We packed in just about everything last week:
🌼Our first ceramic workshop with Sarah of @2spotsceramics - absolutely brilliant “that was the best thing I’ve done in ages!” in the words of one of our guests. We will definitely be welcoming Sarah back soon.
🌼Next up the 3rd part of our Sustainable Floristry Course with Louise Bradshaw @creativeflora Wiring was the topic, everyone seemed to do an amazing job of mastering what I find to be a very ‘fiddly’ job and one I prefer to leave to those more patient than myself! So well done everyone, I was impressed!
🌼Then flowers to be picked to fulfil wholesale orders, mostly flowers going to be used to ‘flower’ weddings.
🌼We also had our own wedding to flower. DIY flower buckets, Bride and Bridesmaid’s bouquets and lots of button holes too - more wiring, but very ably done by Amy @amyega21 , who is definitely far more patient than me!
🌼Whilst this was going on we also managed to crack on with the weeding and planting out of the last of our annuals for this year.
💫That’s all for now folk, I’m going to lie down for a bit and prepare myself for next week.
Happy Weekend.
Alison xx
#flowerfarming #winchester #hampshirebusiness #smallbusiness #growingflowers #localbusiness
🌸A little ‘snapshot’ of what June has looked like so far here at LNFF🌸
#flowerfarmer #flowers #britishflowerfarmer #hampshirelife
It’s a riotous jungle, a mass of colour and a vision of beauty. Just as well, as we’ve got a lot of flowers to pick for wholesale orders this week.
See you at the end of the week by which time I hope we have tamed our poly’s exuberance just a little and rediscovered the paths!
#flowersofinstagram #polytunnellife #flowerfarming #winchester #hampshire
Don't miss our upcoming POP-UP EVENT on June 8th! Join us for a delightful session of 'flower play' and create your very own Posy Jar with flowers hand-picked by myself and my team from our flower field. As it coincides with BRITISH 🇬🇧 FLOWER WEEK, we will be serving scones, cream, jam, and a nice mug of tea to make it a truly British affair. To find out more, visit our website www.lowernortonflowerfarm.com/events-1.
Last week was a busy one. Everyone seemed to want wedding flowers. Lots going out to our lovely florists for the weddings they were busy creating. We also had our own Micro wedding and visits from our 2025 Brides to talk about their wedding flowers.
As always, there's lots to do in the field. We’re still sowing seeds for this year but have also begun sowing for next year's flowers as well. We’ve got lots of planting out ahead of us to make sure we have a steady flow of flowers throughout this season.
Can you believe it? I've already received my first catalogue tempting me with tulip bulbs for this autumn!
Check out a fantastic workshop that we are hosting: Nature Journaling for Joy with HerOutdoorz on Wednesday, 26 June.
I can't wait for this Workshop! Even though I don't consider myself very artistic at all I'm very tempted to give this one a go. Journalling is a wonderful concept, of how to capture the true essence of the seasons in a creative and absorbing way that can be carried on at your leisure over the coming months, I think it could possibly become quite addictive!
That's all for now folks. Hope you are all enjoying this Bank Holiday Weekend.
Alison xx
#flowerfarming #britishfloral #weekly_feature #winchester #hampshire #hampshirelife
Occasionally we take the opportunity for what we call ‘Flower Play’ time. Essential not only for us to continue to test out different foam free techniques but also allowing us time to explore our own floristry style and experiment a little so we continue to develop too.
And then I had an idea 💡- how about we open up our flower studio for an informal ‘Pop Up Flower Play Session’ and invite all you lovely people to come and have a go at creating your very own low bowl flower arrangement.
We will provide the flowers, bowl and foam freemechanics and then leave the rest to you. Have a play, experiment and have fun. No pressure, this is intended to be an informal session, where you get to meet the LNFF team (inc Pip), spend some time in our gorgeous Flower Studio, feel inspired and create a seasonal low bowl arrangement to take home with you.
More details to follow in my next post on Monday so stayed tuned.
Alison xx
#weeklyroundup #flowerplay #lowbowl #hampshire #countrylife #countryliving #flowerpower
Good morning
As I write this the sun is out and the Sparrows outside my window are in full song. What a difference a little sun makes, not sure it's going to last long this weekend, so l’m keeping this short so I can head outside and make the most of it whilst we've got it!
Have a lovely weekend whatever you are doing.
Alisonx
#myweek #flowerfarminglife #myday #localbusiness #localflowers
It was so good to be able to get out in the flower field this week in some much longed for sunshine.
I also enjoyed my first mug of coffee outside in the flower field in the sunshine for 2024, a simple thing but something that always brings me great pleasure.
Have a great weekend.
Alisonx
#flowerfarminglife #winchester #hampshire #dailylife
Not only taking the time to admire our foliage shrubs in their autumn colours but of course Molly’s speed, enthusiasm and ball retrieving skills in her opinion are unequalled.
#happydog #enjoyinglife💯 #enjoyingthemoment #flowerfarminglife
Don’t panic, there’s plenty of time yet! You can plant your tulips into late November, and you can get away with planting in December and apparently even into January but I've never tried that so don't quote me on that one!
Here in the South of England, we’ve had such a mild and wet autumn, that I have been holding off planting my tulip bulbs, waiting for a few frosts and for the soil temperature to lower.
Tulip Fire was a real issue this year for many growers. We were very lucky and we managed to avoid it but it can be devastating and result in the loss of whole crops which is not only very disheartening but expensive too.
Tulip fire is caused by the fungus Botryris tulipae. It makes the tulips leaves look as though they’ve been scorched by fire and nothing like the tulips that we all know and love.
It spreads during the warmer months hence why I'm in no rush at the moment. Nothing is 100% effective at keeping this disease away, but we can only try!
Good luck and happy bulb planting!
We are excited to announce a new collaboration between ourselves and Laura Fisher @laurafisher.co.uk.
Laura has created the most beautiful range of luxury homeware, candles, diffusers, soaps and so much more. All designs and home fragrances are created by Laura in her Hampshire Shop and studio.
Laura has the most gorgeous little shop in Basingstoke absolutely brimming with treats for yourself and also lots of super Christmas present ideas. Well worth a visit!
And, we are very excited because Laura is now stocking our gorgeous dried flower wreaths in her shop too. Amy had a lovely afternoon delivering our wreaths to Laura’s shop and also collecting a range of Laura’s homeware and fragrances for us to stock in our flower workshop. These will be available to buy to all those attending our Christmas wreath workshops giving them an opportunity to do little bit of Christmas shopping or quite simply to buy a treat for themselves. They’d better be quick though because I’ve already ‘ear marked’ a few for myself!
You can find more details about Laura and her shop by following her on Instagram @laurafisher.co.uk and if you haven’t booked your spot on our Christmas Wreath Workshop you will find more information by clicking on the link in the bio above or visiting www.lowernortonflowerfarm.com/stage. Come along and join us and get your festive season off to a creative start.
#homefragrances #homeware #localbusiness #hampshire #hampshirelife #hampshirebusiness #basingstokebusiness #basingstoke #winchester #winchesterbusiness
A busy few days last week and our newly furbished Flower Workshop really came into it's own.
We had our annual Open Evening on Wednesday. The workshop was the ideal place to showcase our flowers. @amyega21 @thewoodenflowerhut and @dolphin_creek_flowers created the most beautiful arrangements. The workshop looked stunning, with ‘blousy’ whimsical arrangements using ‘no foam’ techniques. Gorgeous Bridal bouquets and gift bouquets. Intricate button holes and buckets of DIY wedding flowers filled the space with colour, scent and gorgeousness.
The following evening the workshop became a beautiful cool space to escape the heat of the afternoon and host our first collaborative nature inspired workshop with @jennymuncaster and @her_outdoorz A wonderful evening of folk tales related to this time of year, a gentle stroll around the flower field to pick their very own posy of flowers and then an evening spent ‘Doodling a Field of Flowers’ capturing their vibrant colours using coloured inks - the results were stunning.
Check out our website on the bio for more up and coming workshops and come experience this flowery haven that we have created.
#winchestereatsuk #winchester #hampshire #hampshirewomensbusiness #stockbridgehampshire #stockbridge #hampshirelife #hampshire_daily_feature #hampshireopenstudios #basingstoke #hampshirelifemagazine
Week three of the #flowerfarmerama challenge - what are our specialities?
Apart from growing beautiful flowers? This year we are very keen to develop our DIY wedding flowers - I do need to find a different title for this - does ‘Wedding buckets and bouquets’ sound better? Any suggestions would be much appreciated!
We had the privilege of supplying flowers to a number of weddings last year and I absolutely loved the process. It was so satisfying to see our flowers being part of such a happy occasion. It was so much fun meeting the brides, mothers and even partners to be as they visited the flower field to talk through their flowery visions for their wedding day. A visit to the field is not essential, I’m happy to discuss by email or phone (photos help too) how many flowers, colour palette and any other question that need to be answered. But I do think a visit to the flower field brings people’s ideas to life and I get to share a little bit of their wedding preparation excitement!
British flowers just lend themselves so beautifully to the romantic nature of wedding flowers. They have the scent, the movement and the colour to create something totally exquisite and unique. Not only that they are local and substantial, so they really do tick a lot of boxes. This year we’re also offering brides and bridesmaids bouquets, buttonholes and jam jar posies. All these can be collected from the farm or we’re happy to deliver locally too. Check out our website www.lowernortonflowerfarm.com for more details.
We’re also planning to hold more workshops this year. We feel we are very privileged to call the flower field our place of work and to be able to share this even for a short while and see how our visitors relax, forget about their day to day worries and become totally immersed in our flower field haven is very rewarding. I promise you’ll leave us feeling replenished and with an armful of flowers, so I’d say that’s even better than a day at the spa.
K
Week Two of the #flowerfarmerama challenge - Who keeps me company in the flower field when I’m working?
Volume up - need I say more?
#beesofinstagram #bees #birdsong #happybee #myworkspace #britishflowers #flowerfarming #britishflowergrowers #hampshirebusiness #hampshirebusinessuk
Day Two of the #flowerfarmerama challenge - A day in my life.
Well no two days are the same that’s for sure. Obviously the summer months come with the perks of sunny flower filled days. The winter months take on a slower pace but there’s still always plenty to be done in the flower field and lots of planning/admin to fill those wet cold days when the flower field is particularly unappealing.
At the moment the task in the flower field is mulching with our lovely homegrown horse manure, perfect for the roses. Weeding is also at the top of my to do list, I fear I may be alone when I say that I really do find weeding a very satisfying job. I think the answer is to keep on top of the weeds otherwise it all becomes unmanageable and don’t let them go to seed as then you’ll be fighting a loosing battle!
On rainy days you’ll either find me sheltering in my potting shed pricking out seedlings sown in October and potting them on or inside at my computer making plans for the coming year. I’m pretty proud that I’ve created my own website, @lowernortonflowerfarm I would never have believed this possible but a couple of years ago but I was introduced to #squarespace and the process has been relatively simple with just a few blips along the way. My aim long term will be to have a website done professionally but for now I think my efforts will suffice.
My most recent job has been to order our dahlias. Visiting any sort of website that is trying to induce me to buy flowers is very likely to be highly successful in getting me to fill my shopping cart with happy expectation of a summer filled with colour and scent. I’ve had to learn to be disciplined, do my research first, and only start shopping once I have my list, of course it goes without saying there’s always an impulse buy or two but that’s normal surely?!
I'm hoping your Christmas shopping is complete, presents are wrapped and under the tree and all is ready for the festive weekend.
To those who are cooking the Christmas dinner, I hope that your turkey (if that is what you are having) is cooked to succulent perfection, the roast potatoes are crisped to Delia’s satisfaction and the Brussels are the tenderest of any brussel that you have cooked before. I also hope that the Christmas pudding is received with a rousing rendition of ‘We wish you a merry Christmas’ before everyone collapses into the nearest sofa exclaiming they are never eating again until two hours later when a reference is made to turkey sandwiches and feeling slightly peckish.
See you all on the other side!
