WELCOME
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UNTAMED
EDGE
About
The School of Sustainable Floristry was founded in 2021 by floral designer Cissy Bullock and flower farmer Lucy Copeman.
Based within the historic Walled Garden at Howbury Hall in Bedfordshire, the School was created to reconnect florists to their medium: the flowers themselves.
Set on a working flower farm, our students learn surrounded by the flowers they are designing with, experiencing first-hand how the seasons shape the materials we work with and the designs we create.
Today, the School offers workshops, professional training programmes and business mentoring for florists seeking a more thoughtful, creative and sustainable approach to their craft.
Whether you are taking your first steps into floristry or refining an established practice, our aim is simple: to help you develop the confidence, skills and understanding needed to create floristry that feels rooted in a time, a place and a season.
How it began
The School grew from a shared belief that floristry training needed to change.
As a floral designer, Cissy found herself increasingly drawn to the colour, movement and vitality of locally grown flowers. Yet much of the floristry education available at the time remained rooted in imported flowers, floral foam and design approaches that felt disconnected from both seasonality and the realities of modern floristry.
At the same time, Lucy had spent years restoring flower growing to the eighteenth-century Walled Garden at Howbury Hall, building one of the country's most respected flower farms and supplying florists with exceptional seasonal flowers.
Together, they recognised an opportunity to create something different.
A place where florists could learn directly from the flowers themselves. A place where floral design, flower growing and sustainability could be taught side by side. A place that would better prepare florists for the future of the industry.
The School of Sustainable Floristry was born.
Meet the founders
Cissy Bullock
Founder & Lead Instructor
Lucy Copeman
Founder of Howbury Farm Flowers
About Cissy
Cissy is a floral designer, educator and founder of both the School of Sustainable Floristry and Wildstems, a season-led wedding and event floral studio.
Working across every stage of the flower journey - from sourcing and growing through to design, teaching and industry advocacy - she is recognised as one of the leading voices in the movement towards season-led floristry in the UK.
Known for her naturalistic floral style and commitment to locally grown flowers, Cissy's work explores the relationship between flowers, seasonality and place.
It is this same curiosity that underpins her teaching. Forever asking "why?", she is passionate about helping florists move beyond recipes and develop a deeper understanding of flowers, design and their own creative voice.
About Lucy
Lucy is the founder of Howbury Farm Flowers and the driving force behind the restoration of flower growing within the historic Walled Garden at Howbury Hall.
A former financial PR professional, she left London to pursue a life more closely connected to her family and the land, establishing a flower farm that now supplies florists, designers and students with exceptional seasonal flowers throughout the year.
Lucy's knowledge of flower growing, seasonality and sustainable horticulture forms an integral part of the School's teaching, helping students understand not only how to arrange flowers, but where they come from and how they are grown.
THE SEASON LED FLORIST
Develop a creative & competitive edge through season-led floristry.
FLOR-ART-ISTRY WORKSHOPS
Develop your creative voice through flowers, seasons and design.
“There is simply something innate and special about the collaboration between Flower Farmer and Florist. And the same applies for the connection between Lucy and Cissy … it was the feeling I got when I walked into the Walled Garden and when I listened and watched the expertise and sheer love of their craft exuding from Lucy and Cissy [that] has stayed with me, and why I'm already longing to go back.
Claire, The Full Story: Seed to Centrepiece student