May wedding

My friend Denise married Heather earlier this month and they asked me to arrange their flowers. As I actually attended the wedding, I have seized the opportunity to produce a wedding blog which shows the wedding party with their flowers. Usually, I deliver the flowers and never get to see them with the people! Heather and Denise got married at Peckforton Castle in Cheshire – a really lovely, dramatic setting (thanks to 1and1photography for the castle images).

They asked me to make arrangements of spring flowers in kilner jars finished with lace and blue ribbon to decorate the castle. I used bluebells, sweet william, pinks, alstroemeria, eucalyptus and solomon’s seal from Cornwall, together with sea holly, veronica and astrantia from Sheffield Flower Market.  Then I mixed in some white and pink roses and gypsophila to add a bit of wedding romance. The jars were placed on the window sills and the sides of the mantelpiece in the Great Hall.

Then I arranged a couple of jars for the registrar’s table (thanks to 1and1photography for the second image below).

I also made a large arrangement which I placed in the entrance to the Great hall.

Denise wore trousers and a waistcoat, whilst Heather wore a traditional wedding dress in a subtle champagne colour. They wanted their own flowers to complement each other and decided on shoulder corsages – these are a small gathering of flowers pinned onto the shoulder. Usually these are wired (that is to say the heads of the flowers are chopped off and then attached to a wire – this makes it easy to manipulate the flowers into shape and keeps the corsage light). I don`t like the idea of chopping the heads off flowers, so was keen to find a way of making the corsages with whole flowers. I used white roses, freesia, gypsophila, bluebells, rosemary, and ivy. I was really pleased with the result (thanks to 1and1photography for the close up):

And here they are signing the register:

I used white and blue for all the wedding party – this matched the bridesmaids’ dresses and the young men’s ties/cravats.  Instead of posies I made wrist corsages for the bridesmaids. Again, I used white roses, freesias, bluebells, gypsophila, rosemary and ivy. I finished them with lace and attached them to the bridesmaids’ wrists with pretty silver bracelets. I thought they looked really classy and were a great alternative to a posy.

The young men had buttonholes made from white roses, sea holly and gypsophila.  A splendid match for the bridesmaids.

Whilst Denise and Heather were posing for pictures with their bridesmaids, there was a wonderful moment when a peacock strutted by in all his pomp. His blue feathers were just the same colour as the bridesmaids’ dresses!

The thing about wedding flowers is that they draw together and embellish all the members of the wedding party. Just like this:

The table centres were placed on top of slices of wood taken from trees felled from the Westgate Centre in Oxford (where Denise and Heather live). The wood slices had been made in a workshop in Blackbird Leys in Oxford by people with learning disabilities. This was a thoughtful, personal touch because Denise has been working on the Westgate project and Heather is keen to promote the wood slices for use in wedding decoration. They worked really well with the kilner jars…….what a great product to promote.

Finally, here is a picture of Mike and me with Denise and Heather (thanks to 1and1photography ). It was a very special day and I was so pleased to make a contribution to it with my flowers.

Easter Flowers

These are the gorgeous flowers we arranged at my workshop a couple of days ago on Maundy Thursday. The workshop was based around the idea of using up-cycled containers as vases. Below are some of the flowers at the start of the workshop, together with a few examples of different containers I had made from the flotsam and jetsam of life.

We had some lovely flowers from Clowance Flowers in Cornwall to work with – pink and yellow ranunculus, white narcissi, pretty snowdrops (the last of the season), pink tulips and splendid yellow irises.

The concept of up-cycling is that you take some used item and enhance it so that it is transformed into something else. This is different to re-cycling where used glass, tin, paper etc. are taken through an industrial process to make them into something else that feels new. Up-cycling is more of a craft activity and uses less resource in the transformation process (and is better for the environment). For the workshop I had painted tin cans, covered juice cartons with pretty paper, stuck some lace onto a yogurt pot and tied some ribbon to a small jam jar. As the containers are all of different sizes and shapes, I used colour and the same lace/ribbon to add consistency across the arrangements so that they looked as though they belonged together.

Here is a close-up of the individual pieces:

I was really pleased with this workshop – the arrangements looked so pretty and so did the containers. This approach can work really well for a party or a wedding because you can customise the vases to fit the look and colour scheme you have chosen for very little money (but quite a lot of labour!). Up-cycled containers also make lovely presents when you fill them with flowers – the person receiving the gift doesn`t have to go searching for a suitable vase and they get the bonus of a container which you have made yourself. Finally, I would like to wish you all a happy Easter and share this pretty little jug filled with simple narcissi and foliage. We will be using this yellow and green crockery at the next workshop in May which is on the theme of vintage flowers.

Flowers, love and marriage

Things are starting to move in the flower year. All sorts of lovely spring flowers are now available from Cornwall and daffodils, crocus and hellebore are all blooming in our Sheffield garden. The jugs above are the product of last weekend’s Welcome to Spring /Mother’s Day Workshop. The picture below shows some of the flowers we used – ranunculus, tulips and green iris. Such beautiful, vivid colours.

We also used lots of narcissi which smelled wonderful. This early cheer was particularly splendid.

As well as the large jug arrangements, we also made pretty jam jar arrangements – we added a few snowdrops and anemones to these.

This weekend I also went to a wedding fayre at the Holiday Inn Royal Victoria in Sheffield. Here I am in front of my stall.

Wedding fayres are a bit of a showcase of the kinds of arrangements I might make for weddings. I showed two different colour schemes – first of all bright yellows, pinks and other strong colours presented in the containers we used for the workshop – the Heron Cross jug and up-cycled jam jars. The jam jars are great for receptions because guest can take them away at the end of the evening. I also displayed the book that Jessie and I made about the development of Meadowsweet – it is called ‘Flowers for Life’.

Then I also used a colour scheme of white, blue and pink.

I made a bridesmaid’s posy from white ranunculus and blue anemones and finished it off with lace held in place with diamante pins. This looked really fresh and pretty.

I also made three tiny arrangements in small jam jars – these showed how flowers can be spread across a large area by making lots of small arrangements rather than one large one. 

The other two items which drew a lot of interest were the cup and saucer arrangement and the posy in an up-cycled tin.  Here they are back in my workshop after the fayre.

I had a great time talking to couples about their wedding plans – everyone is so excited and happy about their big day. Some couples are planning a grand wedding in a venue like the Royal Victoria which is quite magnificent with high ceilings and elaborate chandeliers, and others are on a tight budget and thinking about arranging their flowers themselves – one of my workshops could really help with this! Finally, on the theme of love, look at this picture I took in Millhouses park on Sunday. It is a huge heart made out of purple crocuses – it is stunning when you come across it. Somehow it has captured the essence of this time of year – full of optimism, hope and love.

South West Flower Growers

Last week I went down to Devon to the annual meeting of the South West British Flower Growers. We stayed with our friends in Exeter the night before the meeting and I gave them a present of a few English spring flowers (hyacinths and anemones) mixed up with several different types of foliage from our garden. I hand-tied the flowers and placed them in this pretty Heron Cross jug. This is the jug we will use for the flower workshop on Saturday 14 March – lovely for Mother’s Day or just for yourself!  I went along to the meeting of the SW growers because there were some interesting talks and flower arranging demonstrations, and it was a chance to meet James from Clowance Flowers who is my main supplier. The meeting was thronged with excited growers and florists who specialise in using seasonal British flowers.

Several wholesalers had stands – growers, seed suppliers, packaging suppliers and more. Here are some pictures from the Clowance stand – an abundance of lovely English flowers (and a good example of the kind of flowers we will be using at the workshop in March).

The flower arranging demonstrations were done by the Academy of Floral Art which is based in Exeter. They run a mix of accredited floristry courses leading to qualifications and short courses aimed at florists and flower arrangers.

I liked the way they picked up the natural ethos of the growers and demonstrated arrangements made without floral foam. They used fallen twigs to create structures to hold seasonal English flowers in place, creating some impressive arrangements.

There was also a hand-tied arrangement in a large tin. I have used tins myself quite a lot, but I think they look a bit industrial – great for some commercial premises like restaurants or delis, but not so good for a softer domestic environment. I liked the touch of adding a bird and nest to the pussy willow.

The finale was the creation of a large arrangement in a heart shape. A wire structure covered with moss was used for the framework, then tulips sitting in plastic test tubes were tied in. This used surprisingly little flower material, but created great impact. All in all, some good ideas which I will have a go at modifying for my own purposes.

I was also really pleased to meet Georgie Newbery who is an energetic flower grower and entrepreneur. She runs a very successful flower farm in Somerset called Common Farm. She grows gorgeous flowers, does wedding and event flowers, sends bouquets through the post and runs lots of workshops. She has grown her business over the last few years and now employs several people – hats off to her! She has also just written an inspiring and practical book called ‘The Flower Farmer’s Year’ which I bought from her. It has already given me some good ideas and helpful tips as I plan my seed planting for 2015.

On the subject of books, I am on the look out for books by Constance Spry. She really was a front-runner of modern floristry ideas and I am going to write a blog about her later this year. So far, I have found this book with the great title of ‘How to Do the Flowers’.

Spring seemed quite a lot further on in Devon than Sheffield, but when we got back I found a clump of snowdrops poking through the snow in our back garden. Just a little sign that Spring in on its way…….