Hello, let me introduce myself

I'm Emma, the face behind WilderBlooms. A face I'm trying to be a bit more confident and get on camera a bit more often, although I hate having my photo taken! I've considered blogging a few times but haven't got round to it, until now that is! So I thought I would start with a wee introductory post both to me and the business.

Who am I?
So as I said, the names Emma, I'm 30 years old and live in a little rural cottage in Ayrshire, Scotland. I grew up on a farm locally, and have always had a great affinity for all things outdoors. My hobbies these days mostly involve gardening, foraging (food and flowers), and walking with my beloved rescue dog Katie. I studied both biology and nursing at university and nothing fascinates me more than the natural world around us, so you'll usually find me in the woods googling a plant I've never seen before, or researching how to be better at growing things. 

​Porcini mushroom anyone? : Foraging for wild foods and flowers is a huge passion of mine. Learning about all the amazing resources we have all around us that are often overlooked. 

With this huge passion for the outdoors, you can imagine that gardening quickly became a hobby of mine. I started off with house plants, of which I still have a huge collection, and once I got my own garden, I quickly diverted my attention to that. 
I actually have more experience growing vegetables than flowers, it's where I started my gardening journey. There was something extremely satisfying about growing your own food. It's taken a back seat over the past year while I've focused on increasing my cut flower beds, but is something I hope to pick back up and make a bit more room for over the coming years.

Dinner's Ready: A selection of peas, kale, broccoli and corgette from the veg patch a couple years ago

Protecting the Environment:
I have always been a keen environmentalist. My mum taught my young the importance of recycling waste, as I remember trips to the bottle banks in the village back in the 90s, then the importance of sorting our household waste when it became easier to do so at home. I've been vegetarian for the past 6 years to decrease my carbon footprint, and try to avoid purchasing goods with plastic packaging where possible. Opting for more readily recyclable materials such as glass, metal or cardboard where options exist. Although its often extremely difficult.

While learning about the environmental impact of fresh produce, and where we source our food, was where I stumbled across the fact that the majority of cut flowers here in the UK are imported from abroad, often from Africa and South America, many brought in through the Dutch flower auctions. There are no regulations here in the UK which specify that you have to disclose where the flowers were grown, unlike other fresh produce such as fruit and vegetables where this will be displayed on the packing. Meaning a single mixed bouquet could have racked up an astronomical number of air miles and a huge carbon footprint, more so than any fruit or veg, before being wrapped up in single-use plastics for sale here in the UK. This did not sit well with me. 

I started trying to find locally grown flowers. I discovered Flowers from the Farm, and realized that while it is possible to source locally grown flowers, its not as easy as it could be, particularly in my little corner of Scotland. So I decided to take matters into my own hands and start a florist / flower delivery service that provides only British grown flowers, ideally as locally as possible.

WilderBlooms Was Born:
I spent the latter half of 2022 reading and researching. Setting up this website, and social media. Buying seeds and planning the  garden. Putting every minute of my free time into planning something I was extremely passionate about. Gardening and protecting the environment.

As someone who's flitted between many different jobs over my life, from hospitality to stable hand, retail to tour guide. Even a brief stint in nursing. I had never felt anything as being "my calling". So you can imagine my surprise as I started sinking hours and hours of unpaid work into building my own little flower farm. Determined that I was going to grow sustainable flowers. Despite the fact that I had never set up a business, never run a business, my retail experience was minimal, no experience in marketing or web design, a hobbyist gardener and flower arranger with dreams of grandeur. Only a green thumb, and a keen determination that it WAS going to work. 

Flash forward to 2024. I'm pretty much a full year in. I made my first flower sales - homegrown tulips - in April 2023, proceeding to offer Jam Jars over the summer through facebook, and then wreaths at Christmas. 2023 was the steepest learning curve I've ever been on. I had no idea what was doing but I was learning every step of the way. Growing, farming, sales, marketing, web design, using social media for business, product photography, floral design, flower conditioning, business accounting etc etc etc. Everything I did, every success and every failure was a lesson. I scraped my way by, but I got the confidence I needed for 2024 to be bigger and better.

April 2023 Tulips - Some of the first I sold. Were you there? did you get your hands on a bunch of these?

Late Summer 2023 Jam Jars

If you have been following me since 2023, you will have noticed that I have really upped my game since January 2024.  I've been attending webinars and business coaching. I've been posting more regular updates. I've started working with wholesalers locally to increase my range of flowers. I have redesigned the whole website and set it up for online sales. My focus now is on big bunches (but the jam jars aren't going anywhere, don't worry!). I've expanded my service area to cover Kilwinning, Irvine and Cumnock. My social media following has more than doubled since December. I've been out and about at markets. I stock products from local makers. I've branched into dried flowers too. And that's only the beginning. 

Move over posies: Big bunches of flowers are stealing the show this year. Can you believe all this grew in Ayrshire in chilly, rainy April?

We haven't even reached peak flower growing season this year, and I have so many more ideas ticking away behind the scenes.  It's a very exciting, but slightly terrifying journey. but I'm hoping to share a bit more of it with you. From the research I've done and things I've learned about sustainability when growing and selling cut flowers, to all the bit's and pieces that go on here behind the scenes. What I get up to in the garden, and preparing for deliveries. 

Speak to you soon,
​Emma x