The Cut Flower Podcast

100% British Blooms: A Conversation with Florist Lucy Maw

• Roz Chandler • Season 1 • Episode 120

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Text Agony Aunt Roz with your Cutflower Questions.

Episode Summary:

In this inspiring episode, Roz chats with London-based florist Lucy Maw, whose designs are grounded in her commitment to using 100% British-grown flowers. Lucy shares her transition from the world of fashion to floristry, and how her passion for gardening evolved into a thriving floral business.

The conversation explores the realities of sourcing British flowers, the importance of relationships with local growers, and the growing demand for sustainable blooms. Lucy reflects on the challenges of marketing, the nuances of working seasonally, and how collaboration and community are vital to the future of British floristry.

If you’re a florist or creative who cares about sustainability, seasonality, and style—this episode is packed with wisdom and warmth.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

🌿 Why Lucy transitioned from fashion to floristry
 🌸 The realities of sourcing 100% British-grown flowers
 🌻 How seasonality shapes her design process and client work
 🌾 The power of building long-term relationships with flower farmers
 🤝 Why collaboration across the industry is essential
 📣 The ongoing challenge of marketing and visibility
 🪴 How Lucy educates clients on sustainability and flower sourcing
 💬 The importance of community support in creative businesses
 🎨 How her unique style blends natural beauty and bold choices
 🧭 What flexibility looks like when designing with local blooms

You can find further information about Lucy here: www.willowandmaw.co.uk

Make the most of your garden by visiting bramblecrest.com and use the code FIELDGATE at checkout. See website for full details.

If you enjoyed this episode, subscribe, leave a review, and share it with fellow florists and flower lovers!


Roz (00:00)
Hello, I'm so delighted to welcome Lucy Moore to our podcast today. Lucy is a London florist based in Bermondsey Street and working with 100 % British blooms. So we'll talk more about that. Her markets are weddings, events, styling and providing bouquets. I'm proud that she's gone 100 % British blooms. Definitely not an easy decision. So tell us Lucy, where did this all start? Where did your journey start to into floristry and then into British cut flowers?

Lucy Maw (00:26)
Well, first of all, thank you so much. I'm thrilled to be here. I'm really, really happy to be here talking about British flowers. I'm so, so sort of passionate about British flowers. I initially worked in fashion. I worked in fashion for a long time. I was a designer, women's wear designer. And I fell out of love with fashion and felt that I needed to do something that I felt was more worthwhile. I have always...

absolutely loved gardening. know, since I was, since I first moved to London 20 years ago, I've had little gardens on windowsills, you know, all those kinds of things, fire escapes, we've always get into trouble for planting on fire escapes and all that kind of thing, any tiny little bit of outside space. So I, when we moved to our flat, sort of 10 years ago, longer than that probably now,

we were very lucky we had, for London we had a really big garden so we had a little flat in a big house and we had the whole use of the garden. So very quickly I ended up kind of taking over half of that and kind of building a cutting garden and it's kind of at the same time when I was sort of falling out of love with fashion, I sort of decided that floristry was where I wanted to go. I was already using my flowers for arranging and stuff in my kind of spare time.

And so I did a floristry course and I loved it and I started freelancing with other people for experience and I also started taking on my own weddings, which was wonderful actually because I could use quite a lot of my own flowers from my cutting garden in those weddings, which was so exciting. And whilst, you know, of course using Dutch inputs at the same time, I kind of combined the two things. And then...

Fairly recently, sort of a year and a half ago, we moved as a family, we have two young children, and we moved from the very small flat into a house. And unfortunately, the house, having a lot more space inside, has a lot less space outside. So the cutting garden, unfortunately, has kind of gone, obviously I'm still growing lots and I can use the odd stem here and there, of course, but...

I've had to make the decision really that kind of growing isn't the thing I can do properly now and floristry is. So it's just a given to me really. It's sort of intrinsic to me to use British flowers. think understanding about the growing, mean, in no way near as, you know, as comprehensively as you do, but as an amateur gardener, understanding about growing and how things grow and how things come out of the ground and how different.

know, flower profiles work together in things. It feels natural to me to use British flowers.

Roz (03:05)
It's brilliant, it's brilliant. So you're inspired to, but where do you get them? You how do you build your relationships? I think, know, historically, I think it's really difficult for a florist to go 100 % British because it's the supply chain is so hard because you've got flower farmers on the outskirts of London, obviously, but they don't all grow everything you're going to want. They grow bits of it and sourcing seems, I mean,

sourcing is getting better and there might be co-ops in the future but how do you source them? What do do?

Lucy Maw (03:36)
But I'm still navigating my network of suppliers. By no means do I absolutely 100%, you know, have this all figured out. But that does feel really exciting in itself. I mean, there are kind of, I'd say there are sort of three, three routes for me to get flowers. One is through the wholesaler, which I've used for years, who do do lots of Dutch inputs, but they also do, they understand, they recognise the need for British flowers and they do.

take deliveries from some of the bigger flower farms in the country, where they have big greenhouses and all that kind of thing, and they are growing in that slightly more intensive way. So there are certain things I can get through them, which is great, particularly at this time of year when it's really quite difficult. We're getting more into kind of Narcissi and all that kind of thing now, but the kind of like end of winter is quite difficult for flowers. So that actually is a really great route.

Roz (04:17)
Yes.

Lucy Maw (04:33)
The other route is, as you say, local farmers, more local farmers. So I have identified a really brilliant farm, looking farm in Greenwich called Sutopia, who grow loads of food and grow flowers for florists. So I haven't used them before, so I'm really excited to start using them. And also some other farms who I found through flowers from the farm actually.

which is great, if people don't know what it is, I presume most people listening to this will do, but it's a brilliant sort of online hub of flower farmers. So you can go onto their website and put in your postcode and find out where there are farms near to you, whether they're big or small. There's a little bit of blurb about the flower farmer.

And then you can kind of contact them and you can kind of work out when they have flowers and try and build a relationship that way, which is brilliant. It's so, so useful. And then I would say that the third thing is the hub thing that you're talking about. mean, I have had my, I've heard you talking about that a little bit before and it's definitely something we need more of where a, I guess you would call them a wholesaler.

brings together a few farms in their local area and then, you know, packs all the flowers together and sends them out to you in one delivery, in one box or, you know, one delivery. And I mean, I just, had my first delivery from flowers by Clowence this week, which was brilliant. And they seem really great. that's exactly what that is.

Roz (06:06)
Yeah, who are yous in the winter? Definitely yous. Yes. Yeah, Yeah, the lovely James. Yeah.

Lucy Maw (06:15)
And I, you know, I've just discovered them, but it seems brilliant. And actually I've got some gorgeous Narcissi and Tulips and Astromeria. And, you know, I've got a few of lots of different things in one delivery. it's, that's even in itself, reducing the carbon footprint, even though they're coming from Cornwall, they're based in Cornwall. But, but yeah, so that's kind of, that at the moment, those are the three, my three sort of, the three parts of my work really. Yeah, exactly.

Roz (06:32)
Yes.

go-tos. Yeah,

I mean there's Clarence down in Cornwall, there's B.J. Richards which are in Plymouth and there's Evolve which is in Lincolnshire. Really those three cover in terms of British flowers, I mean I use them at either end of our seasons so now really if I've got funeral or wedding work now we're not coming in to flower until probably the 1st of April so sort of March I would definitely buy in British.

Lucy Maw (06:49)
running.

Okay.

Roz (07:10)
and then at the other end of the season, if I get into December, that kind of thing. So we've got a void month of January probably, and then we're back up on running in February. So that's kind of how it works. You can do it all year round. Like you say, there are big commercial growers around the country, which people sort of of forget about. know, the big tulip growers, big Narcissi growers, big Astromeria growers. There's a great guy called Ben Cross.

Lucy Maw (07:27)
and

Roz (07:36)
who runs Crosslands Nursery down in Sussex and he's an Alstromeria grower and he grows 12 months of the year. So at any time in the year you can bring an alstro which is great because it has great vase lives. So there's ways of navigating it but I wouldn't say it was easy and I don't think until we get these co-ops sorted out.

Lucy Maw (07:43)
Mmm.

Roz (07:56)
Will it ever be really easy? I mean, wouldn't it be lovely to be the same as a Dutch wholesaler where you go online, you choose what you want, you order it, you buy it, you pay for it it's delivered the next day. That would be fabulous. There are certain areas trying it. I know there's one in the outskirts of Bristol. I know there's one in Devon. We definitely need one in London for sure.

Lucy Maw (08:07)
Hmm.

Yeah,

I heard recently, saw on LinkedIn, think, the University of Surrey and Coventry have had some funding, I think from DEFRA and Innovate UK, and they're pioneering that exact thing. their plan is to, I think fairly soon, create five of those kind of hubs across the country.

Roz (08:44)
Brilliant.

Lucy Maw (08:44)
which then

will be pushed into 10 as quickly as possible. So I don't really know the details, I just noticed it because it flagged up to me somewhere. But I just thought that's great and that's exactly what we need more of because that will then make it easier for everyone. The easier that is for florists to be able to order, then the more likely they are to do it. Especially more established florists who have...

Roz (09:06)
Exactly.

Lucy Maw (09:10)
already have a way of, frame of kind of framework of doing everything. You know, it's much easier for me, I would say, who is effectively starting out. I mean, I've been running my business for quite a long time, but I've only kind of recently transitioned fully to running my business. And I would say it's much easier to start out from that point than it is to change the way your business works. So I think if...

it's easy to buy British flowers if it's there on a plate, if there's a really well-functioning online platform where you can go on there and like you can with flowers by clowns, and I presume the other people that you're talking about, where you can just clicky and it will be with you the next day, which is what these guys do. It would just be fantastic. And I think more and more people would certainly do that.

Roz (09:51)
Yeah, absolutely.

Yeah, I agree. It's all about the supply chain. Yeah, Coventry University, there's a guy there called David Beck. He's just really, really a professor of supply, a professor in some sort of sustainability.

Lucy Maw (10:15)
Right.

Roz (10:15)
but he's

all into cut flower chains and cut flower, you know, and he's researched enormously and the global cut flower chain. He's really interesting and he runs a few conferences every year and he's actually been on my podcast. So I knew that he was well into it, but I didn't know how far they'd gone with getting funding for a hub, but that would be amazing. Cause I think that's the biggest problem. I think there were two problems, getting it into the access, access to florists, getting it to the right person at the right time is the first thing. And secondly quality issue.

Because even if you've got hubs, defining the quality of one person's cornflower against another person's cornflower is going to be quite interesting. So they're going to have to be labeled in some way. I don't know how it would work, but I think they do it in the States. They've done it in the States for years. They've had co-ops in almost every city in the States. Some of them, they all come together and they share the profits and some of them it's run by somebody, but they've had co-ops for years. And it's the only way.

that British flowers are ever really going to stand a chance if you get it in the hands of a florist which is when I saw that you were doing it thought yes finally we're getting there but it's the only way that British flowers will grow and people will grow more if the supply chain can be better.

Lucy Maw (11:31)
Yeah, and I think the demand, you know, it's a circle, isn't it? It is, there has to be demand from newer florists, you know, I think like me, I would say, and people who are, you know, just starting out in their own businesses or even just, you know, going to study floristry and kind of leave, you know, leaving those courses and being really empowered and really excited about using British flowers.

Roz (11:43)
Yeah.

Lucy Maw (12:00)
because their businesses are then going to, you know, they're going to be focused on British flowers of going forwards. Whereas I think, you know, if it isn't easy to get British flowers, it's a tricky thing.

Roz (12:12)
Yeah, they're

running a business, they're running a business, they're looking, you know, has to be profitable and they can't spend all day visiting one farm and another farm and another farm, just won't happen.

Lucy Maw (12:23)
Exactly, exactly. There needs to be demand for, know, for defra, I guess, and there to be investment put into that kind of thing.

Roz (12:34)
So do you have a shop? You have a shop on Bowman's Street, do you?

Lucy Maw (12:37)
I don't have a shop now, I have a studio. yes, I a studio. Pardon? Yes, yes, absolutely. At the moment, certainly. Well, I mean, most of my business is weddings and events. So we're not sort of customer facing in that way. However, we have just, we've just launched a shop online, is, know, sending out gift bouquets and...

Roz (12:39)
Do you have a studio? Yeah, good girl. Sensible. Sensible.

Lucy Maw (13:06)
know, those kinds of things and flower subscriptions and things. So that part of it is customer facing, but no, we're not actually sort of, we don't have a shop front as such.

Roz (13:17)
sensible, very sensible. how, you know, British, working with British flowers is certainly different, isn't it, than, and how do you think that influences your style? What would you say your style was with British blooms?

Lucy Maw (13:22)
One.

I really love the informal beauty that British flowers have, how they can be kind of so delicate and so full of personality. You know, they're not these sort of...

bolt upright, you know, not every stem looks the same. Not every stem is kind of, you know, that kind of typically available commercial flower look just isn't really me, I think. I think maybe it's sort of an extension of myself. It's a part of my personality, I guess, maybe that is just the way I am, I think. I find it, you know, very, I find it quite hard to work.

Roz (13:58)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Lucy Maw (14:13)
with those flowers sometimes, or I have done in the past. And I've always done it and I freelance for lot of people and learned a lot of things. And when you freelance, you develop your own style because you have to be really flexible when you're working for other people because everybody's style is very different. So if you're freelancing, you have to be able to adapt. You might be working for a really big florist.

in a luxury hotel in London on Monday, and then on Tuesday, you might be working in a shop in Greenwich or something. So your style has to, and there is no wrong or right in floristry as well. And I think that's a really important thing to kind of stress. I think your style is your own style and you develop that style.

Roz (14:46)
Yes, yes.

Lucy Maw (14:59)
And it's easy if you go and work somewhere to think, this is the way you do things. This is the way you do mechanics. You put your mechanics together and this is the way you arrange the flowers, you know, in this kind of proportion and all that kind of, kind of aesthetic thing. But actually there's no right or wrong. Everyone does things very differently and you do certainly develop your own style. And I think, I think mainly from the growing and the gardening, it just, I got the bug, you know. Exactly, exactly. That's the thing.

Roz (15:25)
becomes very natural to carry on. Yeah,

it's I call it sort of natural elegance, normally. So how do you, I mean, we started our flower farm 15 years ago, and we were educating people prior to purchase, know, on seasonality. And so it's pretty tough, because they didn't really understand the differences at that point. How do you, how do you talk to clients about sustainability and about seasonality and about the fact they can't have David Austin roses in January?

Lucy Maw (15:41)
I'm out.

Roz (15:53)
How do you cope with that? That's always quite, because if someone's getting married, they're getting married. It's kind of quite challenging, I find.

Lucy Maw (16:01)
Of course. I would say it's that word flexibility again. The word I overuse quite a lot, think. Clients have to have a level of flexibility. I give them a really good idea of the flower profiles that they'll have within their designs and their color palette. And that's fairly easy to do. You know, I'm designing into the seasons. I know what flowers are available typically, what British flowers are available in which months.

Roz (16:04)
Well, yeah.

Yes, yes.

Yeah.

Lucy Maw (16:28)
So I kind of know what's likely to be available on that date. And they know they'll have certain flower profiles such as they'll have spike flowers, you know, maybe Delphinium or Antirany and they'll have large heads like Peony or dahlia soft kind of fillers like Aminogus and you know, smaller heads, Cosmos, Scabius, that kind of thing. I can say that. I can say this is what your, over, excuse me.

This is what the overall look of your flowers will be. This is the feel. And I think ultimately that's what people want. They want a feeling. So, so yeah. And I think...

Roz (17:02)
Yeah.

Exactly way we do it. Exactly. We never promise

anything in particular. We promise a feeling.

and we promise a colour palette and we'll put together what we think will be there at that time of year and what they will look like. But we would never say there will be five Queen of Sweden's and three William and Catherine's and you know, it's just kind of, but it will be that colour palette and there will be focals and there will be, you know, stately elements in it and there will be, but yeah. And they kind of either buy into that style or they don't. It's a different kind of customer probably.

Lucy Maw (17:21)
Yeah.

Yeah, and I think you forge your own way, don't you? You forge your own path. Well, don't anyone who's coming to me that wants that very sort of more, you know, a more sort of formal style. You know, of course I can do certain things, but that are, you know, a little bit out of my comfort zone. But generally the people that come to me want...

Roz (17:41)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Like your

style. Yeah.

Lucy Maw (18:05)
more

exactly they want that more informal style you know so so it kind of makes sense I just there's no way you know you or I could say yes you can definitely have that exact flower in that exact colour on that exact day because something you know the weather the British weather just doesn't allow for that does it

Roz (18:18)
No.

No,

absolutely not. We try and grow, like for instance roses particularly, we grow them under cover and we grow them outside for exactly that reason because if it rains the week before you've ruined your stock outside for sure, but that would be the only backup, know, we grow some delfs inside and some delfs outside, so we try and we work with other British growers, you know, we'll buy in from other British growers, we'll go to other flower farms, they'll have stuff we don't have, has to have enormous collaboration going on here, but yeah, we will never guarantee anything in particular.

Lucy Maw (18:31)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Roz (18:53)
So, but do you think there's do you think there's a trend now? Or do you think it's going to come where people want more sustainability? They want to buy local, they want to buy, know where it came from. I think historically people didn't know where, I mean, flowers in supermarkets, for instance, are not labeled anyway, so nobody knows where they came from. So do you think historically, I mean, I think if we, we polled people on the high street near to me in my little village and said, okay, where do our flowers come from? They'd all say Holland. They'd all say Holland.

Lucy Maw (19:21)
Really?

quite possibly.

Roz (19:23)
And

yeah, and you'd say,

But no, when you sort of say, your roses on Valentine's Day come from Kenya, Kenya, and they're quite shocked, or Ethiopia.

Lucy Maw (19:32)
I don't think people think about it a lot. Yeah, exactly. Having said that, when I say I only work British flowers, people are interested. The conversation is different to how it used to be, I find, which is really interesting. mean, people, I think we're all aware of...

Roz (19:36)
Yeah, no, don't. You grab the flowers and that's it.

Yes.

Lucy Maw (19:57)
the climate around us, sustainability in various areas of our lives, in all areas, from clothing to plastic, use plastic to recycling, use your cardboard. We're all very aware of all of this now. Life is very different to how it was 20 years ago or 30 years ago. And I think people are really interested in using locally grown.

Roz (20:07)
Recycle it, yeah.

Lucy Maw (20:23)
flowers, they want to support local businesses and

I think it makes people feel good about themselves actually, which is not to be underestimated.

Roz (20:29)
Yeah. Yeah.

No, mean flowers meant to enjoy aren't they? So if you can have flowers and sustainable and I've bought from a local business and that makes you feel even better, great, great. I mean we love it with brides come round and have a look and go well gosh these are amazing can I just have all of those? And the fact that they love the fact they're sustainable and they're local and they're to get married locally and all of that so that's quite beautiful. So yeah it's

Lucy Maw (20:42)
Yeah, absolutely.

Hmm.

Roz (20:59)
Certainly in 15 years, I've seen a movement for sure. I mean, if I think 40 years ago, I'd just finished my degree, if you could believe that, but 40 years ago, I'd just finished my degree in environmental science, which at that point, no one even knew what it was. And nobody would, I mean, we didn't even know how to spell sustainable. And we talked very much about the ozone layer. And we did talk about nitrates in rivers and that sort of thing. But it's come a long way, obviously, but you wouldn't.

Lucy Maw (21:02)
Mm.

Thanks.

Yeah.

Roz (21:27)
I mean, you wouldn't when you told somebody you studied the environment, it was kind of like, well, what's the environment? So it's come a long way. So hopefully it's got we can move it forward. So what's your biggest challenge of committing to British flowers? Is it the seasonality problem? You know, how do you cope with that? What's your biggest challenge? Or is it sourcing?

Lucy Maw (21:48)
Seasonality is definitely a problem, I think that is something, I mean, that's as we've kind of spoken about, it's something that you have to plan for and you have to just be happy to do and understand that you need to do a lot more research and spend a lot more time in kind of working out what your offer is all the time.

Roz (22:00)
Yeah.

this.

Lucy Maw (22:10)
I would say at the moment, the biggest challenge for me is volume actually, in terms of not over-ordering or under-ordering. I think volume control is much easier when you order based on a quoted and booked job. So with the weddings and events to a certain degree, that's much easier. But having just started this,

gift bouquet kind of side of our business. It's much, much harder, particularly because I think if you are ordering as I used to from the wholesaler, can press a button and order 10 of those or 20 of those relatively easily and they will come to you the next day. Whereas I'm not in a position to really be able to do that. So I have to really plan ahead and try to ensure that the vases we sell

Roz (22:37)
Harder, much harder, yeah.

Lucy Maw (23:05)
vases of seasonal flowers. So the gift bouquet isn't in a sort traditional bouquet bag or anything like that. It's in a glass vase. So you receive your gift, your bouquet arranged in a glass vase. So I have to ensure that I can manage or kind of combine the amount of orders that we get with the other events and the weddings and things that we have going on. Exactly, because the color's quite often different and the...

Roz (23:29)
really tough.

Lucy Maw (23:34)
the flower profiles are quite often different. So I would say that is at the moment the biggest challenge, but I think I'm hoping that gets easier as time goes on and that part of business gets a bit bigger. And also, as you say, as we get further into the season, becomes easier.

Roz (23:46)
Yeah, as it says in that.

I think that part of the business is a volume business. I think,

you know, it's about delivering because you deliver across London, do you?

Lucy Maw (23:59)
Yes. Yeah.

Roz (24:00)
Yeah, so

it's about getting to people across London that that's what you do and it's a subscription service and you deliver them and their British flowers and I think it's volume because then obviously then if you've got some left over it's not the end of the world because you've got a volume set you know it's like how much do you order because it depreciates really quickly I always found that with bouquets it's even though we're cutting them we still don't get it completely right so yeah that's that's getting more and more people to know about you Lucy that you do a subscription of British flowers

Lucy Maw (24:15)
you

Yeah.

Absolutely.

Roz (24:30)
across London

and hopefully this podcast will help but yeah that's definitely what it is. Have you found it more expensive to work with British flowers than imported blooms?

Lucy Maw (24:33)
Yeah.

I wouldn't say more expensive in terms of stem price, particularly. I really don't notice that too much because the price fluctuates with imported flowers anyway, quite a lot. I would say where the expense comes in is that at the moment there is more sourcing time required and more sitting at your computer and research time required.

Roz (25:09)
Yes, I agree. Yeah.

Lucy Maw (25:11)
So yes, that planning definitely takes up time and time obviously, know, time is money. But no, stem wise, no, I wouldn't say that I feel that British flowers are more expensive per se.

Roz (25:29)
Good, good, good, good. I mean, there are certain British flowers, of course, that you can't buy at wholesalers come the summer, which I get very excited about. So, you know, it can't get scabious. They can't get night jello. The dahlias that are imported aren't great because obviously vase life dahlias are not that great anyway. And so there are definitely some advantages as the season starts to romp with, you know, Amemagus and Amivis naga and all the kind of floaties that need that are very British. You have the advantage you've been able to get lots of.

Lucy Maw (25:35)
Exactly.

Yeah.

Roz (25:57)
So yeah I think as we jump into the season from now onwards tulip season will be upon us very soon and British farmers have to be very clever with tulips for instance there is very little point them growing yellow and red tulips.

Lucy Maw (26:07)
Mmm.

Roz (26:14)
they need to be growing tulips which are 1.2 meters high and they need to be growing really unusual tulips and they need to be getting them in the hands of florists and that's the flower farmer has to make sure they do that and when we buy our tulip bulbs from Holland and we buy them now

to them delivered in October, to plant them in November, to have them for next 2026. And you've got to be ahead of the game. It's almost like being a fashion buyer, that if you don't buy the right stock now, then you haven't got the right stock to sell to your florists. they've got to work hard too, and they've got to work with florists. And I mean, we're delivering across North London at the moment, and we want to extend that. And we're trying to go in twice a week at the moment, but we know what they want.

We've asked them, we've said, okay, you know, one of our florists, for instance, takes a lot of stock from us. We know they want bold, bright. They're going in big arrangements and big homes and it can't be pastels and whites and greens, which is a complete opposite of as if you're a wedding florist. So we're going bright and bold and we've got black tulips and you know, so we do sort of grow Queen of the Night and Black Hero. We grow about 14 varieties, but because, and gorillas, which are very dark burgundy, but they're

Lucy Maw (26:59)
Yeah.

I didn't reach them.

Roz (27:29)
1.2 meters.

Lucy Maw (27:31)
Yeah.

Roz (27:32)
that's what they want in these massive great arrangements so that's what we grow so there has to be this two-way communication as well about well actually don't give me anything that's under 30 centimeters because I can't use it in what the work I'm doing or if I'm a wedding florist what I really want is pinks pastels and whites and huge amounts of foliage actually if a flower farmer could just grow more foliage that would be a good thing because there's always a lack of foliage you know if you're doing big installation

Lucy Maw (27:51)
you

Yeah.

There's a lack of interest in foliage, certainly.

Roz (28:01)
Absolutely,

yeah I agree with you there's an absolute lack of interesting foliage you know if somebody wants a big installation or they want it to wrap around poles or you know wouldn't it be lovely if we could grow ruscus in the UK but we can't. So finding that flexible green foliage is challenging but yeah we use lots of trees, beech trees, oak trees.

Lucy Maw (28:20)
Mm.

Roz (28:25)
that were already on the farm when we got it but you know some interesting things like common nine bark because it's tall it's six foot tall people want you've got to grow it for your florist really so hopefully that in the future flower farmers and florists will work together much more and then

Lucy Maw (28:42)
I think that is the

future really. I think that's how the future has to be. It has to be that collaboration. And, you know, that as we were sort of talking about earlier, that kind of circular thing where the demand sort of creates the production, you know, that collaboration I think is really, important.

Roz (28:46)
Yeah.

And I think that's been missing historically. I do really, really do think that's been missing historically. And flower farmers have grown and thought hit rock grown now. And there's no sort of collaboration with florist and what do they want and how do they want and how do get it in their hands and all that. think that's coming, but I think it's been slow.

Lucy Maw (29:20)
I think that's particularly exciting for smaller flower growers as well who are growing variety of things. I I had a flower grower, a brilliant flower grower called Charlotte Johnston Flowers. And I was talking to her about buying flowers from her for weddings and things this year. And she said, look, next year, when you've got your weddings booked in, when you've got some of your weddings booked in, come to me, let's talk about it.

Roz (29:25)
Yes.

Lucy Maw (29:49)
And if there's anything particular you see that you want, then I can do it for you. And I think that's, and ultimately if something happened and I couldn't buy some of those flowers and I bought something else from her instead, she's still growing beautiful flowers. It doesn't mean that it's set in stone that you absolutely have to buy every single stem of those flowers. I think it's just that conversation and that, that sort of collaboration. It's quite exciting to work in that way. And I think.

Roz (29:54)
That's right.

Yeah.

Lucy Maw (30:18)
somehow maybe through hubs or I don't know somehow we have to get better at that.

Roz (30:24)
100 % yeah 100%. So if someone was listening as a florist that is thinking about making the switch to British flowers what advice would you give them?

Lucy Maw (30:35)
Absolutely do it. That would be the first thing. Absolutely do it. Don't hesitate. Just, it's going to be hard and it's going to be trickier than if you were buying, you know, if you just walk into the flower market or you buy from the wholesaler online. However, I really feel that it's possible. I would say start with flowers from the farm. That would be my initial thought because it's been so helpful for me.

Find your local growers and then, you know, talk about it, talk about it with everybody. Go to the flower market. I mean, the flower market in, we're very lucky we've got this incredible flower market in London. And, you know, people there are really open to it. They are buying British flowers. know, most of the, yeah, most of the stalls there, the stands there have a certain section of British flowers. And if you get there early enough in the morning,

Roz (31:18)
If they are.

Lucy Maw (31:28)
you can get them and it's great. you quite often don't know what's coming. If you chat to them about it and ask them about what's coming, they can kind of help you a little bit as well. But I think again, it's not talking about it a lot more. And I think if you're just starting out, it is a really exciting way to start. I think the industry is only going to get bigger. And I really feel like we all have an obligation to make our businesses more sustainable.

be more aware of the environment. And I think if you're just starting out, as we were saying before, it is easier to start from that place than it is to set up something and then change. Yeah, absolutely.

Roz (32:08)
Range, yeah, very hard. Yeah, I

agree. So running a business has its highs and lows, does it not? I mean, you've got two small children. So what's your greatest challenge in running a business? I don't know how old your children are, but there will be definite highs and lows in there.

Lucy Maw (32:17)
Yeah.

My children are seven and four, so they are small. The great thing about it is that it is quite flexible. There are a lot of early mornings, but that does mean you can be there to pick them up from school if you started at whatever time in the morning. I would say that the highs are the people probably, as well as the flowers because, you know, I'm in love with the flowers, but I would say the sort of

Roz (32:28)
Yeah. Yeah.

Yes.

Yeah.

Lucy Maw (32:50)
camaraderie within floristry is absolutely fantastic. And the support, and there's lots of women supporting women, which is also great. I mean, you know, there are loads of men in this industry. If you go to the flower market, you know, it's predominantly men there. But there are loads of women florists and loads of women growers, and there are women working at the market as well. you know, definitely, I would say.

Roz (32:58)
Lovely.

Lucy Maw (33:16)
the people is probably the high. I would say that the lows probably, well, the biggest low I would say for me was probably the pandemic as in, you know, the biggest sort of time, the biggest kind of low point, I suppose. Because suddenly every event was canceled, every wedding was canceled, all of the deposits that we'd taken in advance of the...

the events and the weddings, there was suddenly, you know, question of course about all of that. It was difficult. had a cutting garden full of flowers and no one them to go. So that was quite tricky. However, I have to say that that is actually where the idea of the gift bouquets came from because I, know, social media is brilliant, isn't it sometimes? And I put out, you know, once I realized that these flowers were kind of going nowhere.

And once we got a little bit more into kind of being at home and kind of knowing how that was, I started putting vases of flowers on Instagram. I think maybe somebody asked me about it and I delivered a vase to them. I said, I haven't got any bouquet bags, but I can deliver a vase to you. And you know, that's great, brilliant. Something to cheer us up, you know. And I suddenly thought, actually, that is really nice. So overwhelmingly,

Roz (34:32)
Yeah, exactly.

Lucy Maw (34:37)
people bought the flowers, you and I had loads of vases left over from my own wedding and a few other things, you know, in the studio. And we sent out all of these vases of flowers, and was fantastic. even though we haven't been doing that as much over the last sort of couple of years, I suppose, that's where the idea for then sort of the flower subscriptions that we're doing now and the glass vases as gift bouquets.

Roz (35:06)
come in.

Lucy Maw (35:06)
as part

of our business has kind of come from. So, you know, where there's a low, there's a high, isn't there? You know, in the end, it's kind of balancing stuff out.

Roz (35:11)
I know. Yeah. Did we really live?

I lived through it. I saw it on the television the other day. There was a program about Kareen and I was watching. was thinking, did we really do all that? Did we stay at home? Did we go to the supermarket and walk one way? Did we? I mean, it was a man and your children were very young then. So you were homeschooling and I mean madness. But yeah, it's something we all lived through and hopefully won't happen in our lifetime again. But there was lots of learning to be done from it for sure.

Lucy Maw (35:22)
I'm

and

Absolutely. And I heard somebody saying on the radio, I think this morning that it's five years since that started, since we were told to go home pretty much. think it was March, wasn't it, 2020? And that's a long time, isn't it, for us? That sense of time is really strange.

Roz (35:42)
I know.

That's it.

I know.

It's madness

because I started then at that time in 2020, March 2020, launching online programs. But what I launched, it was complete fluke that I launched a Seed to vase course to teach people how to grow their own cut flowers at the time we went into a pandemic. And it was launched in the March that year. And it was an eight month course and we took 250 people.

Lucy Maw (36:06)
Hmm.

Yeah.

Roz (36:24)
through growing their own cut flowers that year, it was a complete fluke. And then I wrote a book about their journey because we'd been through COVID and they learned about cut flowers and then lots of them had had bereavements and lots of them had had high pressure jobs and burnout and all sorts of things. So it was an interesting time, but it was complete fluke. And that led me to online teaching, which actually if COVID didn't happen, I probably would never have done. it's taught us different.

Lucy Maw (36:24)
Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Roz (36:53)
things but yeah let's hope never again. So as a businesswoman you've got to be everything haven't you? You've got to be a marketeer, a social media whiz and accountant, a creative director, a customer service guru for sure. Which bit do you find the most challenging? Which bit would you dump if you possibly could and run for the hills?

Lucy Maw (36:54)
Yes, absolutely.

Hmm

All the marketing and social media, which

is probably actually ironically is the opposite to you because your sort of background is marketing, it? So that's probably your major strength. But I want to be making and designing really. I love taking photos of my work and I love putting that up on Instagram, know, that kind of part of it, I love. Because that's sort of still making art, know, photographing what you're making, you know, that to me.

Roz (37:21)
Yes, it's the opposite to me.

Yeah.

Lucy Maw (37:42)
creating that image is still kind of artwork. But I don't want to be looking at a computer all day, looking at my phone all day. I find that tricky. And now there's so much talk these days of your social media strategy and your plan and all that kind of thing and how you're to get more followers and all of that. And I find that really difficult. I've tried lots of, I've tried to think around lots of things. And ultimately, I think for me,

I do need to do some of it, but it's definitely not the biggest thing for me at the moment. But it is hard. It's getting the word out, isn't it? I have to look for all the avenues I possibly can to tell people about what I do. mean, flowers aren't a hard sell. Flowers are beautiful. Everybody loves flowers and people like to send flowers as gifts. So it's not that you have a new product that nobody's heard about that you are trying to.

Roz (38:22)
Yes.

Yes. Yes.

No, you just have

to be there when they're ready to make that decision buying decision.

Lucy Maw (38:41)
You better!

Absolutely,

and you have to be in their mind. So you do have to post a lot, you you do have to post the same thing a lot. do have to, because, you know, if one person happens to see it one day, they might think about you when they're next going to send some flowers, you know, as you say, or when their niece is getting married or, you know, something like that. So your message has to be clear and constant.

Roz (38:46)
Yes.

You do.

Lucy Maw (39:10)
And I find that the trickiest. know, the brand identity I'm really happy with, as I said before, it was, it feels, thanks.

Roz (39:15)
Website's lovely, your website's lovely, your brand

identity's lovely. I think, it's about visibility. It's about getting out there more and more. But obviously that's what I've done for years and years. So for me, it's very natural. it is about that. It is a numbers game, ultimately.

Lucy Maw (39:24)
learning.

Yeah.

Roz (39:32)
and

it's about a visibility game and I wouldn't say it was easy. I'd be lying if I said it was easy. I always say to people because we run a business club online, I do it with a social media person, guru, Tom Coleman, who people know if they followed me, but he and I run this business club together and we tell people in it between nine and 10 every morning just sell something and that doesn't mean...

it means to do a post, means collect an email address, it means call somebody, it means do just a sign an hour a day where you sell something and then you become a selling machine which is actually what you've got to become to run so but I wouldn't say it was easy

Lucy Maw (40:05)
Bye.

Roz (40:07)
so the Hosey inspiration who keeps you going

Lucy Maw (40:12)
Who's my inspiration? I mean, you know, my husband and children, of course, they're my inspiration on daily basis. My husband is an absolute feminist and he is a true believer in following your path and sort of carving out your little place in the world. That's how he lives his life. And he would never...

Roz (40:22)
Good.

Lucy Maw (40:34)
say to me, can't you just go and get a normal job or can't you? know, he would always sort of say, well, go for it, doesn't matter. You know, if that bit didn't work, there's another way, you let's have another go at it. And it sort of makes me more adamant to kind of push forward, which is fantastic and just essential really, because it is a tricky industry. It's certainly worth it.

Roz (40:58)
Yeah, there's no guarantees. There

were no guarantees.

Lucy Maw (41:03)
No, absolutely. And yeah, you need somebody behind you to, for support, I think. Yeah, but I mean, I would say on that kind of sort of point of inspiration, I would say definitely Flouristry wise, Constance Bry, because she, you know, your listeners might know who she is. She was an incredible woman. She sort of revolutionized the world of Floristry.

Roz (41:11)
Yeah, yeah.

Lucy Maw (41:31)
in the sort of late 1800s, early 1900s, she completely changed the way that people viewed flowers. And she, rather than these kind of staid, really boring little arrangements that people used to put on their tables or kind of have at weddings, she brought the outside in. She really did that. She brought the foliage and the flowers and things from her, you know.

Roz (41:39)
He did.

Lucy Maw (41:57)
sort of big house in the countryside. She brought them into London. She put blackberries in urn vases in windows and things like that. so she was just an incredible inspiration. And she also, she was so fabulous because she had, she did have very interesting life, which we won't go into, but she was, think 43 when she opened her first shop in London. And I just think, how wonderful is that? She was, she completely changed her career.

Roz (42:02)
She did amazing, which is coming back in. Yeah.

And then can you imagine people would

have said, you're far too old, what are doing? Yeah.

Lucy Maw (42:25)
Absolutely. And these days it's easier to have the confidence to do things like that. I mean, it's still difficult, but then it would have been practically unheard of. So again, you know, she had really good support behind her. I think her husband was very encouraging, which is really helpful. And he was quite a socialite, I think. So that really helped in that she had some sort of clients straight away. she...

Roz (42:34)
Yes.

Right, yeah.

Lucy Maw (42:51)
Yeah, she forged forward with her view of beauty. And I think that's extremely inspirational.

Roz (42:57)
Yeah, and she stuck with it, didn't she? And she was, and that was the interesting thing. She was sustainable. There was no floral foam in anything she did. And yet then we went through this period of almost just like ready meals and floral foam, isn't it? Kind of put the two together. We went through this period of kind of convenience where everybody started using floral foam. they, mean, unfortunately, they're still teaching it in floristry school to use floral foam, which hurts me.

Lucy Maw (43:02)
Hmm, absolutely.

insane. just cannot

comprehend that, particularly because as you say, before the invention of floral foam there was floristry. we don't need it. There are so many ways to not use it. I mean, you can just look up on YouTube, know, it's that easy. So why are teachers teaching students that at floristry school? I just don't understand.

Roz (43:31)
Yeah, it didn't. It didn't need it.

Bye now.

I know me neither. mean, it's single use plastic. It's as simple as that. And I think that's an education as well. But there are so many different alternatives as well. I we've been talking to a company on the West Coast of the US called Floam.

and they are creating a compostable kind of floral foam brick if there's any need for you to use that. people like Shane Connolly and so on is using it at the moment and we're waiting for ours to arrive to see what we think and they've been developing it for many, many years. So I'm hoping that that is the way forward as the alternative and some instances when you need to.

But yeah, like you say, constant spry. Let's let's just go with chicken wire and a bit of water and.

Lucy Maw (44:29)
Absolutely. And the mantle

vase. and I love a mantle vase. And she was the true sort of pioneer of using mantle vases. Absolutely.

Roz (44:37)
Let's go and cut our raspberries and get them in. Yeah, exactly. So she was amazing.

So Lucy, thank you for joining me today. I appreciate your time. And obviously in the show notes, we're going to have your web address, but what is your web address? Do tell our listeners what your web address is as well.

Lucy Maw (44:45)
Thanks.

So it's

willowandmaw.co.uk, spelled M-A-W, willowandmaw. we do all sorts of things. We do press flowers. We do obviously the subscription flowers and you can send a gift bouquet in London. And then of course we do the weddings and events and things. So flowers for businesses and all that kind of thing. So yes, have a little look. That would be great.

Roz (44:55)
Yeah,

The

next time I want to order flowers for London, will, obviously my two children live in London. And I've just sent them a British tulips actually for Women's International Day. So when I next think of something, I will bear you in mind and give you a tinkle or buy it online. But thank you very much for joining us today. I really, really appreciate it. And what you're doing is amazing. So well done.

Lucy Maw (45:27)
Thank you.

Thank you, Roz. It's been great to be here.

Roz (45:38)
Thank you.