Florist Lucy Vail on the ups and downs of founding a flower farm with her mother

March, it could be said, is the mother of all months. After all, she is the harbinger of spring, ushering in longer days and a veritable explosion of life and colour following the long, dark winter. Synonymous with green shoots, fresh foliage and a riot of beautiful spring blooms, March is life-giving, life-affirming, and fittingly plays host to Mothering Sunday each year.

Obviously, as a florist, it is one of our busiest weekends in the calendar. But since going into business with my mum, this celebration of new beginnings and the bond shared between mother and child, has taken on an even greater significance.

In 2020, we made the decision as a family to start Floriston Flower Farm at our home in Suffolk. The site has the most amazing heritage with incredibly rich, fertile soil and ties to the renowned herbalist Nicholas Culpeper who grew his herbs and lavender at Floriston. It was the farm’s proven pedigree that gave us the confidence to take control of our own supply chain and grow precisely what I need for my floristry work. By working closely with my mum, I can advise and influence what we plant to deliver the most luxurious service via a sustainable supply of unique, high-quality blooms that both meet our clients’ needs and, I hope, exceed their expectations.

It makes me immensely proud that our work, as well as our lives, are so inextricably combined and the flowers used by Lucy Vail Floristry have been nurtured by our family from tiny seed to final arrangement. Last year, Floriston sold over 12,000, literally homegrown, stems to me, and to say our joint venture exceeded everyone’s expectations would be an understatement.

And at the heart of it all is my mum. We are so similar, neither of us stops thinking about flowers (for me it is all about the tone or the texture, for her the stem length), and there is no doubt that her phenomenal work ethic has rubbed off on me. I see, first-hand, the unbelievably hard graft that she puts into growing each and every stem; from the 5am starts, to the hours of planting and cutting – not to mention negotiating prices with me! Running a business isn’t for everyone, running a family business isn’t either, but I love being able to share the highs and lows with my parents – and there have been some lows. On the farm we are at the fickle mercy of Mother Nature and the rollercoaster of caring for and cultivating our own crop can be very stressful. Whether it’s a mouse trying to eat your sweet peas (pre-planted in November) or the squirrels munching on bulbs, it’s a constant battle. However, facing and overcoming these challenges together just makes every success so much more rewarding. Twice a week my mum delivers flowers to the London studio and it often results in both of us jumping up and down with excitement; marvelling at the size of the dahlia heads, the length of a tulip stem and delighting in the spectrum of colours.

This shared passion bonds us, and our businesses. It is so important to both of us that we provide a bespoke, never ‘off the shelf’, service. These flowers are lovingly grown – come rain, shine, or squirrels – and all of that dedication means luxury blooms on hand all the way through from March to October. In fact, I’m already using anemones grown at Floriston in my designs, and by the end of March, the British season will be in full swing with the farm delivering a large flush of parrot and Rembrandt tulips in a spectacular rainbow of colours.