Flowered Up

Meet the couple creating ‘fields of colour’ at their cut flower farm in Sherborne

- Catherine Courtenay 

Picture the scene: it’s early on a summer’s day and along a grassy pathway, amid rows of bright, colourful blooms, a man is watching a bee hovering around a patch of cosmos.

“First thing in the morning the bees are waiting; they know the ones to go to, they are very useful in that way,” says Paul Stickland. “If you want the best cosmos that day, then go to the one the bees are on.”

Flower farmer Paul keeps a close eye on nature, whether it’s the above-ground pollinators, or the myriad of lifeforms that maintain a rich and healthy soil. He may not be so keen on voles (more on that later), but he revels in the “fields of colour” he and his wife Helen have created at Black Shed Cut Flowers, located on the outskirts of Sherborne.

When I arrive both Paul and Helen are busy in the field, deadheading; dahlia flowers lie scattered on the soil, a carpet of rich red and copper tones.

The couple set up the flower farm in 2017. Until then, they’d both had careers in the world of books;

Paul is an author and illustrator of children’s books - he is the creative genius behind Dinosaur Roar! and Helen a bookseller – she ran the legendary Winstone Books in Sherborne.

But Black Shed Flowers was just waiting to happen, the seeds of business growing quietly but persistently.

Paul has always been a keen gardener, like his mother and grandfather before him. His fascination with soil and understanding how it works can be traced back to memories of his mother shovelling up leafmould from the forest and bringing it home in the back of her car.