For designer and farmer-florist Flicky Howe, the joy and beauty that her flowers and foliage bring to a couple’s special day is one of her favourite parts of the job. Specialising in weddings, Flicky grows using organic principles.
Around 80 percent of flowers sold in the western world are imported from Kenya, Columbia, Vietnam, and Ecuador, giving them a huge carbon footprint. Buying your flowers from an Irish organic grower equates to being better for both your health, the health of the local economy and for the environment.
Situated on a coastal hillside beside Howe Strand, Kilbrittain, Howe Hill Flowers works with the seasons, with each week bringing something new and exciting to the garden and the business. Seeds are continuously sown from February through to October to ensure a steady flow of Irish grown flowers. Hellebores appear at the beginning of the year just before the narcissi and other bulbs herald the arrival of spring. Before long the tunnels are blooming with hardy annuals sown in autumn and May brings the beautiful blooms of the peonies grown in Waterford fields. At this stage, Howe Hill is a riot of colour with roses, foxgloves, and irises the stars of the show. The Canterbury bells, lilies and the first of the sweet peas arrive in June and by July the garden and tunnel are awash with snapdragons, calendula, zinnias, cosmos, cornflowers, phlox, alstroemeria and nicotiana to name a few. In August there are dahlias and Japanese anemones, sunflowers and rudbeckia, and September brings asters and later-sown annual blooms.
Aside from growing, Flicky and the team at Howe Hill are always busy planning ahead for next year’s growing season, as well as selling flowers and creating floral designs in the studio for weddings and events.
It’s a business that requires a massive amount of time and energy but Flicky’s passion for flowers means she loves every minute of it. “I love handing a bride her bouquet on her wedding morning. I love styling the tables at weddings too! I love being in the studio with the girls, so much fun! I love sowing the seeds and seeing them pop up in the trays, I love harvesting the flowers. I love driving around in the van to deliver the flowers. I love arriving at Dunmore with the weekly order and setting everything up there every week,” she shares enthusiastically.
This passion is reflected in the beauty of Flicky’s work: Her design style has been described as “abundant and elegant country garden, with an often luxurious, and sometimes wild, bohemian peppering”.
Taking direction from each client’s personal requirements for their wedding, Flicky, working alongside her experienced studio assistants, formally-trained florist Alice McCan and artist-turned-florist, Natasha Pike, will consider the season and settings before making styling suggestions to enable a cohesive look reflective of each couple on their special day.
Although she’s a trained textile designer, over the years Flicky has always found herself returning to nature and flowers. Howe Hill Flowers started in 2019 after she noticed a demand for Irish grown flowers while working in a retail floristry business. “We had none!” she explains. Inspired by the growing number of Irish farmer-florists, Flicky began toying with the idea of getting into the flower growing business herself. Upon starting the business, she completed a number of training classes and workshops with some of the most inspiring and influential names in the floristry world, which she says really enhanced her design skills and floristry abilities.
While the main part of the business today is weddings, the Howe Hill Flower team also look after the flowers every week at Dunmore House Hotel and The Old Head Golf Links. During the Irish growing season, March to late September, Howe Hill offers gift bouquets through the website, delivering them all along the coast between Kinsale and Clonakilty, During this time, they also bring buckets and buckets of homegrown market bunches to The Roughty Foodie in The English Market, Cork city and to Leafling Mercantile in Ballinspittle village.
While all of the market flower bunches are home grown, working to specific colour palettes and styles for weddings and events outside of the Irish growing season means that some flowers do also have to be sourced through the Dutch market, but these are all carefully chosen from fairtrade suppliers.
Howe Hill Flowers is fully booked for weddings in July and August 2024, however there are dates available before and after these months. Go to the calendar on the weddings page of the website (www.howehillflowerfarm.com) to check availability.
For more information email hello@howehillflowerfarm.com
