My Friend got married in February

My very dear friend Janet told me she was marrying her
partner of 16 years Nick (also an old friend from Art school) “Would you like me to arrange the flowers?” I offered, “ I’d
love you to!” replied Janet. The slight drawback was the wedding date was set
for 9th February.

I don’t usually do winter weddings due to lack of flowers,
but there was no way I wouldn’t have done this one. I didn’t want to let Janet
down, particularly as she had asked me to be a ‘best woman’, which was an
enormous honour.

I suggested hellebores, anemones, viburnum and pussy willow.
Thankfully she loved the sound of all of those. She is a firm believer in
British grown and had really set her heart on all the flowers coming from the
garden. All I could do was watch and hope. I watched the flooding and the snow.
I cringed at the hard frosts and gave weekly reports on their progress.  Finally the weather was kind during the
first week of February and all was well. In the end it was only the delicate
little viburnum that suffered, as most had gone brown from frost.

 Janet&nick-6859
Photography by Stephanie Rushton

The hellebores were stunning, but they were tricky. Mostly
due to it being so early, too early to pick them really. The heads hung down
and I knew they wouldn’t be terribly reliable out of water. They worked well in
little bud vases and nestled into the bouquet.

 

            IMG_6098

 

                                        
IMG_6083

photography by Rachel Siegfried

I also worked them into the buttonholes with pussy willow
and rosemary. Janet and the best women all wore them in their hair (apart
from me who loves an excuse to wear a hat) I advised all the girls to keep an
eye on each others hellebore hair flowers and make sure they remove them at the
first signs of wilting. I’d say we got about 3 hours out of them, which isn’t
so bad for early February.

 

            Janet&nick-7052

 

            Janet&nick-6933

 

The table centres were quite simple jugs of anemones,
hellebores and pussy willow.

 

            Janet&nick-7117

 

The pussy willow was a joy and worked brilliantly with
Janet’s fur jacket. I ran it through all of the arrangements. I used tiny
sprigs right through to some very long branches which went into an enamel
pitcher on the bar. The most important thing was Janet was really thrilled. It
was a great day and it gave me a good feeling to make a friend happy,
especially on her wedding day.

 

 Janet&nick-7073

Photography by Stephanie Rushton

Jo Wise    

1

Flowers, Love and Money

Finally, sunshine and two whole days
working in the garden! My body needs to catch up with my enthusiasm;
as I sit here writing this I am certainly feeling all that weeding
and cutting back.

Everyone was out today, including my
whippet Violet enjoying the straw I have been putting down to make
the paths between the perennials.

 

IMG_6164

Also, my chickens, who have been free
ranging on the cutting beds throughout the winter. I think it might
be time to make an enclosure as they spent the afternoon undoing all
the good work I have done, scratching the straw paths all over the
beds.

 

IMG_6161

 

On Wednesday I met The Duchess of
Cornwall when she came to open the latest exhibition at the Garden Museum: Floriculture: Flowers, Love and Money, which is all about the
cut flower industry (until the 28th April). I was part of the Magazine
Space Exhibition
entitled 'Six Growers' by Howard Sooley.

Howard came to photograph me on a very
cold day in January with not a flower in sight. I think I do have a
bit of a cold-faced expression, as I had to remove many of my favourite winter layers….

 

IMAG0085


 He had lots of tips for me on how to
photograph flowers, it is something I do want to improve on this
year. Anyway, he seemed really inspired by Green and Gorgeous, even in
it's winter state of mud and twigs, so hopefully he will be back at the height of summer to take lots of beautiful pictures.

It was a real honour to be included in
the exhibition and encouraging to see British flower growers getting
some recognition. Here are some scented Narcissi from the Isle of
Scilly growers who were one of the six:

 

IMG_6144

 

If you are in Oxford on Thursday 7th March, Christopher Woodward the museum's director will be giving a lecture at the Said business school on The history of floristry and the cut flower trade. 

 

IMG_6149

 

We will be introducing our new 'Best of the Bunch' range for mail order next month, which will be kicking off with Anemones. I was able to get hold of a rather special pastel variety this year, here is one just about to open and show it's loveliness.

Rachel Siegfried

 

 

0

The Walled Garden, coming in from the cold

We have a new addition to Green and
Gorgeous, a beautiful Victorian Walled Garden, one acre in size
and only 15 minutes away (if you drive fast). I had been dreaming of
such a place after losing countless plants to the cold; our frost pocket here is usually a couple of degrees below the
coldest place in England. Then out of the blue I got an email from
the owner who was looking for a grower to bring some life back into
it. It had been in the care of their gardener Jack for, can you
believe it… 70 years! He died last year and since then it has been
waiting….I am not sure how happy Jack would be to see a flower
grower taking over, he was definitely a 'veg only' man. He certainly
looked after the soil well, it is the soil of any gardener's dreams and probably double dug for at least 60 years.  

 

Walled garden digging

 

Before embarking on flower growing I
worked in a walled garden so I do have a bit of a soft spot for them
and fully appreciate their advantages (shelter and protection from
rabbits) and how bloody hot they can get on a decent summer's day. I
love their history, all the small signs and indicators of the hours
of labour and care that have gone before.

 

Walled Garden Wall

 

Anyway, I started digging a week ago
instead of getting the rotavator out, as I feel like Jack might still
be watching over. I have a long list of plants waiting to go in
including: hydrangeas, myrtle, viburnum, choisya, senecio, jasmine,
rosemary – shrubs for foliage so far. To inject some colour in
between these will be a mix of bulbs, perennials and annuals
including foxtail lilies, dahlias, crocosmia, ammi, larkspur,
craspedia and probably more that I haven't even dreamt of yet.

 

Walled Garden Gate

 

Rachel Siegfried

 

1