Blooms & Bantams

Today I received the kindest email from my lovely couple Mary & James who married at in July.

Growing flowers is hard work, but it’s an absolute honour and so worth it to be trusted to deliver flowers on what is often the most special day of people’s lives.

Mary & James reside in Australia, but planning their wedding flowers - even with thousands of miles and different time zones between us - was such a pleasure, and it was so wonderful to finally meet them in person.

Whether you opt for DIY flower buckets, or a full service wedding package, or even something in between, it’s our mission to deliver exactly what you are hoping for.

If you are getting married in 2024/2025 and want to talk flowers, then we’d love to hear from you.

Swipe ➡️ to see some beautiful photos from the wedding and to read the lovely testimonial that Mary & James kindly sent me.

A massive thank you to for supporting me on this one and helping bring the vision to reality with her beautiful, locally grown flowers 💕

Photos

Two weeks today is !

If you’d like to come and take a look around where we grow the flowers, see the studio and learn to make a hand-tied bouquet to take home, then come and join me and the lovely Megan on 9th September! Booking essential and tickets can be booked via the link in bio.

2023 has been a great year for working with wonderful wedding couples who were looking to create their own wedding flowers with seasonal blooms.

How gorgeous does the lovely Amy look here 🥰 Amy purchased 5 buckets of flowers and created all her wedding florals - including her amazing bouquet!

If you fancy getting creative for your upcoming wedding or event, the diary is now open for 2024 floral buckets!

It’s been a crazy busy, flowery week! I’ve been working on wedding buckets, bouquets & buttonholes for a lovely couple who are getting married today at - photos coming soon - as well as gift bouquets. I’m certainly not complaining and I’m really grateful to all my customers. Thank you 🙏

Also a massive thank you to and for topping up my British flower stock this week!

I have some limited availability for flower deliveries tomorrow (16th) and Monday (17th) afternoon if anyone would like flowers! Just drop me a message to order.

If you’re local, I’m going to be at Holmesfield Local Market on Saturday 8th July, selling a range of locally grown flowers. I’d love to see you there!

Glasto 2023 was so magical. We worked hard, played hard and made the most of every second. There were too many highlights to name, but being around these wonderful humans (plus the rest of our lovely family) dancing til dawn and singing our hearts out to our favourite music was just so bloody good for the soul. Now it’s back to reality, back to work and back to the flowers!

Thank you so much to everyone who came, supported, chatted and bought from us today . We had an amazing day and feel so grateful for the lovely feedback from people about our British grown flowers. I think my husband even got into the swing of it!

Growing flowers for a living is bloody hard work and there are lots of ups and downs, but having a day like today just makes it feel so worthwhile. Unfortunately won’t be at Pollen again until August due to other commitments, but we can’t wait to see you there in the summer when all the flowers will look completely different!!!

Happy Sunday and thank you again for all the support for my small business 🥰

It’s been a lovely long weekend of family, plant fairs, garden centres, lots of gardening, dinner with friends and the best cookie I’ve ever had - courtesy of

Now to settle down, have a cuddle with the woofs and do a bit of admin ahead of a busy week! I hope you’ve had a lovely bank holiday weekend ☺️

What a moment for British flowers and their growers!

The incredible organisation that is have organised for 88 growers across all regions of the UK to provide flowers for the King’s Coronation tomorrow. The flowers will be arranged by the amazing and will be a true representation of British grown, spring flowers.

Feeling incredibly proud of and - two very local growers - for representing the Derbyshire region. It’s amazing that British grown flowers are going to be in the spotlight on this global occasion and a great promotion for all the growers and members of who work so hard to grow beautiful flowers in the UK.

Thank you to the lovely for sharing some snaps of my flowers at . Safe to say she takes a much better photo than I do 😂

A massive thank you to everyone who came to say hello and who bought flowers at today.

It was my first ever market and what a fantastic market it is; everyone - traders and public - are just so friendly and welcoming. It was also lovely to meet my neighbours , and as well as seeing the lovely Laurenne who were all offering beautiful flowers and plants.

Also want to give a shout out to my supportive husband who gave up his whole weekend to make this happen and didn’t complain once. Whilst I was busy he gave a customer advice on how to condition Hellebores and it melted my heart. What a guy 😍

Thank you for supporting your small, local businesses. It means so much and I’m excited to say we will be back in May!

We are here at selling our homegrown 💐 Come and say hi if you’re in the city today!

I am absolutely devastated to say that this evening we found Lady in her forever sleep in her coop 😢

The feistiest of chooks and the ringleader of the flock, she will be sorely missed 😔

She was the inspiration behind the brand name of my business and I will hold her forever in my heart. Sleep well little lady 🧡💛🧡

The double tulips are the whole reason I plant these bulbs in the cold, wet autumn and winter. I lost so many tulips to rodents last year that I’m savouring every one this year!

These peony-like blooms are a world away from the supermarket singles and are such a welcome focal flower this time of year.

The first pic of Belle Epoque and ➡️ is Brownie.

🌷

The tulips are here and they are the perfect colour for Easter 🐣 I don’t really like yellow, but these I can get onboard with!

The speciality daffs are here and I can’t decide my favourite. They are all tooo pretty 😍

A world away from the standard yellow trumpet, these ruffled beauties are perfect for spring bouquets. Plus they smell delicious!

Swipe to see a few of the varieties ➡️
Which would you choose?

🌸 Wedding flowers 🌸

If you’re getting married in the near future and would like your wedding to feature beautiful, British grown flowers, then i’d love to hear from you!

I only take on a limited number of wedding bookings each year - as I try to offer a bit of everything - and the latter part of this year is filling up fast! I’ve also opened the 2024 diary for which I’m now taking bookings.

It means so much to have bookings that come on the back of recommendations, or from guests that have seen my flowers at weddings. Thank you to all those who have chosen me to provide flowers on such a special occasion 🥰

I can’t wait to meet my 2023 wedding couples and today’s sunshine made me feel that the flowery abundance really is just around the corner!

It’s the first day of spring and I’m so, so happy to see it 🤩

The daffs are well and truly on their way, as are the anemones and the first ranunculus, with the tulips not far behind. If you’d like flowers this week then please just let me know ☺️

New for 2023 - ‘Make the most of your flowers’ workshops

If you are looking for floral ‘arrange at home’ buckets this season - possibly for a DIY wedding or event - then I am also offering the possibility to purchase a workshop add on if you’d like some help with your arranging skills ahead of your big day. These personalised sessions can be enjoyed with a friend or family member and will include creating a bouquet or arrangement in the vessel of your choice, using blooms similar to those that will be included in your buckets. We’ll cover floral mechanics, timings and the aspects of floral design that will help you create your own beautiful arrangements. These skills will give you confidence with your flower arrangements and will stay with you forever, allowing you to continue creating gorgeous flowers for your home or for gifts.

Please note that these specific workshops are only bookable with the purchase of floral buckets.

Additional arranging workshops will be announced shortly!

If you’d like to find out more or book, then please visit the ‘workshops’ page on my website.

Early March Flowers

Whilst there isn’t a huge amount of colour and variety at the moment, there is definitely some beauty in what is available. Delicate blossom, twirly whirly bare stems, fluffy catkins… all things that will be gone in the blink of an eye. It’s the best time of year to cherish those truly seasonal extras before we enter into a riot of spring colour.

➡️ swipe to see what’s just around the corner…

🌷Mother’s Day Pre-Order Now Open 🌷

With Mother’s Day being a little earlier this year and the expectation of a very cold snap arriving in the next few days, Mother’s Day is going to need a lot of preparation this year!

I am opening a limited pre-order for Mother’s Day flowers. There are 3 options available - all details can be found on my website - each filled with my flowers along with some beautiful supplements from some other lovely British growers.

I was hoping to be able to offer online ordering and payments, however my website is still being looked at by the tech team as all my prices still show in Dollars 🙃 so apologies for the slightly clunky ordering process. Hopefully it’ll be resolved soon!

♥️♥️ Valentine’s flowers ♥️♥️

Valentine’s, Galentine’s, Palentine’s… Whether you buy into it or not, it’s still pretty nice to give and receive flowers in February. Even better if they are locally grown and sustainable 🥰

If you’re looking to buy flowers for a loved one this Valentine’s Day - or at any point this year - then check out the website to find your local grower. You’ll also be helping to make your local grower’s Valentine’s that bit more special too ☺️

Valentine’s pre-orders will close at the end of the week so get those orders in quick if you’re thinking about it!

I’ve been a bit rubbish at keeping up with the last week of with , so I’m skipping right to the final prompt which is just a little recap of who I am and how you can buy flowers from me this year.

I’m Vicky, I grow on a smallish suburban plot in Chesterfield, Derbyshire and offer flowers for all occasions. Sustainability is at the heart of my business and you can be assured that my flowers are grown without chemicals or pesticides and are presented without single use plastic.

I’m currently in the process of expanding my growing area and setting up a dedicated studio space to host floral workshops, where people can spend time enjoying British grown flowers.

If you’d like to order some British flowers for your home, as a gift or for a wedding or event, then I’d love to hear from you! You can order via my website and I will be sharing availability and upcoming workshops as we go through the season.

Thank you for following along. We are on the verge of the first spring flowers and I couldn’t be more ready for them!

Day 15 of with

‘What flower has a special meaning to me?’

Aside from roses, it has to be the Sweet Pea.

They are a fair bit of effort from a cut flower growing perspective with their endless needs of tying in, tendril snipping and dead heading, however they are totally worth it. They have one of the most powerful scents and a few stems tucked into a bouquet will fill a room with fragrance. They remind me of summers spent as a child tagging along with my dad to one of his client’s homes and as my dad painted exterior windows I played in the vast garden surrounded by the scent of hundreds of Sweet Peas. I’ll always grow them, even if they are just for me, as the scent has so many memories attached to it. I absolutely love them.

Day 14 of with

‘What would you like customers to ask for?’

I absolutely love it when customers enquire for a seasonal, sustainable flowers. To me this means flowers that are at their natural growing peak at that particular point in time and that are presented in a way that doesn’t negatively impact on the planet.

I love being able to share the flowers and foliage that I’m growing with customers, allowing them to experience varieties that they would never find in a supermarket or wholesaler because perhaps they are too delicate, or don’t travel well. The variety and sustainability is what separates British grown flowers from their imported counterparts. The more customers that ask for them, the better ☺️

Day 13 of with and today’s question is…

‘What are you growing that’s new to you this year?’

I’m not growing too many new things this year in terms of plants I’ve never grown before - apart from my questionable Lisianthus experiment 🙈 - however I am growing lots of new varieties of the plants that I am familiar with.

I’ve got some brand new (to me) cosmos including Kiiro and popsocks pink from British Cosmos (the national collection holders) and also some wonderful looking Dahlias including this absolutely gorgeous variety called “Joel’s Favourite” from Jack]

Trialling new varieties really is one of the best parts of growing cut flowers; I can’t wait to see how they turn out!

Photo credit Jack]

Day 12 of with

‘What’s on your list?’

I’m still trying to refine my list 🙈 I’m super excited about my Ranunculus (providing they survive these cold, wet snaps 🫣) and I’m also really excited about my tulips. I had a disaster with tulips last year and it was a big financial risk to replant on a larger scale. So far though, things are looking promising! 🤞

I also hope to have a better year with Dahlias. I had an amazing year with them in 2021 and yet last year was pretty awful. I’m blaming the scorching weather as I didn’t change anything else. Sometimes things just don’t work as well 🤷‍♀️

To complement my crops of the focal flowers I’m also planning a pretty strict succession sowing plan so that I can have an abundance of beautiful fillers throughout the year.

My goal for the end of this year is to have my list completely refined for next year. Us flower growers are always looking ahead ☺️

It’s week 3 of with and today’s question is…

‘Do you have any specialities?’

Well, I know for certain that one of my specialities is buying far too many seeds 😂

Aside from that I would probably say that I’ve learnt how to grow a huge number of flowers in quite a small space.

After much experimentation and trialling, I’m gradually honing my growing to include only those flowers and foliage plants that I love and know I can grow well. I do admit though that I still get tempted by those that will never likely be profitable for me (Lisianthus 👀).

I hope that this year’s specialities include an absolute abundance of Ranunculus and Dahlias. Roses and peonies are getting there too, but it’ll be a couple more years before they become a hopeful future speciality! 🤞🤞

❤️ Valentine’s Pre-Order Now Open ❤️

Feel the love for British flowers this Valentine’s Day.

If you’d like to gift a bouquet of beautiful, British grown flowers to your loved one this Valentine’s Day, then my pre-order is now open. All bouquets will contain my own seasonal flowers and foliage, plus these absolutely stunning Lincolnshire grown tulips.

Please see my website for full details - https://bloomsandbantams.co.uk/valentines-pre-order

Please be aware that because it’s so early in the season that pre-ordering is essential. The pre-order window will close on Sunday 5th or when I’m sold out. Be quick, orders are limited!