This month we thought we’d tell you about Old Trickey’s Flower Farm, a few miles up the road from Stonehayes Farm. Working closely with the seasons, they grow sustainable flowers and foliage to use in hand tied arrangements and posy jars, and they host bouquet workshops. Think of it as a very special extra to your large group stay at our Devon holiday cottages – especially if you’re celebrating a significant birthday or anniversary.
Tucked away, deep in the Blackdown Hills AONB/Natural Landscape, Old Trickey’s Flower Farm is like a little slice of heaven in Devon. To stroll through the flower fields on a warm day in the height of the growing season is such a joy, an absolute feast for the senses with a glorious array of colour and fragrance. These beautiful blooms, along with homegrown foliage and things foraged from the hedgerows on the farm, are used in the most gorgeous hand tied bouquets, jam jar posies and arrangements for weddings and events.
Each bouquet or arrangement is unique, thoughtfully created to evoke the essence of the season – the freshness of a clear spring morning, the warmth of a summer day, the crispness of an autumn afternoon. Freshly cut flowers, lush foliage, wispy grasses and dried seed pods are so wonderfully put together to give variety, colour and texture, hand tied with natural raffia. In the winter months, long after the growing season is over, dried flowers are used to just as beautiful effect. These are not just any old floral arrangements, these are something very, very special.
Sustainability is a big thing at Old Trickey’s Flower Farm, it matters a lot. So in line with their ethos of aiming to improve rather than degrade their corner of the world, they actively encourage wildlife and let nature take it’s course. Chemicals and synthetic pesticides are a big no-no; instead, they rely on natural pest control; frogs, toads and newts reside in the pond each year, slipping out at night to feast on slugs that would otherwise be nibbling at the flowers. Worms keep busy doing what they do best in the no-dig flower beds, water from the farm’s spring is used for irrigation. And of course, all those flowers blooming means pollinators – bees, butterflies, moths, flies, they all come to the fields to play their part in keeping our world beautiful. The packaging that’s used here is planet friendly, plant-based and biodegradable, not a scrap of plastic in sight, and jam jars returned to the farm are re-used. It’s how we should all be thinking.
We love Old Trickey’s, it’s where we get the little jam jar posies we put in our Devon holiday cottages to greet our guests. It’s a welcoming touch to a holiday in the country. Imagine these breathtaking bouquets as part of the backdrop to a family celebration – it’s the kind of thing that help to make these occasions so perfect. You might have booked a stay at Julesbrook or Pippinsands for a 50th birthday, a 60th, 70th, or a golden wedding anniversary, celebrated with the people you love most in the whole wide world. So of course, you want to make it special.
You need to order from Old Trickey’s Flower Farm in advance, at the very latest the day before the flowers are needed. The flowers will be freshly cut in the morning, carefully selected for their good looks, form and fragrance, then personally delivered to your holiday cottage at Stonehayes Farm. You can go and collect if you want to, if anything, just to see how lovey it is here. At the farm gate they have an honesty box for jam jar posies and freshly laid eggs from the free range rare breed hens that live on the farm. That’s what it’s like in these parts, it’s a way of life in the Blackdown Hills.
Also appealing are the informal half day DIY and Hand Tied Bouquet Workshops run by Rachel, who owns Old Trickey’s Flower Farm. These are held in the studio that overlooks the flower field and are limited to groups of 6 so that there’s more individual focus. Rachel greets you warmly and then takes you off for a tour of the flower field, explaining what’s in season, before you select and cut your blooms and carry them back to the studio. There’ll be happy chatter, tea and cake, a cheeky glass of Prosecco, and then you set about creating your hand tied bouquet. Sounds like a wonderful way to spend a morning!
Old Trickey’s Flower Farm is open Monday to Friday from 9am to 4pm and is closed at weekends. Please visit the website for more information, to place an order or book a place on a workshop.