2022: A Review

It’s only natural for us to hope that the year ahead will be better than the previous one, but I am now nervous to do that. Our ‘return to normal’ after two years of COVID has been  a very ‘not normal’ experience at all and I don’t want to predict what the year ahead might hold! Normal?! Pest Free Abundance, yes please!

Many weddings were postponed until this year and I don’t know a person working in the wedding industry that didn’t get to October and declare themselves beyond exhausted. Covid is still here too and I cancelled all my workshops in December when I got it then! The supply side of things has just got crazier and crazier, with British growers selling out of crops in days, some deliveries taking months to arrive and other things just being impossible to source. I haven’t even touched on the weather and the way the climate crisis is ALREADY impacting on what and how we grow here in the UK. The mild winter, hot dry spring/summer, wet autumn, and very cold early winter has each resulted in losses and problems in the field. However, our 2022 was on balance very good, with Martyn and I able to pursue our own businesses and see brilliant successes despite very real challenges.

I’m going to go through the challenges and then the achievements at Cumberland Flower Farm (so that we end on a high!) and then discuss how these shape our 2023 plans in my next blog. I’ve chosen four images for this blog that are creative highlights for me, and summarise our commitment to seasonal, sustainable flowers and floristry.

Challenges

  • Compost Failure. In spring 2022 the compost we bought was bad and all the seedlings failed. Having reviewed our over wintered perennials and corms, I actually think that the Autumn 2021 batch of compost was dodgy too but it took me a couple of months to realise that it was the compost, really only when the replacement seeds also died and I started to talk to other growers. We lost thousands of seedlings and had to totally replan what we grew (and sold) as a result.
    Eg. All my dried flower seeds died and so the wholesale line I was planning had to be ditched.
    This was hugely expensive as I lost out on income, lost seeds and plants (AND TIME!) and had to supplement from other growers (particular thanks to Sahra and Josh at willowview) in order to do our weddings and bouquet orders in the summer months when we really shouldn’t have had to. We have sourced alternative compost for 2023!

  • PESTS!! Oh my goodness, the mild winter meant that we were fighting slugs from early spring. Thousands of daffodils got damaged and many of the annuals grown got munched. (Like 250 sunflowers OVERNIGHT!) We tried everything to remove and rid ourselves of them, but it really was like a horror movie! I can laugh about it now, but I literally sobbed for weeks. Replacing these lost plants and spending time reducing pest damage was EXPENSIVE!!!!

  • WEATHER – drought, heat, rain, -12 C freezes…. The unpredictable weather resulted in slow growth and failure of plants. Lets not talk about the 100 eucalyptus planted in the summer that are looking pretty dead at the moment thanks to the cold weather in December! Again, the financial implications are significant. (The eucalyptus cost £350, etc etc etc!)

  • ILLNESS: anyone with kids will know that there are SO MANY germs circulating. Our eldest went to secondary school in September and dramatically increased the number of germs being exchanged! In November and December I had three viruses, with COVID meaning I had to cancel all my workshops. (This income gets me through a lean January….. oh wait…..)

  • Supply: Getting the thing you need, from the supplier you choose (important when you’re ‘sustainable’ and provenance matters!), in time for when you need it. And let’s not forget the prices - they’ve been steadily rising too over the year. It’s been a huge challenge!

  • And the personal. Changing circumstances outside of work has impacted a lot on how I can work moving forward. Working with and managing these changing and uncertain circumstances has been really hard and whilst I don’t want to go into the details all I can say is that we’re incredibly thankful to have a network of friends and family on whom we can rely for support.

Achievements

  • Style Book: We launched our Wedding Style Book in Jan 2022 and relaunched it for 2023 in November 2022. We’ve had hundreds of downloads (not all other florists 😊) and lots of bookings thanks to it. When I decided to create it I was worried  it was a step too far from ‘normal’ for wedding customers, but it has transformed how we work and been very successful.

  • Weddings: We supplied 48 weddings with seasonal, sustainable wedding flowers in 2022! From simple DIY orders to full-on seasonally styled venues. And we did at least one wedding EVERY MONTH of the year too! All – of course – 100% British!

  • Over 1000 people started following us on Instagram in 2022! The total number increased by 1178 net, not including those who came and went. 3100ish now on instagram, 1.500 on facebook. Thank you all!

  • HEALTH: After damaging my foot and realising the chronic damage anxiety was having on my body in 2021, I prioritised my physical and mental health in 2022 with monthly 121 Physio sessions (with the very wonderful Em at Fellside Physio), fun and transformative 121 Pilates sessions with Ang at MiPilates Cumbria throughout my growing season, and field reiki and EFT with Sarah. throughout the year.

  • TIME OFF: Thanks to moving our bookings and sales online, I am now able to better define and protect my time off with several weekends away and holidays throughout the season off work. Can’t thank Sarah One Owl Studio for managing the website so efficiently.

  • SUSTAINABLE: not only have we only used BRITISH flowers, but all our floristry has been foam free and no one-use plastic has been used. Indeed we’ve reused the same sustainable mechanics throughout the year and fully intend to reuse them next year too. We’ve sourced new styling products, some now for hire, many of which are made in the UK and/or from recycled materials. My dream is to find fairtrade sustainable items that we can supply to other florists and wedding couples. Provenance matters.

  • Sustainability Awards: In December 2022 we were shortlisted as FINALISTS for the Sustainable Wedding Awards in Jan 2023. Horrah!

  • Ranunculus, Stocks, Zinnias, Roses, Chrysanths… we continued to grow fantastic flowers that are beautiful, specially curated varieties and high quality (great stem length, flower size etc etc). We increased our collection of roses, dahlias and chrysanthemums and perennial shrubs, planted 550 trees, and thousands of daffodils.

  • Documentation: professional photographer Jenny Woolgar has visited throughout the year to document the farm’s development. Her photographs complement our own, and mean I feature in some of them too! (Photo credit of Harriet with Ranuculus above to Jenny!)

  • Frances. What a fantastic collaboration! Working with Frances has made wedding work fun for me, and I look forward to having the opportunity to work together more in 2023. We decided to collaborate in 2022 to increase the scale of weddings Cumberland Flower Farm could offer. Frances grows flowers in Kirby Stephen at Clodhopper Blooms. Flower Farming can be a lonely job at times and it’s really great to have somebody who relates, understands and cares not just about me, but about the world too. With anxiety its very easy to catastrophise and over think things, so having Frances to talk through planning and creative ideas is so helpful. Liberating even. Thank you, Frances you really have made, 2022 a good one!

  • And finally – DESPITE ALL THE CHALLENGES (and the unexpected expense!) 2022 was our best year to date in terms of turnover and profit (The bit that pays me).
    What an achievement!!!

Thank you for your support this year. By cheering us on, buying our flowers, being interested in seasonal, sustainable, you give me purpose and a happy living. Thank you all very much. xxxx

Harriet Smithson