GEORGIE NEWBERY

The founder of Common Farm Flowers on swapping fashion for cut flowers, finding her feet on social media and why she's staying firmly organic

- ANNIE GATTI

You might not have seen Georgie Newbery – flower farmer, florist, teacher, mentor, writer and communicator par excellence – in the flesh but if you love growing cut flowers you’ve probably met her online on one of her many social media meeting places. Since 2010, when she and her husband Fabrizio Bocca started Common Farm Flowers on a seven-acre smallholding in Somerset, she has been the welcoming face (framed with large red spectacles) of the endeavour. “When I decided to take the business online, Fabrizio agreed but on condition that I would never use his real name or the children’s names or show our farmhouse,” she explains. “I thought he was being over protective but actually it was a brilliant decision. It means all our social media work is about the business and my kids won’t sue me later.”

Although by the age of six she was earning pocket money weeding her mother’s garden, Georgie came late to gardening. In her twenties she lived in Paris working for Vogue and John Galliano before knocking out three novels set in the world of fashion. Things changed when she moved to Somerset.