A Short Break in Farnham -Part 1 West End Flower Farm

I recently published my post about our break in Farnham and then my brother pointed out that it was part four but he hadn’t seen the first three. I had missed publishing them in fact so I am going to do so this week so here retrospectively is part one.

England has seen a growth in the production of cut flowers, after a reliance for decades on imports from South Africa and Holland. Forward thinking individuals and often couples have taken the plunge and tried to change this bad habit of imported flowers being sold above home grown. Some buy up or rent old walled gardens or plant nurseries. We now have some superb examples in several counties.

When enjoying a few days away staying with Graham and Vicky, my brother and sister-in-law in the beautiful town of Farnham in Surrey, we were treated to a visit to West End Flower Farm. It was not the best time to visit any such establishment but there was plenty to discover, including of course the obligatory coffee shop!

We first had to collect coffees which we drank in a lovely teepee in one of the flower fields, where Graham was to meet up with group of like-minded residents of Farnham. Here we met ‘Ben’ the plastic dog that Graham had created as part of a campaign concerned with plastic waste, which all fits within Farnham being a ‘Craft Town’.

Around the cafe area were so many little places of interest, cameos that drew the eye ………..

The yurt and ‘Ben the Plastic Dog’!

Now we will look at the flower farm productive areas where signs of summer grown cut flowers survive especially late flowerers like dahlias.

Sunflowers ………….

Dahlias ……………

As we made to leave the flower garden one of the gardeners informed us that they were currently preparing the ground ready for autumn sowing of hardy annuals in the open ground. what an interesting place West End flower Farm turned out to be!