2024 round up
Happy New Year you lovely lot!
Ok so it's been nearly a year since my last post where I made the grand declaration that I would keep up with this journal. Well I failed, but in my defence we have been very busy with a multitude of new adventures and changes. I'll endeavour to get you up to speed...
January/February
Winter was pretty uneventful and consisted mainly of clearing and tidying our then 1 acre farm. It had been left in rather a state and took pretty much all our time to make it workable for the year ahead, uncovering promising perennials and clearing annual beds of weeds ready for new seeds in the Spring.
At the end of February I coordinated a beautiful shoot to celebrate the coming Spring at the fabulous The Willow Marsh Farm with a group of my favourite East Midlands wedding suppliers. More on this beautiful collaboration in a later post (I promise).
image by Sophie May Photo
March/April
March saw us work with one of my favourite brands again TH&TH Bridesmaids. I absolutely love the girls from this fabulous UK brand. Working with Brands to deliver florals that reflect them is an absolute joy. Whether it be a product shoot or event, flowers just make everything that bit better!
image by Sophie May Photo
May/June
May and June were so busy! The first FLOURISH - a collaborative day for florists - saw The Leicestershire Flower Farm host a small group of wonderful florists at Prestwold Hall for a day to remember. Again I promise to share more from this inspirational day with you all soon. Already excited for FLOURISH 2025. I can guarantee it is a day not to be missed!
image by Sophie May Photo
May and June were also very busy months for weddings, both flowering and attending. Including the wedding of my sister. Bouquets, flower girl bags and buttonholes for the London part of their wedding and then flowers for a huge garden party at the groom's family home. It was a week long affair and by the end of two very busy months we were desperate for a rest.
image by Magda K Photography
July/August
The next few months were full of big decisions. We were given the opportunity to move to a much bigger field as part of a farm closer to us. It would mean more space, a blank canvas in which to lay out a farm the way we wanted, a beautiful barn to work out of, but most importantly the opportunity to have the public come and share the space with us (not an option for us on the previous farm). It was a huge decision to make. We were new to flower farming and going from 1 acre to 6 in a year into our farming careers was not something to take lightly. It meant more work, something we are not afraid of but also more time and money. Needless to say we took the plunge and then started the mammoth job of clearing out and moving farms.
September/October
The weather was not our friend. Work on the new farm was slow and digging out all the plants we wanted to bring over from the old farm was made harder by the constant wet weather.
However scattered through the months were a handful of beautiful late summer early autumn weddings bringing creativity and light to what felt like the never ending digging!
image by Matt Horan Photography
September also saw Frond & Bloom (our former name) change to The Leicestershire Flower Farm. We wanted a name that reflected the new focus of the business. Weddings will always be our first love but growing is becoming a much bigger part of what we do. We want to become a destination for flower lovers and share our passion for British blooms and so The Leicestershire Flower Farm was born.
With the new name came a beautiful new logo incorporating a fabulous new illustration by Debora Panesar.
We also got a shiny new website to boot! Courtesy of the wonderful Hatty from HT Creative.
November/December
The pressure was really on now! We had to be out of our old farm by the end of the year and we were keen to dig up as much as we could to bring with us. I'm not going to sugar coat it, the last few months of 2024 are quite possibly the hardest I have ever experienced, physically and mentally. However we now have over 3000 plants potted up and waiting to be planted in their new home. I know that come the Summer all the pain and heartache will be a distant memory as we are surrounded by an abundance of beautiful blooms!
The winter months also saw the last of this year's wedding with two festive weddings just before Christmas at a couple of my favourite venues, The Old Vicarage and The Willow Marsh Farm.
image by Faye Wilde Photography
We are so excited for 2025! Follow along, we'd love you to join us on what's sure to be a wild ride!