Our Story

Whether you are looking for gift flowers to be delivered in the Winchester area or nationally by courier, memorial, party or wedding flowers, we at Sweetbriar Flowers can bring a magical, artistic and unique floral flourish with gorgeous flowers, using sustainable floristry techniques.

We are proud members of Flowers from the Farm, the award-winning membership association for artisan cut flower growers in the UK.

Emma and Paul first met when they were at Bedales School in Hampshire in 1992. Then in 2005, they met again at a mutual friend’s party in London and have been together ever since! Between them they have woven rich and varied career paths through the music industry, marketing, executive coaching, acting, herbalism, animal behaviour and welfare, equine therapies, broadcasting, conservation, construction and charity work. 

Working with brands such as Ministry of Sound, Virgin Media, Marwell Wildlife, volunteering for The RSPCA and providing respite foster care for 18 children over 18 months,  Emma and Paul are community-minded, multi-skilled creatives. They thrive on variety, interesting and engaging challenges, creating beautiful things and working together with nature and people.

As for many people, the pandemic was a pivotal time for Paul and Emma. Having worked at Marwell Wildlife in Hampshire with great dedication for over 10 years, Paul’s role as Head of Marketing was suddenly made redundant. This came as an enormous blow as it was so much more than a job; it was a vocation. Having become deeply passionate about conservation and sustainability in the time he’d been working there and led on many successful projects, having that role suddenly taken away was painful and very difficult. Over the weeks that followed, no longer sitting at a desk every day, Paul started to make things with his hands. At first, he started weaving beautiful mats and containers from phormium leaves cleared from the garden. Then he started to make things out of wood, planters, benches, a seat surrounding an entire tree. Suddenly working with his hands opened up endless new possibilities and woodwork revealed itself as a latent skill.

At this time, Emma was working as a qualified animal behaviourist and although she’d managed to transfer to running consultations online, she missed the in-person element of visiting those horses and owners in need of her help. She felt frustrated and unable to do her job properly. So she started growing things. Just tomatoes at first, then cucumbers, then lettuce, then sunflowers, the garden gradually became her workplace and a place of nurturing. Suddenly Paul and Emma had a lot of plants, more than they needed for themselves, so they decided to put them out for sale at the end of their drive. The pandemic silver-lining (let’s face it, there were a few!) was that the garden centres were still closed at this time. Their plants started selling. Their plants were good and strong and more and more people learnt of their stand at the end of their drive. It quickly became a thing!  

What also became clear was that it was time for a new adventure. So in December 2020, Paul and Emma moved to Sweetbriar Farm in Owslebury, Hampshire along with Emma’s parents and a menagerie of animals. It provided the peace and sanctuary they all needed. Over the past five years, the true beauty and potential of Sweetbriar has gradually revealed itself. Starting again with excess tomato plants at the gate, then punnets of tomatoes and cucumbers, a gradual and organic metamorphosis to today’s charming and nostalgic Sweetbriar farmstand unfurled.

Now Sweetbriar Flowers is a busy little cottage industry, with the farmstand at the farm gate Fridays – Sundays and sending out bespoke orders for local and national delivery 5 days a week from the farm. Emma and Paul combine their own seasonal homegrown flowers with British-grown flowers from hand-picked suppliers. Well-loved cottage garden favourites including tulips, sweet peas, dahlias, zinnias and snapdragons grace the farmstand, depending on the season. 

Having previously owned a successful floristry business in Marylebone, London for 8 years, Emma has returned to the world of flowers after nearly 17 years of working in animal behaviour and therapies. Building on her previous floristry experience in London, Emma actively seeks out the very best in continued professional development with industry leaders such as Rachel Wardley at Tallulah Rose Flower School and Lucy Vail's 'From Farm to Masterpiece' inaugural course, to bring you natural, ethereal and theatrical florals.

In tandem with Sweetbriar Flowers, Paul started his own woodwork business, Raven About Wood, offering bespoke creations from up-cycled and sustainable wood.