Embracing Nature's Seasonality: A Trip to Wolves Lane Flower Company
by Alex Moshakis
Marianne Morgendorff and Camila Romain
In 2017, Camila Romain and Marianne Mogendorff took a lease on a dilapidated plot of land in north London and began growing seasonal flowers. Wolves Lane Flower Company, which has an organic approach (no chemicals, no pesticides), has since developed into a popular urban flower farm that supplies flowers to florists and brides across London. While she was harvesting one recent afternoon, we spoke to Camila about why the pair set up their company, the importance of seasonal and sustainable flower growing, and why so many of the flowers we buy in Britain are imported from elsewhere.
Can you introduce Wolves Lane Flower Company?
We're a micro urban flower farm, based very close to central London, in Wood Green, Zone 3. We operate on a special horticultural site that used to be run by the local council but is now run by a consortium. All the growers here grow with an organic approach, which is important to us. It's a nice ecosystem.
What's a micro urban flower farm?
Our site is very small – we grow on not even an acre. We have a 40 metre glasshouse, which means our season starts earlier and ends later than everyone else's. And we've cobbled together a number of external plots, which in total is probably around a third of an acre. We emphasise the 'micro' when we talk to people, because otherwise when they visit they expect us to be growing across multiple acres, with 10 metre-long beds and a sense of abundance – all of the time.
How did you find the site?
Marianne lives around the corner. We were both still doing our day jobs as producers – me in fashion and broadcast, Marianne in theatre and dance. Marianne said, 'Come and see this site, it's just around the corner from my house, I think we could do something there.' At the time the site was kind of dilapidated because the council, over time, had started to cut funding. Marianne did some digging online and found an invitation on the Haringey council website to submit a bid to take over the whole site. Eventually, workers' cooperative OrganicLee took the site on, and they let us rent a glasshouse and the external plots, and we started in April 2017.
Camila in the greenhouse
What was the mission then?
To grow seasonal, sustainable flowers for Londoners. Our mission wasn't to be the biggest grower, or the most deluxe grower – the ambition was much more humble than that. It was to grow seasonal and sustainable flowers, but also to encourage other people to embrace seasonality, to try to have a greater connection with nature through flowers so they can be better custodians of the planet.
Why move from fashion to flowers?
When you start doing some research into where flowers in this country are imported from, and you find out about the growing conditions and the working conditions and the environmental impact, it leaves you really not wanting to work with flowers at all. So we decided to grow our own flowers, and to work with those, and to source, when we needed, from other British growers who share our environmental ethos.
"Our ambition is to encourage others to embrace seasonality, and to have a greater connection with nature through flowers."
How do you choose what to grow?
To be honest, we grow what we like. The thing about floristry is that there are so many fashions, so many 'predictive season colours'. We've found that when you grow things you think you should grow, you don't actually really look after plants you don't love. The exciting thing about seasonal flowers is they're only available for a short period of time, so when they do start to flower you just fall in love with them. We pretty much propagate everything ourselves, apart from the big perennials. For almost everything else, we take cuttings, we divide, we grow from seed.
How does what you're doing differ from the rest of the industry?
Around 85% of the flowers bought in this country are imported. A very small portion is British-grown. And we place a huge emphasis on seasonality. When you go to the flower market, you're not seeing a representation of what is seasonal – you're just seeing what is available because it can be grown at that time in other countries. If you must buy imported flowers, make sure they're at least Fair Trade, because that's an accreditation that maintains certain standards, especially when it comes to the welfare of the people that grow them.
Why is it that so many of our flowers are imported?
There used to be a much bigger flower market in the UK. But in the 1970s the Dutch started offering subsidies on energy, which meant Dutch growers could grow under glass with heat and grow varieties previously only available at specific points in the season. And then they mastered the distribution. So all of these flowers from around the world are imported to the Netherlands, which is the nexus of the flower industry in Europe, and then they get put on refrigerated trucks and transported across the continent.
My local florist buys their flowers from the Netherlands…
That florist was probably trained and learnt their trade with that system in mind. And it's really difficult to get them to shift their mindset, to think about what is in season now. Fundamentally, we always think that what's in season now tends to be what is looking most beautiful.
Tell us more about your customers?
We're really lucky. All of our brides, the first thing they say to us is: "We love your flowers, we love that they're seasonal and sustainable, that's what we want at our wedding." There's an ever-growing number of London florists who want seasonal flowers. They can't get their entire supply from us, so a lot of the time they'll get 60% of their stock from the market, and then they'll come to us for the bridal bouquets.
Harvesting Foxgloves
Are their customers demanding it?
A lot of the time it's because the florists themselves want to say they're working towards a more sustainable business model. The average customer isn't aware of all of the environmental complexities surrounding flower growing. I'd say the flower industry is about 10 years behind food in that way. People are so clued up on where their food comes from. They read the labels. But that's not something that people think about when they buy flowers.
How do you raise awareness?
You talk about it as much as possible! And you try to embrace as many different people as possible and not be judgemental. Especially in London, these are beginning to be buzzwords: sustainability, seasonality. Most of the really high-end florists all now work with seasonal stock. People set their own parameters – we're all trying to work toward a more sustainable future.
The differences between our relationship with food and with flowers is really interesting…
With food, because of the labelling, you know where it comes from. But there's no obligation for people selling flowers to say where they've come from. That's why the Fair Trade accreditation is so important.
Wolves Lane Flower Company in Wood Green
What are you harvesting right now?
We're starting to harvest the first flush of roses, which is always exciting. We're coming to the end of ranunculus. Today I cut orlaya, cynoglossum, clary sage, florist's dill, calendula, toadflax, violas… The sweet peas are looking amazing. And outside: California poppies, gypsophila…
What's in the future for you?
We've written a book over the past year and a half. It's coming out in September: How to Grow the Flowers, published by Pavilion Books. We're just trying to get people to grow their own flowers.
Photography: Dunja Opalko
wolveslaneflowercompany.com
