Clare’s background is in nursing, but growing on the land is very much in her blood.
Member Story
Blossoms and Berries
Clare and Simon Hillam tell the story of how they came to farm flowers in west Wales, all they have already achieved, and their plans for the future. (All images Lisa Soar Photography)
We are Simon and Clare, a husband-and-wife team based in Pembrokeshire, West Wales, which has a thriving flower farming community. Simon was in the British Army for 23 years, and when he was approaching retirement had the opportunity to do something that would both be personally rewarding and give back to the planet. Clare’s background is in nursing but she grew up with parents who loved to grow food and flowers, a passion that was passed on to her in abundance!
Between us we decided that the dream was to move to our favourite place in the world (Pembrokeshire) and manage a piece of land holistically, based on the principles of permaculture – and that the much-loved hobby of growing flowers should become a full time job!
We bought our land at the end of 2018 and spent a year plotting and creating a business plan, and then finally in 2020 started creating our growing areas. We launched Blossoms and Berries in June 2021, selling flowers at our local farmers’ market, delivering special occasion bouquets and providing flowers for weddings and events.
After a career in the British Army, Simon wanted to find a very different kind of fulfilment, rooted in care and appreciation for nature.
We began this adventure passionate about growing flowers, nurturing the soil and providing both food and habitats for wildlife. Whilst Simon would still consider himself a grower and land manager at heart, Clare finds the creative side of the business extremely rewarding, especially wedding floristry.
We practice sustainable floristry throughout our floral designs, so you won’t find any floral foam or other single use plastics. We provide ideas on how to re-use our wedding and event flowers, and we’ll even take any unwanted leftovers to be composted!
Our wedding was the best day of our lives, so we love being part of other people’s wedding days, helping them tell their love story with the flowers they choose. It’s magical seeing couple’s faces when they see their visions become reality, and the photos afterwards catching all those special moments and memories.
Simon and Clare amongst the flowers on their Pembrokeshire plot
In 2022 we branched out into providing workshops within our local community and have several more planned for 2023, including weaving and decorating seasonal willow wreaths, hand tied bouquets, flower crowns and Christmas table-centres.
The highlight of our flower farming career so far was being asked by the County Council to provide flowers for their marquee at the local agricultural show – it was just brilliant that they wanted to feature locally grown seasonal flowers and the whole event was a celebration of local produce.
Our vision for the future is to slowly grow our business, whilst ensuring the quality of our produce remains tip-top. We have been busy plotting and planning again, as we have an additional field to expand into. The idea is for this to become an agroforestry plantation of foliage shrubs and trees, with which we intend to supply local florists throughout the year.
For us, Flowers From The Farm offers not just an amazing community of skilled and knowledgeable flower farmers and florists, happy to share with the less experienced among us, but also a vision of the future of the floral industry in the UK. The more growers there are offering quality British blooms, the more choice florists will have when deciding what flowers to purchase for their clients. That way, one day, British flowers will be the norm and imported, high carbon footprint flowers in the minority!
Local, seasonal, sustainable: bringing Flowers From The Farm to west Wales
You can find out more about Simon, Clare and their business on Facebook, Instagram, or at blossomsandberries.co.uk
