What we do…
Hardy Eucalyptus have supplied countless Flower Farmers, zoos, country houses, allotment growers etc with high quality, British-grown stock trees for foliage production.
We have spent years researching the growing model for producing Eucalyptus foliage, and Hilary published her the results in the book Fantastic Foliage and how to Farm It – a text book guide to growing Eucalyptus.
Hardy Eucalyptus are currently providing consultancy support to flower farmers not only across the UK but also in Ireland, Croatia, Cyprus and Norway, to name a few. And Fantastic Foliage has been sold as far afield as America and Australia (would you believe it!)
Example of a Eucalyptus foliage crop
In 2018 we were pleased to supply The Great British Florist with Eucalyptus trees for their flower farm based at Lower Blakemere Farm in Herefordshire, where they have been growing British Flowers for the last nine years.
We supplied 1 litre stock, and Rupert and his team planted them to our instruction. We think they have done a fabulous job of looking after them!
The photos below were taken September 2019, just 18 months after being planted.
To show you how fast the crop has grown, we have included one of our photographs (with Lukes legs!) with a 1 litre plant highlighted for comparison.
With permission, here are some photos of their fantastic crop:
Note: tree stakes, bark mulch collar, rabbit guard fencing (although individual guards are fine too), and the trees have been left to grow with minimal pruning until they are big enough to be correctly pruned.
A huge thank you to The Great British Florist for sharing these photos with us!
You can see some examples of their beautiful work here: www.greatbritishflorist.co.uk/
And whist you’re here, we’d like you to know that…
Hardy Eucalyptus are avid supporters of the British-grown flower movement.
Hilary Collins addressing the main theater at Flowers from the Farm, Lincoln 2019
We were honoured to be invited to speak at the 2019 Flowers from the Farm conference in Lincoln to share our knowledge of growing Eucalyptus for cut foliage.
We regularly have long conversations with Flower Farmers about starting or maintaining their cut foliage crop, and offer consultancy for projects of all sizes.
If you are thinking about starting a cut foliage collection and would like free, no-obligation advice, or help with an existing project (or just someone to rant at!) then please do give us a call. Or, you can send us a message to register your interest.
Video: We were also one of the exhibitors at the 2020 Flowers from the Farm conference in Maidenhead where Charlie decorated the stand with 100% Eucalyptus arrangements!
Flowers from the Farm are a multi award-winning, not-for-profit, co-operative of British cut flower growers of growers from across the country who aim to promote the British grown flower industry. The British Flower Collective is another such organisation.
“Today 90% of the flowers sold through UK florists, supermarkets and wholesalers are imported not just from Holland but flown from as far afield as Ecuador, Colombia, Kenya and even Ethiopia. Flowers from the Farm aims to reduce travel miles by promoting locally-grown flowers and developing a network of British cut flower growers across the country.” – Flowers from the Farm website, About Us, 2020
Both groups have members that supply bouquets and arrangements for weddings and funerals, trade quantities for florists, bouquets by post, subscription services, and buckets of stems to arrange yourself, as well as running courses and workshops such as Christmas wreath making or DIY Brides. Phew! They’re a busy bunch (pun intended).
You can see directories of their growers and find your local farm here: FftF growers and BFC growers.
Some of our floral designers use only 100 % British grown all year round (yes, it is possible)” – The British Flower Collective website, homepage, 2020
We can’t recommend them highly enough. In fact, we used a local Flower Farmer, Anna Brian, for our daughters wedding flowers (with lots of our own home-grown Eucalyptus, of course!)
Buckets of DIY flowers bought for our daughter’s wedding, in the back of our mobile florists studio (i.e. our van!)
Written by Charlie Hartigan
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