My Story
Hello I'm Catherine from Cloudberry Flowers and Jewellery. I am passionate about growing scented seasonal flowers to make you smile. I grow and sell my flowers from my garden in the Scottish Borders for local customers who would like a jar arrangement, bouquet or bucket of flowers. I also provide flowers for florists who would like to use British grown stems in their arrangements. My flowers are available throughout the growing season from April to October.
I love to be creative with the flowers I grow and now make beautiful real flower jewellery with them which makes a special gift. It is available all year round from my online shop and can be posted worldwide.
Biodegradable confetti is brilliant for adding that extra touch to decorate at a wedding or event or to throw over a special couple getting married. I make my own from the flowers I grow and it is available all year to order from my online shop too.
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My journey growing cut flowers started in January 2014. I was inspired by the television programme 'The Great British Garden Revival' which had an episode dedicated to cut flowers and discussed how the flower farms in Britain had largely died out as a result of increased availability from other countries. There was a small number of people trying to change this and bring back British grown flowers into our homes. My new garden was an acre of blank canvas made up of a grass field, green shrub borders, a huge lawn area and trees. There was little in the way of colour except in May with the rhododendrons at the bottom of the garden. I was filled with an enthusiasm for bringing back country garden flowers to people in Peebles and set about digging.
I had always had a love of the outdoors and flowers, whether growing wild in parts of Scotland as meadows, flowering heather on the hills, or roses despite the elements flourishing in my grannies Orkney garden. The freedom having a large garden as a child gave me was special. There were always places to hide, build a den, climb a tree or help mum harvest raspberries in the summer. I was fortunate my parents loved to garden and each time they moved it was to a house with lots of outdoor space in which to play and have my own small patches to grow in. My dad was always landscaping, building new flower beds, rockeries, paths, ponds and my mum would fill the beds with flowers and roses.
Having always wanted to be a Doctor but not quite getting the grades I left home to do a degree in Physiology at St Andrews university and then went on to Glasgow to train as a dietitian. My first job as a dietitian was in Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS trust. I loved my time there and working with my patients. My first home had a tiny patch of garden and with the arrival of my first daughter little space or time for growing, but I dabbled with pots and hanging baskets and enjoyed having my first ever space I could call my own. Still on maternity leave we had to relocate to Scotland with my husbands job and this brought us to the Scottish Borders. We spent time renting a farm cottage, bought a house and then had 2 more daughters, which eventually led us to our forever home, a victorian villa with an acre of land in town. One evening in January 2014 a year after moving in I watched the 'Great British Garden Revival' and that was it, I was truly inspired. I knew I could turn my love of seasonal scented flowers into something tangible using this land I now had to work with.I had come back to what had been such a large part of my childhood and was now doing it for myself.
In spring 2014 I started to dig my first beds, grow my first seeds and after many mishaps (rabbits, Scottish weather and slugs!) I finally had some flowers by late August. They lasted just a few weeks before the first frosts came. I made those first flowers into a few jar arrangements for friends, who gave me some great feedback. Their encouragement and now knowing that other people loved seasonal flowers gave me the confidence to go away research, read and plan over the winter. By early 2015 I was ready to start growing Cloudberry Flowers as a business, providing customers with the seasonal scented flowers I love so much.
Over the last 6 years I have expanded my growing area adding new beds each year. I continue to grow my favourite annuals from seed as well as trialling new varieties. I have found a whole new part of me that is creative and I have loved developing biodegradable confetti and a range of jewellery made using my flowers. At times I have thought should I return to the NHS as a dietitian which I loved but the pull of the garden and growing always has me and as each new season starts there is always the same passion for flowers, learning and getting stuck in out in the garden.
I am really looking forward to a new season in 2021 sharing my love for locally grown seasonal flowers that make you smile and fill your homes with fragrant beautiful country garden blooms and that special piece of jewellery for someone you love.
