St. Valentine’s feast day in the middle of February in order to cover up the pagan celebration of Lupercalia, which was also known as the fertility festival (originally a sacred gathering of Roman priests that went on from February 13th to the 15th).

Since fertility was also associated with agriculture, flowers invariably became the Valentine’s Day gift of choice. For centuries flowers have symbolised fertility, love, marriage and romance. When the Romans turned Aphrodite into their goddess of love Venus, they offered the rose as her symbol of love and beauty. So when Valentine’s Day became the mainstream holiday we know today, the rose was an obvious choice as the most befitting gift by association.

The demand for roses on Valentine’s Day is huge but you don’t have to be limited to traditional roses. There are many beautiful seasonal flowers available in the UK from tulips and narcissi, to alstroemerias and lilies. If you are eco conscious then you probably don’t want to think of your flowers being flown 4,000 miles, wrapped in plastic and preserved in a chemical cocktail to keep them fresh and perfect, when you can have locally grown flowers from a plot just round the corner.

An interesting journal article by Pereiria et al. (2021) outlines how those chemicals affect not only the environment but the whole chain from farm to consumer (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0269749121013993)

Margeret Renkl writing in the New York Times in 2023 says ‘if you want to give your beloved a botanical gift, why not make it a gift to the planet, too?’
(https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/13/opinion/flowers-valentines-day-sustainability.html #:~:text=Valentine's%20Day%20accounts%20for%20some,in%20town%20are%20already%20booked.)

For an interesting look at the global flower trade it’s worth checking out: https://www.bbc.com/future/bespoke/made-on-earth/the-new-roots-of-the-flower-trade/.html

You can find a local flower farmer, grower or florist near you in the UK by searching the Flowers From The Farm network. We are members and deliver throughout Milton Keynes and the local community. If you want to say I love you then flowers shouldn’t have to literally cost the Earth.

People often ask us “so what do you all do in the Winter?”Get ready for the Spring of course! This is the reality of flo...
06/02/2025

People often ask us “so what do you all do in the Winter?”

Get ready for the Spring of course! This is the reality of flower farming, all the hard graft that makes those beautiful flowers grow. The seemingly endless task of battling through the quagmire to get those beds organised is nearly complete.

Prepping new beds is a daunting task; digging out the couch grass, bindweed and horsetail as much as we can. Adding organic materials to help the structure.

Add to this improving paths, fixing broken things, tidying up, sharpening tools, cleaning polytunnel sand greenhouse space.

It’s all about getting ready for the big spring seed sow, which is all going to kick off in the next few weeks. Our gardeners and staff are an amazing team.











It’s Social Saturday!These flowers in store now:🌱Cornish Narcissi🌱Lincolnshire Tulips🌱Home grown foliageAnd much more! ...
01/02/2025

It’s Social Saturday!

These flowers in store now:
🌱Cornish Narcissi
🌱Lincolnshire Tulips
🌱Home grown foliage

And much more!







So the great seed sowing begins again, snaps and sweet peas are the first flowers we sow in January. It’s hard to believ...
31/01/2025

So the great seed sowing begins again, snaps and sweet peas are the first flowers we sow in January.
It’s hard to believe that these tiny vessels will carry on the cycle once more and in a few months will be providing us with flowers once again.
What are you growing this year?







Thanks to everyone who made conference 2025 such a brilliant event, the organisers, the speakers, the trade stands, th...
26/01/2025

Thanks to everyone who made conference 2025 such a brilliant event, the organisers, the speakers, the trade stands, the venue and all the delegates.
Fantastic speakers including David Bek who set the scene for the two days with a focus on Farming for the future. Alot to think about in terms of what it really means to be local, seasonal and sustainable.






Pop into the ‘Shop on the Square’ Friday or Saturday and cheer your windowsill up with a little pot of spring bulbs.Watc...
23/01/2025

Pop into the ‘Shop on the Square’ Friday or Saturday and cheer your windowsill up with a little pot of spring bulbs.
Watch them grow and flower, then when they’re done pop them in the garden, where they will flower again and again for years to come.
Open 10am to 4pm
Saturday 25th is the Wolverton Lantern Festival, fingers crossed the winds don’t get up and cancel it again!









Hard to believe we started out as an organisation 12 years ago when these two fabulous guys were our first gardeners. Th...
19/01/2025

Hard to believe we started out as an organisation 12 years ago when these two fabulous guys were our first gardeners. They are still with us and still loving every day they come in. Here we are making cute little narcissi and grape hyacinth apothecary jars which are available to buy in our shop.

Talking of which we are feeling really blessed to have joined with Future Wolverton at The Shop on The Square in 2023, which has offered an accessible space in which to extend our supportive work opportunities and provide an outlet for selling our produce, it’s a really unique place. We are open on Thursdays, Fridays & Saturdays with a variety of other shop keepers popping in on different days. If you are planning on visiting Wolverton then come in and say hello.









We had a surprise this week when this beautiful fox appeared on the plot.But there were a few troubling signs:1) it was ...
18/01/2025

We had a surprise this week when this beautiful fox appeared on the plot.
But there were a few troubling signs:
1) it was out in broad daylight
2) it showed no sign of fear
3) it was circling and looking bewildered
4) it was coughing
5) it was curling up and sleeping right next to the chicken coop
All extremely strange behaviour and quite worrying, so many phone calls ensued to find help.
Thanks so much to who came to the rescue on Thursday afternoon, driving about 45minutes to get to us.
The v***n is going to a specialist who looks after foxes and we really hope she can be helped and eventually returned.
We are all in admiration of the love and dedication shown by people who care for wild animals.







What an amazing morning on the plot.We went for a nature walk and were amazed by the sharp, sparkly frost covering absol...
10/01/2025

What an amazing morning on the plot.
We went for a nature walk and were amazed by the sharp, sparkly frost covering absolutely everything.
Beautiful 🤩




A fascinating session of gazing at frosted bits of nature on Friday last week. The sky was blue, the grass was crunchy a...
06/01/2025

A fascinating session of gazing at frosted bits of nature on Friday last week. The sky was blue, the grass was crunchy and all was good with our little bit of the world.






Finally made a wreath for our door! Yule is a time of celebration, of giving thanks and welcoming a new chapter into our...
24/12/2024

Finally made a wreath for our door!

Yule is a time of celebration, of giving thanks and welcoming a new chapter into our lives, but especially welcoming the returning light.

Wishing you all a wonderful festive season whatever your belief system. Together we are all stronger.






Address

The Shop On The Square, 9, Radcliffe Street, Wolverton, Milton Keynes.
Milton Keynes
MK125DQ

Opening Hours

Monday 9:30am - 3pm
Tuesday 9:30am - 3pm
Wednesday 9:30am - 3pm
Thursday 9:30am - 3pm
Friday 9:30am - 3pm
Saturday 10am - 2pm

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Videos

This is Ryan who works in the shop on a Thursday, unwrapping our latest delivery of British grown, peat-free houseplants. He also helped to set out and price up the new stock. We will have tulips, narcissi, alstroemeria, pussy willow and daffodils too, so pop in to the Shop on the Square and say hello!

Thanks to David Archer & Sam Burke from Made In Stony for putting on a really well organised event at York House yesterday. Thanks also to all the lovely people who came out despite the deluge, bought our flowers and other wonderful creations from our talented community of Craftspeople and Artists. Great to see so many people supporting the local community. We pretty much sold out of flowers and were filled with a warm fuzzy glow from all the positive comments.

#flowers via ripl.com

Wow, I've been back to work for two weeks already, things are starting to fall back into place 😊

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