SPEAKER_00 0:00

So we're officially in autumn now, and that signals a build-up to the twenty twenty six BBC Gardeners World Autumn Fair. It's a fabulous celebration of the season at Audley End House and Garden in Saffron Walden in Essex. It's being held from Friday the eleventh to Sunday the thirteenth of September. And at the show will be Cara Thompson, the founder of Make It Flourish. And Cara joins me now. Hello, Cara, how are you?

SPEAKER_01 0:26

Hello, yes, good thank you. Very much looking forward to BBC at Autumn Fair.

SPEAKER_00 0:31

And that you'll be hosting the Floral Crown Workshop. So tell me a little bit more about those and what people can expect.

SPEAKER_01 0:38

It's all about bringing people together, my love for growing flowers, and then my love for design. We'll be using beautiful flowers grown from seed that we cut fresh from Father Gill's trial field in Suffolk, and then we'll be turning them into something completely personal. So I'll guide everyone through making their own flower crowns using natural seasonal flowers and all plastic-free materials. So there's no right and wrong. I want people to have fun, be creative, and leave away something completely beautiful and unique that they've made themselves.

SPEAKER_00 1:13

It means it sounds absolutely wonderful to have this skill and and to for people to come along and and have something that then they can kind of turn into this beautiful floral crown. What tell me a bit more about the flowers that you think? I mean, d pe can people pick whatever? What are the particular kind of good flowers to be putting in things like this?

SPEAKER_01 1:33

So we're going to have a wide range of all different flowers that are grown from feed, and then we're going to have a beautiful range of dahlias as well that are grown from tuba. And so there's people can choose. They can choose what the flower that ma excites them, the flowers that they love. They're going to choose the flowers that are the stars of the show. And then they're going to pick the smaller flowers and the foliage to create the movement and the texture. And I personally think a little bit of wildness is what makes a flower kind really, really beautiful.

SPEAKER_00 2:03

It does sound amazing. Um, Cara, your background is TV art director, isn't it? And you you turn flower grower during lockdown. That's a really kind of interesting journey that you've had. And like you just said, you now you have a passion for growing flowers. What what do you think it it what do you think makes it so important and rewarding to grow flowers instead of just buying them, buying plants from the shop?

SPEAKER_01 2:28

Growing flowers really did change my life. As I say, I was a TV art director when the lockdown happened, still am, um, but growing flowers just gave me a huge amount of hope. When the flowers came, it was flourishing joy. There's an incredible sense of achievement putting in the s the tiny seeds into soil and eventually being able to cut the flower for your home. And once you've grown something from seed, you'll never quite look at that flower the same way again.

SPEAKER_00 2:57

Are there any that are particularly easy? I mean, take me, I'm not I I'm not a gardener. I I hold my hands up, I'm utterly useless, so I get other people to help me. Um but are there any flowers that are particularly easy to grow from seed that you know beginners or children can easily turn to?

SPEAKER_01 3:17

There's so many flowers that are easy to grow, and you know, a huge amount. I mean, every flower is pretty much easy to grow. I mean, when I first started growing, I didn't have a clue what I was doing. I picked up these packs of seeds. I mean, the backs of the packs really, really confused me. Um, but I just had this vision of flowers. I gave them a go. Um, people might have heard this story before, but um I I've I'm on that mission to share the joy of firstly the joy of flowers, but actually how easy growing flowers is. Plants like cosmos, sweet peas, um, vineyards, you know, first. Yeah, your beginners. Yeah, and in the workshops at Audley End, we will have Cosmos, which um will bring bring some inspiration to those. They might want to sew them next year. So we we're gonna have lots of different varieties that people can look at and get ideas so they can then sew these varieties, you know, maybe in the autumn or it might be um in spring next year.

SPEAKER_00 4:21

You've got a lot of experience, haven't you, Cara, with um so you recently led uh a flower sew along to celebrate sixty years of Britain in bloom, and then over the summer you designed a community flower garden in a in a public park. I mean, that's it sounds lovely use of a public space. What what have you have you got much planned for autumn as we're uh uh heading into this this new season? How exciting do you find it?

SPEAKER_01 4:47

Yes, it's so exciting. I mean, that community garden is now a few years old, which blows my mind actually, and with that it's full of um flowers grown from seed as well. Um so yes, these kind of we've got Audly End, which is so exciting. Um I also do some plant design as well, um and workshops at Father Gill's trial fields.

SPEAKER_00 5:11

Tell me about the Audley End. What do you think, visitors, what you're particularly looking forward to? There's so much on offer, isn't there? There's lots of talks, lots of stages, the workshops that you're going to be involved in, obviously. What are you gonna particularly look forward to yourself uh at this autumn fair?

SPEAKER_01 5:28

Do you know what? So three years ago, today, I designed a garden at Audley End. So for me, it has to be I can't wait to go and see all the gardens, all the inspiration, um especially the beautiful borders. Um, you can really take so much from them. Um, yeah, so the gardens at Audley End have a special place in my heart after working on one three years ago. Yeah, and the nurseries as well. You can really, this time of year, it's I find it quite a challenging time to find exactly what you want from garden centres and places. But you've got nurseries from all over the country all coming together in one place, um, and incredible nurseries as well. Um I'm very excited to do a little bit of shopping in between workshops.

SPEAKER_00 6:20

Of course. There's lots of shops, there's lots for everybody to do, isn't there? You've got to you've got to be brave and and and go along and just immerse yourself in the whole experience.

SPEAKER_01 6:28

Definitely, definitely. It's such, I have to say, it's one of my favourite shows. It's a huge highlight of the year. Absolutely love Gardeners World Autumn Fair.

SPEAKER_00 6:39

Well, like we say, it's at Audley End House and Garden in Saffron Walden in Essex. Tickets include entry to the House and Garden, which is spectacular, as Cara has been saying, uh Friday the eleventh to Sunday the thirteenth of September. And you can find out more at BBC Gardenersworld Fair dot com. Cara, thanks very much for your time today and enjoy the fair. Have a wonderful time.

SPEAKER_01 7:02

Thank you so much, and I look forward to seeing everyone at the workshop.