Meet the mentor

Hi I’m Liz and I run Cotswold Posy Patch. I started the business in 2015 at the same time as I was volunteering for a local charity, gardening with people with disabilities. Whilst at the charity, I started growing cut flowers with the students there and loved seeing the enjoyment they got out of it and the generosity they showed in sharing their flowers and the arrangements they made with other people. The experience inspired me to pursue my dream of developing my own flower farm and so Cotswold Posy Patch was born.

In 2017, I rented an empty plot of land at Primrose Vale PYO farm and over the next few years, created a beautiful and productive cut-flower plot. I had a large polytunnel installed which enabled me to extend the growing season from March – November. The polytunnel was my pride and joy and definitely my favourite place for growing flowers. Every day was different, with harvesting and processing orders, sowing seeds, taking cuttings, planting out, clearing and prepping beds, watering, weeding, creating planting and sowing plans, ordering supplies, posting on social media, creating webshop listings, giving talks to local groups, and running workshops all being part of the job.

The plot at Primrose Vale has now passed into new hands and I am taking a step back from commercial growing to allow Cotswold Posy Patch to develop in other directions, focusing on creating and online course and supporting other growers through 1:1 mentoring sessions via video call. I’m also redesigning my home garden into a cutting garden that I can use as a teaching resource for future ‘Grow Your Own’ workshops.

I’m obsessed with flowers and love nothing more than poring over the seed catalogues finding unusual varieties of cut flowers to grow. Many of the varieties I grow are not widely available from high street florists and supermarkets.  There are so many reasons for choosing British-grown flowers: many are scented, something which is bred out of a lot of imported varieties, more delicate varieties are available, they are cut to order so are super fresh, there are no air miles associated with them and they have great nostalgia value. British flowers reflect the ever changing beauty of an English country garden though the seasons and connect us to the natural world around us.

I love sharing what I do with other people and am looking forward to supporting other growers as they delve deeper into the wonderful world of cut-flowers.

Liz x

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