From farm to funeral - meeting the needs of my local customers

by Meg Edmonds, Flowers by Meg at Roots, Rushwick, Worcester

Meg provides seasonal, locally grown flowers for sustainable farewell floral tributes.

I’m a farmer who started growing flowers to provide bunches to sell in our family farm shop, and to supply wholesale cut flowers to the many excellent florists in Worcestershire who work throughout the year to provide floral tributes for bereaved families.

Until the restrictions of the COVID-19 pandemic hit in 2020, it hadn’t occurred to me that I could offer funeral flowers. At that time, a regular customer of my fresh flower bouquets asked me for a ‘loosely gathered bunch’ of flowers to lay on her mum’s coffin as a reminder of time they spent together in the garden. I provided these for her using flowers cut from my field and she later wrote to me to say what a comfort the flowers had been at her mum’s funeral and how she was now enjoying them in a vase at home. When she said that they were exactly “what mum would have picked from her own garden”, it dawned on me that funeral flowers, naturally arranged, were an area of floristry where my farm-grown flowers and I could make a real difference - providing my local community with sustainable and more naturalistic options for farewell flowers.

Meg loves to gather the best flowers of the season from her Worcestershire flower farm to create garden-gathered funeral arrangements. Here, ranunculus, roses and anemones create a pretty display.

This discovery has led to me to where I am today - now providing environmentally sustainable designs year round that are made only with my home grown flowers and foliage. Each design is unique and a reflection of the moment in time at which they’re made. I work primarily with people who approach me directly, or through a local funeral director who knows and values the style of my work.

I find that people are drawn to what I offer because they feel that a natural, seasonal tribute fits what they are looking for. As a result, the conversations around the flowers and foliage are often comforting and enjoyable. Incorporating personal details is crucial and taking the time to listen to people is an important part of the service I offer.

A wildflower style casket spray with scented honeysuckle makes a beautiful and sustainable farewell gesture.

I’ve realised that I need to show photographs of my funeral flowers so that people can see with their own eyes just how they’re different from the average. I’ve made a gallery of photographs on my website and I am looking into producing a downloadable ‘book’ of different shapes and styles which I can share. My local undertaker has asked if this could be a format that works on an iPad which is how they often show examples of work to clients. I’d say to any fellow florist that It’s really helpful to talk to local undertakers to find out more about how you can help them to help their clients.

Because I work with my own flowers and the seasons, there is a limit to the number of pieces I can make at any one time, and to the range and number of clients that I can work with.

Winter work relies on my late flowering chrysanthemums, moving on in December to the flowers which I’ve dried from summer harvests. After Christmas I start to use the first snowdrops and hellebores, sometimes using spring bulb flowers ‘in the green’ (with bulbs attached). Including the bulbs can be lovely as families can then take them out of my arrangements and replant them to enjoy as a memory in later years. Once late spring and summer arrive, there is an abundance of flowers on the farm until late autumn.

Meg finds that funeral flower work fits well with her busy life on a working farm and brings her great creative satisfaction.

Experience has given me confidence and I love my creative niche of funeral work. It’s meaningful and also fits around my busy life on a working farm. My flowers are sustainable by design and I’m really happy to be able to help local customers who’re seeking eco-friendly flowers - something that’s not always easy to find.

Find out more

• Meg is a flower farmer in Rushwick, on the edge of Worcester and grows flowers on her mixed, organic, family farm. Visit Meg’s website Flowers by Meg at Roots

• Find sustainable funeral flowers near you using our Find Flowers page