Being kind to the planet is very important at Indy Bloom, the business was born out of a love for growing flowers and wanting to connect with nature.

Each year of running a small floral design business is about learning, reflecting and growing - there are a number of ways to create floral arrangements and installations using eco friendly techniques and the first focus is always the mechanics of each arrangement, for example we never have and never will, use floral foam. There are plenty of alternatives and this is a really simple way to not contribute to micro plastics and toxins ending up in our landfills and waterways.

We aim to use as many locally grown flowers as possible, not only is this reducing the amount of flowers needing to be flown over from other countries, its also reducing the amount of pesticides being used - the British cut flower industry is growing each year and this is a really positive change for the British floristry industry. The percentage of imported flowers used at Indy Bloom has always been low and this continues to be a focus for the business.

The reality is (much to my disappointment!) that I cannot run my business on 100% British flowers and I think its important to be really transparent about that, firstly British growers tend to have less space to grow on and that can mean needing to source from multiple growers to get the quantity of each stem in each carefully selected shade. This means driving to multiple flower farms, often located at the opposite ends of the city from one another or paying for multiple deliveries. This needs a lot of time and communication to organise successfully for each wedding, which sometimes IS possible but as a mother of two young children, sometimes this is completely impossible. While life is busy I make sourcing the flowers more practical for myself by sourcing some from local growers, some from my allotment and sometimes, if necessary, from the wholesaler (who import from Holland, France, Italy etc. as well as local growers). As my children grow older I look forward to having more time to put in to sourcing flowers from multiple growers and growing more flowers of my own!

It is also possible to operate more sustainably by only using dried flowers outside the British growing season, this can be a beautiful option but is also a very specific look and not for everyone. It is commendable that suppliers turn down fresh flower weddings during these months but is also not a practical option when needing to pay yourself. It is always a balancing act between sustainability and practicality, with the sustainable option always being chosen when possible. I don’t book in lots of weddings each year as I like to give each one my full attention, this is important to me and so is the design element - all of these factors are considered when making decisions about flower sourcing.

I have tried to be quite purest about only sourcing local flowers in the past and have ended up burnt out, stressed and not enjoying certain aspects of the job - this is not the aim! Indy Bloom will always have sustainability at its core, in every sense of the word.