Lonely Bouquet Day 2015

The last Sunday in June is Lonely Bouquet Day, when we are encouraged to make posies of flowers from our gardens (or a kind neighbour's) and leave them in a recycled container for a stranger to enjoy.

I had left this posy at a train station during British Flowers Week.

But on Lonely Bouquet Day, I was looking after my disabled sister, and while I had buckets of flowers cut and ready for us to make posies together, she really wasn't in the mood. 

So when she suddenly decided she wanted to go out, I hastily made this one and she left it by the cut flower plot at Hall Place.

I have since seen that it was adopted!

Then the rain poured down, and in the afternoon, during a brief dry hour, I made and left a few more - by the allotments near Sundridge Park, and on the bench overlooking the Desmond Tutu Peace Gardens in Chinbrook Meadows, which were designed by Chris Beardshaw (and which were the site of my first abandoned bouquet a few years ago).

Unfortunately the rush meant no fancy photos; just hasty phone ones!

British Flowers Week: A British flowers tea party

It was wonderful to fill up five buckets with flowers I've grown. Pink alliums, cornflower-blue cornflowers, strongly-scented roses...summer is well and truly here. I had to get the sprinkler out as the grass and shrubs were so parched - we've had a bit of drizzle the last few days, but it's so warm, it barely waters the plants before it evaporates.

I was so pleased to include my Bowl of Beauty peonies - they aren't scented, but they are showstoppers! This was the first one to open - if you are cutting yours, cut them just before they get to this stage.

The sixth bucket was filled with claret astrantia, drooping purple alliums, and blue-purple penstemon from Zest and white peonies from Pratley at New Covent Garden Market. You could tell it was British Flowers Week and wedding season, as the market was really buzzy when I went on Thursday, even though I went quite late (8am).

It was lovely to see a sea of Rosebie Morton British-grown roses at Zest.

I had a few flowers to do for a house party and so many left over, I was able to take some to a friend who I haven't seen for a year, and leave a couple of lonely bouquets on trains and train stations.

It was a great excuse to use a tea set (more on that on Alice Day, on the 4th of July) and to get a piece of rainbow cake from Cloud 9 in Brighton!

The philadelphus is looking gorgeous, and when I opened the door in the morning, I was hit with the smell of orange blossom (hence its common name, mock orange). So this Tiptree jar was perfect for a white posy of philadelphus, ammi, hesperis and alliums.

I have some Apollo irises that are a sunny yellow colour, and some orange and cream osteospermum. Not quite apricot, but this jar would have to do - and the peachy rose sat in one of many jars that I collect from people when they go out for scones!

The next date in your diary: Lonely Bouquet Day this Sunday, and an excuse to carry on using homegrown flowers!

Abandoned bouquets

Here are some photos of the abandoned bouquets from Sunday's Lonely Bouquet Day. I've no idea if they've been adopted or not; I hope they have.

Firstly, I left this posy outside All Saints Church on Blackheath Common. I've never been inside, but it's a pretty church that makes the landscape even prettier. Random Orwell fact: George Orwell and his first wife, Eileen O' Shaughnessy, used to go horseriding on Blackheath Common before they got married.

I left this one beside the Cutty Sark. I visited the Cutty Sark several times as a schoolkid, and drew a huge picture of it which hung on the wall at school until it got tatty. I love the architecture of the Old Naval College and the views of the Thames from Greenwich - no wonder the town is jam-packed with people every day.

I went to the shopping centre in Bromley, which was called The Glades when I worked at Boots as a Sunday girl (when the shops first opened on Sundays in 1995) but changed its name to Intu Bromley a year or two ago. It was early and the shops hadn't opened, so I left it on a bench outside Coast. I'm hoping a fellow Sunday girl or boy found it on their way to work!

Lastly, I left one at Grove Station again. I did leave it next to the lavender, but it was too sunny, so I moved it close to the bridge. There were too many people on their way to the end of the platform, so I didn't take a photo of it in its final abandoned place, but here's one of the posy. I hope you all had a happy Lonely Bouquet Day!

Lonely Bouquet Day 2014

Sunday is Lonely Bouquet Day 2014. If you saw last year's post, you'll know what a lovely idea I think it is. Although people can and do leave lonely bouquets throughout the year (as I did for British Flowers Week), the day in June is designed so that people can make the most of the flowers available in their gardens, or their kind friends'/ neighbours'/families' gardens. The bouquets are made by florists and non-florists alike, from local flowers and foliage, and left in a recycled container of water for someone to find (in locations all over the world).

I started off the weekend by leaving a lonely bouquet of red, pink and yellow roses and pink hydrangeas outside Lewisham Hospital; it was adopted (by I don't know who) within twenty minutes.

I made up four more bouquets which are ready to be abandoned - I'm planning to leave them in various places in Lewisham, Bromley and Greenwich boroughs. Keep your eyes peeled!

There are more hydrangeas, roses, Escallonia 'Apple Blossom' and Pittosporum 'Oliver Twist', as well as Salvia 'Hot Lips', 'Genova' dahlias, pineapple mint, melissa (aka lemon balm), Lavender 'Vera', osteospermum, sweet peas, hebe, cornflowers, and pretty, silvery senecio cineraria. You can imagine the scent of the sweet peas, sage, mint, melissa, lavender and roses!

The containers are a couple of random glass jars, as well as a beautiful Tiptree tea caddy and a Women's Institute jam jar that I've been hoarding!

If you're taking part in Lonely Bouquet Day, or you were lucky enough to find an abandoned bouquet, I'd love to hear your story.

British Flowers Week: Gallantry in Postman's Park

When I thought about the British flowers that would be available for British Flowers Week, a few leapt out for me: peonies and Sweet Williams.

British peonies are only available for a short time in the early summer, but they are so popular all year round, particularly for weddings. I once worked for a florist who would buy imported (from New Zealand) red peonies for Christmas bouquets, just because she liked them so much. They were beautiful and understandably expensive, but I thought it was madness to order them, especially as it would teach customers that it was reasonable to expect peonies in December in London.

It's interesting that they are so popular for weddings as their symbolic meaning is bashful shame. I guess, like lavender, they are too beautiful and sweetly scented for people to mind what they have represented in the past.

Sweet Williams are beautiful flowers, with a sweet, clove scent. They are from the dianthus family, like carnations and pinks. Sweet Williams and pinks were both the subject of special photoshoots organised by the market and some very talented florists.

Sweet Williams symbolise gallantry, but also finesse and dexterity. It's gallantry that I thought of as I planned to create a floral spray (like a funeral sheaf) to photograph in Postman's Park. I ordered the Sweet Williams from Tregothnan and bought the peonies from the market.

Postman's Park is in the City, close to St Paul's Cathedral and not far from Cannon Street and Blackfriars train stations. My friend Francesca took me there years ago when we had one of those casual, walk-around-town days. It's a lovely green space, usually filled with people sitting on one of the many benches. It got its name from the postal workers who worked nearby, and who would take their breaks there.

Once we got to the artist G. F. Watts's Memorial to Heroic Self-Sacrifice, I realised I had seen the park before (on screen, at least) in the film Closer. Closer is one of my favourite London-set films. It's quite vicious and miserable at times, but tender and funny at others, as you'd expect from Mike Nichols, the director of The Graduate and Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

Watts's Memorial was based on the artist's suggestion for a gallery to commemorate people who had sacrificed their own lives trying to save someone else. The idea wasn't taken up, so he made the gallery himself, using ceramic tablets inscribed with the name of each person and details of the heroic act that killed them. Each tablet is so beautiful and there is something touching and haunting about the language used. For example, Henry James Bristow, an eight-year-old boy, "Saved his little sister's life by tearing off her flaming clothes but caught fire himself and died of burns and shock". There are a few sisters and brothers who tried to save their siblings, but also people who tried to save strangers, neighbours and colleagues. If you ever need a reminder of the potential kindness and selflessness of people, visit this memorial.

So for British Flowers Week, I made a floral spray using Sweet Williams for gallantry, Sarah Bernhardt peonies (just because they were in season and would add impact), alchemilla mollis and eucalyptus which both symbolise protection, cornflowers which stand for delicacy, rosemary for remembrance, poppy seed heads (the flowers represent consolation) and hazel for reconciliation. When I took the photos, I saw that someone had left a red rose there.

I also made a lonely bouquet with William Shakespeare 2000 roses, a peony, Sweet Williams, poppy seed heads and alchemilla. I left it under Alice Ayres.