A COMMERCIAL flower grower in Worcestershire is being featured on BBC television today (Wednesday January 17) as part of a daytime series called The Farmers’ Country Showdown.

Natalie Davis, who runs The Artisan Flower Company at Hanbury, was filmed on the farm where she grows British flowers for weddings and other events and at the RHS Malvern Autumn Show last year where her display received a silver award.

Natalie has been growing flowers on a half-acre plot for three or four years but only set up her business 18 months ago after doing the flowers for her own wedding. She said a number of people started asking her to do flowers for them and it gave her the idea for her business.

She said the BBC approached her about filming what she does and came to the farm a week before the Autumn Show to get the background story to her and her business.

She said: “I was very happy about it – not because I wanted to promote my business but because I feel genuinely passionate about British flowers.”

She feels far too many flowers are imported into Britain when people could buy British produced blooms.

Tomorrow’s programme also covers the fortunes of Cate Morris, from Deerhurst in Gloucestershire, who lives on a farm and is a passionate florist – doing arrangements for weddings and the local church. The show is on BBC One at 3.45pm tomorrow.

Each episode of The Farmers’ Country Showdown features two families who farm similar produce or have diversified in similar ways as they prepare for the same major event in their agricultural calendar.

Carla-Maria Lawson, the BBC’s Commissioning Editor for Programming and Daytime, said: “These hard-working, devoted farmers are the backbone of the rural economy – this series uniquely illustrates the changing face of farming as well as celebrating the traditional ways of working the land that live on through these families.”