This Week
pompons and ribbon brights
Not sufficiently stretched by her energetic day job, growing vegetables and herbs for the Five Fields restaurant in London, last week's merry bride, Heather, had spent most of her evenings for the last year making fabulous jewel-bright decorations with which to enliven her wedding day. She and Jimmy, a chef, celebrated their wedding feast under a canopy of brilliant ribbons, draped from...
a highly romantic bouquet
How can it still be August? Tree fruits are ripe and plumply falling to the ground as the leaves yellow and soften, and the whole garden seems to be withdrawing into itself a little. In my imagination, August is a month of big straw hats and lovely languid picnics... Now all the harvest is gathered in and from the window I can see enormous bales of straw studding the rolling...
two weddings and an open day
It has been a busy week in the garden, with providing flowers for two weddings, opening the garden to the public for the National Gardens Scheme (NGS) for the first time, and keeping on top of all our usual orders. The two weddings were held at the romantic venues of Garthmyl Hall and nearby Walcot Hall, and the flowers were equally romantic to suit: we used lots of soft peachy creamy...
Shrewsbury Flower Show
We felt a bit deflated at this year's Shrewsbury Flower Show when the judges awarded us only a silver medal, after our triumphant silver gilt last year. The three men very kindly came and talked to us, at length, about what they are looking for in a Flower Show display - in particular, lots of drama, strong colours and shapes, and a clear 'story' - so we now have lots of tips to work with...
intricate flowers
Some flowers in our garden bloom for weeks or even months on end - roses, sweet peas (when we feed them) and dahlias in particular - while others appear only briefly, so that we have to be alert and use them when they are at their best. I am regretting that all the foxtail lilies are long gone, and the delicate delightful snakeshead fritillaries of the spring. This week has been the...
tent parties
These two weeks we are enjoying having a bit of a lull, with no weddings and no big weekly delivery of flowers to London; we are gathering our energies for the big weeks ahead. We still deliver a large weekly order to Hereford, small local bouquets and posies, and we have been selling our flowers by the bucket to other local florists and flower-loving individuals. However, this...
big on romance
It was a real pleasure this week to pick and arrange flowers for Sarah and Harry's wonderful laid back garden wedding. We provided a combination of DIY buckets, some large arrangements, and bouquets and buttonholes, all in a soft muted palette of pink, apricot, white and maroon. What I enjoyed most of all - apart from their visits to the garden to collect buckets and return hire...
bouquet berries bothy
It is so great to have the old outbuildings in which to store our flowers and fruit, while we toil away outside under a hot July sun. We are starting to flag a little now, but must pace ourselves for the busy weeks ahead. Our new part time gardener, Molly, turned the hard work into a garden party today by bringing with her delicious rosewater and falafel to share for lunch. ...
bouquets
One of the things I love the most about our work is when I have the chance to make up big, lavish, beautiful bouquets of all our most lovely flowers. I go out into the garden first thing, with the person to whom the order is going in my mind - it really helps if I know or have met the person, or if I have heard a little of the story about why the flowers are being given to them. ...
garden visit and lots of flowers
We've hosted several visits to the flower garden over the last few weeks, and Barney particularly enjoyed welcoming a large group of flower-loving ladies to explore the high season garden earlier last week. The ladies had just been on a guided tour of the Big House and were full of wonder at what they'd seen and learned, so perhaps stepping in through the gate of the walled garden and...