Locally produced seasonal flowers are attracting more and more customers in the UK. And this trend seems to be taking hold since the turnover of British producers has soared by 50% in just three years. What is increasingly taking the form of a movement is particularly palpable at the Malvern Spring Festival, the largest in England, where the small local producers of British flowers are more numerous every year.
“Ah yes, they are pretty, they smell good and are beautiful, the same color as my t-shirt”, says to a visitor Meg Edmonds, flower grower and spokesperson for the Flowers from the Farm association (in English), who runs a small production of flowers, a few miles from here. On his farm, there are only plants that are in season, natural and adapted to the British climate. And she will go on stage that day, like a rock star, to talk to budding or experienced gardeners who come to the festival.
“I have trouble with flowers that have traveled thousands of miles”
“I’ll have to find the Madonna that’s in me, she confides to the magazine ‘We, the Europeans’ (replay). It’s important to do that and that’s how we’re going to get our message across. We have to, if we want to change things in England, if we want everyone to buy on the short circuit and choose seasonal flowers.” Then, addressing the audience: “We try to convince everyone to choose local flowers, by putting you in touch with small producers near you.”
The message seems to have gone through well given the crowd that throngs around the stands. A local resident asks her if she uses fertilizer: “No, never fertilizer!” responds the spokesperson for the movement supported by the visitor: “We should all try to help UK growers. Because it’s ethical. Because helping these people gives them work. And I struggle with flowers that have traveled thousands of miles. To our time, I don’t think it’s a good thing to bring them from afar.”
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