When you ask 'Mary, Mary, quite contrary, how does your garden grow?' the question is much easier when they are down the street.
And a Cardross flower farmer is urging residents to swap flown-in flowers for local blooms as part of Great Big Green Week.
Jenn Florence is one of a group of more than 40 flower farmers joining forces to turn away from the international flower trade.
The 38-year-old runs Wylde Florence flowers from Ardardan Estate, and was working as a fashion designer in Glasgow when she decided to grow her own flowers for her wedding.
That opened her eyes to the sky-high air miles involved in shipping flowers globally, as well as chemical pesticides and fertilisers.
Jenn Florence with a fresh harvest of flowers (Image: Contributed)
Jenn said: "I don’t think people realise that you can grow beautiful flowers right here in Scotland.
"Loads of the imported flowers are coated in really harmful chemicals which are not only bad for the flowers but are bad for us. Some of the roses that come in actually rot from the inside because of the amount of chemicals used.
"I use natural fertilisers made from seaweed, nettles and other plants, and I encourage beneficial insects in.
"Once you let nature find its balance you’ll find that things even out and you won’t need to use chemicals."
Denise Murphy, 54, runs Helensburgh Flowers and takes a delivery from Wylde Florence every Friday.
She said: "People are absolutely asking for Scottish flowers now.
"Being able to incorporate Jenn’s flowers into our designs is a game changer for me. It’s been good for business, and for our profile on social media.
"People are more aware of what they’re purchasing these days. We had a big wedding recently and they specified that they wanted all the flowers to be locally grown.
"There’s no reason why we couldn’t do more local flowers in Scotland. Look at Holland – they have the same climate as us."
(Image: Contributed)
Great Big Green Week runs from June 8 to 16 and aims inspire Scots to lead greener lives.
The cut flower sector continues to grow, if you'll pardon the pun, at 2.5 per cent a year, and employs more than 25,000 people across the UK.
There are more than 8,000 businesses in the sector, and 42 per cent of those working in the industry are self-employed.
National organisation Flowers Grown in Scotland says many micro farms in the country are women entrepreneurs.
Claire Dyce, chair of Flowers Grown in Scotland, said: "We’d like to get more focus on Scottish flowers as a growing industry, and we think they deserve to be clearly labelled in the same way as Scottish meat and vegetables."
To swap to locally grown flowers, search Flowers Grown in Scotland at www.flowersgrowninscotland.co.uk to find local farmers or ask at a florist for locally-grown blooms.
Great Big Green Week is organised by The Climate Coalition.
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