A BUDDING flower farm is welcoming people to come and pick their own bouquet this summer.

The owners of Abbey Farm, in the centre of Abbotsbury, are allowing the public to take a pair of garden snips to the farm and fill a vase with sunflowers, dahlias, snapdragons, cosmos and more.

Abbey Farm boasts a colourful array of flowers, spread over two fields in the heart of the ruins of Abbotsbury Abbey.

Owners Amy Ralph and Emma Hughes have been on the site for four months and are delighted with the progress they have made already.

Amy Ralph said: “We’ve had such a warm welcome from the village, and the reaction from pickers has been lovely. People love the chance to wander in beautiful surroundings and help themselves to whatever flowers they fancy.”

With nothing more high-tech than a traditional laundry rack and a draughty stable building, they are producing their own dried flowers to complement the fresh flowers sold at the gate and in local farm shops.

The on-site shop boasts a collection of dried and pressed flowers as well as locally made gifts. They also operate a click and collect delivery service, which sees flowers delivered weekly to Rise Market and Thorncombe Village Shop.

Emma said: “Many people are staring to wake up to the carbon footprint of fresh imported flowers, but they don’t realise that imported dried flowers can be even worse, especially if they’re commercially oven or chemically dried”.

“We still can’t really believe how quickly we’ve managed to grow enough to run a pick your own serice, and are now excited about plans for the future; we have just ordered over 3000 speciality bulbs for spring.”

People are invited to pick their own flowers every Tuesday, Friday and Saturday from 10am until 4pm.