Village Raw - ISSUE 6

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FLOWERS FROM SEED
Words and photo by Emma Ross.
How many air miles had the last bunch of flowers you
bought flown? The truth is that no one really knows. We’re
a nation becoming increasingly obsessed with where our
food comes from and how it gets to us, but what about
the other crops travelling from fields to our homes? With
approximately 90% of all flowers in the UK imported from
abroad – mainly from Holland and Kenya – and typically
treated with huge amounts of pesticides and fungicides,
perhaps it’s time to assess the environmental impact and
sustainability of cultivating cut flowers and the flower
trade overall.
This was exactly the thinking of Camila and Marianne,
two friends from university and the brains behind Wolves
Lane Flower Company – a seasonal, sustainable and local
(to many of us) flower business specialising in growing
and selling chemical-free British flowers. WLFC work out
of an huge, three-and-a-half-acre plot in Wood Green.
Once owned by the council, the site is now run by OrganicLea
and is largely inhabited by small food producers and
distributors – it’s also a beautiful, sprawling piece of land
complete with its own woodland, palm house and cacti
house. Within it, WLFC occupy a cutting garden, two propagation
greenhouses and a renovated studio space. They
grow all their flowers from seed and are committed to a
totally organic approach that protects the eco-system
from start to finish. They practice the ‘no dig’ method,
which causes less disturbance to the soil than traditional
digging and involves initially layering mypex down over
the weeds to prevent light getting in before replacing with
cardboard and mulch. They also use eco compost made
from green waste and are currently experimenting with a
natural pesticide made from mixing neem oil and water –
which crucially doesn’t kill pollinators or harm the soil.
“For something so ephemeral as a bunch of flowers,
does it really make sense to fly them across the world?
Maybe people just need to accept that you can’t have a
dome of peonies in February,” says Marianne, gently but
firmly. I nod in agreement. To me, it seems that we’ve lost
our connection to British-grown flowers – and WLFC are
on a mission to change that. They also try to grow flowers
that aren’t readily available to differentiate themselves
from other florists or to sway consumers tempted to buy
from supermarkets.
A recent study, the first of its kind, by Life Cycle Analysis
compares carbon emissions of a UK-grown bouquet
versus its Dutch or Kenyan counterparts. It analyses water
use, fertiliser use, heating, air transport, electricity
use and labour conditions involved and the results are
fascinating – an imported mixed bouquet produces 10
times more emissions than a British-grown mixed bouquet,
with British-grown flowers having a much lower
carbon footprint than any other flowers. Emissions were
found to be highest for Dutch lilies (3.478kg CO2) per
stem), followed by Kenyan gypsophila, Dutch roses and
Kenyan roses. In contrast, an English alstroemeria produces
only 0.052kg CO2.
For WLFC now, it’s about balancing the growing and
the floristry sides of the business – both of which they
clearly love and are flourishing. They’d just done an event
the day before I visited and are busy with weddings and
the recent launch of a subscription delivery service,
which includes with it a handful of phacelia seeds to
encourage consumers to get growing in their own back
gardens. Still only two years in, Marianne and Camila tell
me they’re constantly learning on the job, and that’s what
they thrive on. “We make tonnes of mistakes. I always say
that you have a year to learn that lesson before the season
starts again – at least you know you won’t make the
same mistake again!” jokes Camila.
And with that, they get back to the land and send me
off with a bunch of the most beautiful flowers left over
from the day before. •
Follow Emma on her social channels: @mamalinauk
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