Cowdray House Cutting Garden

We are delighted to say that we now have a cutting garden at Cowdray House.

In keeping with our company ethos we don’t use any chemicals, weed killers or sprays and all of our flowers are grown naturally. We grow through a fabulous bio-degradable matting that’s made in the UK and not made of plastic as most are.

A short 5 minute hop from our studio and Home in Midhurst, West Sussex , it’s ideally placed on the Cowdray Estate to enable us to pick flowers and arrange them in our bunches for the Cowdray Farm Shop for the same morning.

We also provide weekly flowers for Cowdray House, the Cowdray Farm Shop Cafe and the Cowdray Golf Club where we’ll be adding some our our own flowers into the arrangements that we make.

Our weddings and events business will benefit hugely from our cutting garden and we also intend to offer some courses on sustainable flower arranging later in the year at Cowdray House. Do sign up to our newsletter if you’d like to be kept informed about dates.

Dahlia beds at our Cowdray House Cutting Garden

Tips on Decorating your House for Easter In The Daily Telegraph

Anna Tyzack, Senior Lifestyle Editor at The Daily Telegraph, interviewed me, as the Cowdray Estate florist, this week for a fun and informative article on decorating your house for Easter.

They'll be lots of gorgeous Easter flowers, wreaths, bulbs planters and flowering branches available to buy from Cowdray Farm Shop on the Cowdray Estate from this week when Spring returns.

This Floral Life Cowdray Estate Florist Daily Telegraph 18 Mar 2018.jpg

Flowers for Mothering Sunday

Mothering Sunday, or the week of Mothering Sunday, is always such a lovely week at This Floral Life.

It marks the beginning of Spring for me and it’s a mere 3 weeks to Easter; another favourite flowery festival of mine.

This year was incredible. It was super busy all week for flowers and plants and then at the weekend we were re-stocking Cowdray Farm Shop every hour in between our other local deliveries.

I had a hunch that it was going to be a much busier Mothering Sunday week than usual for flowers and plants and I think people needed some Spring cheer after the harsh winter.

Eco Flower Deliveries Midhurst West Sussex

It’s the first day of Spring and it’s hard to believe it but ‘Leckie’, our all electric van, is covered in snow.

We’ve had ‘Leckie’ since August and we absolutely love him. He fits perfectly with our company values and since we bought ‘Leckie’ he’s really helping us to achieve our goals of running a sustainable, eco friendly business. We can deliver flowers, plants and bespoke arrangements within a 20 mile radius of Midhurst so do call if you’d like to book a delivery as we always have a gorgeous range of seasonal flowers and plants in stock as we do daily deliveries to the Cowdray Farm Shop (literally 5 minutes from our studio) where we supply all of the flowers and plants.

We no longer use floral foam in any of our work as we’ve worked hard to achieve amazing floral displays without using this non biodegradable, single use, plastic.

This year we’ll be growing more of our own flowers and we’ll also be running some flower courses for anyone who is interested in learning how to create glorious, seasonal, eco friendly arrangements.

Sign up to our newsletter on our home page if you’d like to be kept informed.

Yellow Flowers

Okay, so I’m well aware that many people have an intense dislike of yellow flowers. I do understand this dislike but I think it stems from an historical poor use of yellow in flower arrangements and the fact that yellow was off trend for many years.

Not any more though as yellow is currently enjoying its moment in the sun and for the last few seasons has been on trend in both fashion and home furnishings. With the proliferation of dark walls in interiors and dark backgrounds in print design a pop of yellow can look fabulous.

Here are a few of my favourite seasonal yellow flowers for February.

Witch hazel

Mimosa wreath

Gorse

Witch Hazel, mimosa and lilac

Autumn Heather Wreaths

Autumn wreaths are now incredibly popular and this week we've been making lots of gorgeous autumnal heather wreaths for orders. Our red and orange wreaths decorated with seasonal foliage, rose hips, physalis and seed heads are still popular but the demand for our pink, red and chocolate wreaths, inspired by the heather woods where I live in Midhurst, West Sussex, has been very high indeed. We've also been making some beautiful dried wreaths which will last throughout the year. I love making the dried wreaths and they look beautiful propped on the mantelpiece or hanging on doors around the house.

This will be the last week for our autumn wreaths as we've been working on our Christmas collection which we'll launch at Cowdray Farm Shop on Saturday 2nd December when they're holding their Christmas tasting day.

If you'd like to order a wreath for collection or delivery do get in touch!

Flowers for Mothering Sunday at Cowdray Farm Shop

What a lovely, sunny weekend it's been for a Mothering Sunday.

I provide all of the flowers and plants for the award winning Cowdray Farm Shop on the beautiful Cowdray Estate in Easebourne, Midhurst, West Sussex and with Mothering Sunday and the exceptional weather this weekend it's been a very flowery and busy week,.

Here are a few photos of this weekend's bouquets, planters and plants.

Lilac, ranunculus, scented narcissi and anemones

Lilac, ranunculus, astrantia, forget-me-nots and clematis

Ranunculus, lilac, scented narcissi and forget-me-nots

Hellebore Heaven

Whether as a garden plant or a cut flower the hellebore is simply incredible.

From Dec to April these little plants brighten up our gardens with the most exquisite flowers often when few other plants are in flower.

Plant some today so that you'll have beautiful flowers next winter, you won't be dissapointed!

Magnolia Heaven

Who doesn't love be a magnolia tree in full bloom?

The Magnolia in our garden is spectacular and makes my heart sing every day when I drive through the gate.

Magnolia branches are sensational in a vase and I've been selling pink and white branches at Cowdray Farm Shop this week . They're not from my garden though as I couldn't bear to pick them!

Seasonal Spring Flowers for Cowdray Farm Shop

There are so many incredible, beautiful, seasonal, native flowers around in the Spring.

Keeping it strictly seasonal in floristry is so easy in the Springtime and we're absolutely spoilt for choice.

Here are just a few of the fabulous home grown ingredients I've been using this week in my bunches at Cowdray Farm Shop.

Frittilaries, ranunculus, hellebores, paperwhite narcissi

Spring Flowers and Weddings

February really flew by and now March is here, Spring, Mothering Sunday and soon it'll be Easter.

It was a really busy month for my flowers and plants at Cowdray Farm Shop and I've been super busy this year with weddings and events work, visiting some amazing venues with wonderful wedding planners and beautiful brides to be. I'm so lucky to have been booked for some wonderful, wild, whimsical weddings this year and look forward to sharing these with you as they happen.

Unusually, I've had many early requests for my Spring wreaths this year, I absolutely love making them so I'm very happy. Here's one I put into Cowdray Farm Shop last week, It's made with mimosa, paperwhite narcissi, broom and forget me nots and the scent is fabulous.

Christmas Wreaths and The Joy of Floristry

There usually comes a point at Christmas when the wreaths slow down and the bouquets, table decorations and bulb planters take over. Not this year though, we're still working on wreath orders through to Christmas Eve and we're busier than ever with the other flowers and bulb planters.

I'm not complaining though, it's such a joy to be a florist at Christmas and help people to decorate thir homes; I love the interactions and chats with clients, I love the true creativity of bespoke floristry and I love the challenges of working with real seasonal materials.

Happy Christmas to all my wonderful customers and thank you for helping me to live This Floral Life!

Autumn Wreath

It's been another great week for our Autumn wreaths and flowers generally.

With half term happening this week and Halloween on Monday our customers seem to be entertaining at home and decorating their doors and homes to welcome in their visitors.

The wreath below is welcoming in visitors at The Cowdray Farm Shop Cafe in Midhurst this week and it's prompted people to ask us about wreath making workshops. We'll be organising wreath making workshops in early December at Cowdray Hall in Easebourne, Midhurst, West Sussex and if you're interested in joining us then please do get in touch.

Autumn Rose Hip and Willow Wreath

The first of the Autumn wreaths; simple, wild and rustic.

For the wreath below I used willow, rose hips, crocosmia berries and rubus, which is a softer and more pliable relative of the blackberry if you haven't come across it before.

They look equally good outside or inside the house, although my resident robin would no doubt feast on the rose hips if I left this one outside.

This wreath is destined for the Cowdray Farm Shop as part of the Autumn scheme for the shop.

Glorious Peonies

It's Peony season!

They're incredibly beautiful, long lasting, full of surprises and everyone adores them.

I absolutely love them and have been working my way through all of the wonderful varieties recently.

I've got an excellent range of peonies in Cowdray Farm Shop at the moment so , if you live in Midhurst, it's definitely worth a peek.

The Last Flowers of Early Spring

I love change, I love the next thing and I don't spend much time looking backwards.

Maybe years spent in the fashion business had that effect on me but I find change exciting and seasonal changes really thrilling!

So, May has been an amazing month for new flowers but, before we move onto that, its time to say goodbye to some of the flowers that have served us well in early spring.

I made some of these bottles a few weeks ago for a PR job and already the tulips have finished, the hellebores are now looking raggedy in the garden the forsythia is now in full leaf. The ranunculus are hanging on but it really is time to move on as there's so much more available in May and by the time we get to June? Well, just watch this space.....

Bottle vase of Aquilegea, Hellebores, Ranunculus, Spearmint, Fritillaries, Sweet Peas and Forsythia

Tatler 8 Best Farm Shops in the UK

It was fabulous to see that the Cowdray Farm Shop in Midhurst was recognised as one of the 8 Best Farm Shops in the UK by Tatler.

I provide all of the flowers and plants for the Cowdray Farm Shop. You can actually see them in the photo below, which is by the super talented Kerry from Whippet Snippets.

The Cowdray Farm Shop is an incredible farm shop and well worth a visit. It's located on the beautiful Cowdray Estate, Midhurst, which is in the centre of the South Downs National Park. It's easy to find as it's located just off the A272 at Easebourne, Midhurst, in the glorious Cowdray Park.

With a superb butcher selling estate reared meat, a fabulous bakery, amazing cheese counter that sells Neal's Yard cheese (try the Stichelton!) and the freshest, seasonal flowers and plants delivered daily by my own company, the farm shop is a great asset to the local area and an excellent place to shop.

The cafe is a great place to visit, the food is always really delicious, the team are always friendly and the service is always really good. On a sunny day the patio is the best spot in town and I often meet friends and clients there for a healthy salad and a fresh 'green' juice.

Aquilegia and Other Spring Flowers

It's Aquilegia week at the flower studio.

I'm selling lots of different varieties at the Cowdray Farm Shop both as plants and as cut flowers. I find them endlessly fascinating and love photographing their unique form.

They are fabulous garden plants as they self seed and pop up year after year. They've been present in every garden I've ever owned and yet I've never planted any until this year. It's been fun selecting new varieties for the cutting garden.

I've been making up posies with aquilegia, salmon parrot tulips, forsythia, fritillaries, ranunculus and hellebore. I love this palette of washed out lemons, peach and off white; fresh and uplifting!