Seasonal floristry, taught the British way.
Armed with a twelve-pound note and a borrowed bucket, our writer set out to buy like a florist and stretch one market haul across seven days of arrangements. The result: cheaper flowers, better vases, and a permanent change in how we shop for blooms.
Somewhere along the way, the British funeral wreath became a generic object — the same ribbon-edged spray, ordered over the phone, gone within the week. We think the seasonal wreath-making skills we teach every autumn have something to say about that. Here's why memorial flowers deserve better, and how to give a proper British goodbye.
Five hero flowers per season, each with conditioning notes, a beginner arrangement to attempt, and the classic mistake our tutors see on day one. Work through the calendar and you'll never be stuck for a vase again.
Why does the £5 bunch you grabbed at the till look like a funeral arrangement by Thursday? We dig into cold chains, stem age and the sniff test — then challenge you to rework a budget bouquet so it lasts twice as long.
Wreath season arrives like a delivery van — suddenly and all at once. This is your autumn action plan: what to forage and dry now, how to host a workshop that people actually enjoy, and how to price your wreaths without underselling yourself.
Floral foam promised convenience and delivered a plastic problem. Here's our honest, workshop-tested guide to the alternatives — what works beautifully, what fails miserably, and what it actually costs to make the switch.
Aprons, thorn-proof gloves and the humble bucket: what working British florists actually wear and carry, and how to assemble your own starter kit without breaking the bank. We asked the people elbow-deep in eucalyptus what they can't live without.
Let's stop pretending February peonies are a birthright. A seasonal, slightly opinionated guide to what British flowers can genuinely deliver for your wedding, month by month — and why the constraint is the creative gift.
The British countryside offers a treasure trove of arranging material — if you know where to look and how to pick responsibly. Here's our month-by-month guide to foraging seasonal blooms, the legal dos and don'ts, and the foam-free techniques we teach every student.
Supermarket bouquets might be cheap, but they come at a cost most of us never see. We make the case for slow flowers — and set you a challenge: could you arrange something beautiful using only stems grown within 30 miles of your front door?