It's been a while...

but I have been working hard, in the shop AND planning my own wedding. I have just brought myself a chunk of Brides Magazine! It's quite a read/listen(with 'Fabulous Flowers' CDROM) and I feel like I have learnt a bit more, taking some inspiration from it but wonder, have I learnt £4.99 worth!? I'm not convinced! I make myself feel better that I have a double use for it, one for my own impending wedding, two for my business, and actually I guess three as my member of staff will read/use it.

I can't help wondering whether these sorts of glossy magazines are making people aspire to something that just isn't possible. Perhaps like most magazine?

Whilst flicking through, as most ladies do with magazines, my eyes dart from page to page focusing in on anything colourful that matches the flowers that I am having for my big day but also to other spectacular arrangements that, being a florist in the know(!), around 1% of people can afford! We often get people coming in with big ideas about making replica arrangements as seen in magazines and expecting us to fit in their £500 budget! Don't get me wrong, I know that £500 is a lot of money but unfortunately some of the arrangements I have seen in these magazines would be that in itself!

I would like to take this opportunity to explain to you what actually goes into each stem of glorious petaled delight, so perhaps when you are wondering if your florist can make 30 buttonholes for £30 you will realise that they aren't being negative or trying to do you out of your hard earned money!!

Let's take a stem of rose...
Process 1 -Seeds get 'made' and sold by supplier
Process 2 - Seed gets sown, grown
Process 3- Stem gets 'harvested' and packaged
Process 4 - Bunch of roses gets transported to auction
Process 5 - Roses get brought by wholesale and packaged again
Process 6 - Wholesaler puts roses on transporter to country or area where they will be sold
Process 7- Wholesaler buys and has the roses delivered
Process 8 - Wholesaler prepare flowers to be sold on
Process 9- Florist buys the roses at 'wholesale' cost
Process 10 - Florist take the roses back to the shop and prepares them to use
Process 11 - Roses get used to create stunning displays etc
Process 12 - Roses get delivered to the customer!
THE END!
It's pretty amazing and thinking about it I am surprised that it actually works, how the rose can be 'handled' so many times and still be fresh and perfect in it's final leg of the journey! Of course stems that are grown in the same country as they are used have a lot less processing. Amazingly this doesn't bring the cost down as much as you would have thought! So when you are thinking about vases overflowing with stems, pedestals that will be talked about for years and a bridal bouquet that would rival Kate Middleton's maybe keep those ideas in mind but trust your florist, tell them your budget and let them guide you down a path that will work for everyone!

Royal Wedding

So, with the Royal wedding looming I'm starting to wonder what flowers she will have and how it will affect the choices of brides in the future. Dianna's wedding apparently influenced weddings for ten years!!

As the wedding is in the spring most likely that she will have some seasonal flowers in there, tulips, hyacinths, lily of the valley and perhaps even bluebells. The colour of her engagement ring shows that she like the colour blue which has been a theme through to the clothes she is seen in around the time of the engagement. So perhaps white and blue might be a theme, sophisticated and fresh. Perhaps she will incorporate a 'Diana Princess of Wales rose' as a tribute.

Whereas Diannas bridal bouquet was absolutely massive I think Kate's will be something much more conservative and in keeping with the trends of the moment. Something handtied I would have thought. A lot will depend on the dress!

So we will all have to wait and see what happens and wow I am glad I'm not her with all that pressure, the whole world waiting to see what happens and when, not just on the day but the rest of her life.

Emma and Pete wedding

We did our first 'suprise' wedding last weekend. Obviously the bridal party knew, and Emma did end up telling a few people but most of them thought they were coming to her 30th Birthday but suprise (!) it was her Birthday but it was also their wedding day!

Emma is a photographer http://emmacasephotography.blogspot.com/ based in Birmingham and so has been to MANY weddings as the offical photographer so has seen probably more weddings than I have! Probably one of the reason that it was a suprise wedding!

So, what flowers to have for a girl that has done more weddings than she can probably count!> The dress was the real inspiration from http://www.furcoatnoknickers.co.uk/ ! It was a vintage inspired dress, really simple and beautiful. You can see it at http://www.rocknrollbride.com/ . Also the bridesmaids dresses (which still weren't 100% confirmed even the week before!) were going to be a mixture of different colours. So we wanted a vintage but colourful look.

We decided the flowers should to look gathered, obviously professional but not too 'contrived' if that makes sense! So we decided on some soft but vibrant orange roses, purple lisianthus, orange ranunculus, purple static and pink wax with hints of white gypsophilia. All the different textures and colours complimented each other perfectly and I think really made a beautiful vintage inspired bouquet, button hole and bridesmaid posy.

I can't wait to see a few more photos of the day and I have to say it's been lots of fun working with such a relaxed fun loving bride!

Making you flowers last longer

We often get asked what's the best way of making stems last a longer. Almost everyone I meet has a different tip on the subject so it's tricky to know what to tell people. Also some stem need to be treated differently to others.
There are lots of 'old wives' tricks like lemonade, a penny in the bottom of the vases, sugar in the water, to name but a few but personally I can't advocate enough, fresh water, this is what they would be drinking in there natural habitat after all. We tell people to try and change the water every couple of days. The best way to make sure this isn't too big a task by not filling your vases to the top with water. If your changing it often the vase will never run dry and quite a lot of flowers don't like to be up to there ears in water! Things like callas, gerberas and tulips have soft delicate stems so will absorb water into the stem disintegrate and make them all soggy and slimy! Nice! this also means that the water gets very dirty and extremely smelly.
Making sure that the part of the stem that is in the water is free of leaves. Leave have a lot of 'bacteria' on them. Not horrible crawly bacteria, just dirt from the environment that they have grown in or transported by. So leaving the leaves in on the stem and sitting them in water will make you water dirty very quickly. Also re-cutting the stem really helps. When flowers are out of water for any length of time they dry over at the ends which makes sure that they don't loose any water but also means that no water can get in. SO re-cutting the stem before you put them in the vase is an absolute must. Also after you have changed the water it's a good idea to re-cut the stem as if the water has been dirty the stems will seal over and that seal needs to be opened. You don't have to cut much off unless they have been out of water for a long time.
Cutting 'woody' stems- thick robust stem at an angle will create a bigger surface area and so give the stem a better chance of getting plenty of water. Soft stem flowers can be cut straight across as they have no problem drinking and in some cases like gerberas and tulips are quite greedy with the water that they drink which is why their heads often flop over.
Also making sure that the place that you are putting the flowers is as cool as possible, not next to a radiator or in a draft if possible.
Enjoy!

Event floristry

One of the best and most stressful parts of our business is doing flowers for events, whether it is for a wedding or other event, bringing amazing colours and freshness into what can be very sterile environments always makes such a massive difference.

Obviously we are normally guided by the type of event it is we are doing flowers for. Say if it is a wedding we generally speak to the bride about the colours and style of the rest of the day. The bridesmaids dress, the brides dress, where they are getting married and where the reception is being held. The time of year is also a big influence to the sort of flowers that going to be used. There are a lot of flowers that are all year round but still there are some flowers, popular ones like peonies and hydrangeas that are still really quite seasonal. If they can be brought out of season they will be very expensive and could be substandard quality.

For different events for example a companies annual conference the company colours usual take part in the choice of flowers. It's a good place to start anyway! If it is a big conference of say 100 tables or more budget will most likely be a big factor. Most companies wouldn't want to spend more than £10-£15 per table on flowers so choice is dramatically narrowed. Also if you are having to make a hundreds of an arrangement, normally having to make them up the day before, you want to make sure the arrangements and reasonably simple to do.

If you can see the venue before the day that you are due to set up and speak to the organisers or owners of the venue about the logistics, timings, drop off places etc then that will make life much easier on the day of delivery and set up.

Spring is coming

I am sure everyone who has spent the last 6months or longer in the UK can't wait for spring to properly get going. For it to get warmer and dare I say it, for the sun to shine!

It's such a beautiful time of year, out on the roads seeing the daffodils showing through bright colours and in the flower markets all the colours change from the deep reds, greens and browns of winter to the pastel yellow and pinks of ranunculus and hot pink,blue and magenta anenomies. Effortlessly beautiful flowers that make the job of a florist really very easy!

The only thing with spring flowers is that the don't have a massively long life span which is such a shame. It means that we don't really get to use them in our contract work, for restaurants and office spaces.

Also tulips can be a bit of a funny flower in a mixed bouquet because they generally grow even after being cut! It's really quite amazing to see the amount they can grow over night even! If you are making a bouquet to give to someone the next day and you want to use tulips I would always recommend using all tulips or make it roughly, tied with string that you can easily snip it off and pull the tulips back into place, then wrap ready to take straight away. If you are making a 'wild' bouquet with flowers all at different levels etc then you wont have to worry about them growing it will just work with the rest of the flowers and foliages.

Another little tip for tulips and in fact quite a few of the spring time flowers, like hyacinths, is...

If you notice the stems getting a bit droopy (technical term!) and want them to stand up a bit more straight and to attention then get a few sheets of newspaper, take the flowers out of the vase and lie them on the paper. Tightly wrap them up in the paper, leaving the ends open so you can out them back in water. Cut the ends to create a fresh cut for the flowers to drink through. Change the water in the vase and pop the flowers back into the vase and leave them somewhere cool and dark if possible. They may need to be left over night to get the full effect. I can't grantee that they wont flop again after a couple of days but it will help keep them under control for a bit longer! (I think tulips do look stunning falling out of a vase though! Just depends if the mother in law is coming over to scrutinise!)

So lets all will the sun to come out and walm up the bulbs and get spring in the air. Get down to you local florist and buyu yourself a buunch of their best spring time stems and start planning you summer hols it wont be long now!!

Valentines Day!

With the most romantic day of the year looming, we are trying our best to get prepared for it. Making up bouquet boxes, cutting aqua pack cellophane, reams of ribbon and folding tissue to allow us to concentrate on the intricacies of making the beautiful bouquets that will wow the lucky loved ones this year.

We always beg people to get organised for it early as there is nothing worse that someone coming into the shop with a desperate look in there eyes, sweat on their brow and bribe loads of money in their hands scanning an empty shop for the sight of anything red let a lone a rose!

We try to make sure that we have plenty of roses in stock but can never know exactly how many we will need. Of course we don't want to end up with lots of stock left over the next day.

This year we are linking with a close friend Harvey Nichols, which means that we can sell through their store and attached some of their gorgeous products to our bouquets! Beautiful perfumes, champagnes and amazing chocolates will just top off a big In Bloom bouquet of roses!

We have also made up lots of message card and envelopes to be ready for all those romantic words, perfect poems, coded couplets and quizzical question marks!

Most people, male or female find it hard to think about what to write on a message card no matter what the occasion. Some ask us to come up with something which can be awkward but generally with a few starting words or sentences we come up with something together!

I always say to people that being a florist is a little bit like being a hairdresser, quite often hearing a little bit too much information!

So, before you call up your local florist have a think about what it is you want to order, the full address of the recipient(you would be surprised how many people don't have the full address but just want to explain how you get there, past this or that shop, round the corner from Aunt Anne!) how much you want to spend and a message so you don't feel put on the spot or have to call back!! Thank you! X