British Flowers Week: Five days of gorgeousness

I know British Flowers Week has been and gone, but the summery British flowers have only just begun. My first zinnia opened up this morning, and what a summery flower it is!

I saw this photo on Twitter, and I just had to ask for permission to share it here. The stunning photos were taken by Julian Winslow, the flowers are from New Covent Garden Market, and this composite was was painstakingly put together by Okishima & Simmonds, whose antler-like design featured on Day 1 and brought new energy to the British lisianthus.

The other florists featured here are Hybrid, who used British Sweet Williams and calla lilies for a Shakespeare-inspired shoot; Simon Lycett, who made three very different designs with scented British pinks; Euphoric Flowers, who showed off British flowering foliage, including eucalyptus, oak, scented philadelphus/mock orange and lavender (well worth looking at if you want to use British flowers in the winter); and McQueens, who finished the week off with classic British garden roses. You may know how much I love both British and imported garden roses, but I didn't realise you could get Augusta Luise roses that have been grown in Britain. What a bonus!

British Flowers Week: British flowers at New Covent Garden Market

As British Flowers Week was launched by New Covent Garden Market, I have to share some photos of the wonderful British flowers that you can find there. If you weren't able to visit, you can see the website which is full of glorious photos of British flowers such as pinks and Sweet Williams, styled by some amazing florists such as Simon Lycett and Hybrid, as well as photos from florists and growers around the country. The launch on Monday was buzzing with people, and many of the flowers had sold out early on. A stand in the centre of the market was set up with photos of bouquets of British flowers, a display of boxed flowers from a competition run by the market, and a huge wallchart showing which British flowers are in season at different times of the year. You can see it here. Kathryn and Alastair from the market were on hand to welcome visitors with strawberries and cream and copies of the wallchart.

If you enter the flower market by the pedestrian entrance at Door 7, one of the first stands you will see is Pratley. You can tell straight away that British flowers is its speciality!

Pratley had plenty of beautiful summer flowers on Monday - Sarah Bernhardt peonies, stocks, all sorts of sweet peas (including a pretty salmon-pink one called Nancy), larkspur, delphiniums, bright red dahlias, pastel-coloured snapdragons, lime-green alchemilla mollis (lady's mantle), poppy seed heads, scabious, alliums, lisianthus, freeias, brodiaea, eryngium (sea holly, aka thistles), and pinks in different shades.

Last month, I visited the market with two flower farmers who had travelled all the way from the West Country - Fi from The Good Flower Company and Grace at Corfe Flowers. Helen Evans, the director of business development and support, who has worked at the market for almost twenty years, talked to us about the flower market in the UK, and British flowers in particular. She gave us a tour which was even better than the tour I went on as a student, because of Helen's vast knowledge and understanding of the issues that flower growers and florists face, and also because of Fi and Grace, who often identified flowers that I admired but didn't know.

Here are a few photos from that tour in mid-May, with British flowers and foliage on display at Pratley, Zest, Porters, and GB Foliage. There were late tulips, delphiniums, peonies, cornflowers, calla lilies (arum lilies), whitebeam, and gorgeous red-pink hawthorn.

There were also British sweet peas at S. Robert Allen, which is one of my favourite stands because of the brilliant way they group their flowers by colour. There is cerinthe at the front, which I tried in vain to grow, but that Fi and Grace have grown successfully!

The peonies at John Austin weren't British, but this display gives you an idea of the range of British peonies that are available during the short peony season here.

If you ask the traders in advance, I'm sure some would be able to source British flowers for you. Last summer, Dennis Edwards sold a fantastic array of dahlias by Withypitts Dahlias - I'm hoping he will again, as I missed out on buying them last year!

Eating Disorders International Conference

I had the privilege of doing event flowers for the Eating Disorders International Conference (EDIC), which was hosted by the UK charity Beat.

I know that Beat does amazing work supporting people with eating disorders, their families and carers, as well as research into the causes and treatment. They also run media campaigns to raise awareness and improve understanding of eating disorders. I was very impressed by the work they did with the British soap opera Hollyoaks a few years ago – it was the first time an eating disorder had been portrayed on television so carefully and in so much depth, from the effects on the person’s mental wellbeing to the harsh reality that eating disorders kill people.

It was wonderful to contribute something beautiful and natural to a charity that does so much good work.

I used the colours of the EDIC and Beat logos – pink and purple were quite easy to find, but naturally blue flowers that would work well was more of a challenge. The flowers also needed to last well in floral foam for the duration of the three-day conference.

In the end, I used Pacific Blue, Cool Water and Heidi roses, blue-purple and pink lisianthus, pink Asiatic lilies (which are not scented, unlike longiflorum lilies), purple bloom chrysanthemums and different kinds of eucalyptus for the two pedestals, and roses, eucalyptus, blue lisianthus and green skimmia for the long spray. I also added some ivy from the garden and decorated the pedestals with pink and blue organza, representing the pink and blue of the Beat logo.

Apparently some delegates commented on the scent of the (Pacific Blue) roses, which was noticeable when people walked into the conference room. And the organisers of the conference were happy with the arrangements.

As my first time doing event flowers for an organisation, it went pretty well. I’m happy with the arrangements I did and I really enjoyed the experience.

A big thank you to Beat, and to the people who helped me do the arrangements, including my friend Manish – a non-florist who has a natural talent for floristry!

Spring/Summer Collection 2012

As it’s Easter, I thought I’d add some photos from the past month. I’ve used lots of spring flowers – scented narcissi, irises, ranunculus and anemones, as well as pink, summery roses: huge Sorbet Avalanche spray roses and scented Auguisa Luise garden roses.

This gift posy uses florist hyacinths, paperwhites and ranunculus.

The next few pictures feature hyacinths that I’ve grown in the greenhouse. The blue is Delft Blue, the pink is Pink Pearl, the yellow is City of Haarlem, and the purple is Woodstock. They smelt gorgeous.

And here are some arrangements using City of Haarlem hyacinths, Pacific Blue roses (which are also scented), lisianthus and skimmia.

We're dancing in the midnight sky

Let’s have a different song this time.

Unfortunately, getting a market flower stall is not as simple as my friend and I had thought. For various reasons, we’ve had no joy so far. But we’ll keep trying. I really enjoyed planning our stall and the bouquets and posies I wanted to make, which are all inspired by Christmas songs. As I’m so keen to make them anyway, I bought lots of flowers from the market so I could start making them as presents for people. Here are three that I made for my tutors and the technician at college. They work so hard teaching us and organising flowers and sundries for all the students, and I feel very lucky to be doing my course.

This floaty one is called Walking in the Air. It’s funny, because I wrote out the kind of material I wanted to use in the arrangement weeks ago, such as fountain grass and lisianthus, and the delicate, ethereal effect I wanted it to have, and when I finally made it, it was just how I imagined it would be.

This pretty one is Fairytale of New York. I wanted it to be white, pale pink and green, and I thought the pastel colours of the anemones and Little Silver spray roses, the delicate narcissi and the big, sweet-smelling O’Hara roses would help to create a ‘fairytale’ effect. I also listened to The Pogues’ and Kirsty McColl’s song again and realised that there are some sweet lyrics in it, amongst all the insults!

And the last one is Blue Christmas. Due to budget constraints, I couldn’t buy all of the flowers I’d originally planned to use, so this arrangement didn’t really turn out how I’d hoped. But I think these anemones and beautifully scented muscari are pretty blue, while the thistles and eucalyptus are lovely and Christmassy. I have to confess, when I planned to do a Blue Christmas posy, I had the Shakin’ Stevens version in my head (I’m sorry, Elvis). He was my idol when I was about three years old. If I do this design again, I’ll see if I can get some denim ribbon to tie around it, in honour of him!

Half term report

We were allowed to take all of our flowers home from college for half term. Some of them had only been delivered a few days before; others had been sitting in the fridge for a fortnight. Here’s what I made with flowers I had left over and those that some other students had given me.

This was a hand tied that I made in college – it wasn’t quite right, but when I took it home, I cut the string (that would normally be left alone), and it kind of fell into place.

And lastly, I had bought these beautiful Sweet Dolomiti and Peach Avalanche roses and pale pink astilibe to create a thank you bouquet for someone. I put the leftovers in my favourite container – my Elizabeth Blackadder ‘Poppies’ jug – and both these and the poppy heads, lisianthus and santini chrysanthemum vase stayed on my table while I did some work over the holiday. They were a joy to look at when work was taking its toll!

Will I help with flowers for the Savoy? Definitely!

I enjoyed my first day of work experience this week, helping with flowers for a wedding reception at the Savoy Hotel. It was hard work, and my shoulders are still aching from all of the heavy lifting, but I absolutely loved it. The women from Urbanstems as well as the freelancers were all incredibly friendly, and it was such a joy to work with them. I rather expected to be prepping flowers or getting water, while they did the creative work, but I was encouraged to get stuck in. I helped with the wreath table arrangements in which we placed bowls with floating candles or tall vases with another arrangement, and one of two huge urns that were at the front of the ballroom. The theme was white but very ‘natural’, so there were buckets and buckets of Vendella and Avalanche roses, white hydrangeas, lilies and alstroemeria, green lisianthus, and lots of ivy. The leftover roses were used to decorate the stage and the table for the wedding cake, and I think the whole room looked gorgeous once we had finished.

Right place, right time

Last week was my friend’s 30th birthday. She used to be my mentor at work, and is one of the loveliest people you could hope to meet. When I asked if she had a present request, she said she wanted me to do a bouquet for her, which I did with pleasure.

It’s inspired by a beautiful dress that she wore when we saw Fantastic Mr Fox at the London Film Festival opening night (we got a kick out of walking down a red carpet!) – ideally I would have used purple and red anemones, but as it’s summer and not spring, I used lisianthus and vanda orchids.

Some flowers have such great names – the orchids are called Black Magic and the scented roses are called Norma Jeane. They even have a picture of Marilyn on the cellophane wrapper!

As I was carrying them, I was asked about them by some staff who work in the hair salon in Fenwick of Bond Street. They told me that their colleague was leaving later that week, and asked if I would do a bouquet for her. I was gobsmacked and delighted! I asked what she was like, so I had an idea of what sort of flowers and colours to use.

I did a softer and lighter arrangement with pink bouvardia, purple veronica, huge pink roses from my garden, and Norma Jeane roses and garden jasmine to add some fragrance. As I don’t drive and I had to deliver them to the West End anyway, I carefully carried them up on the train and tube – I went mid-afternoon so there was less chance of them getting squashed in rush hour commuter traffic! Judging by the reaction of the lady who ordered them, and the lady they were for, I think they liked them.

I’d gladly recommend the Headmasters Blow Out Bar in Fenwick – the staff are incredibly friendly and talented, it’s calmer than many other salons in Central London, and although they have a menu of styles on the wall, they will happily suggest something a bit different.

And of course I have to thank my friend – had it not been for her birthday request, I wouldn’t have got my first commission!