Rose & Protea bridal bouquet

Hand tied bridal bouquet of 'Sweet Avalanche' Roses, Protea, Hypericum, Pittosporum and Eucalyptus.

Willow wreath

I re-enrolled at college last month to continue my floristry studies with an advanced course focusing on contemporary and European design. For the first few weeks we have been having fun creating willow frames and other structures.

I really enjoyed creating this piece. My aim was to create lots of movement in the design with the overall effect soft, loose and flowing.

Vintage vase

Leftover roses and hydrangeas in a vintage Sylvac vase.

Calla Lily, Rose & Freesia wedding

A few images from today's wedding. The bride chose white roses, calla lilies and freesia for her bouquet. I always love green and white as a floral colour scheme. The two colours look so fresh, simple and elegant together.

Woodland Posy

Grouped woodland posy with white roses, 'Anastasia Green' chrysanths, carnations and ivy.

Blackberry time

I picked some blackberries whilst out walking Albert in the woods this afternoon and did this mock up for the table arrangements at my sister's wedding.

Summer basket arrangement

Just a little basket arrangement I made in the shop yesterday. It's a traditional design, and in this case was a gift for an elderly lady.

I used Roses, Achillea, Echinops, Eryngium, Eucalyptus, Chrysanths and Carnations. There are a couple of pieces of Delphinium in there somewhere too.

Wedding flowers

Today I've been busy putting together table arrangements and a couple of pew ends for this weekend's wedding in amongst the chaos of a busy Friday in the shop.

Cool water roses, Scabious, Freesia, Lisianthus, September flower and Eucalyptus - such gorgeous colours.

Sweet avalanche roses

Here are a couple of images from my final college assessment last week.

The brief: design a front facing triangular arrangement and create a moodboard to show the interior for which it would be suitable.



















The arrangement we had to produce to meet the brief is quite a formal, traditional design. I aimed to give mine a slightly vintagey feel, inspired by elegant Parisian apartments and romantic English country style.

I used my favourite Sweet Avalanche roses, which were the flowers carried by my gorgeous bridesmaids.



image by Fiona Ensor Photography

Hydrangea and Ranunculus posy

I put together this little posy a few days ago using some flowers from our garden.

We held our wedding reception at home, so the week before the wedding I went out and bought lots of Ranunculus to fill the borders in the garden. The Hydrangeas are from a plant we received as a wedding gift.

Bridal bouquet

I'm pleased with how this piece of work turned out. I love the contrasting textures. The ivy collar was a bit of an experiment but I really like the shape it gives to the bouquet. The colours would work well for an autumn wedding.

Bridesmaid's posy

Moving on from buttonholes and corsages at college, here is my first attempt at a bridesmaid's posy, which I constructed on an oasis foam posy holder. We tend to work a lot with carnations and chrysanths at college, because they are cheap and versatile. Most weeks our tutor chooses the flowers for us and my first reaction is nearly always 'Oh no, not carnations and chrysanths again', but often I'm amazed at the results that can be created by combining them with just a few focal flowers. Here, white roses provide the focus.

Cymbidium orchid corsage

I'm still practising corsages and boutonnieres for my assessed project at college next week. Here's one with cymbidium orchids that I made at the shop where I'm doing my work experience.

Wedding invitations

You may remember that a few weeks ago I mentioned how much I loved these invitations by Storeyshop. Well, whilst it has been all cold and snowy here this week I've been busy designing and making our wedding invitations, and here they are. I'm going to head off to the post office later today to send them out. The illustration which you may just be able to make out in the top of the picture is a drawing of our wedding venue by my very lovely soon to be husband, Mr H.

Silk corsage

Here is this week's college piece, made with silk flowers. These weren't the best quality silks I've seen but I'm quite pleased with the shape and neatness of this piece of work. I think I'd prefer to use fresh flowers for buttonholes and corsages for the bridal party at my own wedding, but this type of design could also be used for pew ends, cake toppers or hair decorations, all of which I think would look great in silks.

As January draws to a close lots is starting to happen in my garden. The first snowdrops are out and crocus and tulip shoots are tunnelling their way up out of the cold damp soil in search of daylight. Today I noticed that one of my Hellebore buds had finally opened. I couldn't resist picking it and making this boutonniere.

Rose Corsage

We're working on corsages at college at the moment and have to make up our own corsage design for an assessed project in a few weeks. Here is my first attempt. Next week we'll be using silk flowers.

Boutonnieres

It was back to college after the Christmas break last week. We're doing wedding work from now until Easter and started off with wiring techniques. Here are my first couple of attempts at a boutonniere. These are pretty traditional. Over the next few weeks I'm going to experiment with some less conventional flowers and foliages.

Christmas work experience

I've been doing some work experience this week in the run up to Christmas. Having never worked in a florist's before I would have been quite happy to just clean buckets, sweep up and make coffee all day long. I wasn't really expecting to be thrown in at the deep end and let loose to make up hand ties with such lovely flowers, so I owe a big 'thank you' to Antonia and Daniel for their patience and encouragement and for providing me with such a great learning opportunity.

On Friday when the delivery arrived I was really excited because I got to go on the big Dutch flower lorry. It pulled up on the kerb outside the shop and beckoned me in with its multicoloured patchwork of row upon row of floral gorgeousness, including the most amazing lilies I have ever seen..... I swear they must have been four feet tall!

Here are a few of the bits and pieces I got to make.

Christmas wreath

Here's my finished Christmas wreath, made using the mossed ring I posted a picture of last week. This one is now hanging on my front door.