I began growing cut flowers for a living in 2008, when along with my partner Ashley Pearson we founded Green & Gorgeous, a flower farm in south Oxfordshire.
You may also like
The idea of becoming a flower farmer was born out of my time spent working as an estate gardener, in a walled kitchen garden in the Cotswolds. Part of my job was to grow cut flowers for the ‘big house’. I began to wonder why these garden-grown beauties were not more commonly available. I felt flowers for the home should be a simple pleasure, without the environmental burden of air miles and chemicals. I decided to leave my job and rent some land so that I could offer a local, environmentally considerate alternative, which seemed at the time almost completely absent.
In the early days we grew mostly annuals for local farmers’ markets. Word spread and it wasn’t long
before I was being asked to do weddings and teach others how to grow cut flowers. To keep up with demand, we took the decision to expand from two to five acres and our team grew to ten people. This gave us the room and manpower to grow more of my favourite groups of plants for cutting: perennials and shrubs. Their scope for creating natural-style arrangements inspired my book, The Cut Flower Sourcebook.
Winter is a quiet, reflective time for me, which suits the discipline of pottery
It was at around the same time as setting up Green & Gorgeous that I started making pots at evening classes. Initially intimidated by the wheel, I spent a lot of time rolling out clay and decorating tiles. Finally, I plucked up the courage and began to throw. I was hooked. It was both frustrating and exhilarating, taking hours of practice to even manage the most down-to-earth olive bowl, which could have been misconstrued as a paper weight. After many different tutors and classes, mostly at the excellent West Dean College, I had grasped the essentials of how to make the two fundamental shapes – a bowl and a cylinder, which are the foundation of all other shapes. Now it was about reinforcing the learning with lots of practice so I invested in a wheel, which then prompted the need for a kiln. Fortunately, the farm has many empty outbuildings so ‘the wash’ (where the milk was bottled when it was a dairy) was repurposed as the pottery.
The winter months are when I take a break from the flowers; it is a quiet, reflective time for me, which suits the discipline of pottery. It isn’t something that can be squeezed into a busy day. I only make good pots when I have head space and am feeling calm and relaxed. Mastering the wheel is very similar to learning to play an instrument, it takes regular practice to embed the muscle memory so that your hands are doing the work and not your mind. My intention was to use pottery as a way to switch off and focus on something else other than work. My entrepreneurial spirit got the better of me though and it wasn’t long before I was thinking about making vases for my weddings, workshops and possibly to sell in our shop.
I wanted something that matched my flowers’ unique character
I had become increasingly disillusioned with the vases available commercially. They felt too generic for my garden-grown flowers. I wanted something that matched their unique character, enhancing rather
than dulling and constricting their beauty.
I was already buying studio-thrown pottery from local potters I admired, which spurred me on to invest the money into having a go myself. My goal was to produce shapes that allowed room for each stem to express its form and growth habit. A narrow neck or waist with a fat bottom is always a good option. This shape enables the stems to open out as they reach the top of the vase, allowing each flower its own space to be appreciated.
Another consideration was for my vases to be easy to arrange into. When I am doing wedding flowers
I have to make multiple table centrepieces quickly and efficiently, and the design of the vase makes all the difference to how long it can take and whether the display will stay intact during transportation to the venue. I also want my vases to be a pleasure to work with on our workshops, so that participants enjoy
their floristry experience and go home with something they are pleased with and will use again.
the flower farm. Filled with natural light and with a view of the river, it is a beautiful, calm, making space. © Éva Németh
We use sustainable floristry techniques including pin holders and chicken wire. The benefit of ceramic vases over glass is that all of these mechanics are hidden. Bowls and other open shaped forms can be challenging, even with the help of chicken wire, especially if they are too shallow. To create more depth without too much volume, I designed a footed bowl where the stems can go all the way down into the base of the foot. This holds them more securely while maintaining an elegant outline.
Of course, throwing is just the beginning of creating a pot. Next it needs to be turned (trimmed), decorated and glazed. At the moment I am happy to keep this part simple, so I have made up a few dipping glazes in neutral colours and let the flowers do the decoration. The last courses I attended were on the techniques of faceting, fluting and sgraffito so, I will hopefully be able to add a bit more expression to my pots in the future.
Despite relishing the winter break, I do miss my flowers and the creative outlet they give me. Throwing vases for my blooms keeps me connected to them and gives my pottery context and purpose. I love the unpredictability of both ceramics and growing, the surprise that comes from a new flower or a glaze. The possibilities feel endless, which reassures me that I will never be bored.
in concentration. © Éva Németh
USEFUL INFORMATION Find out more about Rachel’s work at greenandgorgeousflowers.co.uk