"I love how much hard-won knowledge is shared from Sarah and the gardeners at Perch Hill."
YOUR GARDEN STORIES WITH
Milli Proust
HOW DID YOU FIRST MEET SARAH?
We met at Perch Hill when she very kindly extended an invitation to one of the Press Days there. Sarah gave a tour of the garden, which has long been a source of inspiration and learning for me. When we got to dig further into the things that inspire and drive us both, we talked of our love of nature, birds, apples, bees and trees. One of the things I love most about spending time with Sarah is her sense of humour – we laugh about the same things, and there’s an alignment in what we hold dear. Every chance I get to return to Perch Hill to see Sarah now, I jump at it.
WHAT'S YOUR EARLIEST GARDEN MEMORY?
I grew up in South London, so didn’t have access to much in the way of gardens and gardening growing up, but there was a tiny, raised bed garden at Sullivan Primary School and I remember enjoying getting my hands dirty there and growing cress! That must've been the first crop I ever grew. The school has continued to involve their pupils with gardening, and it was a meaningful moment seeing the current pupils there help with the No Adults Allowed! garden at RHS Chelsea in 2024.
HOW DID YOU GET INTO FLORISTRY?
I’m still surprised I ended up here, it was always something I had seriously considered pursuing, but when I was leaving school the only floristry I knew about existed on the high street and a careers advisor at school highly recommended I pursue a different path. I left school in the 2008 financial crash and job prospects and the high street were all at risk. I went straight to work at a photographic archive and spent a few years deciding on what would be my path. I ended up training as an actor at RADA in my early 20s and spent my weekends practising with flowers from the market. When I finished my degree, my side hustle became flowers, and I loved it so much that it grew and grew into my full-time career.
TELL US ABOUT ALMA|PROUST?
Alma|Proust is a flower farm, floral design studio and a seed shop. When I was pregnant with my son Rex, I was bed-bound and hospitalised with extreme morning sickness. I had it for the entire pregnancy, and it was a sobering realisation that my business totally relied on me and me alone, and if I went down, so did it. It suddenly felt frighteningly unsustainable. My now business partner Paris Alma and I had known each other for a year or so, being growers in the same area we had shared in large trade orders of seeds and bulbs, and at the same time that I was watching what I had built with the flowers and seeds crumble due to my pregnancy, Paris lost access to her own flower plot. She offered up her time and skills to help my plot through the rest of my pregnancy, and by the time Rex was a few months old, it was clear how much we enjoyed working together. We knew we could build the sort of flower growing business that we both dreamed of and, what’s more, do it far better together than we could’ve alone. So we took the plunge and merged our businesses and it has been the most rewarding, wonderful and nurturing relationship. We grow flowers for weddings, events and editorial design work, and we grow seeds with a special interest for sweet peas.
DESCRIBE IN THREE WORDS YOUR GARDEN AESTHETIC
Romantic, Wild, and Abundant
WHAT'S YOUR FAVOURITE WAY TO BRING THE OUTDOORS IN?
Something really deep on a nervous system level happens to me when I’m in the presence of flowers, so every week I pick leaves, branches or flowers, no matter what the season; just having a little of nature’s beauty in the home brings me peace and joy.
WHAT IS ON YOUR GARDEN WISH LIST?
Roses are my favourite and I saw one called ‘Pumpkin Patch’ at Perch Hill last summer. I love orange, and it is the perfect, buff sunset colour. It was a stunner. That is very much top of my list. Paris and I have an ongoing project to grow every single sweet pea variety currently in existence. We trialled 70 varieties last year, this year it’s closer to 150 different varieties. My wish list will continue to be an extensive amount of sweet peas for a good few years yet!
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