Our story

Since I was a young girl growing up in Tipperary, I always had a deep love for the countryside and nature. I come from a family of keen gardeners and was lucky enough to be surrounded by beautiful plants and flowers. Moving from the city (Dublin) to the Kildare countryside several years ago re-ignited my passion for everything floral and so I embarked on the idea of setting up a cut flower business. I had always been bothered about the sustainability of the cut flower industry in Ireland, with almost all flowers imported from abroad. Seeing all the beautiful flowers growing in Irish gardens across the countryside, why not produce more of our own flowers for sale?

For 2 years I trialed growing different annuals and perennials, with a particular focus on the somewhat forgotten traditional country garden flowers, which look so beautiful and are often highly scented. I was very encouraged to find that locally grown flowers have strong stems, excellent luminosity, and long vase life. Thus, 2 years ago I decided to start Kildare Cut Flowers from a 0.25-acre microfarm near Donadea forest in North Kildare.

All our plants are grown from seed, by hand, on outside raised beds. Our production methods are fully sustainable; we don’t use any chemicals or artificial fertilisers, relying instead on locally sourced organic compost and our own homemade nettle feed.  We grow approximately 2500 plants, the majority of which are annuals/biennials such as snapdragons, lupins, ammi, asters, foxgloves, sunflowers, vulcan, scented stock, verbena, sweet William, sweet rocket, scabiosa, helenium, rudbeckia and dahlias. We also grow attractive bouquet fillers like cerinthe, bupleurum, atriplex, fennel and florists dill.

Our mission is to provide flowers to customers in optimal condition. To achieve the highest level of quality, we ship our flowers within 24 hours of being picked (allows enough time for flower conditioning) and use an organic hydration wrap around the stem endings. The cardboard shipping box is specifically designed for flowers. I also draw from my 20 years previous experience working for quality-driven family-run wine importers (Ireland, Canada) to ensure high standards of customer service and support.

Olivia Blacque