Chalk Farm Flowers

Dan and Molly are only 22. They met at school, studied horticulture together at Brinsbury and in November 2022 set up their Flower Farm. Gardening on chalk in this hot, dry summer, their only irrigation being the hose and the watering can at the end of the day, this has been no easy venture, but the evidence of their lovely flowers shows how well they are succeeding. No chemicals are used and runner ducks are their slug and snail police.

Apart from the newly planted hydrangeas (so beloved of brides ), everything, even, in their first year, the dahlias, is grown from seed. They are ambitious in their use of colour and new forms of flowering plants and rightly proud of an elegant black scabious, while the pastel shades of the antirrhinum are pure bliss. Nothing in this delightful place is wasted and nothing is unloved. We saw Molly take a tiny beetle from her shirt and place it on a flower and we could see how precious everything is for them.

The wild flowers that surround the growing areas are lovely and their shop, selling seed and honey from their own bees, is as smart as their pale sunflowers. The image on their seed packets has been taken from a watercolour painted by Dan’s sister and the jars of honey sealed with the shape of a bee pressed into red wax. Indeed it was this level of care and detail that so enchanted us when we first met Dan and Molly at one of our Farmers Markets.

The flowers we bought, grown with such love and understanding, lasted in a vase a full week and we would encourage you to seek them out in the Festival Flower Market in Tarrant Street on Sunday 24 August and follow them on Chalk Farm Flowers.