Nostalgia – Hybrid Flowers

Lockdown, learning and peeking into people’s homes

As I write this, we are still in lockdown but I love the idea that at some point, in the not too distant future, I will be able to look back at this blog with a sigh of relief that it is over and that a new normal has been established.

For this ‘new normal’, my current self has been, well, reimagined: I am now an absolute pro at Instagram Live, proficiently creating Oscar worthy videos on social media in ten minutes flat. I saunter down the street with a newfound appreciation for freedom, feeling nothing but love towards my fellow citizens. I meet up with new industry friends introduced to me via the medium of YouTube and InstaLives. My hair is stunning, my nails perfectly manicured, and my abs… well, let’s just say, all those workouts with Joe Wicks have had the desired effect.

The Real World

Of course, that is a complete fantasy, we have a long way to go before we can safely say that this is over – if indeed we ever can. And whilst we are still in lockdown, it is, of course, the scientists, doctors, health professionals, policy makers, food suppliers and civil servants (to name but a few) who are out there working; undoubtedly feeling the pressure to both do their job and keep themselves and their nearest and dearest safe.

As florists, it won’t surprise you to learn that we aren’t considered in any way to be “key workers”, but still, like many others, we are trying to ‘do the right thing’. We have battened down the hatches and are keeping indoors. We are also feeling a bit guilty that we cannot be more useful.

Lockdown and Learning

When we were required to close the Hybrid studio in March, we needed to do something with the flowers we had left in stock and so we brought them home with no real plan for their future other than to give them away to people who we felt most deserved them. I consider myself a bit of a ‘creative introvert’ and struggle at the best of times to put myself centre stage, however after a chat with a marketing friend, Keren Lerner at Top Left Design on a Zoom call, she convinced me to bite the bullet and make a video of what we did with the flowers. So, I did (it can be found here…) and, actually, it was fun! Since then, I have encouraged others to do similar and have participated in InstaLive interviews and ‘how to’ videos.

We have seen lots of amazing initiatives within the creative industry where people have used their talent and skills to keep others entertained and enthralled; dance classes, art demos, book readings, the fabulous “One World: Together at Home” virtual concert, organised by Global Citizen. And for those of us whose creative yearning is greater than their desire to keep out of the limelight, there is unique potential here to be creative on your own terms.

I am willing to bet that those creative people who have stayed home have tried at least one new thing to keep themselves inspired and entertained and have probably shared it by the medium of the internet. We have given it a good ‘go’ and this, we think, is good for the soul. In our house we have become great fans of Channel 4’s Grayson’s Art Club with artist Grayson Perry encouraging viewers to paint whilst challenging them to do something out of their comfort zone. Perry believes that ‘art can help us get through this crisis’ and that ‘creativity is a way of dealing with what’s going on in your life’ and we wholeheartedly agree.

During lockdown many of us have gone back to activities we used to love as kids. We have got creative with the items we have had to hand and completely embraced the idea that nothing needs to be polished and infinitely orchestrated so long as you have made a bit of an effort! But I have to admit that one of the best things about the programme is that we get a glimpse inside Grayson’s art studio…

Having a Peek!

Come to think of it we would never have had this candid peek in to these homes of people on TV before lockdown?! I’m pretty sure we are all fascinated by the live interviews on our screens that give us an insight into people’s real-life homes!

Sometimes I have to ask myself: am I watching this for what the person has to say, or because I can have a nose at what’s on the person’s bookshelf? A layer of mystery has been removed and we can see people in a new way. And for that matter we are even seeing our friends, clients and work colleagues in a new way whenever we have a Skype or Zoom call with them.

When the country first went into lockdown, Hybrid set up a WhatsApp group for our team and other floral friends and called it “Let Hope Bloom” (which has been the #slogan for the flower industry throughout the pandemic). Every day since we have shared creative ideas and images of our surroundings with each other, sending photos of nature waking up across London and the Home Counties. We have documented the rise and fall of daffodils and tulips, witnessed the stunning varieties of blousy blossom on London streets (the best place to see blossom is on a suburban street!), bluebells, lilac and clematis. We are now onto poppies, peonies and roses and each day, we admire these and share them with each other. I don’t think that we appreciated British flowers in quite the same way as we do now.

And yes in ‘old normal’ times we would spend every day with each other, completely accepting of each other’s skills and talents as florists but somehow through or our WhatsApp group we have become even more creative and got to know each other even better. We have been making things to please ourselves and sharing these (and our other talents and skills) with pictures from our own homes. And we have become so much closer as a result.

Working from home, with my children off school isn’t always easy! But immersing myself in my children’s world has provided much needed escapism! We have painted images of flowers, made floral headdresses, decorated hula hoops, filled jam jars with wildflowers, painted Easter eggs and made paper flowers (not that you require children to do any of these things!) We have rediscovered hobbies from yester-year and taught ourselves new things too.

It’s all about connecting

So, whilst we may be feeling guilty and sad that we are not in our studio right now we know we are doing the right thing. We are staying home and finding new and exciting ways to communicate with the outside world. We are sharing what we are good at whilst learning new tricks too. We are thankful that our minds are being kept occupied and we can share our creative take on floristry from the comfort of our own home.

If you have any questions you’d like to ask about arranging flowers, floristry in general or the industry, we would love to hear from you. Please also share any pictures you may have of flowers you have grown or arrangements you have created.

16 slightly random questions to ask a florist

When a friend of mine asked me if I would answer some questions about myself for an article she was writing I thought “erm… might I introduce you to my business partner, Alan…?!” for you see I am not terribly keen on talking about myself.
However, she persevered and threatened to infect my precious garden roses with aphids if I didn’t comply, so under duress, I agreed.

And I have to say I got a lot out of answering the questions! In fact, they gave me space to think about some really big questions, like: “How did I end up as a florist?” and “What is it all about anyway?” I also couldn’t help but wonder: “Would she really be so mean as to ruin my beautiful roses?”

You see, even when you love your job like I do, and have worked hard to ensure the team you work with are happy and engaged, and even when you are surrounded by beautiful flowers in sumptuous settings, you can still feel, sometimes, that things are passing by too quickly and you may want to stop and take stock. I can think of two significant occasions when I’ve really needed to do this: once when I realised that I’d been a florist for over half of my life, and the second when I turned 40 earlier this year.

The “interview” is below, I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed taking part!

1. Where did you grow up?

Surrey, but I guess I really grew up when I went to live in South East London at age 19.

2. What’s the earliest thing you can remember?

As all good mums did with their babies in the 1970’s, my mum would often plonk me in my pram and leave me in the garden whilst she got on with yoga, or making a pineapple upside down cake… okay, I can’t really remember that bit but I can vividly remember looking up at cherry blossom. Our road in Ewell was lined with the most glorious cherry trees which were full of stunning puffy, pink petals that, a few weeks later would cover the street in beautiful pink snow-like confetti.
I have a tendency now to place my children under random cherry blossom trees every April just to ensure they have similar memories!

3. How much do you think your childhood influences your work:

As a child, I would always draw and paint flowers and I look for ways to show the patterns and shapes in flowers and leaves now, as then. I will always have a soft spot for begonia and cyclamen leaves.

My grandmother loved sweet peas and would display her home grown flowers in her house every summer. The organic mix of so many colours and varied heights always fascinated me. This memory has taught me that flowers, like the sea, cannot, and should, not be controlled too much.

4. What’s the weirdest place you’ve sought inspiration from:

Well! I am often travelling on the train and as a result, I been known to find a lot of inspiration from the verges on railway tracks. Also, as a car passenger travelling on the most boring of motorways I can let my mind wonder and come up with quite a few creative ideas.

5. What formal education do you have?

I have a Ist class BA hons in Communications and Animation from Goldsmiths however, the past 20 years working in the industry has been my biggest lesson!

6. What’s the wisest thing anyone has ever told you?

You’ve got to give yourself a chance to get lucky.

7. As they grow older, what do you think your children will ask you to tell stories about?

I think they’ll ask me about the time I arranged flowers for the Queen’s lunch table. It was very long and very grand! And I expect they’ll ask me about all the different weird and wonderful places Hybrid have been to in London.

Even now, I play a game with my daughter where we look at a sketch map of London that hangs on our toilet wall, and she points to a random location and I have to tell her an interesting fact or story to do with that area.

8. When did something start out badly for you but in the end, it was great?

That’s easy, it was for the first ever hand-tied bouquet I ever made for the first florist I worked for. I had only made a few beforehand and as I was making it I thought ‘Oh my this is going horribly wrong they are going to see straight through me and my lack of experience will be uncovered!’. But for some reason I kept going and realised that perseverance can take you quite a long way and actually I was alright at this flowery stuff!…

9. Which flower will always be in fashion, no matter how much time passes?

Roses: the whole world has spent thousands of years growing them. Just don’t let my friend near them.

10. Which is the most unusual brief you’ve ever been asked to fill?

Flowers to be given on stage at The Royal Albert Hall to a whole host of amazing female celebrities who took part in The Vagina Monologues in the early noughties. The flowers had to be very themed, descriptive and very striking! I was wincing when I was making them.

11. What are you interested in that most people aren’t?

Vans and trucks.

12. What’s the most expensive thing you’ve broken?

Our first van.

13. What do you think you are much better at than you actually are?

Axe Throwing (ask the rest of our team, this was the first part of our Christmas party last year and I was THE worst).

14. Do you think that aliens exist?

Not in the slightest.

15. What movie, picture, or video always makes you laugh no matter how often you watch it?

Am afraid it has to be the bar scene from Only Fools and Horses and the sick caterpillar scene in CBeebie’s ‘Hey Duggee’.

16. What’s the funniest joke you know by heart?

What do you get hanging from trees?…

Sore arms.

Top tips for a floral career from the original Hybrid Heroes

On our Instagram bio we state, proudly: “The most amazing team of event and corporate florists.” This may sound a tad OTT, but we really do mean it! They. Are. Amazing! Not a week goes by when I don’t feel a sense of almost maternal pride whilst listening to the fabulous Hybrid staff chatting about their projects with such great enthusiasm and energy.

In fact, each member of our 14 strong clan contributes something individually wonderful and eclectic which, when combined, forms the very essence of Hybrid. Together, we form the most amazing team which, for me at least, has become even more than that: it’s an extended family, full of people you actually choose to spend time with, each with their own talent and personality.

We caught up with three of our most long-standing Hybrid Heroes whilst installing designs at a recent English Garden summer installation at The Brewery in the City of London. I wanted to ask them what made them become florists in the first place and if they have any words of wisdom for people thinking of a career in floristry.

Fiona has worked at Hybrid for four years, Liliana for nine years and Gabriella for six. This is what they said:

Do you think you were destined to become a florist?

Creating something memorable from flowers has always been in Liliana’s blood, ever since she and her brother would play outside as children in the countryside in Cordoba, Argentina, where they would make little characters from the seed-heads of clematis flowers.

For Fee, it was a childhood spent playing outdoors in Yorkshire where she would pretend to be a presenter on a TV cookery show and use piles of leaves decorated with flowers as food!

From an early age, Gabs, was drawn to the beautiful enticing and fascinating flower shops in her home city of Budapest.

Both Gabs and Fee chose to study Horticulture directly upon leaving school. Fee studied for three years at Leeds City College which for her was a welcome change from the formal dynamic of classroom learning. For Gabs, ‘horticulture’ was the first word that jumped out at her when she opened the book of careers given to all Hungarian 14 year olds at her high school. She went on to study six years of Horticulture at University in Budapest. Coincidently, both loved learning the Latin names for plants and the design aspect of their courses before deciding to specialise in floristry inspired by the flowers they had been taught how to grow.

Liliana travelled all over the world before moving to London in her thirties where she was inspired by her then house-mate to study on a 3 year floristry course at Southwark College. The alumni from the 2003 graduation year is one to be proud of, including flower experts and florists such as Rona Wheeldon, founder of Flowerona, Rafael Ballesteros, Manager of Galton Flowers and Mary Woolcot the owner of Windmill Flowers. Liliana’s tutor proudly stated that it was a very competitive year!

The first question we are always asked by people thinking of moving into floristry is, is it worth going to college?

All three whole heartedly agree that yes, you need to have a sound knowledge of the basics.

For Liliana, going to college gave her the confidence to be a professional:

For me, it was the most amazing thing I could have done as it opened my eyes to different forms of floristry and you need to have that knowledge to be professional.

Gabs agrees:

Studying allows you to be the very best you can be.

Upon leaving college, Liliana and Fee, were given lucky breaks by wonderful flower shop managers in London who believed in giving good college graduates a chance; they never looked back!

Do you still love flowers after all these years?

Liliana jokes that her hands certainly don’t! But all three agreed that they still love flowers. Liliana loves growing her own and using them in her house.

Fee explained that there are always new flowers emerging in the industry which make you fall back in love with the simplest flowers that you have used for years. Her passion is always sparked by new varieties of old style flowers such as the quirkiest varieties of carnations called ‘Nobbio Violet’ and ‘Peach Extazis’.

We asked what each would be doing if they weren’t working in this mad floral world?

For Liliana, it would be something crafty or artistic, perhaps fine art whereas for Fee, as well as creative writing, she would be immersed in history, delving into myths and legends and the history of ancient buildings. Which is why she always volunteers to install event flowers at some of our most historical London venues such as Merchant Taylors’ Hall, St Paul’s Cathedral and The Queen’s House, Greenwich!

Gabs however, would have liked to study Microbiology, especially creating new flowers, or an architect!

Do Gabs, Liliana and Fee have any tips for people considering a career in floristry?

Gabs advises to never stop learning, make everything as if you were making it for yourself and keep the passion. The industry is so intense that once you stop loving the industry, you will leave, so keep the passion alive!

Fee recommends keeping perspective and not sweating the small stuff. She said:

Listen and learn from the experienced florists, they will teach you new tips and tricks. Each florist, each shop and company does things differently absorb it all and you’ll find what works for you.

Liliana is more pragmatic, advising to be prepared for cold days, early hours and lots of psychical work:

It is very creative but you can never rest on your laurels. If you work in the flower industry, keep in mind that it is one of the hardest environments to work in as your product is perishable so you must always be thinking of ways to sell your creations.

Gabs added:

It is never boring! It is one of the only professions where you will be continually thinking, prioritising, calculating, selling, creating, physically lifting and moving, driving, liaising, marketing, planning, drawing, presenting and writing and that’s before touching any flowers!

Made up of individuals, Hybrid, is more than the sum of its parts: our combined experience means that we can always ask each other for advice or run new ideas past one another and there are moments of sheer joy when we sit down and simply chat, talk about the old times, discuss philosophies of life and learn something new about each other.

We hope you’ve enjoyed learning a bit more about the Hybrid Heroes and we are always happy to answer any questions you may have about a career in floristry.

The people behind British Flowers Week

It seems like only yesterday that the wonderful people behind British Flowers Week, New Covent Garden Flower Market (known simply as ‘The Market’ to those of us in the biz), asked a select few of their top florist clients to choose a key British flower and create 3 distinct designs around it.

It was a genuine honour and privilege to be one of the chosen florists of 2014, and we haven’t stopped harping on about it since! You see, The Market asked just five of their finest and gave us a whole host of amazing British flowers to choose from.

Their aim?

To showcase great British flowers through great British floristry.

Our choice of British flower came easily: the Sweet William. I agree it’s not the most obvious choice, but we like to be a little different at Hybrid, and the Sweet William is a flower for which our Alan has real soft spot. In fact, the amazing Sweet William is used regularly by Hybrid in all three areas of our work: events, weekly corporate designs and weddings. Click here to see what we did with the designs.

Now in its sixth year, for floral designers, growers, florists, flower arrangers and customers alike, British Flowers Week is becoming the highlight of the floral year (yes indeed… move over Chelsea….).

So we decided to take a look at how much this amazing floral calendar event has developed over the last few years and asked the brilliant Claire Levi, Communications Executive for New Covent Garden Market Authority to tell us how it all came about.

How was British Flowers Week born?

Here at the Flower Market at New Covent Garden Market, we’ve traded in British grown flowers and foliage for centuries. Up until the 1970s, the only flowers you saw came from flower farmers in Britain. Today, most of the flowers we see used in the floristry industry or for sale in your high street flower shop will have been grown by large scale commercial growers and routed through the Dutch auctions.

We wanted to promote and give visibility to these British flowers, their sellers, growers, and the independent florists championing locally-grown. Although beautiful British flowers are available all year round, we wanted to take one week to focus all our attentions on promoting them, generating interest and press coverage to boost the British flower industry.

Was it solely a Flower Market idea?

The initial idea was solely a Flower Market idea, but the campaign would never have been possible without the support of the entire floral industry.

How has it changed over the last 5 years?

What started as a relatively small project has grown from strength to strength – I think we never really expected how big the campaign would become! – Although our aims have stayed the same.

Over the year’s 25 florists (including yourselves) have created stunning designs using British flowers and foliage that we shared with the press, on our website and across social media as the cornerstone of the campaign. This year, we’ve changed things up a bit, with six florists creating all British floral installations that will be on display at the Garden Museum throughout the week for people to visit.

Social media use has increased so much over the last five years too, that the hashtag #BritishFlowersWeek has grown and grown, with more people getting behind the campaign online. In 2015, I created the website www.britishflowersweek.com too, to act as an online hub for the week.

More florists and growers are holding events up and down the country to celebrate the week too, particularly members of the Flowers from the Farm network who do amazing work in promoting locally grown flowers.

What is the aim for British Flowers week?

We aim to:

Showcase great British flowers through great British floristry
Raise awareness of which British flowers are in season when
Encourage the public to buy more British flowers

Any key people involved in British Flowers week that you couldn’t do without?

There’s so many people who’ve made British Flowers Week what it is today! As I mentioned, Flowers from the Farm are hugely important in promoting British Flowers Week through their network across the UK. The British Florist Association are also great partners in sharing the campaign with their members. They’ve also created some great free posters for florists to use, and the lovely team at The Paper Studio have been providing free posters and gift tags to florists for years.

The whole team at the market, and friends of the market like Rona Wheeldon of Flowerona provide invaluable support too and Liz Anderson was vital in helping with PR in the early years of the campaign.

Ultimately though, British Flowers Week wouldn’t be such a success without florists, like yourselves, who’ve given up their time and effort to support the campaign and continue to advocate for British flowers, wholesalers and growers. We’re hugely grateful to everyone who makes time to support the campaign.

Many thanks to Flowerona, Julian Winslow and New Covent Garden Flower Market for images

Where do florists find that magical Christmas feeling?

One might be forgiven for thinking that a busy London corporate and event florists would be made up of a group of hardened professionals, immune to the magic of Christmas. After all, we do spend a large part of the year focused on finding new festive colour schemes, sourcing unique decorations from near and far as well as carefully counting baubles for opulent pine trees. And don’t even get us started on Christmas spreadsheets!

With so much time spent on perfecting festive floral designs, transforming hotel ballrooms into winter wonderlands and creating kitsch holiday-themed table centres for fun corporate parties, perhaps, just perhaps, that sparkly Christmas feeling which ‘normal people’ experience may just pass us by.

However, sometimes the spirit of Christmas can strike you when you least expect it. Take the magical feeling we experienced the other day whilst passing the ice rink outside The Natural History Museum; hearing that eerie muffled sound of a cold winter’s night and the swish of skates on the ice. Looking up and seeing the naked plane trees covered in thousands of twinkling lights against the backdrop of the iconic museum. All of a sudden that lovely Christmas feeling makes you stop in your tracks.

So imagine our delight when we were sent a video of one of our own Christmas installations. We felt that tingly Christmas feeling just by looking back at our own work!

Let’s be honest; we do harbor a not-so-secret adoration of Merchant Taylors Hall. Such a building set within the imposing stone streets of the City of London will always give us that special feeling of excitement. One of the Great Twelve Livery Companies of the City of London, Merchant Taylors’ was established in mediaeval times in order to protect the interests of the tailoring trade. The threads and needles representing the trade of The Worshipful Company of Merchant Taylors’ may well have given the name to Threadneedle Street where The Livery Company has been based since 1347.

That’s six hundred and seventy Christmases!

Whenever we are granted the great honour of decorating such a building it gives us a special sense of joy. Especially when you consider that this landmark venue has literally played host to hundreds and hundreds of Christmases; 670 to be exact.

With such a rich cultural history within its ancient walls this unique events venue embraces the very latest events trends so how could we not strive to reflect Merchant Taylors’ vast experience of hosting London’s finest Christmas events. As our Alan reflects;

It is every florist’s dream to get their hands on a space as stunning and historical as Merchant Taylors’, especially at this festive time of year, so my creative juices were overflowing when I set about submitting our ideas! Imagine my joy when they chose everything we had designed!

The overall styling was understated, incorporating lots of traditional fresh pine, cones, branches, silk pheasant feathers and artificial apples and oranges; combined with glittered poinsettias and sparkling leaves. Along with gold asparagus fern, these were to feature throughout the decorations, including archways over the doorways, the wall light decorations, the stunning carved staircase through to the giant wreaths in the Great Hall and of course the 14ft tree!

A Hybrid Christmas at Merchant Taylors’ Hall from HybridFlowers on Vimeo.

The team at Merchant Taylors’ have always been a wonder to work with and had this to say about our Christmas decorations;

As Merchant Taylors’ Hall is an iconic mediaeval Livery Hall with a historic heritage and busy modern event space, it is hugely important to find the right partnership for its Christmas decorations. From the beginning, the Hybrid team worked closely with us, offering support, guidance and time. The creative design process was seamless and embraced the Hall and its heritage.

Looking back on these floral festivities still has the ability to revive our Christmas spirit. It just goes to show that the right floral decorations, combined with a truly stunning venue, can spark the magic of Christmas within even the most hardened of London florists. If that isn’t a Christmas miracle then we don’t know what is!

The best things about British flowers (according to events florists)

Last week we were granted a golden opportunity to tell one of our favourite tales whilst guiding a very good friend around a wonderful, local cutting garden. It all came to pass when we stopped to admire some tall towering pale yellow scabious and some stunning, heavy headed, gobstopper-like peonies. Whilst we gazed over to view a nearby mass of beautiful deep pink Sweet Williams our friend said:

Ah yes I recognize them, you see them in the supermarket with the British Flowers label.

This simple statement caused a wave of voices to rush to mind, each offering conflicting cries of;

Oh thanks a bunch, SUPERMARKETS, you win the battle of the florists YET again!

Well that’s nice… at least people are recognizing our beloved British blooms in the world of ‘normal’ people.

But the thought that stood head and shoulders above the rest was;

AHA! A chance for us to modestly tell the story of how we used Sweet Williams as one of the Famous Five florists for British Flowers Week back in 2014.

And so began our wonderful walk down memory lane! Luckily, our Sweet Williams inspired story was met with plenty of ‘oohs’ and ‘ahhs’ from our friend.

To elaborate, three years ago we were approached by the wonderful people at New Covent Garden Flower Market who invited us to contribute some floral designs for British Flowers Week. First launched in 2013, British Flowers Week is an annual event held in June that celebrates British flowers, their growers, independent florists and the UK cut flower industry as a whole. As such, we were thrilled to be invited to contribute some fabulous floral designs based upon our preferred choice of British flower.

In 2014 we had the great pleasure of sharing this prestigious invitation with Simon Lycett, Okishima & Simmonds, Euphoric Flowers and McQueens. Over the course of the week, each of us was granted a day in which to showcase our favourite British blooms in all their glory.

For our day in the sun Alan instantly chose the Sweet William. These modest yet mesmerizing blooms have always had a very special spot in Alan’s heart ever since he first began working as a junior florist in a local flower shop in Leicester back in the 80s. As Alan puts it in his own words;

Back then, with everything so new and exciting, each new delivery of flowers to the shop brought with it new smells and colours. Until then, I had only opened and unpacked boxes of single-coloured flowers such as Dianthus Pinks and Daffodils, so imagine my delight at the discovery of the jewel-like bunches that greeted me when I opened the first box of the season’s Sweet Williams:
There were reds, pinks, hot pinks and whites and two-toned shades, along with bright green and purple; these were all in mixed bunches packed closely together, each tied with little elastic bands. I could not believe how pretty these little gems were, and decided then and there to take a couple of bunches home to my mum. They lasted nearly two weeks!
Since then I have always bought the first bunch of Sweet Williams of the year and taken it for my mum; it’s turned into a sort of tradition.

Even though our business has expanded and evolved over the years, at Hybrid Flowers we’ve always had a soft spot for tradition. Consequently, our aim for British Flowers Week was to showcase the wonderfully nostalgic nature of Sweet Williams whilst also highlighting the ways in which these beautiful British blooms could be used in contemporary floral arrangements in order to complement the style and subtleties of modern city life.

With these inspirations in mind, we set out to create three floral designs; for the workplace, for events and for weddings. Sweet Williams are the ideal blooms for these types of floral arrangements because they are long-lasting and incredibly pliable. What’s more, the delicate look of Sweet Williams is simply stunning when they are grouped en masse!

The Best of British

One of the best aspects of participating in British Flowers Week was the opportunity it granted us to showcase some of the nation’s most stunning seasonal flowers. Much like locally sourced Jersey Royals and Bramley apples, there is no point in forcing British produce. They are here when they want to be (or rather when the right conditions allow) and then they take their leave when the seasons change. There is something quite special about savoring these luxurious, vivid and scented blooms whilst they are in season and then eagerly anticipating their return when they are gone.

Why florists get so excited about British flowers

These wonderful British flowers provide us florists with a whole host of amazing experiences. We can’t help but be excited whenever they arrive at our suppliers but not always for the reasons that you would think. British flowers also give us a chance to revel in some of our other passions namely:

Packaging: Some of our fondest memories stem from unpacking the beautiful crisp white boxes filled to bursting with the most exciting colours, tastes (don’t ask!) and textures.Time Travel: The unique scents of each of these blooms invokes an incredible sense of nostalgia and has the power to take us right back to our youth; playing in gardens or picking roses and sweet peas.

Talking: These seasonal blooms have also sparked some great conversations whilst we have been installing them. From fellow florists to delighted clients, it is an immensely fulfilling process to swap stories about our individual experiences with these familiar flowers.

Another benefit of British blooms is how well they complement international floral varieties. We could never be without our trusty and varied Dutch flowers or flamboyant and vibrant Italian varieties, the chance to mix British flowers with their European cousins opens up a whole new world of opportunities to create some eye-catching floral arrangements!

What does the future hold for British flowers?

Three years on from our day of floral fame at British Flowers Week, we sit down to write this piece and we asked ourselves; how often do we really have the wonderful opportunity to use British flowers? And no word of a lie, at the very moment of posing this question to ourselves, an email landed in our inbox:

I was wondering if you could help me. I am organizing an event for my client…This will be one long table with approx. 25 x guests. I would take your recommendation on how we should dress the table so any ideas are very much appreciated. We would like the designs to be very high-end looking. The group will be predominantly male and we are trying to really emphasize the best of British.

This well-timed email answered our question; British flowers will always have their day in the sun as long as we keep offering them.

If we keep looking at what our wonderful growers and suppliers offer us, from the first violets of the year to the last dahlias of the summer, then British flowers can continue to take pride of place within all manner of fabulous floral arrangements. And this will only happen if we keep offering these brilliant British blooms to our clients. If we put our faith into these fantastic British floral varieties then our clients will do so too.

We have to trust that they will of course snap them up, just like Jersey Royals and Bramley apples, because they are the best.

With thanks to Rona Wheeldon and Julian Winslow and New Covent Garden Market for images