Gordon Castle Walled Garden Launches Campaign to Urge Florists to Buy Local
August 20th 2018
Scottish Walled Garden Launches Campaign to Urge Florists to Buy Local
Gordon Castle Walled Garden in Fochabers has launched its #flowersforthefuture campaign to encourage Scottish florists to buy from local flower growers.
Britain may be passionate about the seasonality and the locality of its food but when it comes to flowers, the majority don’t bat an eyelid. Despite the emphasis of #grownnotflown earlier in the year, a staggering 70% of cut flowers are still being imported from the Netherlands. As flowers are not ingested, overseas producers are not regulated to the same extent, impacting heavily on pollution, habitat loss and declining numbers of wildlife.
Flowers From The Farm – a cooperative set up to highlight British flower growers – has been running with great success since 2011, highlighting the increasing number of flower farms popping up south of the border. But Scotland still has some way to go with just seven listed members covering over 500 miles north of Aberdeen.
#flowersforthefuture aims to connect Scottish growers and florists to benefit the future of the industry and the ecosystem. The project will begin as a Facebook Group but hopes to grow into regular meetings and workshops. The notion that Scottish flowers aren’t as perfect as their artificially grown counterparts in Holland is a preconception that the initiative seeks to challenge.
With some florists set in their ways, changing attitudes is no easy feat. One Highlands-based florist already paving the way is Julia from Wild Gorse Studio, “We’ve always been passionate about seasonality in our work and as we develop we’re trying hard to focus more and more on using Scottish grown flowers wherever possible.
“Working in a natural, organic style helps us reflect what is happening in the landscape outside and if you take the time to see what’s available locally the variation and quality we can find closer to home is wonderful.
“The future of flower imports is uncertain at the minute anyway, but for us, locally grown cut flowers offer us a perfectly imperfect aesthetic that’s truly inspiring, evocative and honestly represents where we live and work.”
So how can florists and flower growers get involved? Zara Gordon Lennox from Gordon Castle Walled Garden explains, “The most important thing is that we join forces and all work together. If florists and event organisers realise that there is a viable alternative, find a local grower and start to use Scottish/British grown flowers, then even small regular orders will make a difference and start the change to a more sustainable and eco-friendly industry. Little steps turn into giant leaps so I urge everyone to give it a try.”
Gordon Castle Walled Garden currently grows over 50 varieties of cut flower from seed spread throughout its four colour themed beds. At almost eight acres, the project to restore one of Britain’s largest and oldest walled gardens is nearing completion and is led by estate owners Angus and Zara Gordon Lennox.
For further information about the project visit https://www.gordoncastle.co.uk/blog/where-do-your-flowers-grow/or join the group here https://www.facebook.com/groups/1935798523387297.
