Our Heritage
Alex
I was born and raised in England, with parents who were very keen gardeners, and encouraged the same in me. My mother was raised on a livestock farm in the north of England, but her mother proudly and fiercely maintained her cottage flower garden, a true force of nature herself in post war Britain. This spirit was clearly passed on to my mother, as we had the largest garden on our suburban street, and to this day, my parents pride themselves on having a garden people stop to admire.
Beginning at a very early age, my brother and I were given our own little plots of land, mainly to grow things we could eat (probably to stop our raids on the vegetable plot), and we focussed on strawberries, peas, carrots and quick, edible crops. What I quickly learned though was that I could also cut flowers from the rest of the garden, and have the most wonderful scents in a vase in my room. Throughout summer I would gather posies of lavender, roses, peonies, sweet peas, and many others through the seasons. I dried flowers for the winter, made rose water and had many (failed) attempts at making perfume to preserve the wonderful fragrances. Whilst at University, each time I came home, my father would ensure there were some flowers in my room from the garden, and on my wedding day, family photos were taken in the garden next to the same rose bushes I grew up cutting from.
Since then, I have made it my mission in every place I have lived, to add some flowers.
It might be a pot of bulbs on a window sill in a rented flat, or starting from scratch in our first home, but getting started on the garden has always been as important to me as decorating the house.
Since moving to Canada in 2006, I’ve had a lot to learn about the seasons, what grows here (and doesn’t) and where to find sources for the varieties I love. We moved to a five acre property and have created gardens for our own enjoyment, so it felt like a natural progression to use more of the land to provide flowers for others to enjoy too. We are surrounded by farmers, using the land in time honoured fashion to raise crops to sustain our bodies, it feels very right to add into that a crop to sustain and feed our senses, boosts our mood and creates a feeling of wellbeing
I don’t have a horticulture degree, or florist training, but I do have a passion for growing and arranging fresh flowers. I am an alumni of the Floret flower farmers course (www.Floret.com), and am constantly learning from the incredible local floral community growing in Canada and around the world.
Establishing Blooming Vintage is the realisation of a dream, to create beauty with dirt, water, seeds and a whole lot of love.
Stuart
Stuart is not a gardener, or florist, and doesn’t even have a great sense of smell!
However, he is incredible with power tools, has wonderful vision to create structures and systems (once he has managed to decipher and interpret Alex’s ideas…), and is the most incredible support in all aspects of farming
Also born in England, Stuart absorbed gardening by osmosis from his mother, and whilst he appreciates the power of flowers’ beauty, he also appreciates keeping everything working, building new things, making hard work easier and more efficient, and keeping Alex’s feet on the ground. Although Stuart has a full time job off the farm, he puts in the graft at home too.
As a team, we’re better together!
About the Farm
Located about an hour north of Toronto, the farm is situated on a five acre plot, currently with only one acre given over to flower production and plans for more to come. Historically, the property would have been part of a larger farm, but it was carved out at some point, probably gifted to a child, and has its own heritage home, dating back to the 1850’s. There’s been something growing here, to a greater or lesser extent, for a long time.
We moved here in 2007, and since then the current flower field has been grassland, harvested occasionally for hay, but mostly left alone. In growing our own vegetables and garden whilst maintaining full time jobs and raising a family, we harboroured many dreams of how to use the extra land, and finally, the time was right to establish the flower farm.
In addition to beautiful open fields, there is a small woodland area, ideal for shade loving plants, and we are surrounded on all sides by arable crop land. Our plans are to keep adding to the trees and shrubs around the property, in addition to flowers, both to bring a diversity to our production, but also to enhance and enrich the local ecosystem with indigenous varieties. Out local village, Zephyr, was named after the Greek god Zephyrus, God of the west wind, bringer of Spring and flowers. Between that gentle wind, glorious sun and sunsets and rich soil, we couldn’t wish for a better place to be.