Denmans Garden collaborates in a variety of ways with local artists and makers by hosting events and workshops and showcasing work in the Denmans Garden Gift Shop and garden.
As part of an occasional series, we interview these artists on our blog page to find out more about their work and inspiration.
Lucie and Skye come to Denmans Garden for the first time in November with their beautiful floristry business, Fleurs of Litchfield. A local florist and flower farm based in Madehurst that offers flower delivery, subscription service, and bespoke events, the pair are passionate about supporting British growers and delivering seasonal flowers with zero packaging.
Floral company Fleurs of Litchfield is born from the existing local garden maintenance company, Litchfield & Fox. Skye is its owner, having worked in the horticulture industry since her teens, and started the business over ten years ago. Since then, she has grown the company exponentially with the team now covering a 25 mile radius.
Lucie was a former employee of Litchfield & Fox, but also worked as an illustrator, with a passion for flower design. After attending the RHS course at Brinsbury college, Lucie then went on to the Sussex Flower School to learn floristry alongside gardening.
Before starting her Litchfield & Fox Skye had been a florist at Spriggs in Petworth, so the path led to us joining forces and going in to business together to start Fleurs of Litchfield.
With our horticultural background, we wanted to bring that knowledge into the cut flower market and to champion locally grown and British suppliers. We run a small flower farm in Madehurst as our primary source of supply for our designs.
We are based on a farm in Madehurst, surrounded by the beauty of the South Downs. Our designs are very reflective of a more natural and wild style of floristry. We love to forage and work with natural elements.
Our studio is in an old converted milking barn, which is absolutely perfect for floristry, very dark and very cold. We have a plot on the farm which currently contains a polytunnel and a space for us to grow. We have plans to expand so we can grow more and so we can start supplying enough flowers for our wedding designs. We also work with local growers at Chalk Farm. We love their ethos and their passion for sustainability and their flowers are beautiful.
Working sustainably is of primary importance to us as a floristry business. We use no Oasis foam in our designs. Instead, we use products like Agra-wool and Fibre Floral but prefer to use containers with chicken wire, which is then reused. Sustainability is part of the reason we decided to become growers alongside the design. If people had a larger idea of airmiles and the human cost that goes in to imported flowers, they might think twice about buying supermarket flowers. It’s not easy for British growers to supply a year-round product, but we prioritise this as much as possible, and work with the seasons in our designs to mitigate the use of imported flowers when our growing season comes to an end.
An average day would be arriving at the yard to check on dead-heading and, at this time of year, cutting back. If we have cut flowers in the morning, we condition them to leave for the next day for designs. It would then be a bit of morning admin, voicemails, and emails, and checking the calendar for deliveries. Then it’s the radio on and get cracking with some designs.
And the beauty of the studio is that every day brings a different design. Yesterday we were designing a table scape for Christmas; the day before we were working on bouquet deliveries; last Friday we worked on a pumpkin installation on site and planting up containers. There’s a wonderful cross-over at Fleurs with the gardening side as we often create containers / window boxes, so we’re not always based in the studio making.
As we approach the winter months, we will be gearing up for Christmas with more festive items and autumnal designs in our flowers. We like to sell our flowers package-free adding to our sustainability ethos, so our pop-up at Denmans will sell flowers in jars, arranged and ready to be placed with no faff or wasted packaging. We will also be selling bulb arrangements during this time.
I have been coming to Denmans Gardens since I first moved here ten years ago. I found it by complete chance. It’s such a peaceful and serene atmosphere. It is truly a hidden gem, which to me adds to its appeal. It’s never overcrowded. It’s beautifully structured and very well maintained. The collaboration came about because I have often purchased plants from the shop and when we launched the business I wondered if the gardens might show an interest in selling cut flowers. And here we are!
Gardening is the way I switch off. That feels like quite an obvious thing to say given our background, but we both garden as a passion as well as for a living, and because we are both working mums of young children and life can get bananas. For both of us gardening is when we are at our most mindful and in the moment.
We have big plans to start growing more, especially foliage for us to wholesale. We are concentrating a lot more on the growing side currently as that for us is where we feel like we can bring more to the market in terms of what we can offer with our subscription and event flowers. We are also planning to grow for weddings so we can offer brides set packages and styles of flowers which we think will help brides know exactly what they are getting in terms of look and costings.
Our future is all geared towards being able to grow and supply as many of our designs as possible, and to generate a wholesale side to the business.
Fleurs of Litchfield: https://www.fleursoflitchfield.co.uk/
Instagram: fleursoflitchfield
Pop-up at Denmans Garden – Friday 15th and Friday 29th November, 10am-2pm
Also joining us for our Christmas Fair on 14th,15th, 16th November – see our events page for further info:
For more information, please contact Louise Campbell
louise@denmans.org 07540892364
@denmans_garden
