Mothers Day Competition with Penguin Books

I've just completed a lovely project for Penguin Books who asked me to design some flower bouquets to celebrate the publication of Before The Rains, a new Novel by Dinah Jefferies.

To coincide with Mother's Day, which is on a Sunday 26th March this year, Penguin Books are inviting you to enter a competition for the chance to win one of these gorgeous orchid bouquets along with a hard back copy of Before The Rains for both you and your Mother.

Before The Rains is the latest in a series of novels written by Dinah Jefferies and I was asked to design bouquets inspired by the four novels in the series, their covers and their fabulous locations of Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Vietnam and India.

I chose orchids as the fabulous flower of choice as the colours are incredible and these luxurious flowers grow in each of the countries where the novels are set.

I was lucky enough to be sent an advance copy of Before The Rains which was a really brilliant read and I thoroughly recommend it.

To enter the competition click the link below!

https://www.penguin.co.uk/articles/competitions/2017/mar/dinah-jefferies/

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!

Pudding Theatre

I had the pleasure of providing the flowers for this gorgeous 'pudding theatre' for Jacaranda Catering this month. They were showcasing their delicious desserts at a wedding fair at Ramster Hall.

The bike, and the most excellent idea, belong to the fabulous Minty Moore, one of the wonderful Senior Event Managers at Jacaranda Catering!

Winter Green and White Tablescape

I thought January would be quieter with time to review and plan and update this website but its been quite the opposite with a really busy start to the year and I've got a considerable amount of catching up to do on my posts this month. I have been updating my Instagram account though, although I have let that slip in the last week!

So, what have we been up to?

With any event immediately after the Christmas break simple and mainly white schemes seem so appropriate and with heavenly hellebores in season and at the peak of perfection they make a wonderful addition to any tablescape. With new seasons ranunculus in white and green, a sprinkling of paperwhite narcissi, birch and a little pop of mimosa in bud the table was complete for this early January dinner at Cowdray House in Midhurst, West Sussex.

Clean and calming florals for January 2017 before the riot of colour starts to awaken our senses in Spring!

Happy New Floral Year 2017

Happy New Year to you!

Thank you to everyone I worked with this year, it was a really brilliant floral year and I enjoyed every minute of it.

It was a great year for my flowers and plants at The Cowdray Farm Shop and a very successful year for events and weddings too. My clients have all been, without exception, an absolute pleasure to work with.

Thank you and H appy New Year X

December Tablescape

Well, it's a floral time of year and the last few weeks have been incredibly busy for us at This Floral Life.

We've been making lots of wreaths, table decorations, planters and flowers for the Cowdray Farm shop and decorating trees, houses and shops for Christmas. It's been really hard work but so lovely and beautifully festive. It's a great time of year to be a florist!

We've worked on some gorgeous events recently and this weekend we set up gorgeous Christmas tablescape for a private dinner at Cowdray House, Midhurst.

The dinner was in the fabulous Buck Hall and with the huge Christmas tree, balcony fireplace garlands that we installed last week, the room looked amazing. With the fire lit and hundreds of candles around the room, the stage was set for a magical Christmas event.

Christmas at Cowdray House

It's been a magical couple few weeks decorating some fabulous venues for Christmas including one of my absolute favourites; Cowdray House, Cowdray Park, Midhurst.

The Christmas tree was specially selected and cut from the Cowdray Estate and is a truly magnificent tree.

So, two fireplaces, five balconies and a huge tree later....

The November Tablescape

I was invited to design the flowers for a gorgeous event last Thursday and we created a wild and autumnal tablescape inspired by the views from the dining room window of Cowdray House, who hosted the event. Caper and Berry provided the fabulous food and hospitality.

The event was a party for many of the top wedding and event planners and, having installed the flowers, I rushed home to change and actually attended the event.

It was a great night with amazing food, a superb venue and great company.

Photos by the brilliant Kerry Jordan of Boo Face Photography

Bringing the outside in; Autumn Event Dinner at Cowdray House — Bringing the outside in; Autumn Event Dinner at Cowdray House

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

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.