THIS IS a summary of OUR merri JOURNEY

PRE 2017

I (Rachelle) was a Consumer and Technical Insight Research for Unilever. Julian worked as a builder within his family-run business. Both of us had a passion for growing our own vegetables and flowers. Rachelle had a dream she wanted to realise in the form of a cut flower farm, but only had the time (& energy) to realise this as a side hustle.

Julian set about hand planting 5000 Christmas Tree saplings with help from his Dad on family-owned land to create a direct from the farm tree choosing farm.

Year 1, 2017

Julian set up in business under the name MERRI and started selling flowers and Nordmann Fir spruce to local florists.

Year 2, 2018

Rachelle started co-hosting workshops with local florists to raise the awareness of the flower farm and how beautiful British Grown Flowers are. We started hosting PYO Flower Experiences at our farm, and 2018 was our 1st year selling ‘Merri’ Christmas Trees direct from our farm.

 Year 3, 2019

Rachelle quit her job at Unilever at the start of July!

Rachelle also started hosting Wreath Making Workshops at the farm.

Year 4, 2020

COVID-19 RESTRICTIONS IMPACTED OUR BUSINESS.

We started delivering bunches of flowers to local flower lovers who were not able to purchase flowers due to lock down restrictions. We started selling mixed buckets of flowers to local florists to they could keep their businesses afloat. Thankfully COVID didn’t affect our Christmas Tree sales.

Year 5, 2021

Rachelle started re-hosting PYO Flower experiences at the farm made possible by hosting in small group to avoid visitor needing to be in close contact. Delivering flowers in 2020 prompted us to start up ‘Friday Flower Subscription’ deliveries within 10 miles of our farm.

Year 6, 2022

We kick started our first ever Easter Egg Hunt within our Christmas Tree plot (and donated over £200 to Sue Ryder Moggerhanger from our ticket sales)

Our first ever ‘VIP Tree Tagging Days’ as a nod of appreciation to our returning customers.

YEAR 7, 2023

PYO Experiences with option for Tea/Coffee & Cake launched

Create Your Own Bouquet & Wreath Making Workshops launched.

YEAR 8, 2024

NEW

MERRI Lady Gardeners Club to encourage ladies to connect with nature and promote British Flower growing.