Autumn equinox: flowers during chemotherapy

As it's the autumn equinox today, I thought I'd postpone the last instalment of the Florist on Tour to share autumnal flowers from last week.

It is now estimated that one in two of us born after 1960 will get cancer at some point in our lifetime. It's a sobering thought, which feels more real if you have loved ones with cancer. In the last few years, it seems like more people I know have had the disease, and it has hit young friends as well as older relatives. In my work at a hospice, I hear stories about the effect cancer has on people's lives - those bereaved as a result of it, and those currently dealing with their own or their loved ones'.

So when I was asked to do flowers for someone whose cancer treatment has affected their sense of taste and smell, leaving them unable to enjoy the sweet things they used to - simple pleasures such as cake, biscuits, and floral scents - I was only too willing. I did "roast dinner" flowers: a pumpkin from a local allotment, filled with my sage and rosemary, autumnal-hued peony leaves, and non-scented flowers. There were asters, sedum, and a single dahlia that have all flowered again this year, and hypericum from Blooming Green. I have to thank Simon Lycett for the tip about peony foliage - I have never thought to use it before.

I delivered them on a beautiful, hot day last week, and warned that they probably wouldn't last long - the combination of vegetables (fruit and veg give off ethylene, which speeds up the flower-wilting process) and hot weather wasn't helpful. But they were gladly received, and smelled without any horrible nausea. On one of the hottest days of the year, we all craved a roast dinner.

Simple pleasures. They don't cure cancer, unfortunately. But sometimes they are all we can turn to, to help to ease us through the rubbish that life throws at some of us.

If you have or care for someone with cancer, there is advice available here. And if things feel really difficult, the Samaritans are available 24 hours a day on the phone number 116 123 if you are in the UK.

Leave it to compost

I had a wonderful English Literature tutor called Mark Loveridge when I studied at Swansea. It was he who decided I could do the undergraduate degree despite my inadequate A-level results,  he who had the sort of brilliant energy and sense of humour  that I'd only ever seen in films. And it was he who, when I felt like submitting a first draft of an essay, told me to, "Leave it to compost for a few weeks," before tackling it again.

Leave it to compost.

For someone like me, who overthinks, overplans, then gets frustrated and disappointed when things don't go to plan, or when I get tired or bored, this piece of advice was invaluable.

So, as much as I've felt guilty about not blogging over the summer, despite being on holiday from my current uni course and technically having more brain space to write, I think it was necessary to have a break. I've never been great at the regular, frequent side of blogging - as you can probably tell, it's more feast or famine with me. But the point of starting this blog was to enjoy it, and there's nothing enjoyable about feeling guilty!

So there are lots of things I could share here, and I will share some of them and let the others sit there. Maybe they'll compost for another four months and it'll feel good to share them at Christmas when it's wintry and gloomy outside, and we need a reminder of sunnier days.

In July, there was a surprise party for a lady who went out and bought herself pink peonies the day before. Luckily I was told before I went to the market! These flowers are a mixture of market flowers (pale pink phlox, snapdragons, white gentian) and home grown ones (red phlox, panicum/fountain grass, nicotiana, jasmine and sweet peas). I was given most of the containers to fill, and it was fun using unfamiliar vases.

Particularly this autumnal one.

And these beautiful, tall bud vases.

My Australian cousin was visiting briefly last week, and asked to go to the flower market. It was wonderful to have someone to help me choose, and to help me carry! As well as the market flowers, there were also buckets of sedum, roses, physocarpus, panicum and herbs from the garden, and foraged berries. It was also nice to use September flower in September.

Last weekend, I used the flowers for several bits, including this bouquet for a beautiful woman who liked the moody colours and chocolate scent of cosmos. This bouquet included one of my rare, homegrown dark sunflowers - which, unlike many of the sunflowers I've grown, has long enough stems to use in bouquets.

And of course, there were leftovers to enjoy. The chocolate cosmos scent fills the room - it's incredible that such a strong fragrance comes from such a dainty flower.

When these flowers die, you know where they'll end up? That's right - on the compost heap.

Guinness, Cariad and the Wizard of Oz

I did a bouquet for a Welsh lady who loves going on holiday to Dublin. 'Cariad' David Austin roses in an old Guinness fudge tin was my plan, but I only had a few stems of roses. So I picked as many pink and white flowers from the garden as I could, and topped up with dahlias and asters I'd bought from the market. I liked the idea of clashing shades of pink, and lots of frothy flowers and panicum, in a less Barbara Cartland-ish container.

The pale pink dahlia with the yellow centre is called Wizard of Oz - it's a beautiful flower. I don't know the name of the other variety, but it's a fabulous bright salmon colour.

These striking flowers below are pink asters (aka September flower, as it is the birth flower for September). They last well in water and floral foam, and come in other colours, such as white and purple. Both the dahlias and asters are British - you should be able to get them from your local grower for another few weeks.

One of my favourite parts of floristry is the moment after you've finished conditioning all of your flowers, and you look at the buckets of beauty you have to work from.

I made a posy of dahlias and asters.

And I put the leftover cosmos in a bottle - I love the movement of the stems and the pretty, colourful flowerheads.

Not-so-flat flowers

August brought a beautiful array of colour in the garden - the asters have been flowering all month, the sweet peas and chocolate cosmos have continued to blossom, and the repeat-flowering roses have started to bloom a second time this summer. Even the jasmine, still full of foliage, has some flowers.

I've made sure the new flat has fresh flowers every week to brighten it up until it starts to feel like home. There has been a David Austin 'Enigma' bouquet, some roses and a dahlia from The Real Flower Company that I arranged, some florist British bloom chysanthemums (which have a wonderful marshmallow texture), asters and stocks.

There have also been flowers from my family's garden that I've taken over to the flat to arrange. And the scent of stocks, garden roses, sweet peas and chocolate cosmos has been a delight to come home to.

I took a sweet basil plant that I have been growing from seed in the greenhouse to keep in the kitchen. I bought a few different types of seeds from the Jekka's Herb Farm stand at the Chelsea Flower Show. Jekka McVicar is an expert in herbs - I've spent many happy hours reading her book, Jekka's Complete Herb Book, which she signed for me at the flower show. Here is the plant on the day I brought it over, two weeks ago.

And here it is today. It smells yummy - I can't wait to use some when I make dinner!

Chocs N’ Roses

Today I wanted to make a bouquet and two posies – a bouquet for my old boss and his girlfriend who I’m visiting tomorrow, a posy for their young daughter, and another for a friend who’s just come home from hospital.

Ever since I heard that there was a flower that looked and smelt like chocolate, I thought I can’t wait to use that! Today I did. Chocolate cosmos are small, dahlia-like flowers that are a rich, dark burgundy-chocolate colour, with velvety petals, very thin stems, and a delicious vanilla-chocolate scent. They won’t be in season for much longer, so this was my last chance to use them this year. New Covent Garden Market is currently full of bright Halloween things like Chinese lanterns and crab apples, pretty wintery things like pussy willow, and even spring tulips…which seems a bit wrong to me! After wandering around, I also bought some British dahlias before they disappear for the year, beautiful and strongly-scented Augusta Luise garden roses, and some salmon-pink celosia.

I used everything but the cosmos for the bouquet, some of everything for the posy for my friend, and the cosmos mixed with some lilac asters from my garden for the little girl’s posy. I’m not sure if the girl will be pleased to receive chocolate-scented flowers or disappointed that I didn’t give her real chocolates instead!

The cosmos is quite delicate and, like the dahlias and garden roses, has a short vase life. But when flowers look this beautiful and smell so exquisite, it seems a small price to pay for the intense pleasure they bring. I put the worse-for-wear leftover cosmos and a few wobbly dahlias and roses in a vase for me to enjoy while I did my floristry coursework.

What a perfect Saturday.