Popping Up for British Flowers Week 2015

A few pics from my pop-up shop with More By Design - great fun, and I think the flowers looked right at home in their stylish surroundings.

Photographs courtesy of More By Design.

Onwards and upwards

As you might surmise from the hiatus in blog posts, the world of Tuckshop Flowers is getting busier and busier as I frantically sow both literal and figurative seeds.  Above is a photo of the 100% Brummie event flowers supplied to Birmingham City University earlier this week for their Student Awards Ceremony.

In the literal world, I hope I'm coming to the end of the period where the propagator is a fixture on my kitchen worktop - as the weather gets warmer, the greenhouse should suffice to germinate even the most recalcitrant seed.  But those consistently warm days have not yet quite arrived and I had to have an emergency run down to the allotment with a roll of horticultural fleece to do some cosmos safeguarding on a chilly night earlier in the week.  You'll be pleased to hear there were no casualties due to frost.  Slugs have, however,  chomped all my dark 'Dazzler' seedlings in the Tuckshop garden, while leaving the white 'Psyche' variety untouched.  Haven't tried a taste test myself, so have no idea why it should be so.

In the figurative world, I'm preparing to exhibit at BBC Gardeners' World Live at the NEC, heading up the the Flowers from the Farm team.  Daunting, but exciting and a brilliant opportunity to reach a wider public with the British flowers message.  Hopefully the stand will also encourage a few people  to find the flowery path in future years too!  (And here's a discount code for tickets.)

British FlowersWeek, organised by New Covent Garden flower market  is also peeking just over the horizon from 15th-19th June, hot on the heels of Gardeners' World Live. For this celebration of British grown blooms,  I'm teaming up with the very funky More By Design, an interiors shop in my new favourite haunt, Birmingham's iconic Custard Factory.  More By Design are hosting my pop-up of locally grown arrangements, and I'm also going to do a few larger designs for their window display.

The shop team, Abbie and Heather have got equally over-excited about British Flowers Week and have just commissioned their designers to produce a range of greetings cards to accompany the event.  Wow - how things snowball!!  Will post a link when one becomes available.

And now I must go to sort out my plans for DIY wedding flowers next week, and for my 'Dying Matters' display for next Friday's event with A Natural Undertaking.  All systems go!

A dark dahlia late summer wedding

Photo courtesy of MartinCartwright

A dark, almost mahogany Rip City dahlia drew excited squeaks of delight from a passer by at Stirchley Community Market, one sunny summer evening.  Chatting with the emitter of said squeaks, it transpired she was Kate, and bride-to-be of my market neighbour Andrew – a.k.a.  purveyor of fine culinary delights,  ‘Urban Herbs’. 

Kate had previously fallen so deeply, darkly in love with these velvety dahlias, that she had already chosen the dusty antique colour of her bridesmaid dresses specifically to tone with them – hence her squeaks on spotting my Rip Cities.

Talking serious flowers a few weeks later at the Tuckshop, she described the wild and natural bunches she had in mind to decorate her informal country wedding at the beautiful Wethele Manor, near Leamington Spa, in Warwickshire – a perfect fit for the homegrown, ‘just picked’ style of my flowers.  I love it when ‘wild’ is part of a bride’s vocabulary  because then I know I have found my perfect customer.  And Kate was indeed a pleasure to work with as, apart from her obsession with dark dahlias, she was exceedingly laid back and open to the many ideas we swapped via our shared Pinterest board. 

Pinterest is surely a tool designed for florists!  It’s a perfect way to create a scrapbook of ideas, to get feedback from the bride-to-be and is a bit like climbing into someone else’s imagination: a brilliant tool to find out what feel, which style and colours float the bridal boat.

With dahlias and budget decided upon,  we opted to double up the bridesmaid posies as reception table flowers and designed them to be the perfect size to pop into trimmed jam jars just before the meal. 

Photos courtesy of Martin Cartwright

We also chose to keep the table flowers simple – floating dahlia heads in bright, almost Indian colours, with candles in glass bowls.

Photos courtesy of MartinCartwright

As a tribute to Andrew’s day job, I wanted to work herbs into the flowers, so we had the vibrant blue of borage in the table bowls, scented lemon balm foliage in the bride and bridesmaid posies, and Kate supplied me with a couple of deliciously scented blackcurrant sage plants from which to pluck the diminutive shocking pink flowers to complement the dark dahlia buttonhole for the groom.

 Photos courtesy of Martin Cartwright

Photo courtesy of Kate and Andrew

Kate had been to see me when I was at the height of flower crown frenzy, just before my stall at CocoMad, a local music festival.  She was infected by my enthusiasm and was easily persuaded that a floral tiara was exactly what she needed! Like me on my own wedding day, she wanted something light and small.  But whilst I ended up with a mid-size shrubbery, pruned to size with kitchen scissors before the ceremony, Kate got a simple gypsophila circlet with a narrow satin ribbon tie.  With her unfussy, elegant dress, it completed her look to perfection.

Photo courtesy of Martin Cartwright

When I arrived at the Wethele Manor to dress the tables, I loved the famous couples theme which Kate and Andrew had chosen to identify the tables for their guests. I think Gomez and Morticia would approve of the gothic blackberries and ivy which garlanded the top table for the bridal party, and those dark dahlias, of course!

photo by Tuckshop Flowers

                     

 The day was captured beautifully by friends of the bride and groom and  by photographer, Martin Cartwright  -  I’m delighted to share some of their lovely shots, so thanks go to them, and to Kate and Andy for being a joy to work with throughout the whole proceedings.  May you flourish and prosper together, along with your Urban Herbs!

Photo courtesy of Martin Cartwright