The New Bloom Generation: Meet the Trailblazer Redefining British Flower Farming

Once a London-based gardener and occasional model, Alfie Nickerson has reinvented himself as the face of Burnt Fen Flowers — a flourishing, biodynamically grown flower farm set in the heart of the Norfolk Broads.

Founded in 2019 with his friend Richard Oxley on Nickerson’s family land, Burnt Fen Flowers champions seasonal British blooms grown without pesticides. Their handpicked stems have found favour with high-profile clients including fashion house Loewe and the famed Petersham Nurseries.

Nickerson’s journey began after six years working in city gardens across London. Yearning for something rooted in nature and closer to home, he and Oxley converted the fenland pasture into an abundant flower farm. Both trained through hands-on stints, including one at Fern Verrow, a Herefordshire-based biodynamic farm. “We did three weeks of back-breaking work, and while we were there we ate one of Jane’s potatoes—it was literally, like, the best thing you’ve ever had in your life,” Nickerson recalled, in a recent interview with The Times.

Now, the farm grows nearly 100 varieties of flowers, sowing over 20,000 seeds and planting 35,000 bulbs annually. From tulips and Icelandic poppies to aquilegia and dahlias, Burnt Fen’s blooms are grown with a commitment to seasonality. “We are semi-tied into the dahlias because everyone is obsessed by them,” says Nickerson, “but we grow so many other flowers as well.”

In the early days, Nickerson juggled his horticultural dreams with modelling jobs to fund the farm’s infrastructure — including a £4,000 irrigation system and a striking larch-clad flower studio, designed and built with help from his architect father and designer brother. Despite setbacks like bad weather and rodents nibbling through vital supplies, the farm has blossomed into a sought-after source of natural, British-grown stems.

Each bouquet is proudly labelled with a nod to its wild, pesticide-free provenance: “No pesticides. May contain insects.” For Nickerson, the ethos is clear. Biodynamic farming is “holistic organic farming,” he says. “You’re trying to maximise biodiversity and think of your farm as a self-sustaining organism.”

Looking ahead, Nickerson plans to welcome livestock — goats, sheep, and perhaps a cow — into the farm ecosystem. And there’s another goal on the horizon: “My girlfriend, Lily, is butterfly obsessed—she’s the one who really wants to get the swallowtail to visit,” he says.

From his Shepherd’s Bush beginnings to life among the reeds and flowers of the Broads, Nickerson is now at the forefront of a new wave of British growers championing sustainable, seasonal beauty.