In a recent study, 88% of people reported that the act of giving flowers made them feel happier.* “We liked the idea, but we also wanted to find out what effect giving flowers had on people for ourselves,” explains The Real Flower Company's managing director, Jane Hamilton. “Our British flowers usually have a superior scent to imported blooms, and we carefully select the flowers we grow on our English flower farms for their beautiful scent as well as for their shape and colour,” says Jane. “Gifts with a scent awaken your olfactory system, which is the sense most closely linked to memory and emotion. That’s why people often have such a profound reaction to being given flowers."
To test the theory, we filled our van with posies of English seasonal flowers grown on our English flower farm in Hampshire and headed to central London to see how people would react to being given flowers – whether as an unexpected gesture or by someone they knew. You can see the results in this heartwarming short film made in association with the NFU.
British Flowers Week starts on 19 June, so please join us in supporting English flower farmers. We grow over 250 types of roses, sweet peas, peonies, dahlias and English flowers on our flower farms in the south of England, as well as a wealth of seasonal foliage which is available throughout the year. You can discover our range of seasonal English bouquets here – or if you are a florist or event planner you can find out more about our trade sales here.
*Rutgers University research.
