Last month we launched our Scholarship Scheme aimed at increasing diversity in UK flower farming. When we all started flower farming, there were very few other people working in this industry in the UK. There were ‘commercial’ growers who tend to produce single crops on a field or glasshouse scale, and they were generally men. If you’d looked around in the media, you’d assume that women farmers of any speciality were unusual, although most farms have women involved in running them, they just weren’t visible. Flower farming in the UK has been led by Flowers from the Farm and has been fortunate to have different role models. However, over the past few years it’s become noticeable that the majority of UK flower farmers are white, female and over 30 years old. Whilst we positively celebrate female success, this image of flower farmers has the potential to limit new entrants.
Diversity is strength. If we want the flower industry to be vibrant and sustainable, we need to make sure that we have people from all walks of life, genders and ethnicities. This won’t happen by chance, we all need to make it happen and The Business of Selling Flowers wants to play a role in the change. We’d like to encourage people from a wide range of backgrounds to think about growing cut flowers as a career and support them to get underway. We are offering a staged Scholarship Scheme that provides education to support people from initially wondering whether it’s for them, through to setting up a flower growing business and trying it out. We’re also delighted to be working in collaboration with Sarah Statham from Simply by Arrangement who’'ll be providing floristry input.
We’re currently aiming the Scholarship Scheme at individuals who are
People of colour or from an ethnic minority in the UK
Male
Under 25 years of age
This is not a quick fix. If we want real change, the individuals who are setting off now need space and time to work, gain experience, learn and make realistic plans. In the month since we launched, over 30 prospective flower farmers have signed up and are working their way through our Introduction to Flower Farming online course. We are limited in our capacity - there are just 3 of us running our own flower farms as well as The Business of Selling Flowers - and we have no external funding***. We’re now pausing entries to the Scholarship Scheme for 2020 so that we can support this first cohort.
We’d like to say thank you to everyone who has looked at what we do and thought they might give it a go. We’re looking forward to seeing what you all do and getting to know you. If you think you’d like to be part of our floral world and might qualify for our Scholarship Scheme, we’ll give more information about future opportunities as it develops - sign up to our newsletter to find out!
Paula, Carol and Claire
***If you’d like to help by sponsoring the Scholarship Scheme, either through financing and supporting additional places, or providing opportunities for new flower farmers, please get in touch!