Sant’Ana’s first foray into flowers

It was sustainability that gave Ann and James the final nudge to consider growing flowers. I say ‘final’, because, as gardeners and beekeepers, it was always on the cards, but the thriving wedding business and growing wine production had been keeping them very busy. In 2018, the year we completed our organic certification for the wines, was the year the polytunnel went up, the first seeds were germinated and the first rows of flowers were planted in the valley, nestled between our Merlot, Aragonez and the orchard. With certification of the vines, while making organic honey, vegetables, and working hard to replant autochthonous tree varieties in place of Eucalyptus, it seemed hypocritical to still buy in flowers from Holland. Flowers that, most likely, had grown in Africa or South America, sprayed to within an inch of their lives with pesticides and fungicides, then flown around the planet to be resold in Holland. If we were trying to champion the organic philosophy at Quinta de Sant’Ana, using these flowers no longer made sense.

Meanwhile, Ann had noticed a distinct change in the preoccupation of Brides and Grooms to choose more sustainable options for their Big Day. Our couples were putting more emphasis on local options at all stages of their wedding choices. As weddings are ‘semi-public’ events, with lots of coverage on social media and reposts, our couples, already some coming under criticism for having a destination wedding, didn’t also want to be associated with the bad press of the bulk flower industry.

Finally from a artist’s point of view, Ann admits she had always preferred working with local flowers and greenery, with wild flowers and herbs that reminded her of making posies as a child when out on family walks, with flowers that speak to her, that boast aromas curated by nature alone, untouched by chemicals, and, at the risk of sounding a little cliché, with flowers that have soul.

The Flower Project since 2018

Spurred on by the likes of  Erin Benzakein from Floret in Washington and having completed courses with Georgie Newbery from Common Farm in Somerset, Ann and James had an excellent harvest of flowers in 2019. 2020 started with all guns blazing for a year that promised to be full of weddings, events, house guests and wine tastings… Little did we know, and thank goodness we didn’t, that we wouldn’t host a wedding for 22 months, from October 2019 until September 2021. The pandemic forced our Flower team to change tack and look at other points of sale for the abundant field of gorgeous flowers.

We sold to top florists in Lisbon and delivered bouquet orders across the Lisbon and coastal region – many were gifts from family members unable to meet, others were treats for people needing something to cheer them up during quarantine. Bizarre, it certainly was, but the demand for our beautiful, local flowers did show us what a unique project we had begun, proving it really was the first project of its kind in our region.

Since then, the project evolves each year with different trends and focuses. Last winter João and Gleici, who both work full time in the field, tending to all the flowers needs and harvesting according to our events plans, prepared a new section of the half hectare flower field, to focus on dahlias. 50 different types of dahlia have graced the fields this summer, in all manner of shapes, sizes and colours. It is hard not to be hypnotised… you can clearly understand how it must feel for a bee – drawn in to their kaleidoscope of colours.

British garden flowers are always a soft spot for Ann and James when deciding what to plant. Luxury roses are a weakness for most flower lovers and our range of David Austen roses can be seen adding that timeless romantic touch to most of our wedding arrangements.

Talking Style…

Sitting the other side of Ann and Sandra’s work bench, I can barely see them amongst the flowers. A sea of colours and shapes and textures, all sitting in their cold water buckets and waiting patiently to be woven into the next day’s arrangements. It posed the question of style; how do Ann and Sandra choose? What species of flowers do they love to work with? How do they pair their creativity with the demands of the Brides and Grooms?

Sandra, a local Portuguese mother of 4, who began working at Sant’Ana soon after the pandemic, admits that dahlias are indeed, a true love of hers.

Sandra’s soft, calm nature is mirrored in her preference of pastel tones, the peachy, warm white and mellow yellow colour palete that is on trend this season, with a hint of focus colour – soft blues, a hint of purple. Ann, on the other hand, cannot choose, when I ask which flowers she loves best. She reacts as though I had asked her to pick a favourite of their seven sons. She instead diplomatically mentions her love of whimsical cosmos, regal roses, wild aromatic herbs, mesmerizing architectural zinnias and unusual colour combinations.

Ann describes their style as a copy of nature. If a flower grows up in nature, or outwards in nature, if it climbs or creeps, they mimic that in the arrangements. For the Bride’s bouquet, Ann goes to the field and chooses the flowers herself. She picks flowers with a certain structure, choosing them based on how they lean and already imagining how they will sit and fall in the final work. This particular bouquet is, of course, an immense responsibility, and so it is often made the night before to allow time to alter it if needed. Much like how a wine needs time in bottle to integrate and settle before drinking, Ann likes the bridal bouquet to settle overnight – leaving the flowers to get comfortable and ‘say hello’ to their new neighbours.

Both Ann and Sandra advocate for patience and an overall state of zen for successful flower arranging (as if on purpose, Carla Bruni’s ‘Moon River’ is playing while they tell me this). It cannot be rushed. It’s not just about giving space to their creative style, but a lot of consideration is needed from a logistics point of view. The engineering in arranging is paramount; where is the gravity pulling, how long must the flowers keep fresh for inside or outside arrangements, how much wind is there that day, does the arrangement need to be transported to the church or elsewhere, what can be reused from wedding arrangements for the next day in our wine tasting room or guest houses. It truly is a huge amount of work and it takes many other members of our team to support the Quinta’s floristry; from renewing water in buckets to keep flowers fresh from one day to the next, to accessing ladders 10 metres high to attach ‘Flower Clouds’ from our Banqueting Hall beams.

Flowers in the community

As many of you will know, our end of harvest Festival
da Nossa Terra in October raises money for the community. Sometimes for funds to go towards a new football pitch, sometimes for trees to be planted throughout Gradil village, or for renovations of the Sant’Ana chapel, to name a few. Last year, we set aside an amount to be used by Apoio Domiciliario which is an organization that looks out for elderly people in the village.

The money we put aside was directed to 30 to 40 elderly men and women who, on their birthday this year, receive a big bouquet of our flowers along with a treat – a trip to the hairdressers, a massage, a pedicure, a bottle of wine or a pair of slippers – whatever it may be that they particularly need and would be a little luxury for them to celebrate their day. These are real salt of the earth people, who Ann grew up with when she ran about Gradil barefoot as a child.

 

It is joy to see the smiles that these flowers bring, not just to young couples starting their lives together, but to the elderly whose daily struggles are sweetened a little by the colour and scent of nature at its most magnificent.

Louise Ellett