Sustainable Essex Wedding Florists

I was chatting to a bride the other day about her plan to find sustainable Essex wedding florists, so that all her flowers would be locally grown and not covered in pesticides!

I think people often assume that flowers are good for the planet as what could be more natural than a flower? However, the reality is pretty far from that. Unfortunately many flowers are imported from other countries, they have to be flown in and have a big carbon footprint. Many are grown and picked by workers who aren’t paid a fair wage and they are normally covered in pesticides. They can also have a detrimental effect on the local environments where they are grown – pesticides will often end up in the local water and resources that could be used for growing food are taken for industrial flower growing. I don’t know about you, but that doesn’t sound very romantic to me!

Finding sustainable wedding flowers in Essex

Luckily there are lots of great options when it come to choosing your sustainable Essex wedding florist. First of all what should you look for:

  • Find local growers
  • Choose flowers that are in season
  • Make sure they are grown without chemicals
  • Grown without the use of peat – many growers still use peat to grow their plants which is unsustainable.
  • Ask about their pest reduction methods, spraying insecticides for example is definitely one to avoid.

My recommended Wedding Florists

Philipa Day

Philipa comes from a Fine Art background and now runs her floristry business which is committed to British grown flowers and sustainable practices.

The Botanical Alchemist

Beautiful arrangements grown by this mother and daughter team on their own flower farm and using other local growers. Sustainable and as waste free as possible.

Passionflowers by Emma Spowage

Passionate about keeping the environmental impact to a minimum by using her own sustainable home grown seasonal flowers and locally sourced flowers wherever possible. She also never uses oasis floral foam in her work which is a big issue within the floristry industry and as a grower she don’t use any chemicals or pesticides in the process either.

Anna’s Flower Farm

Based at Audley End their ultimate aim is to create a biodynamic garden.

Wolves Lane Flower Company

Grown in North London, a great sustainable option for London and South Essex Weddings

Jessica Blume

Growing her own flowers on an organic farm in Essex and sourcing other ingredients from small growers.

Nettle And Fern

All their own grown flowers are grown without pesticides and fertilisers and they do try to use seasonal flowers. However, you’ll need to be clear when booking as they do also import flowers from elsewhere when needed.

The Country Garden Flower Company

Flowers are grown in their walled garden near Essex, they do source from elsewhere at certain times of the year but you can request their own flowers.

So that’s my round up of sustainable Essex wedding florists. I’ll try to keep this updated so if you know of any others then let me know!