Close up of richly coloured sunflowers looking glorious against the iconic brown paper wrapping by The Garden of Oxford

The Garden’s stunning flowers are always recognisable around Oxford for their use of brown paper wrapping and that now iconic stamp. As part of our Plastic Free July series, we spoke to Ellie, shop manager at The Garden of Oxford, about thoughtful swaps, sustainable style and why plastic free choices can bring even more style to your choices.

Three photos, one of Ellie, shop manager standing outside the front of the beautiful Garden of Oxford shop, second is a customer selecting a bouquet from the Garden's stunning outside display of followers and the third image is of a bouquet of flowers including a sunflowers and other yellow and orange flowers looking incredible in their brown paper wrapping.

The Garden transferred to brown paper a long while ago, back then it was a brave move to ditch the glossy cellophane. How did you first come by this idea?

I guess we realised that unless we needed to wrap our bunches outside with cellophane, we should go ahead and make the switch. We always preferred the look of brown paper, it’s more natural, and of course more eco-friendly by far. So we tried it out and found that instead of putting customers off (as you can’t see the whole bunch through the wrapping) it likely has attracted more interest!

one close up of beautiful drief flowers all in hot yellows and oranges, 2nd image is of a staff member of The Garden holding a stunning bouquet of dried flowers standing infront of the entrance to The Garden of Oxford, and the third image is of a Covered Market tote bag with a sign showing they raise money for charity with the proceeds from tote sales.

Do you have any other plastic free initiatives you’d like to let the public know about about?

Of course. We have switched to 100% degradable carrier bags for our plant buying customers and have a range of paper carrier bags available too – with the well loved stamp, and we stock The Covered Market tote bag where we donate all the proceeds to charity. Our extensive range of dried flowers are another wonderful plastic free alternative for people that like to add flowers to their interiors instead of plastic flowers. These are from the Shropshire flower fields straight to our shop. Each bunch is hand-picked and packaged carefully with shredded/repurposed cardboard for the trip to Oxford- a great long-lasting way to buy British grown flowers.

From paper-wrapped bouquets to British-grown dried flowers, The Garden of Oxford is a lovely reminder that plastic free choices can be beautiful, practical and full of character. Next time you are passing through the Market, look out for that famous stamp – and perhaps take a little bit of The Garden of Oxford style home with you.

For further information about The Garden of Oxford and opening time check out their trader page by clicking the button below.

The Garden of Oxford