We have been continually surprised and gratified by how much joy our flowers are bringing to people’s lives during this difficult period when friends and family have often been out of reach and many of our everyday pleasures are unavailable to us. As a small team led and inspired by our founder, Rosebie Morton, we are lucky to have been able to pull together to support each other in order to carry on – as well as being boosted by positive messages from those who are enjoying our bouquets. To find out more about approaches to the crisis, we decided to ask owners and directors of other small family firms how they are coping – on both a business and personal level.
"We have made a big effort to stay in touch with our clients and to send upbeat and positive messages to help everyone to feel uplifted. One of the ways we did this was to send 165 of our clients a bouquet from The Real Flower Company! We hoped this would send a message of sunshine and cheer – as well as keeping us in touch with our supporters. The whole process was managed seamlessly and the flowers were stunning – so much so that I even ordered a bouquet for my own family."
"Like flowers, a cup of tea can be a valuable comfort in a crisis. So we have been sending supplies of tea to all the people any of our team knows who work in hospitals or other frontline services as well as to our friends in hospitality who have kept their doors open for key workers. To continue this, we recently launched our ‘Buy One, Gift One’ initiative, where for every box of English Breakfast or Earl Grey tea bags purchased on our online shop, we donate one to a different essential service each week. We are also monitoring the social distancing measures taken by our suppliers in Darjeeling and elsewhere – we feel it is so important to support those who are looking after us as well as to look after those who are supporting us."
"Our brand is inspired by the richness of nature within the British Isles so we’ve been encouraging our customers to explore the possibilities within their own gardens – if they are lucky enough to have one – as well as to appreciate nature’s bounties. On a personal level, I’m finding that it’s important to keep in close contact, feel connected to and support loved ones during this time, so I’ve been been sending more cards and little gifts in the post to friends who have special things to celebrate or need a little cheering up."
"I am finding there are so many things to be grateful for during this ‘Covid interruptus’ time, not least the sunshine and cow parsley and precious time to savour both. I love the way we all have such respect for the people who have carried on working, people whom we should have noticed and been grateful for long before now. I love the way families have had to live together, uninterrupted by commutes and meetings and working elsewhere, and that the highlight of our day is a daily walk. I love that old people are our focus rather than our burden. I love the fact that we will all have to re-think life and how we will live it in the future. There will be a life after Covid 19 and I feel it will be a much more thoughtful, kinder, gentler one."
The natural world has flourished during lockdown, and our Hampshire farm is filled with the scent of glorious English flowers such as sweet peas, catmint, white rocket and rosemary. Our Fresh from the Farm English Flower Box and English Pick of the Day Bouquet both contain a freshly picked selection of the best of each day’s flowers – or you can explore our English Flower Collection here.