November Guest Gardener

Catch up with Ochre Botanical Studios

I caught up with Marion to hear what Ochre Botanical Studios is all about and some of the exciting things they have ahead of them. We have started to work with them on a few workshops with our next one, a Christmas Wreath Making one on 30th November in our greenhouse, plus we also provide some of their cut flowers. Have a read about their inspiring ethos and the care they put into everything they do.

1. Tell us about Ochre Botanical Studios and your involvement

Ochre is a cutting garden and floristry collective that we established in 2020. There are 6 of us in the collective; all of us having met whilst working in the industry over the years. We are united by our love for unique and characterful seasonal flowers and formed Ochre as a way to champion these and share our love of flowers with others.

2. What is the ethos and inspiration behind Ochre?

Ochre is about working in harmony with the seasons, enjoying flowers in their most natural forms (and scents!), and doing so with a mindfulness of sustainability and environmentalism. One of the reasons we started Ochre was in reaction to the moral compromises that we were often asked to make when working in the industry; e.g. the use of imported, homogenised and scentless flowers that are usually treated with harmful pesticides and chemicals, or the use of floral foam in arrangements (which is essentially a single-use microplastic) etc. Through Ochre, we are able to make the choice to grow our flowers pesticide-free, use foam-free mechanics in our work and inform our customers about why choosing to buy locally grown, seasonal flowers is really important.

3. Do you grow your own flowers and foliage or buy them in?

We do both! We are very lucky to have a small growing space within a community garden in North Edinburgh where we (try our best to) grow all our favourite varieties. It’s not a very big space which means that we are sometimes limited in our capacity to cater for larger scale weddings and events, especially if the client has a particular colour-palette in mind, which is quite common with wedding floristry. When we need to supplement our supply, we use a network of other local British growers who are able to give us the scale we need. They are usually much better at growing than us and are full of generosity and insight!

4. What do you love most about what you do?

A lot! It feels like a privilege to love your job so much. Each season brings an opportunity to work with and appreciate a favourite seasonal stem that is rich with scent and visual interest. Lots of oohing and ahhing happens. Our collective approach means that we are able to collaborate with one another on various projects, and to share inspiration, skills and knowledge.

5. What challenges do you face?

Finding the time to get all the jobs done! Every year we promise ourselves that we will keep on top of the garden jobs throughout the year, but by the time May rolls into June and weddings are also in full swing, we usually struggle to get everything done in both aspects of our business. We have started to make peace with the inevitability of it all…maybe.

6. What have you got coming up that people can get involved in/experience?

As we head into the colder months, we’ve got a variety of cosy activities planned across Edinburgh and its surrounds. We’ve got several festive wreath-making workshops coming up - including a return to the wonderful Preston Hall greenhouse on Thursday 30th November - and some pop-up shops at Mote102 for grab-n-go gifting opportunities. All the details are on our website.

Information and booking details about the Wreath Making Workshop at Preston Hall