The conservatory at the back of Coolamber House in Co Westmeath is a sun trap. Shafts of light pierce through the rectangular panes of glass overlooking a neatly landscaped walled garden; and inside, there are strings of purple bluebells, sprigs of soft pink blossom, and stems of ranunculus, their faded pink petals tightly layered, spilling over the rims of large buckets filled with water.
Flower farmers from across the country have gathered in the 19th century farmhouse in Lismacaffrey for a day of creativity and community, with workshops on floral arrangements, sustainable packaging, and bouquet demonstrations taking place across the stone outbuildings, potting shed and tea room.
It is the first official event of the year in the Flower Farmers of Ireland calendar, and there is an excited chatter amongst the 40 growers whose usual line of communication is one another’s Instagram direct messages or DMs.
One of the newer members to the group is Alicia McHugh, a part-time flower farmer from Donegal whose journey into gardening speaks to the power of nature to heal and to repair.
It was tending to a small flower patch in her garden that gave Alicia the strength to carry on after the loss of her son, Andrew. Four years ago, Alicia was 36 weeks pregnant when she gave birth to Andrew, who was stillborn. She created Butterfly Bears Flower Farm in her back garden in Killygordon, in his memory.
The name of the business, Butterfly Bears Flower Farm, is a tribute to Andrew: family friends named a star after Andrew in the Ursa Minor constellation (the Little Bear), and the butterfly represents Andrew’s angel wings, Alicia explains.
“We had Andrew in November 2021. I was 36 weeks pregnant and got pains and went into the hospital. He was stillborn, and then I took a year off work, and was just on sick leave because I couldn’t…” she pauses. “You know yourself after something like that.
“My other boy Kaiden was three and a half at the time. I was still trying to keep him entertained as well. He was home with me, so we were looking for things to do.
“And one day he came home with a sunflower, but I accidentally broke the sunflower when I was dusting, and I thought, I’ll stick it back in and it might grow again. Now, at this point, I knew nothing about flowers.
“He got upset, and then I said right, we’ll buy pots and compost and seeds. So that’s kind of how it started. Then I started looking up stuff on Instagram and I got really into growing the flowers. It made my mind quiet if that makes sense. And the idea of a flower farm, I thought I’d love to do that.”
Alicia insists her flower farm doesn’t look typical, “it’s a bit higgledy-piggledy, but it works for me”, and she grows in a space that measures about one eighth of an acre. She made the beds herself and her husband purchased a polytunnel.
Alicia McHugh from Butterfly Bears Flower Farm (seated) with Ann Carroll (left), (Barna Flower Farm Galway) and Marie Haverty (Skehana Flower Farm, also Galway). \ Barry Cronin
She started small, initially selling her flowers on Instagram with customers collecting bouquets from the house. Now she also offers bi-weekly and monthly flower subscriptions and she has branched out into workshops too.
“This year, I’m trying to do a workshop every two months or so,” she says. “I had one in April and I have one booked in August. It’s going to be an afternoon tea, where you do a table centrepiece arrangement, and then you have your afternoon tea as well in one of the local hotels.”
Coming to life
Alicia admits she would love to be a full-time florist (“someday, but just not yet”). But for the moment, she is balancing growing and planting with her full-time job in tech and raising her two children, Kaiden (7) and Saoirse (2). At this time of year, Alicia is in the polytunnel “as soon as I get five minutes at all”, she adds.
“I work from home three days a week, so I’ll go out in my lunch break, and then with the evenings getting a bit brighter, we’re out every evening in the garden. And I have the kids helping me as well. The wee man is well able to know different flowers, he makes the holes and then he’s able to plant the flowers. He helps me a lot. He loves it too.
“I can find the days that I don’t get out there tough. Getting out there, you feel like you’re caring for something. Kind of the way I wasn’t able to care for Andrew, so I am able to care for all the plants and watch them grow. It did definitely help.”
Alicia has learnt everything she knows through the Flower Farmers of Ireland group, and through following other growers on social media. Her attitude is very relaxed, she remarks. “There’s a saying that I go by: measure with your heart. I heard it from a woman on Instagram who does these cooking videos, and when she’s measuring something, she says: measure with your heart. So that’s where I heard it.
Alicia McHugh from Butterfly Bears Flower Farm says gardening helped her through grief. \ Barry Cronin
“I kind of adopted that. Everybody that knows me up here, like the other flower farmers up here, they keep laughing ‘did you measure with your heart again?’ if I’m buying something or arranging something. I have no tricks, no training whatsoever. I just put it in if I feel it looks nice.”
Alicia joined the Flower Farmers of Ireland in 2023. “You pay a membership fee, and part of that membership gives you access to all the experienced growers. If you have a question, you will get people from all over Ireland replying with their experience. You’re constantly learning,” she explains.
One of the many perks of membership is that the Flower Farmers of Ireland also do group orders, which “is a way to get stuff that you would never be able to get on your own as a small flower farmer”, adds Alicia. They also do training days and workshops, like the event in Coolamber House and Gardens which was attended by both full-time farmers and part-time farmers.
“For us, the whole thing about today’s event was to encourage community within the flower farmers,” says Ali Franks, the secretary on the Flower Farmers of Ireland committee who helped to organise the event in Westmeath. She also runs Clonakenny Flower Farm in Tipperary with her mother, Liz. “It’s very important because we’re all in rural Ireland in isolated areas.
“The benefit of being together is that you learn so much just from having general conversations and getting different ideas and asking people what is working for them. That’s as important as anything. To see other peoples’ creativity and be able to ask questions. Just to encourage people.”
Britta Baranowsky presenting one of the workshops at Coolamber House, Co Westmeath. \ Barry Cronin
Pricing is “one of the hot topics” that emerged among growers today, Ali says. It continues to be of relevance every year. “If you compare food and Irish organic homegrown beef versus mass produced supermarket beef. Obviously, you expect to pay premium for your premium products. Whereas with flowers, I think there’s the impression that Irish flowers should cost less. They obviously shouldn’t, they’re a premium product and all the flowers we grow can’t be imported. They have to be grown from seed and nurtured for months on end and looked after.
“It’s really important to make the distinction that Irish flowers should be priced as premium product.”
See butterflybearsflowerfarm.ie and
flowerfarmersofireland.ie
The conservatory at the back of Coolamber House in Co Westmeath is a sun trap. Shafts of light pierce through the rectangular panes of glass overlooking a neatly landscaped walled garden; and inside, there are strings of purple bluebells, sprigs of soft pink blossom, and stems of ranunculus, their faded pink petals tightly layered, spilling over the rims of large buckets filled with water.
Flower farmers from across the country have gathered in the 19th century farmhouse in Lismacaffrey for a day of creativity and community, with workshops on floral arrangements, sustainable packaging, and bouquet demonstrations taking place across the stone outbuildings, potting shed and tea room.
It is the first official event of the year in the Flower Farmers of Ireland calendar, and there is an excited chatter amongst the 40 growers whose usual line of communication is one another’s Instagram direct messages or DMs.
One of the newer members to the group is Alicia McHugh, a part-time flower farmer from Donegal whose journey into gardening speaks to the power of nature to heal and to repair.
It was tending to a small flower patch in her garden that gave Alicia the strength to carry on after the loss of her son, Andrew. Four years ago, Alicia was 36 weeks pregnant when she gave birth to Andrew, who was stillborn. She created Butterfly Bears Flower Farm in her back garden in Killygordon, in his memory.
The name of the business, Butterfly Bears Flower Farm, is a tribute to Andrew: family friends named a star after Andrew in the Ursa Minor constellation (the Little Bear), and the butterfly represents Andrew’s angel wings, Alicia explains.
“We had Andrew in November 2021. I was 36 weeks pregnant and got pains and went into the hospital. He was stillborn, and then I took a year off work, and was just on sick leave because I couldn’t…” she pauses. “You know yourself after something like that.
“My other boy Kaiden was three and a half at the time. I was still trying to keep him entertained as well. He was home with me, so we were looking for things to do.
“And one day he came home with a sunflower, but I accidentally broke the sunflower when I was dusting, and I thought, I’ll stick it back in and it might grow again. Now, at this point, I knew nothing about flowers.
“He got upset, and then I said right, we’ll buy pots and compost and seeds. So that’s kind of how it started. Then I started looking up stuff on Instagram and I got really into growing the flowers. It made my mind quiet if that makes sense. And the idea of a flower farm, I thought I’d love to do that.”
Alicia insists her flower farm doesn’t look typical, “it’s a bit higgledy-piggledy, but it works for me”, and she grows in a space that measures about one eighth of an acre. She made the beds herself and her husband purchased a polytunnel.
Alicia McHugh from Butterfly Bears Flower Farm (seated) with Ann Carroll (left), (Barna Flower Farm Galway) and Marie Haverty (Skehana Flower Farm, also Galway). \ Barry Cronin
She started small, initially selling her flowers on Instagram with customers collecting bouquets from the house. Now she also offers bi-weekly and monthly flower subscriptions and she has branched out into workshops too.
“This year, I’m trying to do a workshop every two months or so,” she says. “I had one in April and I have one booked in August. It’s going to be an afternoon tea, where you do a table centrepiece arrangement, and then you have your afternoon tea as well in one of the local hotels.”
Coming to life
Alicia admits she would love to be a full-time florist (“someday, but just not yet”). But for the moment, she is balancing growing and planting with her full-time job in tech and raising her two children, Kaiden (7) and Saoirse (2). At this time of year, Alicia is in the polytunnel “as soon as I get five minutes at all”, she adds.
“I work from home three days a week, so I’ll go out in my lunch break, and then with the evenings getting a bit brighter, we’re out every evening in the garden. And I have the kids helping me as well. The wee man is well able to know different flowers, he makes the holes and then he’s able to plant the flowers. He helps me a lot. He loves it too.
“I can find the days that I don’t get out there tough. Getting out there, you feel like you’re caring for something. Kind of the way I wasn’t able to care for Andrew, so I am able to care for all the plants and watch them grow. It did definitely help.”
Alicia has learnt everything she knows through the Flower Farmers of Ireland group, and through following other growers on social media. Her attitude is very relaxed, she remarks. “There’s a saying that I go by: measure with your heart. I heard it from a woman on Instagram who does these cooking videos, and when she’s measuring something, she says: measure with your heart. So that’s where I heard it.
Alicia McHugh from Butterfly Bears Flower Farm says gardening helped her through grief. \ Barry Cronin
“I kind of adopted that. Everybody that knows me up here, like the other flower farmers up here, they keep laughing ‘did you measure with your heart again?’ if I’m buying something or arranging something. I have no tricks, no training whatsoever. I just put it in if I feel it looks nice.”
Alicia joined the Flower Farmers of Ireland in 2023. “You pay a membership fee, and part of that membership gives you access to all the experienced growers. If you have a question, you will get people from all over Ireland replying with their experience. You’re constantly learning,” she explains.
One of the many perks of membership is that the Flower Farmers of Ireland also do group orders, which “is a way to get stuff that you would never be able to get on your own as a small flower farmer”, adds Alicia. They also do training days and workshops, like the event in Coolamber House and Gardens which was attended by both full-time farmers and part-time farmers.
“For us, the whole thing about today’s event was to encourage community within the flower farmers,” says Ali Franks, the secretary on the Flower Farmers of Ireland committee who helped to organise the event in Westmeath. She also runs Clonakenny Flower Farm in Tipperary with her mother, Liz. “It’s very important because we’re all in rural Ireland in isolated areas.
“The benefit of being together is that you learn so much just from having general conversations and getting different ideas and asking people what is working for them. That’s as important as anything. To see other peoples’ creativity and be able to ask questions. Just to encourage people.”
Britta Baranowsky presenting one of the workshops at Coolamber House, Co Westmeath. \ Barry Cronin
Pricing is “one of the hot topics” that emerged among growers today, Ali says. It continues to be of relevance every year. “If you compare food and Irish organic homegrown beef versus mass produced supermarket beef. Obviously, you expect to pay premium for your premium products. Whereas with flowers, I think there’s the impression that Irish flowers should cost less. They obviously shouldn’t, they’re a premium product and all the flowers we grow can’t be imported. They have to be grown from seed and nurtured for months on end and looked after.
“It’s really important to make the distinction that Irish flowers should be priced as premium product.”
See butterflybearsflowerfarm.ie and
flowerfarmersofireland.ie
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