Chelsea Flower Show 2012

Now that the Hampton Court Palace Flower Show is upon us this week, I realise I never posted about the Chelsea Flower Show at the end of May. It was my first visit to the show and I absolutely loved it. I spent half of the day there, but I wish I’d had longer – there was so much to see and so many growers to speak to.

Apart from the usual suspects (roses, courtesy of David Austin and Harkness), I was especially bowled over by some of the other displays. One was a wall of about 70 different cultivars of daffodils by Walkers Bulbs. Another was an innovative display featuring the Bullring, the Jewellery Quarter, canalside, and a Mini (which was originally manufactured in Longbridge, Birmingham) by Birmingham City Council, who were incredibly friendly and informative.  I have a soft spot for Birmingham, since I’ve been spending a lot of my free time there over the last nine months. I’m only too familiar with the distinctive Selfridges building and I recently made my first trip to the Jewellery Quarter.

But my favourite exhibit, which I kept going back to, was a stunning display of cottage garden flowers by Hardy’s Cottage Garden Plants. A trip up to their nursery in Hampshire is on my ‘to do’ list! Just look at their flowers.

And finally, Leucanthemum 'Freak' could be the winner of best new name!

Class of 2012

We finished our Level 2 floristry diploma yesterday and celebrated in the glorious sunshine. I will certainly miss the other students and our tutors. I’m sure many of the students will go on to great things, judging by the talent they displayed in class.

It’s been a busy nine months, but as I updated my portfolio, it was wonderful to see how much I’ve achieved and learnt. I can see that I am instinctively getting better when I work – I don’t overthink as much, but the result is just as good, if not better.

Here is some of my work from the last year.

Wedding work: An Alice band decorated with viburnum and brassica petals, a hand-tied bridesmaid posy, a circlet, a comb decorated with lilac, phlox and Queen Anne's lace, and a wired bouquet (a fiddly and time-consuming design to make, but much easier to handle than a hand-tied and more delicate-looking).

Arrangements: Grouped basket, front-facing arrangement, basket, vegetative arrangement (a lovely concept - a design that is supposed to represent a garden), and an 'impulse buy' for Valentine's Day.

Event work: My cake decoration assessment (distinction) and practice, and my pew end/chair back assessment (merit).

The last few weeks were spent catching up on any gaps in our portfolio. I didn’t have photos of some of our early designs, so I had to redo them. This was the second to last piece of work I did: a loose, open cross. I brought some gorgeous-smelling roses, jasmine and escallonia 'Apple Blossom' from the garden, and also used eucalyptus and thistles from college. This was inspired by Claire and Liz Cowling’s stunning funeral work in Straight From the Heart – no white chrysanthemum basing and ribbon pleating; just lots of beautiful roses and cottage garden flowers and grasses. I think many of the designs could even translate to wedding or event work.

And my last piece of work. I think I frowned the whole time while I made this textured cushion – ribbon pleating is not my favourite thing, and I find it hard to get my head around compact, textured designs such as this. But I got some nice comments from other students and our tutors when I took photos of it…and after a day, with a bit of distance, I can see that it’s not as bad as I thought! Joy and sorrow in one.

Black Narcissus

Hmm, this didn’t quite work out. Last summer, when I was in the heady first flush of floristry-love, I sketched lots of ideas of flower arrangements. Some were inspired solely by the flowers and others by a connection to a film or book or something. Once I’d decided to grow Black Parrot tulips and various scented narcissi, I sketched a bouquet which I called Black Narcissus. I remember the first time I saw a Powell and Pressburger film: it was The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, which I saw at the Barbican about five years ago. It was such a beautiful and heartfelt film; I don’t think I’d seen anything like it before. I sought out their other films and watched A Matter of Life and Death and The Red Shoes at the BFI and Black Narcissus on DVD.

So this May, when the black tulips flowered, I thought: I can finally make my bouquet. Whoops. I hadn’t thought ahead enough to realise that the narcissi season would be over by the time these very late tulips were in flower. There were a few pink daffodils remaining in the garden, so I made a bouquet with them, the Black Parrot tulips, and the stunning Cummins and Swan Wings fringed tulips. I’ll call this Black Narcissus in the Making. And next April, I’ll buy black tulips from the wholesaler and mix them with my white narcissi to make Black Narcissus: the Florist’s Cut. I'm certainly learning the value of patience!

Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May

It’s the end of May, everything’s coming up roses, and I haven’t even posted photos of my spring flowers! So here’s a quick tour of the garden flowers from the last two months, both in the garden and after cutting.

April brought my one, solitary ranunculus (of the ten plants I’d tried to grow). It also brought tulips galore – golden Freeman tulips and red, scented Abba tulips, sweetly-scented and pretty pink Angelique peony tulips which open up the minute you put them in water, and sexy, red Rococo parrot tulips. There were delicate, scented narcissi and muscari and fairy-like snakeshead fritillary – I love the little arrangement I did with these (it was a present for my partner).

May brought more tulips – black parrot and blue parrot tulips, white Swan Wings fringed tulips and lilac Cummins fringed tulips. And, seemingly from out of nowhere, came the rose buds and the first roses.

The temperature might be going down, but summer is here.

Spring greens

Over the Easter holidays, I did deliveries for some contract work for my college. The tutors and technician needed a proper break, and I was happy to get some different work experience. It was a little bit scary having so much responsibility (the client is a chef with a number of restaurants all over London), but once the first day was over, I felt fine. The driver was brilliant, as was the supply tutor at college (who made most of the designs during the Easter break). The work involved packing and carrying flower arrangements (some were huge) to and from the restaurants, doing maintenance work at some restaurants (i.e. removing wilting flowers and topping up arrangements and outside plants with water), and making lots of small table arrangements on site for three of the restaurants. One day, I got to college at 7am, only to find my poor tutor madly trying to make arrangements that were supposed to have been made in his absence, so I helped out – and wow, I have never worked so fast or so instinctively! Doing this work has certainly tempered my tendency to over-think arrangements.

Here are some of the arrangements that I’ve made.

And here are some others in situ.

One restaurant had new arrangements three times a week. The old flowers would be thrown away, and it seemed like a waste, so one day I asked if I could take them back with me. My tutor gave me a new stem of cymbidium orchids that hadn’t been used, and I made a table centre for my friend and three little arrangements for me. I think this shows how effective simple arrangements and grouping the same flower and/or colour can be. These parrot tulips and orchids were used in different arrangements for the contract work, and they are two flowers that I wouldn't have thought of putting together, but I loved how the lime green colour and curvy shapes linked them so well.

Otherwise engaged

I haven’t updated my blog for ages as I’ve been busy with floristry work and studies. Ok, there’s another reason too – I got engaged on Easter Sunday, which was the day after I wrote my last post! It’s been a wonderful whirlwind the last couple of months. So far, we’ve booked the ceremony and afternoon reception, the photographer, and have meetings booked with the dress designer and the cake maker. I love the planning process and researching for ideas for decorations, music, readings. I don’t need to tell you that I’d decided on the flowers before the dress – the scents and flower meanings are just as important to us as the colours and types of flowers. And I also probably don’t need to tell you that David Austin roses are going to feature heavily.

Expect a lot of wedding-related posts over the next year!

Here is a photo of one of the giant eggs that featured in the Faberge Big Egg Hunt in London over Easter – I found this at Canary Wharf just moments after my boyfriend phoned me to say he had been offered a job in London (we’ve been doing the long distance thing ever since we met). It was the week before we got engaged. The egg is called ‘Love’ by Louise Dear…it felt like a pretty cool coincidence.

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!