Cumberland Flower Farm

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Cumberland Flower Farm

Our vibrant seasonal flowers are grown here in West Cumbria for your home, event or wedding. Deliver

28/01/2025

Chapter 4: Our Pandemic Pivot

One of the most surprising outcomes of the pandemic was our pivot into wedding flowers. We had grown and arranged the flowers for a few weddings, including Helen and Tom's in 2018 (pictured!) but I had found them far too stressful. I couldn’t meet the expectations of ‘wedding florist’ as well as grow the flowers without buckling under the pressure. As 'my own boss' I was determined to enjoy my work! So I decided that I wasn’t going to do weddings at all...

By August 2020 that business plan that didn't involve weddings had been scrapped though and when Francesca and Ben – the dynamos behind – asked if I would like to be involved in their Micro Wedding Package as a solution to the wedding hiatus, I pulled up my big girl pants and said yes. Big gatherings weren’t allowed, but Francesca and Ben coordinated beautiful small, intimate weddings that could flexibly go ahead around the ever-changing rules. Everyone involved was lovely, the weddings were tiny, and the couples were – for one reason or another – very happy with ‘micro’. I was encouraged to use what was growing in the field, work to a seasonal colour palette, in my own simple naturalistic style. The dream! Together with the other Cumbrian suppliers we crafted really special celebrations in the midst of the pandemic.

In fact we’re still doing these lovely intimate weddings and our pivot into weddings was permanent; 80% of our turnover is now wedding flowers and, most importantly, I love doing them so much. We seized the simple “colours/seasonal” approach and having hoovered up lots of business books about automation, efficiency and mindset I decided to be brave and Sarah at helped upgrade our website in 2022 so that it did most of the admin and kept me organised as well. Our ‘Style Book’, price list and online booking is radically different from the normal ‘way’, but it works for us and our customers; many love its fuss-free transparency, others accept that its how we do things.

It was all such an important business lesson: often it’s not WHAT you do but HOW you do it that makes it work.

1📷 Rickie Baillie Photography
2&3 📷

23/01/2025

Chapter 3: The pause

After all the challenges we had faced we were so happy. So excited. We fought the initial temptation to leap into working on the field and dodged the mistake of growing in the frost pocket. Watching where the winter sun found the ground first and where the frost lay late into the afternoon. Feeling where the wind was strongest. Squelching through the boggy bits. That was time well spent. We tentatively started doing some work in the new year. Fencing. Drainage. Soil analysis. We placed orders, set up meetings, tapped numbers into spreadsheets. It was so exciting.

In February I went to a conference near London and stayed a few days. People gathered from around the country and I sat with friends who’d been skiing in Italy. I saw somebody wearing a face mask on the train on my way home. How weird, I thought. Back home I developed a really bad cold. A dreadful cough. I really struggled and barely left the sofa for weeks. It went on and on. I went to the doctors and I asked “could this be the virus on the news?”

“Have you been to China?” She responded.

Within two weeks we had taken the boys out of school, terrified for our son with asthma. We delivered Mother’s Day Bouquets with a sense of dread; usually this celebrations marks the start of the season, but as our tulips started to flower, the whole world started to close down. Locked down, locked up, and so scared.

Our flowers did find purpose in the pandemic. Initially everything paused. In that eerie silence we gave them away to neighbors and customers came forward suggesting key workers who we could gift them to. Then funeral directors (and some customers, sadly) approached us because the Dutch auctions had closed and funeral flowers weren’t available. We made our Farewell Flowers and provided a little comfort.

Despite spending those hot days happily on the field, playing and putting up polytunnels, I really felt the grief of our customers and the struggle of those on the frontline. It brought the severity of the situation home. We doubled down on growing flowers, unsure where the business was heading but knowing that flowers were important and needed at this dark time.

22/01/2025

Chapter 2: “That would do!”

When our eldest was a toddler he had endless energy and I would walk him and the dog a couple of times a day. Most of these wanderings were unremarkable and unmemorable. When walking out of our village there are several short ‘lonnin’ - Cumbrian green lanes - to provide access to the fields. They don’t go anywhere and ‘second lonnin’ (unimaginatively named) was especially muddy and overgrown. Toddler heaven. One summery day, long before the polytunnel or ultimatum but with the dream of a little land, woods and hens, I distinctly remember walking down that lonnin, standing at the gate and looking down the fields, with the fells in the distance, and thinking “that would do!”

We had no idea how hard it was to buy or even rent land for long term use until we started trying to get a few acres for ourselves. It felt impossible.

Tiny paddocks sold for huge amounts of money. Some landowners were rude when we asked them, others told us the blunt truth; sheep were easier. Fields for sale were hilly. Exposed. Boggy. Miles away.

Then out of the blue, in spring 2019, we were approached by a land agent about the possibility of some land being available.

I couldn’t believe my eyes when I looked at the land agent’s map: it was the “that would do” field.

In October 2019 we became the owners of that field. In fact we bought a parcel of land that included two fields and a little woodland with river frontage. Sure it was boggy, hilly, compacted clay and very overgrown…

But it would definitely do.

🌳

Scroll > Photos from October 2019 to photo from September 2024 for comparison!

21/01/2025

Chapter 1. Beginnings.

There was a point in 2017 when Martyn gave me the “sell them or grow less” ultimatum.

Fairly soon after I moved to Cumbria in 2009 to live with Martyn, (we met on the internet that’s another chapter 🤣) we took on a very overgrown, very large allotment in our village. We grew vegetables and flowers, and enjoyed watching the wildlife thrive. Many of you will relate to the pleasure of oogling at seed catalogues, nurturing seedlings and picking gluts of produce. It was my hobby, I swapped seedlings with colleagues at the council (I was Art Officer for Allerdale) and I dreamt of growing flowers for a living. We dreamt of flower fields, some woodland and hens, but I couldn’t see a way of making enough money for it to be a viable option, especially with Cumbria’s summer season being so short and variable.

Creating our family was very difficult. I took redundancy (without any mega payout I hasten to add, as I’d only been in the post 4 years) to be with our baby boy Jacob. I was stressed and had had a miscarriage, so we cut our cloth accordingly, and then spent three years struggling through back to back pregnancies, involving still birth, premature births and a lot of trauma. Growing flowers brought me a lot of joy during this time. Sowing seeds, watching them grow, the abundance, the colour, the vitality… I grew a LOT of flowers!

In 2017 a friend left me her polytunnel when she moved abroad, and I realised that I could very significantly extend the season with undercover space.

With *that* ultimatum in 2017, Cumberland Flower Farm was launched in Spring 2018.

At that time we were farmless, growing (with permission) on two allotments equalling 1/4 acre. We had a 6 year old, a 3 year old and a 2 year old, and we needed the money. We seized every opportunity and sold every stem. I grew and arranged our wedding flowers, supplied bunches to in Keswick, Westmorland Services and No.11 (now ) in Cockermouth. Demand and interest grew.

We were onto something.

🌱

20/01/2025

In the depths of winter our ancestors would have gathered and told stories, and as a seasonal business with new followers and no flowers we’re going to do the same over the next few deepest-darkest days. In a 21st century way, we’ll share our tale with you.

My name is Harriet, and I set up Cumberland Flower Farm 7 years ago. I’ve been musing on ‘where does this story begin?’ recently, and remember (dimly) my A level history’s analysis of events… how far do you go back? What were the contingent factors that brought this business about? how important are the hay meadows of my youth? The wild wood adventures in Martyn’s childhood? And where does the story finish? What does the next 7 years look like?

Are there monsters and fairies?! (I know some of you are wondering this!)

Some of you will have heard this before, but for others it will be new. Indulge me. Gather round. It’s wintertime.

Continued. Tomorrow/ Tuesday 21st.

14/01/2025

Looking for Seasonal, Sustainable Wedding Flowers for your Cumbrian wedding?

Our 2025 Wedding Style Book is available now on our website for you to download.

Packed with pictures and information, this is our way of telling you more about our business, our approach to weddings and our range.

Booking for 2025 and 2026 is now open on our website too. Everything is priced, transparent, simple. Key dates in 2025 are now full booked, don’t leave booking for 2026 too late.

Big thanks to everyone who have recently booked! We’re excitedly planning your flowers 💕🌞🌱

cumberlandflowerfarm

07/01/2025

I’m officially back at work today. Thankfully at the desk as it’s frozen solid outside! I’ll be responding to enquiries and updating our website today. Our 2026 diary opens at midday tomorrow (8th Jan gmt)

I opened a business-sector newsletter earlier that said we’re in for a tough year because of increased NI contributions and the implementation of a living wage. And I thought HOW DISMAL?! 🤯 What a world we live in to expect a recession because we’re going to pay people enough to live on and pay more towards the costs of our vital services.

I’ve had many heated discussions over the economy over the years and I’m not going to pick that fight today, but I firmly believe in the power of good business: caring for our people, our world, doing it all well. If by design we pay properly, make environmentally kind decisions and care then our world is all the better for it.

We thrive.

It would be transformative if business was measured in positive impact (rather than this good stuff being ‘performative’) wouldn’t it?!

So I’m doing more good business in 2025. No dismal here…

Happy. Healthy. Prosperous. 2025… Bring. It. On!!💕🌞🌱

31/12/2024

Thank you 2024, I learnt a lot about myself, our business, our customers, my friends and my family. There have been some exceptional challenges, but they’ve helped show me our strengths… Thank you to everyone involved this year, be it in person or from afar. It takes brilliant suppliers (from compost and seeds, to flowers and wooden stars), business support (chamber of trade, solicitors, flower friends on the phone), inspirational peers and collaborators, supporters who buy, nominate, recommend and champion… so many thank yous! Thank you!

Here is our Top 9!

Highlights are certainly included here, but so many other wonderful moments including winning our Best Green Business Award are not.

2025 is shaping up to be an exciting one too. I’m very busy resting - don’t underestimate the need to take time off seriously - and enjoying some solid family time. But then we’ll be raring to go….

Happy New Year!

Love to all.
Hx

20/12/2024

Such a lot of love //

As I put my ‘out of office’ on and officially hang up my business hat for 2024, I wanted to share this huge Heart Wreath made for a memorial this week. (Scroll ⬅️ for my feet for scale!) There are lots of reasons why Christmas can be a sad, unsettling, or lonely time and I just wanted to acknowledge this, as I know a lot of people who for one reason or another might be feeling this way, this year. We’re thinking of our customers, friends and family who are facing a Christmas with illness, absence or loss overshadowing it.

Love to all.

And a little about this huge heart; measuring just under 1m wide, it is made on a wire/moss base, with many foliages including berried ivy, three types of eucalyptus, various hedge, and pittosporum. Bluey purple hydrangeas add depth of colour to this green base. Huge bloom chrysanthemums, reminiscent of snowballs, grown in Cheshire are the feature flower, with Norfolk grown chrysanthemums and Cornish Alstromerias as bright white filler. Little Cornish Paperwhite Narcissi stars added sparkle…

… Wintery without being christmassy, and to express a lot of love 💖

Wishing everyone a peaceful time this Christmas,
❤️
Harriet

###

#

16/12/2024

British Winter Wedding // in mid-December we had to look to Cornwall for fresh flowers for this wedding, but encorporated our dried flowers (like that pink gyp!) and some of our foliages. I cut a few fronds of ferns, from green to dried, as a nod to the couple’s Fellside garden where they are cultivating ferns.

As a value led business we see the restriction to British grown flowers, for environmental and ethical reasons, as a creative challenge. Seeing the potential in what’s here, now. That’s the art.

And by trusting us, and supporting our business you’re also supporting other British flower farmers, who are already at the sharp end of the effects of the climate crisis: the grower who supplied these beautiful red flowers was badly affected by Storm Darragh, but still delivered these fab ingredients to us. Thank you!

Congratulations G&G. Bestest wishes to you both ###

14/12/2024

Cumberland Flower Farm will be completely closed from Friday 20th December until Tuesday 7th January.

From Wednesday 8th January you will be able to book for weddings in 2025 and 2026! Expect updated 2025 prices and a revised Wedding Style Book then! We will send our existing wedding couples all the information that week too!

Fresh flowers - Gift Bouquets and bunches - won’t reopen until March, when our fresh flowers should (winter permitting) start to bloom again! We’ll shout loudly when they start up…

We will try to help if you require Farewell Flowers in January or February. Please email, do not send DMs. Thank you!

20 Dec - 7 Jan // Closed

8th Jan // Wedding bookings reopen

Jan-Feb // Email for Farewell Flowers

March // fresh flowers!

✨🎄⭐️

08/12/2024

Oh what a week that was…. Crazy busy and flying solo with Martyn away with work in Europe…. Everyone survived though! 🙃

If you’d like a wreath please order online. It will be for Friday or Saturday collection….

Huge thanks to everyone who came to yesterday’s workshops at The Kirkgate in Cockermouth. It was lovely to be back there - a venue I worked closely with when I worked in the arts - and so fantastic to meet so many customers and supporters and some new faces too. Everybody did brilliantly. Please share your photos (either in comments, on instagram or by email as I’m not able to access Facebook!). I didn’t take any!!

We will be closing next week for our winter hibernation. We close in January and then sell in a limited capacity in Feb/march. One of the joys and necessities of a seasonal business is that we have a really busy spring and summer (and autumn!), and then when it’s quieter we need to take the opportunity to rest! And of course, there’s planning and paperwork……

So final orders please!

❄️🙏✨

01/12/2024

December! Wasn’t it only a few days ago that we were acknowledging the end of October… time is doing crazy things… we’re now very busy (aside from one glamorous interlude) making wreaths! Orders are now closed for this week, but we’ve got capacity for 12/13/14th December. Please book though because everything is handmade and we’ve other orders (a winter wedding 🎉 etc!) to do too!

Please order via our website. Facebook DMs can’t be answered, please email! Thank you x

30/11/2024

Well now I wasn’t expecting that! A HUGE thank you to the incredible anonymous person who nominated Cumberland Flower Farm for the In-Cumbria Business Awards in the ‘Best Green Business’…. I wish I knew who you were to thank in person … And a HUGE thank you to the judges who awarded it to us! It was such a delight to be in a room with so many brilliant Cumbrian businesses, meet some excellent people and to walk away with this… wow!

Planet. Profit. People. Sustainability’s three pillars. I’m so grateful to the people who buy, recommend and champion our flowers - quite literally the people who make this sustainable business a reality - and I couldn’t do it without all the people behind the scenes who help too. In particular a huge thank you to Shona, Frances and Sarah for being so much more than skilled professionals. Brilliant women, running their own brilliant businesses and supporting me with mine too. Thank you x

(If you’re reading this on Facebook, please remember I can’t access my account or reply to private messages!)

29/11/2024

May your Black Friday be full of colour! ❤️🌸✨

November is whizzing to a close and on a day designed to extricate cash from your bank accounts, I’d like to thank you for all the bright, seasonal, local and British flowers you’ve already bought this year. The support we have is truly wonderful. Thank you!

This is one of the last gift bouquets we made, just last week, filled with flowers, including some of our own chrysanthemum, eucalyptus and Sweet William, alongside British Alstromerias and chrysanths.

Our gift bouquets will be back in March for Mothers Day, but for now our seasonal sustainable business is handcrafting wreaths. You keep us busy!

Supporting small independent businesses really does make a huge difference to the wealth and breadth of your community. Thank you so much for supporting us! 🙏🙌🎉

26/11/2024

Why// One of the things I had to get clear in my head as part of the accreditation was our business purpose:

Our Mission is to grow cut flowers, and sell ‘grown not flown blooms’, so people in Cumbria can choose flowers for their life events that don’t contribute to the world’s climate crisis.

I wasn’t sure if a tiny business needed this sort of corporate detail, but I do continually consider as I plan ahead, consider opportunities and review the season. Providing these seasonal, sustainable flowers brings me joy and satisfaction, but it’s the wider purpose that keeps me going when the challenges come along. I guess it’s my ‘ikigai’.

It was a huge challenge to do the accreditation but it was a really valuable process. What do you think? Is this level of framework corporate nonsense or a business basic? I’d love to hear your thoughts!

🌸

22/11/2024

I’ve been a bit quiet recently, but here I am… wreathing! I’ve closed wreath orders for next week but if you’d like one for the following week (6/7th) we can help! ❤️

Head to our webshop to order please! 🙏

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A shimmer // this bouquet for Sarah had gentle movement with the dainty feverfew, corncockle and jasmine softening the bright colours and giving it a meadowy vibe. It was a pleasure to make. Congratulations to Sarah and Andrew! 🎉🌸💕 #grownnotflown #cumbriaweddingflowers #weddingbouquet #bridalbouquet #cumbria #sustainablewedding #sustainableliving #sustainableflowers #britishflowers #farmflowers #slowflowers #flowerfarmerflorist #cockermouth #seasonalflowers #birdsong #seasonalweddingflowers #lakedistrictwedding #cumbriawedding #cumbriaflorist #inspiredbynature

Sold out - All gone I’m afraid, but I’m going to add a pre-order for bunches of peonies for next Friday / Saturday. I’m sorry that you may have missed out, but so thankful to everyone who order bouquets last week, and came to the Flower Stand for bunches. Thank you! Last night was magical (did you catch the Northern Lights?) but early this morning was pretty amazing too. Last touches for today’s wedding picked… Have a lovely weekend! ###

Peonies… theres a lull in harvesting in Lincolnshire where the weather has been bad. But when they do arrive they’ll be worth the wait! No Friday Flowers this week as a result though!! 🌸 (My peonies are still like marbles 😆) #seasonalflowers #britishflowers #cumbria #cockermouth #seasonalliving #grownnotflown

There are little signs of spring aren’t there? It does help doesn’t it?! Look for these little things today. If you do find this time of year tricky, planting snowdrops, winter flowering jasmine, witch hazel or viburnum bodnantense, or a hellebore to specifically flower now is a great way to help you through. Don’t underestimate seasonal nature connection! #cumberlandflowerfarm #Cumbrianflowers #natureconnection #winterflowers #seasonalliving #cumbria #Cockermouth #seasonalflowers #sustainableliving #sustainability #naturelovers #environmentdesign #cumbrialife #wintergarden

Happy Christmas! However you spend your Christmas time, I hope everyone finds some time for a little personal joy✨. And I’ll see you all again in 2024 for more beautifully natural, seasonal flowery loveliness. Thank you to everyone who has bought our flowers this year - it’s been a challenging year and yet your commitment to us and seasonal, sustainable flowers in more enthusiastic than ever, thank you so much. Thank you too for following our story on here, and in our newsletter, as all your likes and shares and kind words keep us going when it’s very muddy and not much fun. Thank you! I might try to do a 2023 review before the new year - something I like to do in readiness for a new calendar - but until then, ‘out of office’ is on and I’m Christmassing… Love to you all from our house to yours ### #happychristmas #christmas #outofoffice #flowerfarmer #flowerfarm #seasonsgreetings #cumbria #cockermouth #workington #westcumbria

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About us...

Cumberland Flower Farm is a smallholding located in West Cumbria between Cockermouth and Workington that specialises in bee friendly cut flowers for homes, events and businesses. We’ve grown flowers and veg on our allotments for 10 years, and sold our flowers since February 2018. After a lot of looking and negotiating we have finally secured some beautiful land on which to expand our cut flower production. With three acres of pasture and three acres of woodland located between Workington and Cockermouth we are so excited by the potential! By following our page you will be kept abreast of how our the farm develops, as well as when and where we’re selling our flowers.