It's British Flower Week This is the week when florists around the country buy locally-grown flowers instead of the imported blooms that typically make up 90% of their purchases. Not so at MeadowSweet of course, where every week is a British flower week!This week we're showcasing our skills and using 100% homegrown flowers in all our posies. With so much sunshine and showers everything is bursting into flower! For us, 'homegrown' means that our ingredients may be from Surrey from mum's garden, from Dorset from my garden and from just over the border into Hampshire from our plot.I'm including flower food in the boxes today. This can be used when you are changing the water. Changing the water is especially necessary...
Are you a MeadowSweetie? The first thing to think about when trying to be an ethical or more sustainable consumer is to reduce what you buy in the first place - not something that most businesses are shouting about! The second thing is to reuse items you already own or buy products that you can then reuse again. I think this might be why some people go down the artificial flower route although having a bunch of plastic or silk flowers in the house gathering dust forever doesn't personally make my heart sing. For perishables like flowers, some of our customers enjoy turning their flowers into paintings, pressing them or drying them to create new arrangements. But if that's not for...
The Sunflower Sunflowers are such positive flowers and were my childhood favourite. These ones are new season from Cornwall. This posy is our second to support the Ukraine humanitarian appeal with all proceeds going towards DEC. As well as being yellow for our yellow-and-blue themed arrangement, sunflowers are a true symbol of Ukraine as 80% of the world's sunflower oil comes from here. We hope that the conflict can be resolved soon and that peace will prevail. If you've been wondering when you'd be able to send a MeadowSweet posy UK-wide, you're wait is now officially over! We are now sending our Friday posies using the Royal Mail Tracked24 service to all of Mainland UK. We've also extended the time...
What flowers are toxic to pets? Many plants naturally contain bitter-tasting toxins to deter animals and insects from eating them. A lot of plants can give pets (and people!) a tummy ache if they eat enough of them. This is nature's way of saying 'keep off' and it is usually an effective way to stop animals and people from eating them again. These plants have evolved such a strategy so that they can be left alone to grow and reproduce successfully. Some plants are more toxic than that, and they can affect different animals in different ways. For example, if consumed, eucalyptus leaves are toxic to cats but they are breakfast, lunch and dinner for a koala! Curiously, some plants that we eat may still be harmful...
It's the Platinum Jubilee I'm looking forward to the extra-long bank holiday weekend. Could it possibly be that we'll even get nice weather for it...In celebration, this week is a red, white and blue theme. Red thanks to the spectacular red charm peonies and sweet williams. White plus lots of fragrance from the stocks and (white) pinks. The blue was the trickiest as our cornflowers are not out yet but our love in a mist came to the rescue plus bright blue Cornish brodiaea. The posies include a complimentary packet of wildflower mix. These are mixed with a natural substrate to help sprinkle them evenly. You can sprinkle and cover them if you have a spare patch in the garden...
