Michael Alexander meets Angus flower grower Kelly Orr who is having a blooming marvellous time making local bride’s big days extra special.
Farmer’s wife Kelly Orr laughs when she thinks back to her wedding day at Glamis Kirk in 2014.
“It was the rainiest day ever. The day was great, but the weather was horrendous!” she recalls.
Having grown up on her dad’s farm in rural Aberdeenshire, and having met husband Gavin whilst studying for her agriculture degree at the Scottish Agricultural College in Aberdeen, she understood why the chances of good weather on her big day were remote.
“If you are marrying a farmer, options to get married in the summer are just not viable!” she says. “My husband was like ‘June’s busy, July is busy, August is harvest, so a winter wedding it is!’
But her own special day was also an opportunity to experiment with a business idea that had been germinating for some time.
With a lifelong interest in the land, and concerned about the tendency of many florists to stock flowers from as far afield as Kenya and Columbia, she sourced Angus foliage and flowers from Cornwall and arranged them for her own wedding. It went so well that her husband’s cousin then asked her to do something similar for her big day.
Fast forward two years and the amateur honeybee keeper is slowly turning her passion for growing locally grown flowers into a small kitchen-sink seasonal business supplying local farmers markets – and occasionally weddings – using only locally grown Scottish flowers.
The 31-year-old now grows beautiful blooms under the name of “Blooming Bees” in a half-acre field at her husband and father-in-law’s 270 acre family farm at Wardmill, near Forfar.
Not dissimilar to the movement towards locally grown ‘slow’ food, she has identified demand for locally-grown flowers as more consumers become interested in sustainability and traceability.
Now the member of UK co-operative support group Flowers from the Farm (FFTF), who is helping promote British Flowers Week from June 13 to 19, is backing the national campaign run by Covent Garden market and supported by growers and florists across the country keen to help raise awareness in a bid to sustain the small businesses and support the natural ecology.
“This used to be a berry field, “ she says, giving a tour of the poly-tunnel where she grows everything from chrysanthemums and sweet peas, to dalias and sweet williams. Two thirds of her flowers are grown outside.
“I grow flowers and take them to farmers’ markets. I also have folk who pop in wanting a wee bunch for something. But I also do a few weddings. I’m growing a few this year to a colour scheme. If a bride is getting married next year I tend to give a rough guide to what should be flowering that month. Because the vagaries of the weather and things like that, it is safer to steer towards colours rather than that all important peony that might not be flowering. If you promise a peony and it’s not flowering, we’ll steer along a colour route rather than anything specific.”
Kelly, who arranges the cut flowers in a quiet corner of an old steading, was inspired by businesses she’d seen operating in England.
Describing herself as an “accidental flower arranger rather than a florist”, she says farmers and gardeners understood seasonality better than anyone. But she felt that many people had “lost touch” with the seasons through modern living, and hoped that increasing demand for locally-grown flowers was a reaction to that. She also tries to minimise waste packaging materials.
Stressing that she is not anti-florist, and that she would like to see more florists consider buying British as an alternative to imports at certain times of year, she adds: “I feel like this year things have changed somehow. I don’t know if it’s just a general trend towards British flowers and seasonality and things, but there’s definitely growing demand.
“People think are realising they should have local beef or local lamb, and why should flowers be any different? Local flowers seem to have been forgotten a wee bit.”
By working with FFTF we are trying to change that, as is the Flowers from the Farm group, which has the mission statement ‘Getting local flowers into every UK vase.’ It’s also fashionable right now to have wild and rustic flower arrangements at weddings, and that definitely helps!”
Kelly gets great satisfaction growing flowers from seed and knowing they could feature in a bride’s bouquet.
She adds: “To know that if she has sweet peas in her bouquet and that whenever she smells sweet pea she might think of her bouquet. That’s so nice.”
*Kelly will be promoting British Flowers Week from June 13 by teaming up with another small independent business, M Boutique in Dundee. There will be a pop up flower stall along with jam jar flower workshops available to customers keen to learn more about British flowers.
www.bloomingbees.co.uk
