Verve

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All Gave Some All Gave Some shirts, apparel, posters are available at dlbstores.

It is my absolute and final pleasure on this profile to introduce you to Euan and Nicola, the new owners of 27 Centre Valley Road and Verve. I couldn’t have hoped for a more perfect outcome... Please join me in welcoming them to Marlborough, and especially at the market on Sunday mornings. These very lovely two come to the flowers with a fresh approach, having consciously chosen the soil and community... Beautiful wishes, guys! My bestest and most humble contribution would be: make compost, always pinch, pick looow, and try not to work too hard! Have fun!! I’m beaming good vibes and lots of love from Africa. 🌸👩🏻‍🌾💚

Last post before I introduce you to the very lovely folks who’ll be your new hosts here, and hand over/sign off officially...

Exactly when and how or why I became a flower grower, I still don’t quite know. I am humbled by the process, grateful to each and every encounter it made possible - including living in New Zealand for what became a quarter of my existence thus far - and determined to see it all through in some way, shape or form in the country of my bones.

The American philosopher-farmer, Wendell Berry is quoted as saying: To be interested in food but not in food production is clearly absurd.

For me it has always been thus with flowers... We don’t eat them but they can only but come to us via the earth, the soil. The might of the metaphor implied in the sense that flowers nourish us on a deeper or higher level is not lost on me as you can imagine. I’d even venture: that our mental and emotional faculties are stimulated and soothed by beings rooted in and harvested from the earth leads us back to the soil, too. As all of life does. How flowers are grown matters, mightily. In ineffable ways too.

Wendell Berry I think is also on the record with something along the lines that eating is an agricultural act. Perhaps my parting phrase would borrow from this and proclaim that communing with flowers - be it on your kitchen table, the farmers market, your wedding, a loved one’s passing and very much in your own garden - is an agricultural act. It is an ecological one too, and to my mind a psychological necessity.

Thank you, always and forever. For your custom but also for helping me articulate some of these themes over the years by being receptive, warm and kind.

I’ve started posting at if you’d like to stay in touch via Insta.

Next stop New Owners!

Jxx

Last few days on the farm and with my South Pacific tribe... Thought it appropriate to show off a little in retrospect, courtesy of , , and . So much love and gratitude, Marlborough!

We’ll be at the féte on Sunday morning, with these in tow!

Such beautiful feedback from our tribe at every Sunday about these... Anemone c. “Galilee”. Thank you for making Sunday mornings an absolute highlight!

My dear friend and fellow farmer-florist, Kylie Sargeant of Owen Valley Flowers, is hosting a dreamy day out at Owen River Lodge near Murchison on the 24th of this month! I'll post the Event link next. Kylie is a spirited, high energy flower grower and florist, originally from Aus. She's been a friend and colleague of ours for years and is much admired and loved by the flower grower family in NZ... and she's got much to share, including the stunning surroundings of the Lodge itself and a meal by its head chef using local produce and paired with Neudorf wines. Might see you there! I can't think of a nicer girls day out! Jx

It’s all happening... in spite of the annus horribilis that 2020’s been, spring still arrived and we’re still farming, joyfully. 🌸🥰🌏🌈💗

No matter the gale force winds or torrential rain... Thank you for reaching for local, organically grown flowers to mark life’s rites and celebrations and even its bereavements with. I am well aware of how important a role it is, and it’s all the more special during these weeks of preparing to welcome new owners to the farm.

Our SEASONAL SPRING BOUQUET is live at www.verveflowers.co.nz. Season 2020/21 here we come! Local flowers, grown with integrity... styled with soul.

Thank you for the market love, Marlborough!!