The Florist’s Stories

Alison Matthews

Clare and Alison met at a toddler group in 2007 where they bonded over a shared love of flowers. 

A passion for flowers was passed down to Alison from her Grandma and being a Florist was always an ambition for Alison. Having gone through university and a graduate career she had taken the decision to give up work to raise her growing family. When Clare asked Alison to lend a hand with a wedding one day, Alison was thrilled and jumped at the chance to learn from Clare and put into practice the skills she had learned at night school floristry classes several years before. The two friends worked well together and as Clare’s business grew she was able to offer Alison more work until in 2014 they took the step to become business partners. As well as wedding flowers they have now expanded to include funeral and sympathy flowers, gift bouquets for local delivery and some classes and workshops when they can squeeze them in to the diary.

Clare Ashcroft

Being brought up on a farm meant Clare always had a natural pull towards the outdoors and growing things. A love of flowers sparked by visiting her Grandad Webster’s gorgeous garden as a child, lead to Clare training to the highest level in Floral Design. She then went on to work as a high street Florist and for one of the countries top Garden Centre’s, before becoming a Lecturer in Floristry. After having her eldest son in 2006, Clare decided she was ready for a new challenge and decided to start her own wedding flower business.

In 2011 Clare was frustrated with not being able to source the types of flowers she loved, and decided to diversify part of a field on the family farm into growing flowers. The British grown, often scented and very gorgeous, cottage garden style blooms were immediately a big hit with brides and customers looking for the countryside vibe of relaxed and romantic blousy flowers, something a little bit different to what a standard high street Florist or event stylist can offer.

Kate and Jack

“We can't thank you enough for making sure our wedding flowers were just the THE most beautiful flowers we've ever seen!!! I can't wait to get the pics of the barn and how utterly gorgeous it looked in full bloom.

You completely surpassed our expectations and just this morning I cried again at the sight of my bouquet!! It's the most beautiful bunch of flowers I've ever seen.  Honestly can't thank you enough”

What our lovely customers have to say…

Our Values

  1. We listen to our Customers - Our lovely Customers often tell us that we are good listeners. We will listen to you and ask questions to get a picture in our minds of your dream flowers and then strive to create them. We try to use Homegrown and British flowers where we can, as in our opinion they are the freshest, best for the planet and the most beautiful. However, we are realistic about this and out of season, or if you have a particular preference, we are very happy to source your flowers from the world market. We will never try and persuade you to have something you do not want.

  2. We are fair and honest - We are always transparent with our pricing and offer the best value we possibly can for your budget. Everything is carefully costed. You may find cheaper prices elsewhere, but we wholeheartedly believe that you would struggle to get the same value, quality, choice, design and customer service from anyone else.

  3. We are kind - If you have any worries, concerns or questions no matter how daft you may feel asking them, please do. We both have a very down to earth nature, and would hate for any of our customers to feel stressed in any way about ordering flowers from us, whether that be as a gift, for a funeral or a wedding. We are always here to listen and guide you with different options. We know that many people need to order flowers in sad circumstances and we promise to treat you with care, sympathy and empathy. The best way to contact us is via email either clare@theflowerfarm.co.uk or alison@theflowerfarm.co.uk. If email isn’t your thing then please feel free to give Clare a call on 07780950537 or Alison on 07730601250, but please note the signal is horrendous, this is really annoying, but something unfortunately completely out of our control.

  4. We strive for perfection - We put our all into our business. Each order is treated with the same level of care, and we take great pride in our work. The flowers are individually selected to create the most stunning look, carefully conditioned, checked that they meet our high quality standards, arranged with care and skill, checking we are meeting any customer requirements before being packaged and carefully hand delivered by ourselves.

  5. We strive to be sustainable - Taking care of our earth & soil is vital for all our futures. We use homegrown and British flowers during the warmer months when we can, and then buy in from the world market when we can’t. We avoid cellophane and poly ribbon, preferring to display our flowers in re-usable vases. We avoid floral foam as much as possible but for certain designs when there just isn’t another viable option we always buy the bio foam, which isn’t perfect but a little bit better, and we feel that anything, no matter how small, is a step in the right direction. We compost our green waste, and use no heat or extra light to grow our flowers, we also avoid spraying pesticides on our homegrown blooms.

Photographs by Jo Rutherford and Jane Burkinshaw.