February guest speaker report

Our speaker this month was Alison Hughes, a member of Flowers from the Farm, who is based in East Aberthaw, The organisation was set up in 2011 by Gill Hodgkinson to promote a financially and environmentally sustainable local cut flower industry and initially had around 200 members. Now there are over 1000 based all around the UK, some operating on a small scale, some on a much larger scale.

Alison had seen an article about Flowers from the Farm in a magazine and thought she would like to grow and sell cut flowers. After a few years, she decided to give it a go. In 2020 Alison started selling tulips to a local florist and realised that she could set up a business. In 2023 she gave up her teaching
job to concentrate on the business full-time. It soon became clear that it was going to be a steep learning curve!

She realised that florists require a constant supply of cut flowers, the majority of which come from Holland, so she had to work out exactly what local florists want, and only grow what she can sell. She also learned that growing cut flowers is very weather dependent.

After a while Alison outgrew her garden space and now her entire garden is turned over to growing cut flowers. She became friendly with another local flower farmer who returned to full-time employment in May 2025 and she offered Alison the field in Wenvoe that she was using. The field was already fully stocked and Alison sold a lot of flowers in a few months. But there was nothing in the pipeline for the next season so Alison had to start planning ahead with seed sowing and successional planting, and learn to be ruthless about pulling up plants that were starting to go over and replant afresh. As the flowers are treated as crops, they can be grown much closer together than you would in a garden setting.

Alison says it is hard to make a decent living out of flower farming. To supplement her income, she holds wreath making workshops, she provides flowers for small weddings, and people can have a subscription where they receive flowers that are growing at that particular time of the year, knowing that they are grown peat and pesticide free, while helping nature at the same time. Her biggest income is from local florists and one in Barry buys from her every week. She supplies around 30 florists on a regular basis and showcases what she`s growing so they can choose what they want.

Neutral colours are always popular, particularly for weddings, and Alison has learned that the flowers have to be in tip-top condition on the special day.

Thinking ahead to the future, Alison has to find ways to extend the growing season, and start sowing seed earlier, and also keep detailed records of costings, pricings, what sold, quantity sold, what plants aren`t worth growing, etc to ensure she keeps the business running at a profit. Marketing is also a very important part of the business and Instagram has been of great benefit. It was a bold move she says, but 4 years in she has no regrets. We wish her continued success in the future.

Many thanks to Alison for giving us an insight into her business . It was really interesting to see how much is involved, but also to see how enjoyable growing and selling cut flowers can be, and the pleasure these flowers give to so many people. Thanks also to everyone who attended.

Our next talk is on Wednesday 25th March when the speaker will be Gill Lewis.