Arun award winners celebrate British Flower Week in style

Beachtown Blooms and Crosslands Flower Nursery have a great history of collaborating together. Back in early 2020 when there were rumours of a global pandemic, Ben visited Dave at his first pop-up shop at The Brewhouse Project, they clicked instantly and a floral bond was born. Dave remembers Ben explaining that his alstroemeria grow all year round and that they were coming into their peak season. The news was breaking that only essential shops could stay open, and that florists had to shut the doors to the public. This meant Ben had thousands of stems that needed to find homes and a plan was hatched.

With time to kill, they both hit their social media platforms and their predicament was picked up by the national press. Dave said: “One morning I woke up to over 100 messages. The phone started ringing and it was from people all over the country who had read our story on the homepage of the BBC news page. When I read the article, I realised they had put my mobile number as the method of contact. It was pure carnage in the best way.”

The pair got to work and started something special. Ben would deliver the flowers to Dave's doorstep in the dead of night, then Dave would put them in the bath tub until it was time to pack the blooms in letterbox sized boxes the following morning, so all deliveries could be contactless. For a good three months they were sending out 200 boxes a day.

Dave said: “I would spend all day on the phone to people that were shielding, they weren't seeing friends and family and had no one to talk to. I would be packing the flowers whilst chatting to Margaret from Poole or Jools from Bradford. I made some really strong relationships from those calls and are still in contact with a lot of the people still to this day.”

One day, Dave was getting ready to take that days orders down to the post office when his phone rang. A lady was asking for some flowers to be sent to an unusual address, because the person that was staying there, was recovering from covid.

The conversation continued and when it got to taking the gentleman's name and address the lady said it was for a 'Boris Johnson, and the address is the Chequers Estate'. Dave recalls the call and said: “I thought it was a wind up. Sending flowers to the Prime Minister. That's just bonkers.”

The following week, another phone call took place. It was the same lady, but this time she wanted the flowers to be sent to another strange address. This time it was 'Boris and Carrie, at 10 Downing Street'. This time it was to congratulate them on the birth of their child. The pair thought: “Great, a repeat customer.” They must be doing something right.

Over the lockdown period the floral duo sent out over 40,000 stems of locally grown alstroemerias to thousands of customers all over the UK. They have continued to go from strength to strength, grow their individual businesses whilst continuing to support each other.

Between them, they have won multiple awards and they want to celebrate their love for British blooms with their local community. The pair will be rounding up British Flower Week with a guided tour and floral workshop held at Crosslands Flower Farm on the June 30.

Dave said: “We want to celebrate our floral venture and shout out the importance of buying British flowers. With the impacts of Brexit, various lockdowns and now the cost of living crisis, it's been a real struggle to keep our heads above the water. We are fighters and pride ourselves on providing our community with the finest flowers.”

To book onto the evening, you can follow the link: beachtownblooms.com/events