Why I’m Transitioning My Flower Farm
Over the last few seasons, I’ve found myself making a big shift in the way I grow and work with flowers. What began as a flower farm centred around fresh seasonal blooms and only growing dried flowers to extend the season because that’s what we ‘should’ do as flower farmers, is now evolving into something a little different, a business that specialises in flowers that dry beautifully and can be enjoyed for so much longer. It hasn’t been a decision I’ve made lightly, but it has been shaped by experience, necessity, and a growing love (maybe borderline obsession now) for what dried flowers can offer.
The truth is, Mother Nature has had a lot to say in this decision, and we all know we can’t argue with her curve balls each season. In recent years, growing flowers has become increasingly unpredictable for growers. Droughts, extreme heatwaves, and unusual seasonal shifts (a frost in mid May excuse me 2026?) have had a real impact on what the farm can produce successfully. Flowers have been blooming weeks ahead of schedule, and often on really short stems, which makes them difficult to use for intended weddings and larger designs.
There have been many, many times when I’ve had no choice but to buy in flowers from other growers just to fulfil large wedding orders and create the beautiful arrangements my couples deserve. While I’ve always been grateful to do whatever it takes, that approach eats into profits and adds stress to a part of the business that should feel joyful and sustainable.
Moving into specialising in dried flowers feels like a natural answer for me. Instead of constantly battling the limitations of a fresh flower season that is becoming harder to predict, I can focus on growing varieties that dry well and hold their beauty long after harvest. Dried flowers bring longevity, flexibility, and dependable, exciting design options, without the same pressure around wilting, timing, and harvest windows, for weddings I can now dig into my dried flower stash and pull out the flowers I need for each wedding when the time comes, reducing the need to buy in extra stems from other growers hugely, and honestly reducing a huge amount of worry and stress of will they wont they flower at the right time.
One of the biggest joys in this transition has been the creative freedom dried flowers give me. They allow me to use my creative mind and design pieces that simply aren’t possible in the same way with fresh flowers. I can create work that is more detailed, more lasting, and often more artistic, the kind of work that invites me to slow down and really play with texture, shape, colour and form. My flower frame designs have completely captured my heart, I’ve fallen in love with creating them, and they’ve quickly become one of the parts of my work that excites me the most, a design which customers seem to thankfully love too! Along with the new cake design I have been dabbling with, I’m excited to tweak this design and begin offering it to a wider audience!
I’ve also noticed a really positive shift in the way couples are viewing dried flowers for their weddings. More and more, they’re loving the idea of choosing flowers they can keep afterwards as a lasting reminder of such a special day. Once I’ve shown them just how beautifully dried flowers can be done, many have completely fallen in love with the idea. It feels so encouraging to see couples embrace something that is not only beautiful and unique, but also meaningful and lasting.
That said, I’ll never be fully without fresh flowers, because luckily dried flowers are fresh before they are dried. Fresh flowers will always be a huge part of what I love and what drew me into flower farming, but going forward, fresh flower weddings and gift bouquets will be limited to July and August and offered only for small to medium-sized weddings. I’ll be working with couples who are super relaxed and happy to have flowers that reflect the very best of whatever is blooming that week in the field. This feels like the right balance, allowing me to still curve the itch to work with fresh, seasonal flowers at the height of summer while creating a business that is more sustainable, profitable, and creatively fulfilling in the long term.
What This Shift Will Make Possible
One of the biggest benefits of this transition is that it should give me more time to focus on my retail offerings and educational resources.
In particular, I’m hoping to: restock my online shop more regularly, open an Etsy shop to reach a wider audience, develop downloadable tutorials, create my dried flower bible, bring back in-person workshops
Over the summer, I’ll be filming videos and taking photographs to create a beautiful guide to harvesting and drying flowers well. When I first shared the idea earlier this year, the response was fantastic, but I didn’t yet have the photos and videos needed to do it justice. I know learning to edit online tutorials will be a challenge for me, especially as I’m not naturally tech-savvy, but I’m excited to build those skills so I can share my knowledge and help others create beautiful dried flower pieces too.
Although this shift has come from very real challenges, it has also opened the door to something exciting. Transitioning my flower farm into a dried flower specialist business means working with the realities of the seasons instead of constantly pushing against them. It’s about building a business that feels more resilient, more creative, and more in tune with how I want to grow in the years ahead.
Most of all, it feels deeply aligned with my skills and the work I love most, dried flowers! I feel incredibly grateful that this path has become a viable option, and now that the doubt of if it is the right decision has lifted, I know in my heart it is the right decision for me, Wild at Dawn Flowers, and my customers.
I’m super excited to see where this re direction will take this little flowery business, I recently attended the RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2026, after being asked to create my cake design for display there (I still can’t believe that I can say that!). Having never been to Chelsea before I fell in love with it, and it lit a fire within me to one day have my own trade stand there full of my dried flower creations !! It’s a big dream, but you never know !!
I hope this short blog has explained my transition to you and that you will enjoy following along my little dried flower dream.
Wild at Dawn Flowers, Dried Flower Specialist (eek!!).
Farmer Florist,
Rose