Ten members of the u3a Floristry group spent the most enjoyable day at Wye Valley Flowers at St. Braevals taking part in one of the 10 volunteer days that take place each year. 

In just 4 years, owner Jo Thompson has grown her flower farm business at Hope Farm based on 13 acres. A few years ago, she discovered the average bouquet has traveled 4,000 miles and realised there must be a more sustainable way to enjoy beautiful commercially bought flowers, for the home and events that don’t cost the earth! So she launched her sustainable flower farm and updated her training (she originally trained in 2012) as an eco-florist, committing to using British flowers and no floral foam.

Last year, Jo was honoured when she was approached by Buckingham Palace to supply flowers for the Coronation together with other members of Flowers from the Farm  

We weeded, dug, constructed, waters and snipped and learned the intricacies of flower farming. Across 60 different raised flower beds, a wide variety of flowers are grown used for weddings, funerals and flower subscriptions. As you can imagine, everything is planned down the last detail so that Jo knows exactly how much each flower stem costs. 

We were treated to the most delicious strawberry cake at the end of the day. A thanks for our help which definitely didn’t feel like work. It was inspiring, fun and we learnt a lot. 

Luckily there are many flower farms within easy reach.

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