A green-fingered group of parishioners in Princes Risborough are hoping to grow their own floral displays for church.
The ‘growing for God’ initiative, at St Mary’s Church, is part of the church’s drive to be more sustainable and environmentally friendly. Having used flowers grown locally since last summer, the flower arrangers will now be using blooms grown even closer to home.
Jacky Biddlecomb, who leads the flower arranging volunteers, said: “I was feeling a bit guilty about using floristry foam and I had heard lots about it being a micro plastic and not being very good for the environment. Following meeting at the diocese I discovered a flower farmer just down the road at Bledlow. So for a time we used buckets of flowers from there – adding to it from flowers/greenery foraged locally, without using foreign grown flowers grown in hot houses with pesticides.
“I sourced seeds and I thought there are a lot of people in our church who have gardens. I chose seeds which gave us as long a growing season as possible. We’re hoping for flowers from April to October, if everything flourishes.”
Now the 30 gardeners are busy tending to their greenshoots to be ready when Jacky and the team need fresh foliage. The flowers will also be arranged using wire mesh instead of floristry foam to cut down on plastic waste. And the growers are planning to meet soon, to share advice, tips and fellowship too.
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