We are Andy, Orla, Harry and Senan Clare. 

We are a family run flower farm and floral design studio. 

Flowers are our life.

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Orla got her first job in horticulture at age 16 and from there her love for growing -  particularly flowers started.  After studying in The National Botanic Gardens in Dublin she went on to work in landscape gardening for a number of years both in Ireland and abroad.   She eventually returned to her roots and moved back home to Kilkenny with her husband Andy and son Harry.  Shortly after, another son, Senan arrived.

Living in the countryside, they had a huge desire to combine working outdoors, a love of floristry and wanting to have their two small kids involved.            

This lead Andy and Orla to set up Soah, an organically run flower farm and floral design studio in the beautiful lush hills of north Kilkenny.     Initial work, research, education and trialling began in 2013 with the official launch in 2015, selling flowers at the market in Kilkenny.

Orla oversees the propagating and floristry elements.  Through constant research and trialing she decides which varieties make it onto the flower fields and which ones get left behind! With the vast majority of the flowers grown from seed, a huge amount of work goes into selecting the best quality seed, propagating all the seed and lovingly tending to the little seedlings until it's time for them to be transplanted into the field where they will be lovingly cared for until harvest time.
Orla is also the creative talent in the floristry studio.   She studied floristry with a number of different teachers in Ireland . She now has her own natural, unique style which comes through in all of her work.


 
 

Which leaves Andy all the easy jobs! He is the soil and technical man, constantly amending, preparing and repairing.  He barrows tonnes of compost and prepares the beds for the arrival of seedlings.  At Soah a huge amount of work goes into creating the right growing conditions for the flowers, so they can perform their best.  Andy does the majority of the harvesting, picking the flowers at the right stage and storing them in the cooler until they are ready to head to the floristy studio. 

 
 

The kids just love to get involved too.. 


Harry likes to help out in the greenhouses, transplanting the baby seedlings from seed trays into plug trays. He also loves to be there at harvest time, running up and down between the rows of flowers, collecting bunches to be placed in the buckets of water.

Senan, the youngest, well he just loves being into everything! Especially if it involves splashing in water and 'practicing' at being a little florist.
For the last 8 years we have all worked together through so many ups and down to grow our little business into one that is sustainable for us and our community into the future x