Today I’m rewinding back to January when I teamed up with awesome photographer Rebecca Douglas for a documentary shoot, capturing a day in the life of a florist. The idea behind the shoot was for it to be insightful yet inspiring. In particular for anyone who is maybe considering a career change into floristry or to anyone who just loves flowers in general!
To give you a bit of an insight as to how my day starts, when I have a wedding or event my day I usually leave at around 4.30am collect my blooms from Covent Garden Flower Market which is actually located in Vauxhall. The majority of the flowers and foliages I would have pre-ordered (depending on the size of the job) but I also like to pick out seasonal flowers whilst up there which catch my eye. If you have never been to the market before it is well worth a visit, it is a treasure trove of goodies so many different varieties of flowers themselves along with plants and foliages. Sundries include vases in all different shapes and sizes along with other interesting containers and props. On the morning myself and Rebecca visited it was particularly cold and icy (as you probably guessed from the woolly hat I’m wearing).
When I pick out the flowers I normally have a colour scheme in mind in keeping with the brief I have been given to work with but on this occasion I was free to choose whichever flowers and combinations I wanted (it was like being a child in a sweet shop!). Foliage also plays a key part for within my designs, and the foliage stands are located separately from the flower stands at the market and are home to lots of seasonal delights along with tropical leaves, herbs and varying types of moss.
Once I get back to my workshop the first job that needs to be done before any arrangements can be started is making sure all the flowers are conditioned. This involves stripping all the leaves cutting each stem at an angle to allow them to absorb as much water as possible and placing them in buckets of clean water. If the event is large and requires a lot of flowers this can take rather a long time!
When we think about flowers often we associate them with events such as weddings or large corporate events but what about flowers for your home? Personally (I know I am totally bias) I don’t feel like my living room looks finished or ‘lived’ in until I have a jug of pretty blooms nestling on the table. I think what would help most people is if they felt more confident with picking the flowers and being able to display them, my advice would be not to over complicate things. Single stem flowers placed in bottles can look lovely on their own or a tall vases or ceramic jugs filled with just blossom on its own look great. If there is a special occasion and you’re hosting a birthday or dinner party then you could hire a florist to create a bespoke table scape that will wow your guests and have them talking about it for weeks afterwards. The one I created for the shoot was made up of seasonal spring flowers including tulips, ranunculus and lilac with foliage entwined amongst the bottles and vessels to add interest along with foliage garland chair backs which look great on their own with no flowers used at all. Perfect for a birthday dinner or special occasion such as mother’s day.
You can find out more about our flowers for the home service over on our website.