Restraint

“Variegation has been popularised by the flower arranging movement which has been a notable social and (perhaps we might claim with such modesty we can muster) artistic feature of post-war Britain. Variegated leaves have contributed importantly to the range of material available to the flower arranger, who saw more to them than had been apparent to the gardener, but who has induced the gardener to take another look at them and their role in the garden. Cross-fertilisation between the arts has always been productive.” Christopher Lloyd, Foliage Plants

The April dance

The April dance

At the cutting garden we take delivery of a whole host of new plants and give them a home in the moist, cool soil. Some to replace winter losses, others that are entirely new to us and we’ll have to wait a few weeks yet to see in flower. There are a lot of damp, drizzly days planting, weeding…

Marching on

Marching on

Spring. The verb ‘to spring’ from the Middle English sprygen - ‘to burst or flow forth, to sprout, to emerge, to happen, to become known’. As a noun, from Middle English spryng (“a wellspring, tide, branch, sunrise, kind of dance or blow, ulcer, snare, flock”), from Old English spring (“wellspring, ulcer”)

September weddings

September weddings

A simple, sophisticated bridal bouquet of massed ingredients - coffee roses, unripened blackberries, mauve-grey limonium, fluffy grasses and pops of red from three Tagetes ‘Burning Embers’. And another - this time ‘Imogen’ roses against a backdrop of palest blue clematis

West Horsley Place

West Horsley Place

In the renovated barn at West Horsley Place we created textural tablescape designs down the long dining tables using a mix of clear glass vases and bottles, with ice blue and ginger tapered candles. We used lots of tendrils, seedheads and fruits to add interest on the tables…

Holland Park Orangery

Holland Park Orangery

Formerly used as a ‘garden ballroom’, the tall windows and white walls of the Orangery in Holland Park provide a brilliant backdrop for flower dressing. We decorated the space with tall, wiry branches and trailing vines to bring the outside in.

The Savile Club

The Savile Club

For the ceremony we filled a pair of bronze ‘acanthus leaf’ urns with frothy arrangements of mixed perennials - daisies, valerian, delphiniums and golden giant oat grasses. On the mantelpiece a large bowl spilled over with June’s finest - intricately speckled martagon lilies…