Modern heroes of horticulture - Jennifer Howarth, Wirral Flower Farm
Some horticultural stories are built over decades. Others begin with one bold decision, a leap into the unknown, and the determination to make something beautiful from bare ground.
Jennifer Howarth belongs firmly in the second category. Her journey began in the way many great horticultural stories do - small, practical and full of curiosity.
What started on an allotment soon became something bigger. A love of flowers, growing and the outdoors evolved into a vision for a place where people could not only buy flowers, but experience where and how they are grown.
That vision became Wirral Flower Farm - a new destination for flowers, nature and hands-on learning in the North West. Set in Bebington on the Wirral, the farm opened its gates in 2025 and immediately captured the imagination of visitors locally and from across Liverpool, Chester and beyond.
For Jennifer, the support in that first year has meant everything. It is what has helped turn an ambitious idea into a genuine new horticultural success story.
It is easy to visit a flourishing flower farm and forget what stood there before. Just ten months earlier, the site was an empty field. Since then, Jennifer has overseen the first phase of infrastructure, created productive growing spaces, planted extensive perennial areas, launched pick-your-own flowers, and introduced the farm’s first season of workshops and experiences.
Like many growers, she is honest about the challenges. Establishing a brand-new site is demanding enough - let alone doing so while learning to grow at scale and navigating unpredictable weather conditions.
Yet it is exactly that openness which makes Jennifer’s story so compelling. She is building in real time, learning publicly, and inviting others to come along for the journey.
Wirral Flower Farm is built on a polyculture model, meaning a diverse range of flowers are grown together rather than relying on large single-crop planting. This approach supports biodiversity, attracts pollinators such as bees and butterflies, and helps improve long-term soil health. It creates not only a productive flower farm, but a richer ecosystem - somewhere wildlife thrives alongside visitors.
Jennifer has also placed huge emphasis on soil improvement, composting and sustainable growing practices. Healthy soil, she believes, creates healthy plants, fewer pest problems and a stronger future for the farm. It is a modern approach to flower farming - productive, thoughtful and environmentally aware.
What sets Jennifer apart is that she understood early on that growing flowers is only part of the picture. A successful modern flower farm also needs experiences, education and community. From day one, Jennifer has built multiple ways for people to engage with the farm.
Visitors can enjoy:
- Pick your own flowers
- Pick and arrange workshops
- Seed sowing and growing classes
- Seasonal farm experiences throughout the year
Her mission is simple: inspire more people to grow flowers, reconnect with nature, witness biodiversity first-hand and spend more time outdoors. That people-focused thinking has helped Wirral Flower Farm become more than a growing space. It has become a destination. Jennifer has also spoken warmly about the support of Claremont Farm, who backed the project from the beginning.
Flower farming can sit in an unusual space between horticulture and agriculture, often misunderstood by more traditional sectors. Jennifer’s approach - combining kinder growing methods, biodiversity-led systems and diversified revenue streams - is not always conventional. But innovation rarely is. By supporting her vision, Claremont Farm helped create something fresh, relevant and badly needed: a modern flower farm built around people, place and purpose.
With one season already behind her, Jennifer is only just getting started. What she has created in a short space of time is remarkable - a flower farm built from scratch, rooted in sustainability and embraced by the local community. Jennifer Howarth represents the next generation of British growers: entrepreneurial, environmentally conscious, community-minded and unafraid to learn as they go.
From an allotment to an empty field to one of the North West’s most exciting new horticultural spaces, her story is proof that sometimes the boldest gardens begin with simply saying yes. A modern horticultural hero in every sense.
