Pick Your Own Flower Bouquet workshop at Glasbren
PHOTO CREDITS: Jon James, Homestead in the West
“I absolutely loved seeing how all the flowers we picked came together”
Last Saturday morning, we welcomed an intimate group to the farm to spend a couple of hours in our flower patch, picking and arranging their own flower bouquet with our flower grower, Chloë.
Cut flowers have been a new addition to our growing this year, and something Chloë has developed alongside her work in the veg production side of the farm. It’s been wonderful to see the flower patch thrive, and to be able to see bunches and bouquets of beautiful, local, sustainable and nature-friendly cut flowers in our farm shop, and through shops in Llansteffan and Carmarthen. Even more satisfying was to see a folks wander amongst the flower patch, appreciating the beauty, picking their own flowers to arrange with Chloë’s guidance….
The atmosphere was relaxed, slow and gentle - the perfect way to spend a Saturday morning on this beautiful land. Calm, quiet with a background of birdsong and bees, moving slowly between beds of blooms of all colours, shapes and different heights, with a view into the orchard and wooded valley below. What better way to start the weekend?
Chloë guided the group through the blooms, instructing how to select varieties for their characteristics, colours, stem lengths etc, and what you should be thinking about when selected cut flowers for arranging into decorative bouquets.
“The atmosphere was relaxed, slow and gentle... What better way to start the weekend? ”
Then it was back into the barn to start arranging. Hot coffee, homemade cakes and mimosas were served, while Chloë demonstrated how to start arranging a bouquet, using filler foliage and the blooms the participants had selected in the field in a spiral fashion. There was alot of space for creativity and individual expression - it was great to see how each person took a different approach to how they arranged the flowers and foliage and the colour schemes they chose.
Our flower patch is a haven for pollinator insects like bees….
“it was wonderful to be able to share the beauty of flower field at Glasbren and see everyone’s enjoyment whilst they harvested blooms…. I found it really inspiring to see how everyone selected such unique combinations of flowers and created such beautiful and individual bouquets”
Once the flowers were picked, we all made our way into the barn to learn how to arrange them into a beautiful bouquet…
There’s something wonderfully peaceful about making your own bouquet from freshly harvested stems, especially when you’re gathered together with others, choosing flowers, sharing ideas and slowly building something beautiful in your hands. The simple rhythm of cutting, arranging and rearranging encourages us to slow down and pay attention – to the colour, scent and shape of each stem, and to the changing seasons around us. There’s no need for perfection; each bouquet becomes a little expression of the person who made it, while the shared experience creates a lovely sense of connection, conversation and calm.
Colour and beauty in a parched landscape.
“Workshops like this are the perfect way to come and interact with the farm for a couple of hours in a relaxed and restorative way - connecting to nature, appreciating beauty and learning a new skill in good company”
There’s something uniquely special, too, about seasonal flowers grown in their season, in healthy living soil. Rather than choosing from a catalogue of blooms flown in from across the world, you work with what is flowering right now – the colours, textures and scents of the season. Each bouquet becomes a little snapshot of its place and time, full of character and individuality. When you harvest and arrange those flowers yourself, you’re not simply taking home a bunch of blooms; you’re taking home an experience, a connection to the land and a reminder of the season you shared.
Glasbren flower grower, Chloë, shows the group how to select stems for their bouquets…
Chloë, @chloes_blooms
The finished bouquets…
Workshops like this are the perfect way to come and interact with the farm for a couple of hours in a relaxed and restorative way - connecting to nature, appreciating beauty and learning a new skill in good company - with great coffee and a mimosa or two aswell!
We’re planning a series of shorter Saturday morning workshops like this throughout the Autumn, including Dried Flower Arranging, Writing with Nature and Christmas Wreath making. Find out more here.
If you’d like to be the first to hear about more upcoming workshops like this one, sign up to our newsletter below, or follow us on Instagram and Facebook. You can pick up weekly bunches of fresh flowers from our farm shop, our online shop or at Aardvark Alternatives or Blue Marble Refill in Carmarthen.
A big thankyou to Jon and Emilie from Homestead in the West for capturing the event so beautifully in photos and videos. Look out for a video coming soon to their YouTube channel. We’ll let you know when it goes live.
For now, though, watch the video Emilie and Jon made when they came to visit our farm shop to pick up the vegetables for their Christmas dinner last year…
