This Floral Life 2019 Weddings and Events

I decided to post this summary of a few of our weddings and events from last year for the people who don’t follow us on Instagram where we originally posted this after Christmas.

It’s always great to review the year and It’s been lovely looking back on some of the events and weddings we waved our floral wand over in 2019.

It was a fun year and it was wonderful to have created so many events without using any plastic floral foam or single use plastics. Sustainability is an overused but necessary word these days and it actually lays at the heart of our business. We’ve just come through the hottest decade on record and it’s never been more important to do everything we can to ensure that we protect the planet from further decline.

We’ve had outr electric van for 3 years now and it really helps to keep us on track on this important journey. We work locally and the majority of our work is within a very small radius of where we live.

We grow flowers using organic methods and pick foliage from our gardens and the surrounding area of woodlands and use plants where we can so that we can replant them. We de-rigg all of our own jobs and we we like our clients to take home the flowers we make so we seldom have green waste to collect from our events but when we do then we compost it ourselves and put it back into the soil.

We’re not perfect but we are committed to doing everything we can and in doing so it becomes second nature and a way of life.

Sustainable, natural floristry for events and weddings

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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

Autumnal florals, ferns and grasses

I thought I'd share this little arrangement that I gathered for the house last weekend. It's a gorgeous palette and contains everything I love about autumn; grasses, bronze and pink tinged foliage, horse chestnuts, poppy seed heads, sanguisorbia, browning ferns to name just a few. Mixed with a few pale pink chrysanthemums (yes there are some really beautiful ones) and a few appropriately coloured roses in mustard yellow and apricot; I think it's a really lovely combination.

I made the little footed teracotta vase on a pottery wheel and the colours co-ordinate beautifully with the embroidery I made back in 1991. Hand thrown, hand sewn,...!

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!

April Flowers and the Tasty Woodland Treats

What an amazingly sunny April we've had so far, the garden is in full bloom and the sun has been shining, although I hear that there may be some frost next week which I don't think we're prepared for!

I'm writing this whilst looking through the window into the garden and it's filled with lilac, clematis montana, apple blossom, viburnum opulus, bluebells, whitebells and unfurling ferns.

I live next door to the woods so the wild garlic which lines the path into the woods has also found its way into the garden and spread under a tree. It's in full flower and I've been looking at recipes for pickling the flower heads and making pesto from the leaves.

While I'm on the subject of food (for free) I've just passed a patch of wild stawberries in flower and the wild bilberries are now a gorgeous pink colour so it won't be long before the crop is ready. Living next to the woods and walking through them each day with the dogs is such a bonus!

It's so exciting to see the English bluebells all over the garden and the white bells are incredibly pretty with the unfurling bright green ferns catching the light.

The peonies are on the way soon......happy days indeed!

Whitebells and ferns

Apple blossom

Bluebells, whitebells and ferns

Unfurling ferns and bluebells

Wild garlic

Whitebells and bluebells

Wild strawberries

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

Extraordinary Tulips

I'm spoilt for choice with tulips!

I'm so lucky to have lots of customers who appreciate the fringed, striped, parrot and French long stemmed varieties and appreciated that they cost more than the run of the mill varieties but are worth every penny.

These tulips were historically the highly prized varieties that sold for a lot more than their weight in gold during the tulipamania era and I understand that the stripes on these very special tulips were caused by a virus, hence their historical rarity.

Tulips, in my opinion, are at their very best when they are fully open and curving every which way. The inside of the tulip flower is often stunning and well worth studying!

Frittilaria Meleagris

It's an exciting week when the fabulous fritillaries make an appearance.

They are one of my all time favourite flowers; sculptural, curving, nodding heads.

Wild, seasonal and sublime. I'll be tying them with dark red ranunculus and deep burgundy tulips for Valentines bunches. They tick all the boxes!

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.

The Art of Autumn

I really enjoy taking photos and I'm surrounded by so many fab photo opportunities all day long. With close up photography you get to see so much more detail and I find it fascinating.

Take leaves as an example. Just photograph one leaf selected at random and you get to really study how amazing nature is....

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.

October Flowers

I've been looking forward to October as, apart from the amazing Autumn flowers, foliage, seedheads that appear, I've also got an action packed month of weddings, dinners and parties to arrange flowers for in addition to some lovely family celebrations to look forward to.

The weather has been incredible and although we've had some heavy rain in the last week we've also had many glorious days with bright blue skies, sunshine and sensational sunsets.

Shorter days, turning leaves, cooler evenings, a garden full of fabulous hips and berries and gorgeous grasses; Autumn has finally arrived.

Some of the ingredients I'm using this week at Cowdray Farm Shop

Sensational Seedheads

My neighbour was tidying up her garden for Autumn and popped in with a bunch of these magnificent allium seedheads.

It's definitely worth planting some of the large headed allium just for the seedheads in September. They look superb in a vase and so beautiful when the Autumn light hits them.

My Spring Favourites

It's been an incredibly busy start to the year but I always make time to photograph my flowers. I love capturing flowers in season and have been documenting some of my favourite spring flowers. I've been using all of these in my bouquets at the Cowdray Farm shop.

Spring florals

It was an incredibly busy March in the flower studio with Mothering Sunday in the first week and Easter in the last.

These events are huge 'peaks' in the flower business and although it's exceptionally hard work it's also really enjoyable. I loved this year more than any other as in addition to the fabulous variety of spring flowers I get to play with for my flower bouquets and bunches I also get to design planted bulb arrangements which I absolutely adore.

Bridal Crown Narcissi and Muscari planter for Cowdray House

Planted willow basket with Bridal Crown Narcissi for Cowdray House

Bringing the outside inside is even more important when Easter is cold and wet, as it was for at least some of the bank holiday weekend. Watching the bulbs grow and unfold their flowers and witnessing the flowering branches of forsythia, chaenomelis, cherry blossom and magnolia burst into flower is sheer joy.

I've lost count of the number of Easter 'trees' I've made this year for the displays at Cowdray Farm shop and Cafe, clients, friends and myself. Branches of contorted willow, birch branches with catkins, real painted blown eggs and sweet little birds make fun Easter arrangements and, after Easter, you can remove the eggs and enjoy the branches which will burst into leaf heralding the arrival of Spring.

Spring and Bringing the Outside In

“It was one of those March days when the sun shines hot and the wind blows cold; when it is summer in the light, and winter in the shade”

— Charles Dickens

Yes, it really was one of those March days today that Dickens so beautifully described.

The wind was biting but the sun was warm and gave the promise of sunny days ahead. And so, spring is officially here and April is close and all manner of bulbs and plants are tentatively poking their heads out of the ground to check on conditions.

The 'wild' native primulas are blooming on the banks next to my flower studio and I was very excited to see the heart shaped leaves of the wild violets lining the lawn today.

A friend sent me a photo of a glorious display of Scillas over at Uppark (I think it was Scilla Siberica but I can't be sure) and it made me want to plant some of these fabulous bulbs in my own garden. Unfortunately, my suppliers have sold out so I've bought them in as a cut flower today instead and have been adding them to my bunches at the Cowdray Farm Shop.

The flower studio is fully stocked with bulbs of tulips, narcissi, iris, hyacinths, muscari, crocus, lily of the valley and, my all time favourite, Frittilaria. I really love putting together bulbs planters and spring wreaths and it's been extremely busy at Cowdray as the customers, like me, have been bringing the outside in.

Fritillaria Meleagris

One of my all time favourite Spring flowering bulbs is Fritillaria Meleagris.

You may have heard them referred to buy their common names of Snakes Head Fritillaries, Dropping Tulip, Chequerboard Daffodil or Chess Flower; all rather accurate descriptions of these gorgeous little nodding flowers.

Unlike most Spring flowering bulbs which like well drained soil, Fritillaria Meleagris like damp conditions and are happy to be planted at the edges of damp woodlands or in wild flower meadows and will flowers from March to May.

The exquisitely beautiful native wild flowers are members of the Lily family and their colours range from pink and white, purple and white to plain white. I love the purple and white chequerboard ones.

I've planted up some Fritillaria Meleagris in lovely zinc bowls to sell at The Cowdray Farm Shop, on The Cowdray Estate, here in Midhurst where I provide all of the cut flowers and plants. I'm also including the cut flowers in the bouquets I sell as I love to surprise and delight customers with something unusual and seasonal.

I have a little bunch of these glorious cut flowers on my own kitchen table as I like to test the vase life of all of the flowers I sell. I'm happy to report that they are looking fabulous on day 5 and they look set to continue for at least another 5 days!

It's a floral life!

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Planting the Seed

I grew up with parents who adored gardening and growing their own fruit, vegetables and flowers. Our garden was small but really beautiful and full of delicious scents and textures and there was an allottment a short walk away which was a fun place to go on a Sunday afternoon. The shed had curtains and there was always a whistling kettle and kale-a-plenty. My grandparents had the 'plot' next door to ours and it really was a home from home.

My Mother always had flowers in the house and and I know that she, like me, found them fascinating and intoxicating. She trained herself to be a florist by reading library books on floristry techniques. She was a very creative person; a talented dressmaker, excellent cook, artist and writer.

They say the apple never falls far from the tree and my interests turned out to be very similar to hers; the seed was planted very early on.