Blossoming businesses meet the enterprising women who made their businesses bloom
a love of flowers sparked a change of career for five enterprising women
debbie Hutchinson, 49, lives in Marden, Herefordshire, with her husband Hutch and two children. she co-founded Twisted sisters, a flower farm and florist, with her sister Melissa, 47. THE IdEA In 2013 I retired from the army after 24 years working in communications systems. I loved it, and it’s where I met my husband Hutch (says Debbie). I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do next but I knew I wanted to work outdoors. We’d recently moved to a smallholding in Herefordshire, so it made sense to do something with the land. We’d also converted a barn on our property, and in 2017 my sister Melissa moved in. she’s always been creative and, after leaving her job in the NHs, she made wonderful textile pieces for exhibitions. We wanted to do something that played to both our strengths, so over the next few months, the idea of growing cut flowers for florists evolved. MAKING IT HAPPEN We took a Flower Farming for beginners course at a farm in oxford in May 2017, and for the next six months
I researched the idea, visiting other flower farms, and asking advice from Flowers From the Farm, a co-operative of british cut-flower growers. We started preparing a growing field – digging flower beds, installing rabbitproof fencing, irrigation and a polytunnel – and in september 2017, I began sowing annual flower seeds and planted 2,000 tulips and 150 roses. at times the idea felt overwhelming. I didn’t know if I could grow anything – army life involved moving every two years, so I never bothered gardening! thankfully, everything did grow, and the following year local florists started to buy our flowers. by then, Melissa had designed a logo and we had built a website, so enquiries started to trickle in from there too. BREAKTHROUGH MOMENT Melissa ran our first workshop for florists in september 2018 – it sold out and we got amazing feedback, which gave us the confidence that we were on the right track. STEEPEST LEARNING CURVE I underestimated the amount of work involved – things that I thought would only take five minutes took two hours! I also realised the value of having the right tools, and we now have machinery for digging, saving hours of
back-breaking work. WHERE WE ARE NOW We’re doubling the size of our growing plot with a view to opening for “Pick your own” days in the summer. as well as supplying florists, we offer a floral service for weddings, and from May to october we sell DIy flower buckets for brides-to-be. We have an event planned at the farm, as part of the Flower Farmers’ big Weekend (16-18 august), and have widened our range of workshops to include calligraphy and painting. as I work almost full-time on the farm – often from 8am to 9pm – getting in a part-time helper is on the cards. >>