FLOWERS figure strongly in Lauren Printy Currie’s vivid memories of her childhood.
“The perfume of the roses in my gran’s garden – that scent is so evocative,” she recalls. “Watching my mum at work in the flower shop…the treehouse my dad built for me in our beautiful pear tree….
“I was practically raised in a flower shop, and I have always loved being around flowers and plants. I feel at home in the garden.”
Lauren and her mother Louisina run Days of Dahlia, a flower farm and studio which is quietly revolutionising the industry with its attention to locally grown flowers and minimal environmental impact.
“Floristry has moved a long way away from its horticultural roots,” explains Lauren. “The flowers we see in the shops today come from all over the world, and there is no context, no story there.
“Also, there’s the environmental impact - not many people are aware, for example, that floral foam, that green stuff that’s used to hold flowers in place, contains some really terrible ingredients including formaldehyde. It’s such an issue that the RHS has banned it from the Chelsea Flower Show for 2021.”
Based in countryside on the south side of Glasgow, not far from the East Renfrewshire village of Eaglesham, Days of Dahlia specialises in locally grown flowers, seasonal weddings and floristry workshops.
During March to October, the two women grow their own flowers and plants; during the rest of the year they buy from growers in the south of England where the climate allows for an extended growing season.
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Artist and sculptor Lauren, who previously ran the Duchy Gallery on Duke Street, explains: “My mum is a florist to trade, she ran the flower shop next to my grandparents' grocer shop, Billy’s, on Kilmarnock Road. They were well-known characters in the area.
“I’d been working as an artist for 10 years and I wasn’t enjoying the pace of it. The life of a freelancer was pretty precarious. So we thought about combining our skills and setting up the business. I felt there was a real gap in the market, for wild, garden-style flowers. And that’s where it began.”
Before our chat, Lauren has been occupied making festive wreaths – delicate collections of fragrant evergreens, herbs and dried flowers made with foliage and moss grown on the farm.
“Bringing evergreens into the home at the start of winter is a beautiful and ancient tradition,” Lauren explains.
“The materials are humble, simple, natural, beautiful, and actually very traditional. But in a holiday season so saturated with plastic decorations and throwaway items - they somehow seem radical and new.”
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Running a business throughout the pandemic has been a huge challenge, says Lauren. “Everything in the events sector came to a halt,” she explains. “We had to adapt quickly. It has been hard, but we have enjoyed developing that side of it, and our mantra stays the same. We want our flowers to be the most beautiful you have ever seen.”
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