BLOOMING GREAT IDEA
You picked your own fruit, so why not do same with flowers?
THE SEASON for pick-your-own may be over for fruit, but one farm is now offering people the chance to fill their buckets with budget bouquets.
Visitors to Blackiemuir Farm, in Laurencekirk, Aberdeenshire, are provided with secateurs so they can cut their own sunflowers, dahlias and gladioli.
Customers are asked to leave payments in an honesty box – and if they have no cash on them, they can pay via PayPal.
The McWilliam family, which runs the farm in the Howe of the Mearns, came up with the idea after looking for ways to diversify.
Kym McWilliam raised the idea with her parents after seeing it done in the Black Forest area of Germany while working there as a graphic designer.
Inspired, the family set about planting sunflowers, dahlias and gladioli in half a hectare of land adjacent to the A90 and opened it to the public.
It has since proved to be a huge success. Her mother, Karen McWilliam, said: ‘People seem to like it. The feelgood factor is mentioned often in feedback.’
Mrs McWilliam said she was confident the dahlias and gladioli would be popular but was less convinced people would want to buy sunflowers.
Nevertheless, she said they planted four varieties and ‘it turned out people love them’. The family was keen to do something with and for the community. To this end, the local out-of-school club has already visited the flower field, as have other children’s groups.
The bulbs came ready-mixed from Holland, providing a variety of colours.
In addition, Mrs McWilliam explained they do not spray the crop, meaning they had to do a lot of hand-weeding to ensure the plants came through.
However, they have since left the field to grow naturally, weeds and all.