Latest News

Two new artists are now represented in our unique Green Label range of greetings cards: Carol West, a living artist from South Wales paints joyous and colourful pictures in a variety of media inspired by the countryside and coast of Scotland and Wales, and Stanhope Forbes 1857-1947, considered to be the father of the Newlyn School.  He settled in Penzance after his marriage and recorded day-to-day life in Cornwall in numerous paintings of charm and atmosphere.

We were flattered to be asked to curate a "best of" collection of advent calendars for lifestyle blog gandjtheedit.com.   We have featured the best gifting advents for all tastes, ages and genders as well as a selection of our own traditional picture-based advent calendars.  Follow the link directly to our post here.

Following David Attenborough's devasting expose of the contamination of the oceans with unrecyclable waste in 2017, the transition towards more environmentally friendly packaging in the greetings cards market has gathered speed.  This year 94% of all our of the Christmas card packs will not be cello-wrapped, including those supplied by Museums & Galleries in these innovative cardboard enclosures.

Dozens of ovely new designs have arrived from the gorgeous Alex Clark Art - they are a larger size than the cards  we have previously stocked by Alex and and included lots of lovely seasonal springtime illustrations.

At the first snippet of the chiffchaff's song each year, one always wonders if one heard correctly, but there's usually little delay before it sings again and the mind is put at rest.  This tiny bird with its penetrating voice over-winters in the Med and West Africa, and arrives in the UK to nest in early March.  It's as clear a sign of spring as the daffodil or primrose.

Internet customers will notice changes when paying from the start of this week, Monday 14 March 2022.  In attempt to clamp down on payment card fraud, online shoppers on all UK websites will now have to prove who they are by, for example, entering a code received by text message or from a bank card reader.

We hope the new system will settle down quickly but, for now, we know it’s having a few teething problems and more transactions than usual are “tripping up”.  Do please ring if you find you are struggling to checkout, we’ll try our best to help, or alternatively try a different card or Paypal instead.

Our new birthday cards from PaperSalad are so gorgeous, the internet doesn't do them justice - even the envelopes are beautiful!

Sometimes we'd like to send a Christmas card to someone for whom "Happy Christmas" wishes aren't appropriate.  At Orchard Cards, we have a good selection of beautiful, wintry scenes with no greeting, in which the sender can write their own message.  Look for "no message" cards in the Christmas Cards section, or in the "Wonderful Cards for Winter" section of our Seasonal menu.

We ask customers to leave delivery instructions on the larger parcels which won't fit through the letter box - this one made us smile today " Pop through the door, stroke cats, have a nice day :) "

Nothing divides our customers like glitter.  Some can't imagine a Christmas advent calendar without glitter, whilst others are keen to avoid buying products embellished with microplastics.  For now, we continue to sell both kinds of advent calendars, but we have labelled all of them clearly so customers know what they are buying.

For our many Quentin Blake fans, a few of his new birthday card designs have arrived this week.  You can find them in New Arrivals or by using the filters to select Quentin Blake as the artist.  Love this one, not such a welcome birthday treat ...!

Have your swallows disappeared early too?  I haven't seen one for about a week.  My theory is that their late arrival after our cold spring left time for only one brood, so they've departed early too.