Flouer Flowers is a flower farm in the Scottish Borders specialising in cut flower peonies.

Who are we?

Run by Zena and her husband Iain, farming is in our genes. We’ve lost count which generation of farmers we both are (on all sides of our families) so, when we were living in London and working in very different industries - financial services and writing (and historically as a professional rugby player and florist) - we always knew we would return to the land, at some stage.

That happened sooner than expected in late 2018, when we had the opportunity to take over the arable farm that Iain’s uncle, and previously his grandparents, had owned. Growing wheat, barley and oilseeds, the farm was pristine from an industrial farming point of view. But from Zena’s point of view it felt incredibly masculine, like the land was part of a machine. And so, as a florist, and lover of pretty things as much as nature and what I (Zena) like to call calculated chaos, I campaigned for a bit of land on the farm to grow peonies (why peonies? - I’ll get to that in a moment). And then as covid hit, I settled down on that piece of land and planted 5,000 peony roots into the soil. Now, after a number of years allowing the peonies to flourish, grow bigger, brighter and bolder with every year, we are finally ready to share them with everyone in the UK.

Along with growing peonies, if you follow us on social media @flouerflowers you will see, we also breed thoroughbred horses (horses and flowers what more can a girl dream of!) as well as run the arable (main) side of the farm, and Zena continues to write as a YA author for teens, and Iain, as a financial adviser. So many things! But variety is the spice of life, as they say.

And, boy (or girl), do we have some stunning peony varieties for you!

Why peonies?

Years ago I (Zena) learned that peonies were being grown in Alaska (very successfully) as cut flowers - perennial peonies thrive off cold winters as it helps the sugars in their tuberlike roots to prepare for a bigger and better upcoming flowering season. Higher altitudes and bright sunlight also make for bigger and more vivid blooms.

But, when we started out farming here, I followed what everyone else was doing, I joined Flowers From the Farm (an amazing network of British Flower Farmers and Florists) and did a test-run growing the standard flower farm (for cut flowers) annual and biennial flowers that many farmer florists grow - flowers that you start from seed and they grow for only one year, or flower the second year.

And I hated that process. One, I hated the fact that the (annual) flowers died off after all the effort I’d put into keeping them alive at the start of the season. Two, I like variety in my life (as you know) and the idea of having to do the same thing on repeat, starting from scratch, every season with seeds, was soul-sucking, especially as I had other interesting things to get on with.

So, I decided that perennial flowers were the way forward. One of the main battles on this farm is the wind. With the raised elevation on the arc of a hill, we’re really quite exposed and so I knew I needed a hardy plant. So, I looked at what was already growing in granny’s garden (my husband’s granny) and I discovered a lilac and a peony (they interested me).

But also, everyone has been mad for dahlias in the last few years. So, I had a go in the first couple of years with dahlias. The decision on the dahlias was a NO too. Why? How many reasons do you want? I have MANY! One, they have no scent. That breaks me. It’s like they’re barren and plastic without any scent. Some of the single varieties have the slighted hint of pollen scent - but really, it’s nothing. Two, they do not continue to open after they’ve been cut. So, they won’t travel well over a distance (and I wanted to serve the whole of the UK). Straight up, from a floristry point of view they’re not a good cut flower. I don’t care what people will tell you who grow them and sell them to you as cut flowers, the facts are, they are NOT good cut flowers. Unless, you get them cut (locally) the night before you have an event and you need them to look spectacular for that one day event - especially if it’s a dinner plate variety - see Café Creme or Penhill Watermelon etc. Or if it’s for a vase at home, one of the pom (like a ball) varieties or the single daisylike varieties. Those ones will at least last 5-ish days in a vase before they start to look aged. But, that is still NOT a good cut flower in my eyes. What else … three - dahlias aren’t rubust in windy sites. Four - the biggy - you have to dig up your dahlia tubers every year, store them carefully over winter in a dry, frost free environment and then split and replant them in the spring. I won’t rant on further, because inevitably, knowing me, I’ll decide to grow a few dahlias again sometime.

So, that brings me to our peonies. By late spring 2019 I’d decided PEONIES were our main flower. Why? One, they look amazing. Two, they’re many people’s favourite flowers so they’re commercial. Three, they’re a high value flower per stem. Four, they’re a popular wedding flower. Five, they have an amazing vase life. Six, they can be harvested in tight bud form (like a lollipop) and will travel very well out of water, dry, with zero loss of condition, and then open in the vase into humungous blooms (no exaggeration, I’m proud to say my peonies have giant heads). Seven, as a mono-crop (ie I’m growing one type of flower) they’re very popular and impressive on their own in a bouquet / vase - so I don’t have to grow lots of faffy filler flowers to try and dress up a bouquet. Eight, they’re perennial (so they come back year after year), very hardy (I don’t have to dig the roots up each autumn like dahlias) (see the Alaska reference) - they don’t like being waterlogged but I’ve dealt with that in our field with my wee tractor and a vintage potato drill plough borrowed from Charlie a neighbour - and although they do need some wind protection and support - because they die back in the autumn and winter to hide safely underground, then they avoid the worst extremes of Scottish howling gales, snow or frost. Nine, as we’re northern, our season is slightly later than growers in the south of England so that means we still have peonies available at the end of June - wedding flowers anyone? Ten, there are sooooo many varieties and colours and even shapes beyond the most popular Sarah Bernhardt peonies (of which we have many) and so I went mad and now have around 100 varieties in varying numbers from large volumes for big events down to couple of plants of very rare varieties (with price-points to reflect that popularity or rarity). And eleven, last but probably the most important reason, peonies have SCENTS. Such a range of scents: from a heady rose scent, to the sweetest true peony fragrance (that reminds you of a vintage floral perfume - aka old lady perfume) - to a slightly green minty scent to the weirdest Germolene scented peony - but we’ll forgive her that, because that peony looks like a swan on a lake as it gradually opens its wings and ends fully open like a Swan Lake, prima ballerina’s tutu.

So, why isn’t everyone growing peonies? Well, it’s a long, long game if you want to farm peonies. A peony needs to go un-touched for at least 4 years (ideally) before you can harvest stems from it (this allows it to grow big enough underground to create as many stems as possible and be robust enough to withstand when stems are finally harvested, to then return equally strong in the following year) and, after those 4 years, you should only harvest a third of the plant’s stems each season. So, from a flower farmer’s point of view that’s a long time for that piece of ground to be unproductive. Also, peony roots (tubers) aren’t the cheapest, especially if you’ve got a taste for the rare and unusual like me. Unlike dahlia tubers that will replicate from one tiny piece into a bunch-of-carrots equivalent in one season, you really need to start with a decent sized peony tuber at outset, to reach a big enough plant after those 4 years. So the monetary outlay on a field, just for the roots, never mind that ground then being unproductive for those 4 years, is pretty punchy.

But, still, I’ve gone ahead with my calculated, chaos plan (common and commercial sense be damned) and done all this, for you and me, for us, to now reap the many many benefits and pleasures provided by these amazing, British grown peonies.

Whether you’d like our most popular peonies loved by all, to include peonies in your wedding bouquet or arrangements, or you’d like to treat yourself with our truly special collectors-item rarities, we’re looking forward to hearing from you.

Our peony season runs from late May to the end of June.