The Cut Flower Podcast

Saskia's Flower Essences for life

• Roz Chandler • Season 1 • Episode 142

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Text Agony Aunt Roz with your Cutflower Questions.

In this episode of the Cut Flower podcast, host Roz Chandler speaks with Saskia Marjoram, founder of Saskia's Flower Essence. They explore the emotional significance of flowers, Saskia's journey from floristry to creating flower essences, and the profound impact these essences can have on emotional wellbeing. Saskia shares her experiences, insights on building a sustainable business, and advice for those looking to pursue unconventional paths in their careers. The conversation highlights the importance of intuition, passion, and the healing power of nature.

Takeaways

  • Flowers have both economic and emotional value.
  • Saskia's career has always revolved around flowers.
  • Flower essences are distinct from essential oils and serve emotional needs.
  • Personalized blends can address specific emotional challenges.
  • Saskia emphasises the importance of intuition in her work.
  • Building a business around flower essences has been rewarding.
  • Trusting your instincts can lead to unexpected opportunities.
  • Emotional balance can be achieved through the right flower essences.

You can visit Saskia's website here and view her Instagram here

First Tunnels, leaders in domestic and commercial product tunnels. 


Rosalind Chandler (00:00)
hello and welcome back to the Cut Flower podcast. Today's episode is a little different and I think you're going to love it. We talk a lot on this podcast about growing flowers, selling flowers and building sustainable flower businesses. But flowers just don't just have an economic value. They also have an emotional one. And my guest today has built an extraordinary business right at that intersection. I'm delighted to welcome Saskia Margeran. I mean, in fact, she has a name that's after her Margeran, founder of Saskia's Flower Essence.

So Saskia has had an incredible and varied career with flowers. Early on, she worked as part of the florist team for HRH, the Prince of Wales, now His Majesty King Charles III, an experience that rooted her deeply in craft, precision and the power of flowers to communicate emotion and meaning. Today, Saskia is the creator of Saskia's flower essence, which are shipped all over the world and also sold from her beautiful brick and mortar store in Somerset. We can talk more about that.

We've also talked just off screen that Saskia also had a career in cut flower farming. So we will talk more about that as well, which is quite strange. Now it's important to say these are not essential oils. They're flower essence are created in a very different way and are designed to support emotional balance and wellbeing. Saskia grows and creates her own collection of cut flowers specifically for creating these blends, which I find particularly fascinating.

Her work has attracted a loyal following, including celebrities and journalists, and she also creates personalized blends for individuals. I'd be interested in that. With a wide range of emotional life challenges. What I really love about Saskia's story is how she's balanced a deep love of craft and intuition with the realities of growing a sustainable, globally recognized business. And she's also brilliant fun. She interviews incredibly well and brings such warmth and honesty to her work. So I'm thrilled to have her with me today.

So Saskia, welcome to the podcast. So let's talk about the beginning, where it all started. Just a little about your early career and what it was like working on the florist team for the Prince of Wales is quite interesting, but also about your cut flower farming. I it all seems to have come to this junction in your career. How did this all happen?

Saskia (01:54)
Thank you. Very nice to be here.

Nah.

Yeah, well I didn't actually realise it was my career was all about flowers until about 10 years ago. ⁓

And I looked back and went, ⁓ it's all been about flowers. But I mean, I'm sure most people who are in gardening and the floristry industry, ⁓ flowers are their thing. I didn't, mean, as a child, had, you know, had flower presses and I lived in the countryside, I lived in Strouds. So it was like those valleys and the common land and the cowslips and the, you know, I knew the names of my flowers pretty quick because that's what interested me. when I, you know, I had books, given books back, you know, wild flowers.

Rosalind Chandler (02:18)
See you.

Saskia (02:48)
and those kind of things. But I just assumed everyone did that. It was only later on. In fact, I got into gardening. My father was a gardener. My granny was what I would call a proper gardener, my mum's mum. So when we went there, she had an most incredible like English walled garden with irises and know, just a proper garden. But my father was a gardener professionally because he could earn a living that way. He was more of a politician rather than actually a gardener.

So I kind of bought up with this gardening thing, but I was never really drawn to it. And I was living at my mum's once after having left my boyfriend, who then became the father of my children. Long story. I don't think we've got time to go into that. But I was there for a couple of weeks and she said, well, if you're going to stay here any longer, you're going to have to get a job.

Rosalind Chandler (03:28)
There's always a story.

Saskia (03:37)
So I went down to the job centre when there were such things and the only job I could think of that I could possibly do looking at all these things on the walls going secretary and I was like, I'd rather die than be a 7-1 secretary, was odd job person and gardener for Prince and Princess Michael.

Rosalind Chandler (03:40)
the way.

Cool, okay.

Saskia (03:58)
which I could

walk to from my mum's because it was only up the hill in Lippea. So I thought, well, I could probably do that. And it wasn't like a, because it was like royal or whatever. just went, ⁓ and I kind of in my naivety, blagged my way into this job. How hard is it gardening, you know, just to get on and do it? It was like, I can see my dad does it and people seem to do it and it doesn't look very difficult. But I didn't know, I mean, I knew my wild flowers, but I didn't know about plants really.

Rosalind Chandler (04:24)
right. Quick learning.

Saskia (04:24)
And so I kind of

went away to this job and on the first day they said, can you weed this border? And I was like, okay, which ones are the weeds and which are the flowers? And I kind of worked out that some of them were in clumps. And so the ones in between must be the weeds. So I just kind of learned on the job. And it's kind of strange to think that now, but I really loved it. I loved it. I was like, this is...

I didn't really have a a light bulb moment, but I love going to work and I loved, you know, they weren't there during the week. So we had me in the other garden and we had the place to ourselves, 16 acres on top of the hill, you know, to just be in fairyland, I would say, you know, all right, we had to work hard. Anyone who's a gardener, knows, professional, knows how hard it is. But yeah, I just was like, ⁓ and it was like I'd found my thing. Well, I thought I'd found my thing.

Rosalind Chandler (04:57)
fun.

Saskia (05:14)
But I just love being with the plants. I kind of, in my head, hadn't worked that out, but I kind of knew in my body. So then I, yeah, kind of carried on that. And then I was really, I was, I kind of went, so then I my kids and they, you know, and I'd always been self-employed pretty much. So that wasn't a problem. But so I just got back into gardening and, you couldn't, you know, I left the kids with their dad and just gone with gardening. And then one day I was just like, I've had enough of this sweeping people's patio.

for

six pounds an hour or whatever it was. And if you work on your own as a gardener it's quite hard to push yourself to increase your knowledge base. You know just kind of get on and do it and do what you know and there's no one kind of pushing you on. So one day I was just saying to a friend I said I'm a bit fed up with this gardening thing. I I don't really you know it's like whatever.

Rosalind Chandler (05:50)
Yeah.

Saskia (06:04)
And she said, well, what do you really love doing? And I said, what I really love doing is giving people bunches of flowers from my garden. That's the only thing I can think of. And she said, well, do that then. We've got a bit of land down our farm. It was kind of across the road. She said, why don't you just take on that old veg patch and grow flowers? So I did. And that was like 1999 before kind of people were doing it, before social media, before whatever.

Rosalind Chandler (06:27)
was way early people didn't even know what was

the flowers were in 1999

Saskia (06:32)
Yeah, I mean, it was just like, and I kind of garden in exchange for plants, mostly perennials, if we're going to go down that route. I know I have to talk about essences, can't leave you. Talking to you has kind of taken me back into that time and what maybe what other people could gain from it, kind of thinking back about how, yeah, and I've always just done one step in front of the other. I've now had a grand plan.

Rosalind Chandler (06:40)
No, no, no, no, no, no, no.

Saskia (06:54)
but it seemed quite a good idea to do like bunches and take them round and give, you know, like a veg, I used to, I had like a veg box scheme. I lived in the same area forever. So I knew everyone, you know, I knew the chiropractor and the whoever that were in their offices. And then people, some people wanted them in their houses, like you guys all know, it's like, so I just had a weekly bunch from Easter till end of September. And they got what they were given.

Rosalind Chandler (07:04)
everybody.

Yeah.

Saskia (07:21)
and I could do it between school hours and I was self-employed so you could take time off or work when you could or do work Sundays or whatever. So it worked really well with my life and I loved it but I was just making up bunches.

And so one day I said to a friend of mine, said, you know what, really need, I really need to get some floristry experience. Cause if I'm going to take this any further, then I can't just carry on just doing bunches. Cause they, my bunches were lovely. You know, I knew they were good, but they weren't, they weren't, there was no floristry included. And I did actually do a floristry course from the kind of local college, like an evening class, which I do have a photo of my first arrangement with the carnations. We're in Oasis and it was like, my God.

Rosalind Chandler (08:01)
I'm just about to say, is

Saskia (08:05)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, no, it's in the races.

Rosalind Chandler (08:05)
it in Oasis? Because they're still using it by the way. And that was 1999.

Saskia (08:09)
But this was like 1995 or something, or maybe a bit later than that, but late 90s. So there was nothing else and there wasn't even an awareness.

I mean, I do see, I can remember all my granny's balls of chicken wire in her utility room, you know, and those frog things. But she had Oasis too that was used like 1500 times until it fell apart. Anyway, so I did do that, but I kind of said, I just said to this friend, I need more floristry experience if I'm going to take it further. I didn't think anything more of it. I just kind of carried on with my life and getting the kids to school and the chaos and then whatever going on. And then she said, oh, I was at a party.

Rosalind Chandler (08:23)
Yeah, if you go back, yeah.

Saskia (08:47)
the other night and I met this woman I've met her before but she I asked her what she was doing and she said she was a florist at Highgrove and so I mentioned you and that you needed more floristry experience and she said what's her name and she said Saskia Marjoram and she said well with a name like that she better give me a ⁓ so I gave her a ring and landed the job and then it was like climbing a mountain learning curve.

Rosalind Chandler (08:56)
little place called Tygro.

Yeah.

Saskia (09:13)
I was thrown in at the deep end and she kind of had sussed out pretty quick. I still know her and we're still friends. We worked together really, really well. She worked out pretty quick. I had a good sense of style and color and was practical. But she did used to throw me in the air. I remember one of our first jobs having to go to Buckingham Palace.

And they were those big, you know, those blocks of oasis that are the whole box, you know, these big ones. And it was like, she said, you know, here's the bucket of flowers and here's the big thing of things. And that's where you need to do it and just make an arrangement. And I was like, okay, okay, I'll do that. If you think that I can, then I'll just get on and do it. It did fall forward several times because I hadn't got the balance right. you know, it was learning on the job. And mostly it was at actual High Grove doing the house flowers. But yeah, then we did state bankrits and whatever.

Rosalind Chandler (09:42)
Off you go.

Saskia (10:01)
I mean it was good fun. It was really good fun. And also because I used to live in a little wooden hut with my partner and my kids and it was kind of festival life in the kind of hippie kind of 90s ravey thing. I used to go from, I loved the juxtaposition of like Buckingham Palace in really good smart cars and then you're clothes and doing the flowers and the steps and the know really I mean floristry anyone knows is really hard work. Loads harder than being a gardener.

Rosalind Chandler (10:04)
What a good part of your life.

Saskia (10:28)
And then I come back to my little festival life with the kids. And I love that, just the juxtaposition of it and the most contrast you could possibly get. Yeah.

Rosalind Chandler (10:29)
It's all that lugging and carrying.

Ha ha ha!

think that's quite, mean years and years ago we were renovating a house and we lived in the mobile home. This was pre-children, mobile home in the garden. And we used to have electric coming across the garden to the house because the house had been renovating. And if it snowed, you didn't have electric because it was too deep and it all froze. But we used to live in this mobile home. then occasionally, I was working at that point in corporate. So I'd put on my suit and get my briefcase and I'd get in my company car and I'd go to work and I pretended I was someone else. And then, you know, come home and you really are hit with reality.

mobile home in the freezing cold but it's kind of that isn't it's the reality you could be anyone you you can just blag your way into be anyone and anything yeah

Saskia (11:17)
Yeah.

you just pretend, know,

that kind of fake it till you make it thing. But yes, I had that job and then I was carrying on with my own cut flower business and I was still carrying on some gardening clients and my relationship wasn't fabulous and my two children are what we now call neurodiverse, but we just thought they were spirited children who had trouble going to school and were dyslexic and whatever. So life was, you know, pretty crazy. I mean, I know anyone who's a mum or kind of

Rosalind Chandler (11:34)
Didn't know then.

Saskia (11:46)
remember that phase if they're not still in it. When it's just like get up and hit the ground running and don't sit down till bedtime. But what happened and I had a really good friend who also trained she trained as a homeopath and our boys used to play together he was an only child and they used to play together all the time so we hung out and one day she said to me I've just discovered these flower essences Australian bush essences they were and they sound like they might really be useful. I mean I grew up in Stroud so

I had friends, know, who were mums, were bark flare essence practitioners. You know, I hadn't not heard of rescue remedy, you know, that's what the kinks used to have every time they fell over. But I'd never really clocked it. You know, I'd never taken any of the other essences. I just kind of, that was the only one we used. But she had discovered these other ones, which they still start selling in Neil's yard. And they were great.

Rosalind Chandler (12:21)
Yes.

No.

Saskia (12:35)
they were brilliant. a few weeks I could really feel like on top of things again and it's like I could get the kids out of the door without screaming at them. We could manage that talk with the head mistress about them, whatever. Could do all those different things at once through choosing in the book which ones we needed. But I...

But I didn't know why they did what they did because I didn't know the plants. You know, as you could gather, I knew my plants. knew what they felt like. knew where they grew. I knew what the roots were like. I knew how they flowered. And not all flower essence practitioners or producers, some of them, I would say know plants so deeply. I mean, I have put the years in of knowing what the plants are like on a physical level, on a physical level, but not necessarily on an emotional

Rosalind Chandler (13:20)
Yeah, and what to do and how, what to do.

Saskia (13:25)
level that takes a lot longer to work that out. But yeah, these essences worked but I didn't know the plants. So that's kind of, yeah, kind of breaking the story.

Rosalind Chandler (13:29)
Wow.

So then you set a business

up and decided, well, I'm going to go from floristry or cut flower farming. I'm now going to into flower essence. So there must have been a transition. So you started using them and thought, these are good. What can I do? And they aren't essential oils, as we talked about. I think there's a real misconception about what they are. And I think people don't really understand that actually. You're right. Everybody knows Rescue Remedy because it's had a good brand and a good, it's got commercial and it's got good marketing behind it.

Saskia (13:43)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah, and

it's been there since the 1930s, you know, it's like, you know, which you wouldn't know. And it's like still, you know, it's a bit like homeopathy. Well, if it didn't work, people wouldn't care on using it, would they? Then we're not that stupid, you know. Yeah, so I carried all three alongside each other till about seven years ago, basically. And again, because I was self-employed, had always been self-employed, that bit didn't really worry me.

Rosalind Chandler (14:03)
which you wouldn't know.

No.

Right.

Saskia (14:27)
Yeah, the kind of earning money thing I knew that I didn't need loads of money to live on. wasn't one of these people who needed holidays or fancy clothes or cars or whatever. And the way I'd been brought up wasn't really like that. So as long as I had my basic needs, me and my kids basic needs met, that was fine. And I knew I could do that.

Rosalind Chandler (14:30)
portfolio career.

That was enough.

Saskia (14:46)
But yeah, so we discovered the bush flower essences and found out they worked. Basically what a flower essence is, that energy of the plant, which is held in a liquid, that you then take into your body and all the water in your body then feels that vibration. So if you were taking, for instance, buttercup essence.

when you took that energy of that plant into your body, all your, all your water in your body hears like hearing music, the energy of Buttercup. So then you could become more like a Buttercup. So more happy and more outward going and more. Yeah. So, so in a, yeah, in a, in a simple way, that's how they work. But at that time, we didn't really know that we just knew these liquids worked.

Rosalind Chandler (15:22)
going out yeah yeah I've got one sitting on my desk actually I must find it in a moment about giving me

And I don't think

anyone else knows that.

Saskia (15:37)
No, I'm on a big educational push, which is one of the reasons I'm here, I guess, to get the word out about how amazing they are.

But yeah, we kind of, and then what we, you know, when we needed an essence or we had someone with a problem, we'd go to his, book of the guy who'd made the Australian essences and read through it and go, which one do we need that one? You know, like pink mullimulla, I think. And there was like flan on it. But I didn't know any of the plants. I mean, we know some Australian plants because we're florists or we're, you know, you've got gardens, so know, eucalyptus and kangaroo paw. I think they made a kangaroo paw one, which florists know. But I didn't know how big they were.

they smelt, where they grew in the desert, or where they, you know, what they like to thrive in.

they just worked. So we looked in the book and then one of the pages of the book there was a page that said how to make your own flower essence. And we were women, you we didn't think let's start a business doing this, this sounds like a good idea. We were just like, oh, that doesn't look too difficult. That's kind of like easier than making, I don't know, profiteroles or one of those kind of things. We would give a go, you know, you'd give it a go. It's like, well, basically what you do is you float flowers in spring water and the energy of the sun transfers the energy between the water molecules.

Rosalind Chandler (16:30)
Let's make some.

Yeah.

Saskia (16:49)
and then you fix the energy with alcohol by adding it to alcohol and then that liquid you dilute down to the right vibration that humans can hear. It's really simple. If you want to come on classes on this you can, I run classes, I teach workshops. ⁓

Rosalind Chandler (17:00)
Yeah, I've been working in... Do we do workshops? Yeah.

Saskia (17:04)
It's a really

Rosalind Chandler (17:04)
It's just...

Saskia (17:04)
simple process. You needed spring water. We had a spring 50 yards from Christine's house. We were plants people, so we had plants. You don't need many plants because they're diluted down. If we go back to buttercup essence, 20 buttercups will make 10,000 bottles of flower essence at dosage things. I don't need to grow loads of flowers. can just go out into nature and go and get them when I need to.

Rosalind Chandler (17:12)
Wow.

wow.

Saskia (17:34)
So we thought we'd give it a go, so we gave it a go and it worked and...

Then we were like, OK, that won't work. Let's try. What else do we try? And because there were two of us, Christine went off and made essences that she wanted to make, and I went off and made essences that I wanted to make, and we were trialing them on ourselves and we were giving them out to friends. Working them out is more difficult and probably not enough time here to go into that. But it's like getting to know a human. You you've got your initial response to someone and you know what they look like and how they sit and what clothes they wear and whether they're

confident or whether they're quite, you know, if you walked into a room of 50 strangers that you'd met, you'd quickly see which ones you were quite, you would, you'd go, no, I don't like the look of him. And you'd move to someone you liked, which we do in gardens and what flowers we like in a similar way. It's like, you you'll have a particular response to a, you know, a pink rose as opposed to an apricot rose or a, you know, we've all got our preferences because of who we are and how we respond to things and who we are as individuals.

Rosalind Chandler (18:13)
Yeah, you would. You'd just go and you'd know.

Saskia (18:37)
You know, some people like roses, some people like peonies, some people like... which was a really... I'm going to jump back, I'm a bit of a jumper-backer. I remember really clearly when I was doing my flower delivery thing, I remember one woman saying, when are the astrantias going to be ready?

Like I did, you was like a seasonal thing. You know, they got a bunch every week and it's like, when are the astrantias? Astrantias? Really? It's like for me, they're like, just like, you know, they're like in between flowers. They're nothing great. They're kind of, as a florist, last, as long as you condition them well, they last a long time in water. But it was like a deep need in this woman for astrantias. I mean, it might have been like a story, like she remembered her granny having them or just, she just had a whole needed astrantias for whatever. But I remember being flummered

Rosalind Chandler (19:05)
Too small, local.

We'll a strand here. ⁓

Saskia (19:23)
by this kind of a strante thing, going really, so strante-ish. But that kind of stuck with me and when I got into essences it kind of made more sense of like the personality of flowers and being drawn to particular ones and why that might be. Yeah.

Rosalind Chandler (19:32)
that she chose that for a reason.

Yeah

I'm drawn to one flower particularly and it's not even a cut flower it's geranium so anything that has geranium, well any scent that has geranium if it's soap or oil or a bath scent or ⁓ it's got to be geranium it's weird

Saskia (19:41)
Yeah.

Okay, what hardy geraniums or pelagoniums?

Okay. All right. Lastly, your rumour. Yeah.

Yeah, but not as a flower in your garden. No.

Rosalind Chandler (19:58)
No,

unfortunately. Pelagoniums, Uncented Pelagoniums, yes.

Saskia (20:02)
Yeah, well

the geranium smell is from a Pelagonium. It's a rose geranium. yeah. So yeah, so... ⁓

Rosalind Chandler (20:06)
Yeah.

So who knows where that came I have no idea where came

from. We didn't have geraniums as children. No idea.

Saskia (20:16)
No, but you probably really...

I mean, that's kind going into aromatherapy probably more so than the actual flower itself If you looked at the rose geranium pelagonium, you might not have that same emotional response or that need. But yeah, now I've lost my track because I've gone back.

Rosalind Chandler (20:22)
Yes, I've sent it.

that's fine.

So your work focuses on emotional balance. What have flowers taught you about emotions, resilience and healing? What do they do for you?

Saskia (20:36)
Yeah.

Yeah,

well I wouldn't be here without them, without the flower escences. I certainly wouldn't be speaking like this. I have my little bottle of speaking with confidence here with me. Yeah. Which is...

Rosalind Chandler (20:44)
would you not?

Yeah.

Well, I have a bottle

in my hand, which is, breathe deep, seek peace. There you go.

Saskia (20:57)
Yeah,

yeah, that's the that's unfortunately that's the bestseller by about 30 % that one and I think it might have been the first blend that we came up with. Yeah, so that has taken me back that me and Christine started making essences. We eventually had a kind of range and they were, you know, once we worked out what their properties were a bit.

Rosalind Chandler (21:03)
Is it?

Saskia (21:17)
A. We couldn't afford to give them away and B. We had too many and we realized how brilliant they were and we just wanted everyone to know about them and everyone to take them. So then we went, okay, I suppose we're going to have to start selling these. It was kind of, I it wasn't before the internet, but it was pretty early on, you know, 2003, I think we made our first essence. Probably 2006, we decided we were going to start selling them. And it was a really nice thing as friends to do, you know, was like, I have to go down to Christine's and do bottling. Can you look after the

Rosalind Chandler (21:33)
before social media.

We'll get

Saskia (21:45)
Or we'd go off for the weekend

Rosalind Chandler (21:45)
a cup of tea and we'll sort it out.

Saskia (21:47)
doing shows or having stalls and stuff and it was a focus for us. And we kind of knew that they needed to get out there. But unlike quite a lot of the other flower escence ranges, we really wanted people not necessarily like us because we're unique beings, but basically mums in complicated situations to be able to get on with their lives. So we wanted people to be able to take essences for those every

day thing so I can't sleep I might kill my husband those kind of you know those kind of everyday

Rosalind Chandler (22:18)
Have you got one called

I might kill my husband?

Saskia (22:22)
We have one that's called Calm and Gentle, which is very good if you're angry and intolerant and frustrated. But yeah, so those kind of things, we wanted to write them in language that...

Rosalind Chandler (22:25)
Same thing then.

Saskia (22:32)
Ordinary people would you know having grown up in Stroud I wanted it to be as little as least woo-woo as possible I want you know, they're really simple. They're really straightforward. They're really easy to take They're not desperately expensive and they can change your life You know, and I'm still like how many years that is later 20 years later. I'm still really passionate about that because they're so

It's so easy. It's like handing all your problems over to your plant friends. It's like, can't deal with this. I haven't got time. I don't even know what the problem is. I don't know why I respond to this situation in this way. And if I do, I kind don't want to go there because it might be too painful. It's like, can you just sort this all out for me? And if you take the right essence, it's like they blink and do. It's like, it still just blows me away how the results we get and the people emailing and telling me how, you know, they've slept for the first time ever or I've got a really lovely family that I

I send personalized blends to every month and they, you know, she adopted two teenagers and it's like the boy took his hood down for the first time in the house. You know, I told her he loved her for the first time and I'm just like, my God. You know, it's a really small thing, but it's also a really big thing in someone's life. And it can really, you know, that little trigger can just then go on to be a much bigger change or yeah, just helping people sleep or being able to go to a job interview or

Rosalind Chandler (23:43)
It's massive.

Saskia (23:52)
or ask your boss for a raise or just those kind of everyday things. And we were really adamant we wanted to keep it like that and keep them really simple and kind of easy to access. And that's really carried on.

Rosalind Chandler (24:02)
I was going to say because the moment you start being

woo woo or the moment it's not easy to access, people switch off because it's too much and they don't understand it. All they want is, I can't sleep, can you give me something? I've got frustrated about this, can you do something about that? And then a personalized blends or around something much more complicated, I'm sure.

Saskia (24:08)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah,

they go back into your old old patterns. They're much better at kind of shifting those old beliefs that we've got from way, back, the personal blends. So people usually start with the ready made blends for those specific things that they know they've got and then go, OK, I've sorted that now. I'm on a level. Let's go back and shift some of the old stuff.

Rosalind Chandler (24:28)
Yeah.

Can you bulk

buy then? Because obviously there's one for every problem, isn't there?

Saskia (24:41)
Yeah, yeah, we do

box sets of all of the blends. Yeah, that's a really nice, easy starter kind of kit.

Rosalind Chandler (24:44)
Yes, lovely. So what's your website?

Tell us about your website and your Instagram now so that people can, well put it in the show notes, but there's a view behind it.

Saskia (24:50)
If you've got this file, done.

⁓ www.saskiasfloweressences.com So as long as you remember Saskia or if Saskia Marjoram, I'm in Wincanton. So now we've got these fabulous googly things. You can just ask and you'll find me pretty quick. It's not an overcrowded.

marketplace there aren't loads of flower essence companies unfortunately I would say because the more the merrier but also it's quite nice because it's easy to find me if you remember the Saskia bit and the flower essence bit you'll get to me and I'm always I'm always always happy to answer emails or probably best for me email Instagram Saskia's essences we're on Facebook as well Saskia's flower essences that's probably it I do the X or Twitter or whatever but really really rarely

Rosalind Chandler (25:13)
No.

Yeah.

Yeah, it's kind of gone, hasn't it? So you create bespoke blends, which we've talked about for individuals. So what's the process like? How do you protect your own energy while working so closely with people? So I come to you and I say, I've got all these issues, and you're going to create a personalized blend, because I've got ABC and it comes from my script as a childhood. And I'd really like to sort it out, Saskia, can you sort this out for me, please?

Saskia (25:38)
Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah.

I can't, but the flowers can. how I got early on, quite early on when me and Christine had kind of decided we were going to be a flower essence company, there's an organization called the BFEA, which is the flower essence kind of umbrella organization. And they have conferences where we learnt loads, but quite early on, we learnt how to dowse with a pendulum, which again, sounds really weird, but it really isn't again, it's quite straightforward energy tool. ⁓ So if you came to me with those issues, or you sent me

your

photo and a bit about how you were. I would get my pendulum out and just ask each flower, each bottle, each essence without looking at it, without the name, put my finger on it and say, do you want this? Do you need this one? Do you need this one? Do you need this one? And it would come up with about seven. And that takes your head out of it. If you told me everything that had ever happened to you in your whole life, A, you might not want to tell me everything that had happened in your whole life, especially as we've just met. B, might not have the

words or the emotional maturity to be able to express it or to even know you know your for instance if you're

what we know then you kind of go, okay, I'm anxious. how do you know that that's what anxious is? It's like you've had a something's happened and someone said to you, ⁓ you feel a bit anxious or you seem a bit anxious. And so you assume that that feeling that you're having is what humans call anxious. But actually, there's loads of nuances within that and it crosses into worry or stress. We don't have a very wide emotional vocabulary. So you telling me what's going on in your life. mean, you know, if you came and said, even if

again if you came and said my father's just died again that's how might if my father died I know well I don't actually my father has died and it wasn't like I expected so I before that happened I might have gone ⁓ if my father died I feel like this but you might feel completely different you know depending on how old he was depending on how he died depending on your relationship with him whether you were estranged or whether he abused you know it could be really complex so you even you just telling me my father just died that's not really much information but if you told me all the

information you've got. I still have to then I do know what after all this time I do know what basically what all the essences do but again it's a bit like knowing a human maybe not so complex and then much more true to themselves plants are much more true to themselves but it's I have to translate plant language into human language and you have to translate your feelings into words and there's a lot of crossover where we could go wrong.

we can second guess it. If we were using our heads, we could second guess it. So using a pendulum just kind of gets that all out of the way. just like, it just knows. And we get the right blend.

Rosalind Chandler (28:33)
Wow.

Well, give that a go Saskia. I'll send you a photo and I won't tell you anything. ⁓

Saskia (28:45)
Yeah. Yeah.

No, exactly.

Lots of people do that. They don't tell me anything. Sometimes it's quite good to know just, A, for some people it's therapeutic to write it all down. Some people just write and say, ⁓ my god, I'm feeling better already. Just having got it out of your, you know, just even thought about it in amongst everything. But yeah, no, it's a very rewarding thing to be able to do. then people, not that everyone, you don't have to get back to me and tell me what happened, but lots of people do. And then you then you've got extra information about those plants.

Rosalind Chandler (29:16)
Yes.

Saskia (29:16)
You kind of go, those three,

those three essences were in that woman's blend who had the same situation as that woman who had not that I only see women, but unfortunately, mostly I do. She had the similar situation going on and they both needed those three essences. So that means that those three essences together can be really helpful for that situation, perhaps not always, because of course someone else could come along with that situation and they might not need those three essences.

So unfortunately, or fortunately, that flower escences are really subjective in how they can help you, which again is why the ready-made blends are really good start for specific issues because we've designed those. Yeah. Have you not tried it yet? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Before you go to bed, it's great. And if you're one of those wake up in the middle of the night, you can just take a few drops.

Rosalind Chandler (29:48)
Brilliant.

While I'm waiting to get some peace, I can't wait for this. Normally I'd take this. No, I'm going to try it in the bath, I think. just like last thing at night and just peaceful.

Saskia (30:10)
and just lie there and suddenly you're asleep. Again, it's like handing all your problems over to your flowers. It's just brilliant.

Rosalind Chandler (30:19)
I'll let you how I get on. But you have got a physical presence, a shop, have you somewhere in Wincanton is it? is it? Wow.

Saskia (30:23)
Yeah, in Wyncanton. Yeah, yeah,

that kind of happened by accident. Although because it's Wyncanton and we have a really small footfall, I don't have loads of customers and the rent is really cheap.

Rosalind Chandler (30:29)
I was going to say that is a big commitment.

Saskia (30:38)
So that's it's great. But yeah, so so I kind of carried we carried Chris. I moved down to Somerset from Gloucestershire and Christine kind of got involved in other things. And so I took more and more of the business on. And in 2017, I stopped my gardening job that I was doing. I was still doing a bit of floristry then. I didn't have my cut flower patch, but I was accessing other people's cut flowers. I'm just down the road from Georgie at Common Farm Flowers. So I use her roses in my rose mist. I go and pick

Rosalind Chandler (31:02)
Yeah. Yeah.

Saskia (31:07)
roses which is really nice. In fact she's the reason I moved down because she got me a gardening job down here, a kind of flower ⁓ growing job. That was the magic of Twitter at the time. think that was where we met.

Rosalind Chandler (31:13)
She's the reason I started cut flowers.

I met her and I went on a half

day course in what must have been 2011 or 12 and then I thought I can do this and I just got some seeds and threw them in some raised beds and literally didn't I didn't know anything about flowers I didn't have a flower background or a flower family or anything I just had three raised beds which are still there today three meters by one meter what can I grow so I did a half day with Georgie came back and thought yeah I can do that

Saskia (31:28)
now.

can do that.

If she can do it, I can do it. ⁓

Rosalind Chandler (31:51)
Yeah,

and then I think she was fairly early on. think she started around the same time.

Saskia (31:54)
Yeah, I

moved down here 2012. Her kids were really small then, so she hadn't been doing it that long.

Rosalind Chandler (32:00)
No, weird, isn't it? So she, I did kick off with her, that's for sure.

Saskia (32:04)
Yeah, think lots

of people have gone through there and carried on. It's great to see her inspiring people.

Rosalind Chandler (32:08)
I know. Well, I do that. mean,

I do lots of mentoring now for people who are transitioning from a career into flower farming, for instance, or even people who have been in flower farming for sort of up to three years generally, and they're not making any money, basically, because it's really hard to make money unless you do it right. So and I love that because I see all sorts of people like I've done in Devon last week with with one lady, I'm going up to Wigan on the middle of January with another completely different.

Saskia (32:23)
Yeah.

Rosalind Chandler (32:37)
just completely different, but trying to make a business out of flower farming and transitioning from what they've done historically is quite interesting. But it's hard.

Saskia (32:49)
And part of me still wants to be in that world, especially when I see Georgie doing stuff. She's actually my longest client for personal blends. So I've been making blends for her not every month. She's had gaps to help her just through life. like shift. mean, some of them do shift the deep old stuff, but she's coming like we wanted essences to be to help mums or people who've got like multi levels, lots of plates in the air, be able to deal with life. And she's come really regularly to get and she's a great, ⁓

great advocate of the essences. gets, she's been getting them, she gets, and also because we are, our world's kind of quite separate, she gets them to people who wouldn't like you, people who wouldn't normally hear about them or wouldn't cross their minds to think about it. It's like, that's just that kind of, it's a little bit alternative for me. ⁓ So she's got it.

Rosalind Chandler (33:33)
Yes, that's the initial response,

isn't it?

Saskia (33:36)
Yeah, yeah.

you know, well, the kind of yoga movement. mean, when I was a teenager, that was like really, really off the wall. And now it's just like quite normal that people go to yoga. So yeah, so it's been a good journey. I've forgotten where we We sidetracked again, we? Yeah, my real life shop. That's where we got to, my real life. My, yeah.

Rosalind Chandler (33:44)
Yeah, that was really woo.

Yeah.

So it's fine. My last question for you. Yes, your real-life shopper, which I think you're mad, but it gives you a present.

It gives you space.

Saskia (34:03)
It gives me, yeah,

so once I gave up my, I was able financially to be able to give up my job. I was living with someone else and didn't have to earn like my whole wage. So I had a chance to either give it up completely because they were just dribbling out there and weren't really going anywhere and I wasn't putting any energy in it or decide to do it full time. And I knew I couldn't give them up. I knew enough too much about them and they were so useful. So I was like, okay, dive in, do it. And that was 2017. then I, then that,

Rosalind Chandler (34:29)
Yeah.

Saskia (34:32)
relationship finished. So then we sold the house and I had to move. so then I didn't have anywhere for the essences. And it was again, chance, like lots of things, chance conversation with a woman who runs the fruit and veg shop is like, Oh, do you know anywhere a unit where I could run my business from? You know, she said, Oh, the people at the end of the corridor, they've just given up there, just handed their notice for their little shop. And it was, I think it was a really small shop. I've moved since then. It was like three meters by three meters with a tiny kitchen in the back, but it was 220 quid a week.

a month, I mean not a week, £220 a month including the electric and I was like well if I can't make that I'm gonna have to give up anyway so I just went for it and it was the best thing I ever did for the business because it made me really visible and it gave somewhere a safe space yeah yeah

Rosalind Chandler (35:14)
Yeah, and also serious grown-up business, isn't it? You go to work, you're in a shop, this is serious

now.

Saskia (35:21)
Yeah, I got a gang and people who just thought I was a gardener in the town who thought because they always saw me in my gardening stuff. They were like, what's this? It's like, no, I do flower essences. And I had to like it was quite a fun room or space because again, the kind of preconceived ideas people have. But people would come in, you know, over the optician said I should come up to you and talk about my son with these anxiety or school problems or whatever. So it made it much more accessible and much more public and much more easy for people to look through the window and go, she doesn't look too scary.

Rosalind Chandler (35:45)
Yes. See they wouldn't go normally.

yet.

Saskia (35:50)
we should go and talk to her. And now I've got

a nice big shop in the same area and a bottling room. Yeah, it's it's upped people's perceptions of the brand, like on social media and stuff. B is great. means that I'm not I mean, I have someone who helps me now. But you know, we're not here just on our own working on our own. We've got other conversations go on and you kind of suddenly get reminded of how people see them when they first come across them. Because once you're in a world that you know lots about, you assume

everyone knows that somehow and they know and you kind of go okay let's start from the beginning and talk about it yeah and then I've got a few other products my son's make this got with a beekeeper so I've got his stuff and I love making products from plants so I've got a few other things as well just because to keep my hand in and also I've got room I've got enough room to have like big vases of flowers and I've got all my plants with my moss and my sticks and I can do a bit of floristry alongside which is quite nice

Rosalind Chandler (36:19)
No,

Looks good.

Well, there's

nothing to stop me doing that. So for listeners who love flowers but want to build something a little different, I mean, you did take some risks and along the way you were helped probably by some chance meetings. What advice would you give to people who want an unconventional path? That they don't really know where it's going to take them yet. That's the big thing.

Saskia (36:51)
Yeah.

But do

we need to know where things are going to take us? I mean, I still don't know where it's going to take me.

Rosalind Chandler (37:05)
No.

Saskia (37:06)
I mean, I'm,

you know, who knows what's going to happen. And I do not, I pray for, I don't want quick growth. I know that's kind of death and I'd be too overwhelmed, especially now I'm going to be 60 this year. Keep that mind. But you know, as you get older, it's like, well, I don't want it, you know, do I want a global empire? And actually I think global, I do send abroad, I send all over the world, but there are flower essences all over the world and really the essences, the essences

from plants that are growing in your area are better for you in a way, which is why the Australian ones, even though they worked, I didn't resonate with. Although I don't like the word resonate, but people know what I mean if I say that. But you know, like America, it's like there are people in America making essences. Use those. You know, I don't need to sell in America, you know, a few going to people who need them, but to have a big presence there.

I'd like to sell more, you know, the more you sell, the more people are being helped. Again, I don't need to make loads and loads of money. I'm quite comfortable these days. You know, if my car breaks down, don't have to panic that I can't afford it to be repaired. Just those things. It's not about the money for certain.

Rosalind Chandler (38:11)
Big set.

Saskia (38:17)
But it's nice, know, again, having been self-employed forever, there's no pension waiting for me anywhere. Advice for other people. It kind of really depends on your personality and also your financial situation. You know, if it means if it goes wrong, your children are going to go hungry or your mortgage isn't going to be paid. I would be a bit warier than I have. Obviously, as you say, I've had chance meetings. But I think if it's the right thing, the chance is not chance.

Rosalind Chandler (38:22)
No, only.

Saskia (38:46)
things happen. And I'm a big believer in that of like having the faith. I would also say I do have essences for people who are scared of moving forward. There's one that's called purpose and drive and focus, energize, create.

Rosalind Chandler (38:47)
Yes.

⁓ I think I know a lot of people who'd be

having that.

Saskia (38:59)
just jump off the cliff and do it and the universe will support you. What's the worst that can happen? That's what I'm saying. I think that if it's something you're passionate about and you can carry on like me as you can see, like 20 years later, I'm still really passionate about it. And I think it is what I was born to do. But when I got into gardening, knew. I think you do. You know if you know. No.

Rosalind Chandler (39:01)
Yeah.

That's my saying.

I don't think you could do something you're not passionate about. I don't think you could do

it because it takes drive, energy, motivation, dedication. You can't do it if you don't love it.

Saskia (39:27)
So yeah.

And you can do it as a side hustle and then if it becomes successful, slide over, give up your day job. That which is probably the most sensible advice I could give you if you want me to be sensible. But I just, you know, it came to, like I said, when I did it full time, it just came to a point where I just went the gardening job I was doing kind of I'd made it into a fabulous job. And then the bits that I like doing kind of got taken away. And I was just like, just doing garden maintenance again. It wasn't going anywhere. I could see it wasn't going to go anywhere. So that was a kind of turning point.

Rosalind Chandler (39:40)
Yeah.

Saskia (39:59)
point, I would say. ⁓

Rosalind Chandler (40:00)
I almost think people

who've been made redundant are almost in the best position because they normally have a bit of a payoff. They have to turn something to make it into money and they have to do it relatively quickly. So the drive is there. It's like, I've got time, I've got a little bit of money, I've got this passion. They've almost been handed a gift that they don't realize it at the time, but they have been handed a gift.

Saskia (40:05)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah.

Rosalind Chandler (40:29)
If you're a full-time, and I have all sorts of people that talk to you, let's say you're a full-time doctor, who actually I spoke to today, full-time doctor, you're earning £120,000 a year as a GP around or something, very hard. Very hard to go, okay, well, I've lived at this level, I'm going to give up one day a week and then two days a week, and how am going to replace my income? So there are different...

Saskia (40:52)
You can tell them if they're going to grow cut flowers, they're not going to make that a year. But however hard they work. But then again, you've been enjoyed being a GP for all your life, that's brilliant. But if you've actually not enjoyed it and you've got the option to live not so well, but.

Rosalind Chandler (40:59)
very realistic with people that's for sure my goodness I am

burnt out, overwhelmed,

stressed.

Saskia (41:13)
and

know doing something that when you get up in the morning you go my god I can go out and see if these things are flowered and weed the so-and-so's that's brilliant and you know I think there is since lockdown I think there's a lot of awareness about what we spend our time our time is precious and it can finish at any time and what we spend our time doing you know is it making the world I think one of those things is it am I making the world a better place every day in whatever way even if it's just because you smiled at someone ⁓

Rosalind Chandler (41:28)
questions.

Wait.

Saskia (41:42)
But if you can't smile at someone, then come and get essences for a start. also just, yeah, how do we make the world a better place? And we all know, you kind of just know. I think we ignore that a lot and we use our heads far too much. Far, far too much. we... Yeah.

Rosalind Chandler (41:59)
No, you've got your intuition and in the end, workout what makes

you happy.

Saskia (42:03)
Yeah, yeah. And trust your intuition. Really, really trust it and your heart. And try and cut your head out as much as possible. You know, it's like the bank manager or you're going, am I going to make 1500 pounds a month this month or whatever. It kind of isn't what life's about. And we've kind of almost been conned into thinking that is what it is about. You will be if you have severe mental health issues or you're not.

Rosalind Chandler (42:11)
party logical.

Saskia (42:29)
you're difficult to be arraigned, it's quite hard, but I think if you've got tradeable skills you'll always be looked after.

Rosalind Chandler (42:36)
Absolutely agreed.

Saskia (42:38)
Once

my kids had left home and I was being much more freeform, I went off traveling for a bit. And then I thought, well, I can kind of sleep in a ditch, really. It's only me. It doesn't really matter. I mean, obviously, you want to do it long term or through the winter. But I lived in various sheds, in people's gardens or whatever, various varieties. And it was, in fact, one of my happiest times of my lives, really.

Rosalind Chandler (43:02)
Exactly. I think you've got to write down what were the happiest

times of your life and remember them and then try and go back for them. My happiest, know, making daisy chains on a big field in France with my pen friend, you know. So what was that about? Well, I liked being outdoors and I liked the daisies and I liked nature and I liked all the bumblebees and, and, and, and. So, you know, I was 13. So I already knew then that that's what I wanted to do really if I'd just followed that intuition, but.

Saskia (43:07)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Rosalind Chandler (43:28)
But Saskia, it's been a brilliant conversation. I'm going to come and visit you in Wincanton. So I want you to thank you for sharing your story. It's really inspirational. But anyone listening who wants to explore Saskia's flower essence will link everything in the show notes so you can go and dive deeply. I personally would like a personalized blend. I'm just intrigued. I'm one of these people who loves to be intrigued.

And to you our listeners, thank you for joining us. If this episode has inspired you, please share it with someone who loves flowers as much as you do, or loves just being inspired by something different. Until next time, keep growing, keep creating and keep flourishing. Thank you very much Saskia.

Saskia (44:07)
been lovely to talk to you.