Fran Bailey’s love of flowers and floristry stems from a childhood spent with parents who ran a Yorkshire nursery and garden centre. After moving to London as a freelancer more than 30 years ago, her career and company has evolved, and Fran has been a customer of the Market ever since

Fran’s father Jacob Verhoef came to the UK in 1952 to work in the flower industry, at a time when English growers were first cottoning on to the opportunity to tap into advanced Dutch horticultural expertise.

“He came over to manage a nursery in Yorkshire. When the owner retired, he took it on and it became The Dutch Nurseries,” says Fran. “My mum Audrey was a big part of the business and they built a house on the land, so in my early years, I was surrounded by carnations grown in glasshouses and outside dahlias.”

Jacob is still going strong, at 96. Fran recalls: “He was breeding and growing plug plants to sell to other growers and he was very successful. When the oil crisis hit in the early ‘70s, ironically the competition from Holland was too much, so while I was still young he converted it into a garden centre and flower shop. He still grew a few acres, and I used to water plants and get my hands dirty.

“I don’t remember wanting to be a florist, but I ended up flunking my exams and going to the Welsh College of Horticulture, in Mold. The college was lovely and we had all the grounds with cut flowers and foliage, so it was a great grounding. I went there wanting to do landscape design or growing, but swapped courses to floristry when I realised that was my really what I wanted to do.”

On finishing her course, in the early ‘90s Fran moved to London and set herself up as a freelance florist. After short spells in Chiswick and Islington, she’s been in South East London for more than 30 years. “I’ve worked with some really good florists in some lovely venues – my favourite memory was probably working with Ming Veevers Carter – but most of the time I worked as a freelance for Dee Hine Floral Design. I was 29 with two kids when Dee decided to sell the business, but my dad had always told me to look out for an established business that is for sale.”

So, Fran bought that business. “It had some great contracts like the Portrait Gallery and the National Gallery and because the event organisers knew me, it was quite an easy transition. Those were different times when you didn’t have to pitch for jobs every year. That world changed and because I was relatively small, I lost a lot of business to larger operators who started to get all the work. At the same time though, the area around East Dulwich was on the up and North Cross Road had a nice Saturday market and a few little independents were opening up. There were three other florists on Lordship Lane at the time, would you believe, but we all had different styles and could offer different things to different people. So, in 1998, I took the site on, established The Fresh Flower Company and after working on weddings and events at first, opened my first flower shop in 2006. We’ve built up a really loyal bunch of customers.

“I opened Forest in East Dulwich in 2013, right at the beginning of the houseplant boom. I had a workshop down the road and to help pay the rent I opened up half of it to sell plants. There weren’t many other outlets for houseplants at the time and The Fresh Flower Company was fine, for a while it seemed everyone wanted plants.”

Of course, others cottoned on to the trend and soon there were plenty of high-street and online plant outlets to compete with. A second Forest opened in Deptford in 2017 and kept the look and feel of its predecessor, but also sells cut flowers. Fran says: “That is run by my eldest daughter Alice. We also have a warehouse in Deptford, which is mainly for stock but occasionally is used as a workshop and we also run monthly floristry classes.”

Not surprisingly, COVID changed things again for Fran, as a rent hike made the original Forest’s location untenable. However, as fate would have it, further along North Cross Road another option arose and while the plant side of the business isn’t quite as busy as it used to be, it moved into what used to be a café and added coffee and a larger range of homeware and gifts into the mix. “In the flower shop I like to be really purist – no balloons, chocolates etc… – but in Forest, we’ve been able to expand the offer and separate the sister shops,” she says.

The pandemic was responsible for an even bigger transition for the business. “I’d always had the itch to get back into growing,” says Fran, but it’s hard enough making a living as a florist and growing in London wasn’t an option. I’d always bought a lot of English flowers, visited nurseries and supported growers, but I never thought I could do it,” Fran admits. “During the first Lockdown, I separated from my husband. We both found new partners and mine lived in Kent. It allowed me to think more about diversifying the business and we found a plot of land with a barn in Deal.

“The Barn only has half an acre. The season runs from March to October, starting in the spring with tulips, ranunculus and anemones. Early summer we are cropping sweet peas, roses, larkspur and cornflowers and then into the autumn we finish with dahlias, zinnias, grasses and rudbeckia. Already, during the season I’m able to supply roughly 20% of the flowers my business needs. I don’t sell anywhere else. I’m realistic, I think. I can’t just buy English for weddings, as brides have very eclectic tastes and specific requirements and you have to manage those expectations, but also give them what they want in the end. If I need to supplement 80% from The Barn with 20% from the market or another grower, then I’ll be flexible, otherwise I’d soon come unstuck.”

Fran and her partner started out living in an old wagon at the farm. “It’s never going to be Grand Designs, but we’ve got one room of the house done now, with a stove in it!” she laughs. “I love it and stay down there two or three days a week growing, before coming back to London for the latter part of the week when we have weddings on.

“When I’m in London, I spend most of my time in the workshop, though I still do plenty of events alongside the shop work. I love being out and about in my white van, basically being the gofer in the business – a skip on wheels! I’m trying to get work down in Kent as well as there are some great venues down there too.”

 Market connections

Fran has been buying flowers, plants and foliage from New Covent Garden Flower Market for more than 30 years, essentially since she rocked up in London. “I’d feel there was something missing if I didn’t go at least once a week,” she says. “I used to be there three or four days a week, but that’s changed a bit as my business has changed.

“I know you can get deliveries from Holland, but I just need to see the product and chat with the guys to know what I can get hold of in the next few weeks. It’s a vital part of my business and if I wasn’t there, I’d feel really disconnected. The knowledge of the traders is supreme – I deal with everyone and go to different firms for different things, of course.

“As everyone knows, prices are really high at the moment, which is a worry. I’ve always focused on the higher end of the market as you just can’t compete when supermarkets are selling bunches of flowers for cheaper than I can buy them. So, I sell the best quality, swallow the prices where I can and try to educate the customer about what they are getting. It makes it tougher when the prices I pay rise significantly, but I’m lucky that a lot of my customers do understand and are really supportive.”

The British growing buzz emanated from the period in Lockdown when florists in the UK just couldn’t get deliveries, and Market traders were unable to sell them. “Everyone jumped on it and the fact that Flowers from the Farm has over a thousand members illustrates the impact it has had. I think people have realised the reality of doing it and the hard work involved. Thankfully most people are still doing it, but you need a reliable customer base," Fran says. “A few of the guys in the market have asked if I would be interested in selling to them. I’m definitely not big enough to do that and we have our own outlet. I was looking to expand at first, but it’s hard work.”

Florist family

As the business has evolved, so too has the team of people working within it. “I’ve got a great team – four of us in The Fresh Flower Company’s North Cross Road workshop and 10 working for Forest,” Fran says. “My three daughters have all been involved in different ways, sometimes reluctantly! My eldest Alice worked in East Dulwich for some time and is a really good florist – she set up and runs the shop in Deptford and is particularly good on the cut flowers side of things. We’re on the same wavelength, but she’s definitely more organised, better at paperwork and dealing with staff!

“Maddie did an RHS course and loves getting her hands dirty. She’s helped me a lot down at The Barn. She has just gone off to Patagonia, to volunteer for a second time on an organic farm in Chile. She loves doing that, but I would hope she’ll be back with us when she returns."

The youngest, Thea, was perhaps the most reluctant to join the family business, but the idea may be growing on her. "I’ve never exactly pushed them into it, but it’s been a way to earn some cash and you either love it or you don’t," Fran explains. "Thea’s a lovely sociable person and is great with the customers. Helping me at The Barn in all weathers is less of her bag, but she’s said she’s going to do it, so we’ll see how that goes!”