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2024 Recap

2024 was a year of growth for me, both personally and professionally. As my business expanded, it naturally took more time away from my creative process, but it was so rewarding. I experimented with different flower varieties—some I won’t be growing again, while others will definitely make a return!

One of the highlights of last year was crafting dried flower buttonholes. I created so many of them, and it was such a joy. Buttonholes have always been one of my favorite items to design. My second most requested piece was floral headbands. I absolutely love making these, especially when I get to see the beautiful professional photos of them being worn—it’s such a heartwarming feeling.

My summer months were filled with weddings, as I had the honor of helping so many wonderful couples choose natural dried flowers for their big day. Thank you to each and every one of you for entrusting me with such an important part of your celebration.

Autumn brought a wave of orders for gift bouquets, bespoke wall swags, and gorgeous wreaths. Wreaths were such a hit that I’m planning to make even more leading up to Mother’s Day—there’s just something so special about them.

Christmas was all about fresh wreaths, a tradition I’ve been perfecting for over 25 years! Creating them was a joy, but I’ve decided this year will be my last for making them. I want to focus more on dried flowers and use the festive season to prepare for the year ahead. While I’m saying goodbye to fresh wreaths, I’m deeply grateful for every customer who’s bought one from me over the years.

Now, as we move into a new year, I’m excited for all the flowery fun ahead!

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Growing Flowers

The growing season is here again and my window sills are filling up with trays of germinating seeds. This year I’m growing a few different things; like Helichrysum subulifolium which are bright sunshiny-yellow papery flowers  which will look so jolly in yellow inspired bouquets.

I try to grow a wide selection of flowers and grasses as I think its important to have a good amount of texture and movement in a bouquet, posy, wreath or wall hanging – getting the right mix is so important!

So when I start looking at my seed catalogues its very easy to get a little carried away!

I also grow and dry Dahlias…but that’s another post!!

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Drying Flowers

As August approaches, the garden is in full bloom, and I’m picking flowers every day to dry. The Paper Daisies are starting to wind down, with their blossoms much smaller now compared to when they first bloomed in June. Soon, I’ll be pulling out the last of them.

The Strawflowers are the main star of my wreaths, and they’ve just begun to produce beautiful, large blooms on long stems. I prefer to wire most of my Strawflowers, as they work so well in wreaths that way. This year, I’ve grown a wider variety of colors, and my absolute favorite so far is the ‘Salmon Rose.’ It’s a warm, inviting hue that will look stunning in both bouquets and autumn wreaths.

My drying wall is currently overflowing with flowers, and there are many more to come. That means plenty more wreaths and bouquets are on the horizon!

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Growing Annuals

It’s April and I’ve planted out all my Autumn sowed hardy annuals, which included Larkspur. Last year Larkspur certainly got the better of me! I’d tried to grow it before in the past with no success and since starting my small dried flower business I felt Larkspur was a flower I needed for bouquets.

So I stored my seeds in the fridge for a few weeks, this is called Stratification, which I hadn’t done in the past and it turned out that it was quite important! I sowed my seeds in March and waited…and waited. Nothing apart from the odd one. So back to square one and started again, still very poor germination. I really didn’t know what I was doing wrong. Consequently I didn’t have many Larkspur blooms, although the few I did get were beautiful.

I figured out from various reads and advice that the best way was to sow them in the Autumn and over winter them in the greenhouse. Which is exactly what I did. I had fantastic germination and who would have thought that these little seedling could survive -8C temperatures? but they did. Apparently Larkspur quite like a cold spell, and they certainly got that.

They are all planted out in the beds now and will soon be flowering, and finally ill have beautiful Larkspur for my dried flower bouquets.