Local Flower Deliveries Midhurst

I hope you’re all doing okay?

It’s been a difficult year hasn’t it?

I just wanted to let you know that we are still delivering flowers locally within 15 miles of Midhurst, West Sussex on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays each week.

We deliver to doorsteps so its all very safe and hands free and the flowers will be delivered in a flower jar so there’s no wasteful packaging.

We can drop flowers each week, every 2 weeks or monthly and you’ll get a flower jar with the first delivery and then subsequent deliveries will arrive without packaging perfectly designed to drop straight into your chosen size flower jar.

We send an invoice with a link to pay by credit or debit card or Bags so that its easy for you.

Do call or email if you’d like to place an order. or you can book online here and just a gentle reminder that it’s Valentines Day on Sunday 14th Feb and Mothering Sunday on 14th March so we’re open for pre-orders now.

Best wishes

Karen

Sussex Life and Wreath Workshop

This lovely article appeared in the Dec Edition of Sussex life magazine.
It’s about Christmas wreaths with tips on how to make your own with foliage from your garden.

If you’d like to make your own wreath with a great selection of materials, a glass of Nyetimber and mince pies then it’s not too late to book a place on one of our wreath workshops at Cowdray Hall this year. There are still a few places left on our afternoon workshop at Cowdray Hall on Thursday 5th December. Book online at www.cowdray.co.uk

I hope you can make it and if so I look forward to meeting you.

If you can’t attend the workshop but would like to buy a wreath then please get in touch as we are taking orders for Dec through to Christmas. We no longer sell our wreaths and flowers through the Cowdray Farm shop as we operate a local, weekly delivery service by electric van from our busy flower studio in Midhurst.

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

A Christmas Dinner at Cowdray House

This was a very special dinner at Cowdray House in December.

It was glamorous, festive and fun and in addition to providing the flowers and dressing the Buck Hall for Christmas I actually went to the dinner.

The food was absolutely sublime and provided by the fabulous Caper and Berry. What a great evening it was!

Thank you to Cowdray Estate for letting me post these lovely photos of the event taken by a Chris Orange Photography.

Audi A8 Launch at Cowdray House

Well, we’ve been flat out again since the last event I posted so I’m trying to play catch up again!

This event was very special as it was a dinner for motoring journalists and VIP’s to celebrate the launch of the new Audi A8 in the UK.

We created a large central autumnal tree and decorated the huge fireplace with a garland of autumn leaves and berries. The tables formed a cross shape and were filled with a runner of autumnal flowers, hips and foliage with decorated candelabra to co-ordinate.

I hope you like the photos!

Winter White Wedding at Cowdray House

Amy and Andrew married at Cowdray House in Midhurst, West Sussex on November 18th 2017.

Candlelight was really important to Amy and Andrew and over 300 candles were used to create this fabulous romantic wedding.

The ceremony took place in the cathedral like space of Buck Hall and we decorated the huge fireplace with ivy, seasonal greenery and white hydrangea heads. Candles were used on top of the fireplace, in the fireplace and lining the aisle; it looked absolutely stunning and so did the gorgeous Amy.

We stayed on site to turn the room around for the dinner with the caterers, Caper and Berry. The guests retired to the drawing room for canapés and champagne and within an hour the room was transformed with candleabra, white hydrangeas and hundreds of candles along the 108 foot of banqueting tables.

I can’t wait to see the official photos by Hajie as mine came out a little pink for some reason when it actually didn’t look pink!

Buck Hall dressed for the Wedding ceremony

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Buck Hall dressed for the wedding dinner

Macaron tower by Sylvia’s Kitchen

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Birthday Banquet at Cowdray House

I realise I've got some serious catching up to do on my blog posts to get everything up to date!

Back in a June we worked with lovely Mauricio and his team at The Admirable Critchton on a fabulous birthday banquet for their clients who were staying at Cowdray House for the weekend.

The colour theme was rich reds and oranges with an abundance of candlelight and the tables were set in a horseshoe shape around a dance floor.

As we left Cowdray House a team of actors were rehearsing their steps for the murder mystery game that would be unfolding throughout the evening. The stage looked set for a really fun evening and I understand that the clients had a really fabulous time.

A Dinner at Cowdray Ruins

Last week was fabulous.

I was invited to design the flowers by The Admirable Crichton for a private party who were staying at Cowdray House for the weekend.

The dinner on the Friday evening was held at Cowdray Ruins, a place I absolutely love. It's a blank canvas with regard to flowers as it is all wonderfully old brick and dirt floors.

A simple green fern theme with wonderful grey linen cloths, green water glasses and lots of candlelight was requested by The Admirable Crichton and the result was simply beautiful.

Greenery is super fashionable at the moment but it doesn't always work in any setting. On this occasion, without any green grass or garden to compete with the green stood out against the red brick and with a simple vase of white foxgloves, fern and orlaya on the bar and a couple of vignettes of white foxglove plants and candles the Ruins came alive and was ready for a sensational dinner.

Summer Polo Event at Cowdray House

Last Friday I had the pleasure of providing the flowers for a summer polo event at Cowdray House on Cowdray Estate.

Hosted by Cowdray Polo Club with catering by Caper and Berry there were canapés on the lawn followed by a dinner in the dining room of cowdray House.

I brought in some wonderful rhodendendrons from the gardens of Cowdray House and decorated the tables with seasonal peonies, aquilegia, hellebores, lilac to name a few of the ingredients.

Its always a pleasure working at the fabulous Cowdray House!

Brainwave Charity Clay Shoot at Cowdray House

The annual fund raising event for the Brainwave charity took place at Cowdray House last week and I provided the seasonal flowers for the delicious lunch which was provided by the wonderful Jacaranda Catering with fabulous wine provided by Nyetimber.

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.

An Autumn Wedding at Cowdray House

It was a glorious Autumn morning for Krisztina and Graeme's wedding at Cowdray House on 8th October 2016.

If you look through this journal you may have seen that I was the florist for the very first wedding held at Cowdray House, at the end of June this year. Well, this wedding included the first actual civil wedding ceremony at the house.

Autumn is a great time to get married and at Cowdray House the views from the ceremony room out to the garden are spectacular with all of the colours of Autumn represented in the landscape.

The flowers also included colours from the Autumn landscape mixed with pink and peaches and the last flush of the English roses.

The wedding reception in Buck Hall, Cowdray House, Midhurst, West Sussex

The Abundance of Summer; Flowers and Fruit

It's been a really beautiful summer and I've been lucky enough to spend so much of it outside, arranging flowers, tending plants and watering (a lot for the potted plants that I sell at Cowdray Farm Shop) in the cool of the evening just before sunset; a magical time of day.

The summer season has been non stop this year and the event work, like the flowers, has been abundant.

For this event at Cowdray House I wanted to showcase the abundance of summer flowers and seasonal fruits and also to showcase a small selection of the huge variety of plants that I've been selling at Cowdray Farm Shop this summer; verbenas, abelias, pelargoniums, senecio, clematis, honeysuckle, crocosmia, dahlias.

A sprinkling of garden roses and a few unripe blackberries from my own woodland garden complete the look; the abundance of summer 2016.

June wedding at Cowdray House, West Sussex

It's been an extraordinarily busy Summer and I have some catching up to do on this journal. Apologies!

Now, I posted a photograph that I took of Miranda, my gorgeous bride whose reception was at Cowdray House at the end of June, but I didn't post any of my other photographs so I aim to address that in this journal entry.

It was a fabulous wedding and the Lewis family were an absolute dream to work with. It's always such a huge pleasure for me to work with such lovely people on these really important occasions in their lives. Helping to create great memories through flowers and styling, it's hard not to be swept up in the happiness wave. We became firm friends in the run up to the wedding and we've met up on several occasions since and I know we'll always stay in touch.

The Lewis's wedding was one of the first weddings that Cowdray House had hosted and Sian and Jayne, who hosted the weekend on behalf of the house, made sure it was a huge success. Jacaranda Catering provided the food and a team to run the event over the weekend, led by the amazing Minty Moore and I hear that the food was superb. If you're looking for a caterer for a wedding or an event, do get in touch with them, I often work with them on events and the clients are always really delighted with their excellent food and brilliant service.

My team were superb (Nia, Sue, Rob, Alyson and Stuart) and we had a great time making and installing the flowers. We all went on to make and install the floral decorations at another large private party the day after so it was a very busy few days, but fun too.

Here are a few of the photographs that I took on the morning of the wedding.

Happy memories.

St Mary's Church, Easebourne, Midhurst, West Sussex

Wedding at Cowdray House - The beautiful Bride

This was such a beautiful wedding and the family were an absolute joy to work with.

Miranda and James got married on 25th June 2016 at St Mary's Church, Cowdray Park, Easebourne, Midhurst and the weekend reception and celebrations were held at the fabulous Cowdray House, Midhurst.

Miranda looked incredibly beautiful and I managed to take a few photos of her leaving Cowdray House for the Church. I'll post more shortly but here is one of my favourites...

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.