The Winter Season
The start of February saw us welcome our Season Led Florist students back to the School for the Winter Season of the course. A day dedicated to floral design and being a season led florist during the winter months.
One of the first questions that we get asked about being a season led florist is ‘what do you do in the winter then?’ How can you only work with locally grown flowers during these months? How can you not import flowers to supplement your work?
The Winter Season of the course is all about exploring those questions and about seeking out those treasured stems that are still there if you know where to look. It’s about designing in a way that contradicts people’s misconceptions, delighting them in the unexpected, and asking them to reimagine what floral design in the winter months looks like.
The morning was spent in the flower barn exploring fresh and dried materials and the creation of centrepiece arrangements, bouquets and flower crowns.
We created a beautiful deconstructed snowdrop tablescape over which we enjoyed a delicious seasonal meal made entirely using the fresh produce from the kitchen garden (with a few extra store cupboard basics).
The afternoon was dedicated to a large group installation, over the enormous fireplace in the Great Hall. To create this, we used a framework of Cissy’s favourite - dead branches - wired with dried strawflower heads to mimic spring blossom, and layered up with dried wrinkled cress, miscanthus, dried peonies and dahlias and honesty, and fresh blossom branches and pink pussy willow. We also incorporated colour blocks of fresh hellebores in root (which were subsequently planted in the gardens for cutting from in future winter seasons).
After a brief seed sowing session in the glasshouses for a few students, we rounded off the day with tea and cake and a review of what we had covered.
Small scale flower farmers, like season led florists, slow things down during the winter and no one produces on a large scale. So to put together large events does rely on a number of people providing the materials required. Which is exactly what we had to do to bring together sufficient materials for our students to work with.
Luckily, we have some incredible suppliers within our network, and were able to draw on exquisitely dried flowers from Ravenshill Flower Farm, Lucy Philips Flowers and Wild at Heart by Charlie Armour, beautiful pink pussy willow from Blooming Green and the first outdoor flowering narcissi from The Packing Shed in the Tamar Valley in Cornwall.
Which is just another of the great things about working as a season led florist: the insanely short supply chains that means you know exactly who grew your flowers and in what way. You know that they and their workers are fairly treated adn that the methods they use to grow and harvest are aligned with your values. And you are providing revenue directly to other small businesses and farmers.
It was such a beautiful day, and very much welcomed for all of us after a quiet January. A chance to reconnect with our creativity and with our likeminded colleagues and friends. Bring on Spring!
