Flower farm in Borders saved by locals after coronavirus sees sales plummet

A flower farm in the Scottish Borders has been saved from the brink of closure thanks to generous local villagers.

Paula Baxter owns Millpond Flower Farm, in Foulden, which has been on the go for eight years and getting bigger and busier each year.

But with weddings and events cancelled due to the pandemic, the farm was looking at the prospect of having to compost over £2,000 worth of flowers, and might not have had the revenue to carry on for next year.

Luckily for them the people who live in the area have been buying bunches of flowers for themselves to kept the farm afloat.

Paula said: "A lot of the flowers we sell go for weddings and events, and they have all been cancelled or rescheduled so that big element of our market has disappeared completely, not just for these weeks but probably until September.

"We've had to plan, re-plan, do some more planning and try and find a way to continue working and selling flowers with just two of us. It's been a real challenge.

Residents like Sarah Jamieson saw a plea from the farm on Facebook, and have ordered extra bunches to help keep the business afloat.

She said: "I think we are all doing more just now thinking about local rather than big supermarkets.

"There are lots of events and birthdays that people are missing so it's a really nice thing to do as well."

Paula says these sales have saved the farm. She said "It's been our only income so it's been enormous really, in global terms it's not a huge amount of money but it keeps us going.

"This time of year is normally successful for us we sell a lot of spring flowers into early summer and it pays for the rest of the season so it means we can keep going.

"We could do any job but we sell flowers because we love flowers and like them to be appreciated and sold and it's made a difference to us personally as well as financially."

Thanks to the kindness and generosity of the local community the farm has been able to start planning and planting for next year