5 Questions with Rosebie Morton of The Real Flower Company
Saturday is here. What a strange period of time we are living in at the moment . I have had time to reflect on a lot of things lately. Trying to take away as many positives I can, but it can be very hard some days. I definitely feel more than ever very grateful for the simpler things in life; time to read, a hot cup of coffee with no children disturbing me for five minutes, having the countryside on our doorstep and my job. My love for floristry has increased even more than I thought was possible over the last few months. I have such a connection to nature. Not only because it is my job but I find I am at my calmest, most happy and content when I am outdoors.
There are a selection of florists and flower growers that I hold with such high regard and one of those ladies is Rosebie from The Real Flower Company. Over the years on special occasions my Mum has sent numerous hat boxes of beautiful English scented roses and flowers arranged by The Real Flower Company to various friends and relatives. The feedback is always such praise and joy. So it was an absolute dream when Rosebie agreed to answer my 5 questions and my mum is rather excited about this one too!
So grab yourself a cup of something lovely and take a five minute break with Rosebie.
Alicia: Let's start at the beginning: where did your passion for gardening come from?
Rosebie From my mother and my grandmother who were both fanatical gardeners and instilled in me a love of plants and nature. My mother could make a garden anywhere; as an army family we were often posted abroad and she always managed to create a little corner of England in the most improbable places to remind her of home.
Alicia: Today The Real Flower Company grows and supplies the most amazing scented roses to the floristry industry. Could you explain to the reader why so many roses that are bought have lost their scent and why are the roses grown by The Real Flower Company are different?
Rosebie: In most instances, Roses are bred for the longest possible shelf life and as it is the rose’s scent which reduces this it was often the scent that was sacrificed. The Real Flower Company roses are grown for their scent; they are like the old-fashioned roses of one’s childhood, exquisitely perfumed and vibrant with colour and texture.
Alicia: Obviously you are a big supporter of British flowers. When the season is over in this country you have your flower farm over in Kenya. Can you tell the reader a little bit more about the farm and how it still follows The Real Flower Company's ethics.
Rosebie: Tambuzi is a company not just operated for profit but with the aim of improving the world around it. The company’s strap line ‘stop and smell the roses’ sends a simple message – to slow down, notice and enjoy everything around you. The company strongly believes in the concept of shared values, and it considers the welfare of its employees and the neighbouring communities to be part of its strength. It employs around 500 people who without Tambuzi, would not have a job to be able to support their families at home.
Tambuzi is also the first flower farm to be Carbon neutral and gold standard which is an unbelievable achievement and one which they are quite rightly ( as are we, ) hugely proud.
Alicia: You are a very successful business woman. You employ many women as well. As an industry we have a great deal of women running businesses. What advice would you give to women thinking about a career change into floristry or looking to set up a business of their own?
Rosebie: To go into it any new business with your eyes wide open! You need to be honest with yourself as to what you are trying to achieve from this business. The flower industry can be very much feast or famine as far as work goes. It is a notoriously difficult industry in which to make money. You therefore need to have clear objectives and a passion which will drive you forward when things are tough. Dealing with perishables is always challenging!
Alicia: You are an award winning English Flower grower, you have won numerous medals at the Chelsea Flower Show, you have been featured in Vogue, Harpers Bazar, the Telegraph to name but a few publications. What has been a particular highlight for you in your career, , when you have stepped back and just thought 'I created this'?
Rosebie: To be honest, the highlight is always seeing peoples reactions when they have received one of our bouquets and are overwhelmed by the scent and how it has the power to transport them back to their childhood. This is always a magical moment for me and makes me so glad that I have persevered, when over the years I have come close to thinking am I mad and finding a simpler career!
Bonus Question
Alicia: We can't ignore what is going on in the world right now. One of the things that I believe this whole experience has proved is how much we value the outside and nature. What are some of the things you have learnt from this period and what do you do to relax when everything is too much and you need a bit of head space?
Rosebie: We have been amazed by the amount of flowers people are sending. Bouquets and posies have been winging their way all over the country, bringing love and encouragement and virtual hugs wherever they are needed.
When I walk away from my desk at the end of the day I like to get into my own garden to see what is happening; there is much solace to be had from finding a new shoot here and a bud there. It is also such a bonus to have my family with me, we are not often together for so long and it is a treat to sit down for supper together at the end of each day.
A big thank you to Rosebie and The Real Flower Company for such an inspiring interview. Join me next week where I am delighted to share my 5 Questions with the delightful Sarah Statham of Simply By Arrangement.
The Real Flower Company
https://www.realflowers.co.uk/
https://www.instagram.com/therealflowerco/
Cut Flower Workshop at Pitfield Cutting Garden
We are excited to be teaming up with Pitfield Cutting Garden to host a British flower workshop at the end of July.
Join us on Tuesday 28th July at Pifield Cutting Garden where owner Emma Martin will give us a talk and a tour of the gardens.Once we have gathered our ingredients we will head back to the studio where Alicia will demonstrate how to create a table centre piece.
The Details:
Date: Tuesday 28th July
Time: 9.30am-1.00pm
Location: Pitfields Cutting Garden and Randolphs Farm
Whats Included: All flowers, foliage, table urn and refreshments.
5 Questions with Anna Potter of Swallows and Damsons
Saturday has come round again. This week the news has been shocking, filled with such sadness and worry. As we look to the scenes in America and hope that change finally occurs after such tragedy, I find myself asking so many questions. My mind has been buzzing all week and I confess it’s hard to switch off at times.
With such instrumental events going on I come back to the same question, are flowers important? Does anyone care at the moment? But more than ever through the last few months I feel that nature is so important. It is the simple things that we take for granted that perhaps we need to be more grateful for and I believe that opening our eyes to what is around us will bring appreciation and change.
This week I am interviewing the wonderful Anna of Swallows and Damsons. I met Anna last year at Sarah Raven’s Perch Hill. Not only is she extremely talented but she is also a lovely lady. Anna is one of the most successful florists on Instagram and like so many other floral designers I love her images and I was delighted that she agreed to answer my 5 questions.
Alicia: Anna you have been a florist for many years. You have had huge success on Instagram. You are regularly featured in magazines, you take part in photo shoots, you do large scale weddings and in 2019 you released your beautiful book The Flower Fix. Can you describe your style in three words?
Anna: Wild, unexpected, whimsical .
Alicia: When I look at your work I feel like you are telling a story. It’s a combination of nature and art. What inspires your floral designs?
Anna: I love this description so much!
I always look to nature first.
The more I get to know and work with flowers the more I appreciate their irregular nature and have learned to embrace this rather than fight against it. It’s such a joy to work with their crazy bends, droopy heads, and kinks in creating something rather than fighting this and trying to generate something straight and formal.
The relationship that humans have won nature, the way we replicate colours, shapes and patterns in art, architecture, fashion and film. Inspiration can come from anywhere.
Alicia: What is a typical week (if there is such a thing) in the life of a florist working at Swallows and Damsons?
Anna: Always coffee first. We either have a delivery of flowers or trip to the local market every morning. Conditioning and preparing the flowers in the shop and creating any orders for the day ahead. After that really everyday is different. Making arrangements for weddings or events, preparing for photo shoots, meeting with clients, chatting to customers. One of the great things about having a shop is the variation and the little surprise conversations and requests.
Alicia: Many aspiring florists lack confidence and I was wondering if you could share some advice on how to overcome this. With the success you have experienced on social media for example, do you ever get intimidated or get imposter syndrome and if you do, how do you overcome that?
Anna: Joining Instagram in the beginning definitely felt very free, experimental and new. I just wanted to create, to try things out, document and play. As Instagram and my account grew it was hard not to become fixated with the machine, an addiction you could say. Posting and receiving affirmation from some of your biggest inspirations was incredible but also unhelpful and obsessive. Alongside that the temptation for comparison also grew and the freedom i’d allowed myself now had walls and goals that were more preoccupied with what people liked, what I should be creating and what other people were creating. I was missing the beauty in the present moment because everything had become an opportunity for an insta shot. Fortunately I have a wonderful husband, children and team at the shop who quickly identify my BS. It’s a real journey and a constant practise of letting go of preconceived expectations and being stuck in my mind. Online breaks and disciplines help water the internal areas that have become fixed and cemented and I can then wildly return to the play and curiosity that I first loved about the platform.
Alicia: Your book, ‘The Flower Fix’ is such a beautiful collection of your work and gives the reader an insight into your creative process. How did you decide on the arrangements and colour palettes that you selected to include in the book?
Anna: I’d like to say they were very carefully planned and thought through but it really wasn’t the case. The seasons and availability were the main factor in deciding palette and flower choice. The environment where we would be working being the second. We shot over the course of a year and then collated all the shoots to present them in a colour order.
Alicia: We can’t ignore what is going on in the world right now. Here at Flourish Sussex we are encouraging people to get creative to act as a source of mindfulness. What are doing at the moment in isolation to keep your creative hands busy?
Anna: Creativity, nature, stillness, play, reading, digging. The closer to wild nature and its rhythms I can be the more space I feel internally. Finding a balance between planning for the coming months of business in a changed world and being completely present in the moment .
A big thank you to Anna. I hope you enjoyed the interview as much as I did. Join us next week where I will be asking my 5 questions to the legendary Rosebie Morton of The Real Flower Company.
Swallows and Damsons
Website: http://www.swallowsanddamsons.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/swallowsanddamsons/
5 Questions with Emma Cox
This weather is unbelievable. I can not remember a hotter spring. I love the sunshine. I love waking up to blue sky, everything seems that bit easier, which is definitely something that I am cherishing at the moment.
This week I am delighted to share my interview with Emma Cox. Emma hasn’t been a florist for that long, but she has achieved so much in such a short space of time, so I am sure many aspiring florists will find her journey very inspirational. So sit back, relax and enjoy my 5 questions with this delightful lady.
Alicia :‘Emma thank you for taking part in our 5 questions. I love your journey into floristry. Can you give our reader a bit of background into Emma Cox Floristry?
Emma: So Emma Cox Floristry was always something I'd imagine while I was actually a secondary school teacher. I taught Design & Technology for 5 years in Yorkshire and although I loved teaching I always knew it wasn't something I could see myself doing forever. My husband is a tattoo artist and has been self employed for a long time and it was actually being in a relationship with him, watching him work, run his studio and being able to be so creative, not just tattooing but painting, drawing, sculpting that made me think that's what I need to do in my life too. But I knew I didn't want to go down the college/apprenticeship route and couldn't see another way to do it yet.
So I set up trading in vintage and antique furniture, focusing on French antiques as my father in law had a house in France at the time so trips out there were frequent and spent with family. I'd buy urns and pots and would dabble with arranging flowers in them.
In selling my antiques at fairs I met a few florists. I actually met Lucy Hunter (Lucy the flower hunter) at a fair in Ardingly and as I already followed her on Instagram I pleaded with her to show me how to do flowers 'properly' she suggested I contact Sarah Statham as she is also in Yorkshire. I did. I went along to her studio and just fell more in love with flowers than I could have imagined. It was as though everything Sarah said about how flowers moved, colour, texture and movement in arrangements made so much sense, all I wanted to do was create my own art with flowers as my medium and it's all I wanted to do every day from then on. Sarah was so encouraging and that encouragement made me practice every spare moment I had. She has now become a friend and actually bought some of the flowers I used in my own wedding as a gift, a long with the many other kind things she's done for me. I'm so grateful to her and can't say enough how genuinely kind and lovely she is as a person.
I'd learnt how to be self employed from selling antiques with my sister in law and her lovely mum, how to start my days at 3am and work 18 hours, how to dress and style pieces. I started doing both floristry and antiques but soon the bookings coming in for weddings meant I could only do one or the other full time and flowers will win every time.
Alicia: Tell us about your current career plan, your goals and business.
Emma: My goals and plans for my business are not strategic, I'm not the most business minded and have always tried to go at the pace of my business. Never run before you can walk, I tell myself as I know I can become impatient and want to do it all now. I don't have a time line of where I'd like my business to be in so many years. I'd obviously like my business to grow, to be able to employ like minded flower lovers to help share the work load would be great. To develop my own flower growing is something I'd love to do as I love using British grown flowers. I'd also love to travel and learn from some amazing florists out there. I think the most important thing for me to do is continually learn from others that give me so much inspiration and learning is something I want to do for the rest if my career.
Alicia: For me your work reminds me of stepping back in time. A combination of glamour and romance. Where does your inspiration for your work come from?
Emma: I get inspiration from almost anywhere. A lot comes from my love of antiques and the French style of design from the 18th and 19th century. Our home, especially our living room, has been described as a mini museum and an old botanical apothecary in the dining room as my husband and I love the unusual. We love the signs of age on pieces and patina. I absolutely love being outside in nature, as far away from evidence of people or modern life. I love old architecture, sometimes I'll see a bit of crumbling old wall, a grand archway, an old wooden door and all I can picture is flowers arranged on or around it. In my head I'll plan the shapes I'd love to create in that space to look as though it has grown right there, a contrast of new life growing on something that's been there hundreds of years. I love art and films but sometimes just the lighting in a scene of film will inspire an idea. And obviously flowers themselves and other florists are very inspiring. I love to see how other use tone and texture.
Alicia: What has been the biggest challenge of your career so far and how have you overcome it?
Emma There are little challenges every day in floristry, from flowers not doing what you want or thought they'd do, you know when they just won't sit right, to working out mechanical issues to designs you've never done before, structurally, which are all things you have to figure out on your own, how to fit everything in my van and that mad panic that it won't all fit. But I enjoy these and I feel they make me work harder. Fortunately I've not faced anything too dramatic other than the day before a very large wedding I quite badly cut my left hand. I knew it needed stitches and that I would not be able to use it from them on. I did not have time to go to the hospital so my husband came home and bandaged me up the best he could and my sister came over to help load my van. I only had some button holes to complete and a bridesmaid bouquet. Luckily, the way in which my husband hand wrapped my hand meant it was fixed in a perfect position for holding a bouquet. The wedding itself was tricky to set up as I couldn't lift anything what that hand as the cut would open again but thankfully my sister had helped with a few weddings by then and she did all the heavy lifting.
Alicia: How do you overcome fear when starting out on your own?
Emma: I'm not sure how to overcome fear starting out on your own as on some level its still there, I just try and use the fear to keep me going. I use it to push me to practice as often as I can. The fear of bookings no longer coming in will encourage me to do something with flowers that I either haven't done before or something that I want to get better at and share on social media or my website. I'd never let the fear of failure stop me, because then you're never going to know if you'll succeed if you never try. I also say yes to things I've never done, then I have to learn how to do it. I think I work better under pressure and especially if I've said I'll do something. Use the fear of it all going wrong or going away to make something you've always wanted to create.
Alicia: What do you love most about your current role and why?
Emma The thing's I love the most about being a wedding florist has to be the flowers and the couples. Meeting couples, hearing their love stories, making connections and being apart of their family history is so amazing to me. I think about looking at my own family photos from weddings in the family before I was born and the flowers in the bouquet, that wedding and celebration is a part of family history. The flowers reflect the mood and atmosphere of that one day. You can tell which season it is in pictures from the flowers and get am idea of the atmosphere. I think the seasons are a perfect fit for my character too. I've sometimes wondered if I'd be able to maintain my enthusiasm and love for flowers if only one season existed and the flowers never changed and I'm not sure I would. I think bridal bouquets are one of my favourite things to create, even though they for me hold the most importance. They're the baby I guard with my life and cause me the most stress, they're strangely the piece that I'm at my most calm when I'm making it.
Alicia: We can't ignore the current situation that we are finding ourselves in. What are you doing currently in isolation that helps you to relax and to stay creative?
Emma The current situation of Covid 19 has been made me take things one day at a time. As a florist you're booked into two years in the future, your life is normally planned so far in advance. Postponing weddings, styled shoots and fairs has been upsetting but every person I've worked with has been so positive, which is very inspiring. Being at home, especially with my husband who is also a creative, has meant we've had time to explore ideas we've had but never had time to do. We both love sculpting and pottery and we've recently both tried print making using lino cutting.
To stay positive every day is unrealistic, there are times we can feel down at the uncertainty and I think it's important to let yourself feel that way, talk about how you feel to someone that's with you or on the phone. What has really helped me is that luckily last year I started a cut flower patch, so I've had flowers to create with and that patch to tend to. Lots of walks. Taking notice as spring evolves, all the beautiful birds carrying on with their busy days. Also reading, My husband and I have a huge love for books, old and new and to be honest we have that many I know I'll never ever read them all but we've made a start at last. Oh and of course TV in the evening. We've actually started game of thrones again and I can't believe how much I've forgotten already. There's been episodes that I can't recall ever seeing.
A massive thank you to Emma for taking some time out to answer my questions. Join us next week where I will be sharing my interview with leading lady in British floristry Anna of Swallows and Damsons.
Emma Cox Floristry
Website: https://emmacoxfloristry.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/emmacoxbrocante/?hl=en
Flower Buckets
We are excited to launch our fortnightly cut flower buckets service.
HOW IT WORKS
Every other week during a month you will be able to order beautiful cut flower bucket to either collect from our HQ in Hurstpierpoint or they can be delivered to your house. (Please see below for where we deliver to). In the month of June we will be selling two buckets; The Peony Bucket and The English Rose bucket. In these buckets there will be a beautiful selection of cut flowers, including focal flowers, secondary and filler flowers, plus some foliage. All will be conditioned and will come with a care card. They will be all prepped and ready for you to arrange at home.
NEED SOME HELP ARRANGING YOUR FLOWERS? UPGRADE TO OUR CREATIVE PACKAGE.
If you need some help with arranging your flowers you can order one of our Creative Packages. You will receive your cut flower bucket, along with a vessel, mechanics and tools. You will then be emailed a link to a private tutorial where Alicia will show you step by step on how to create a display. This video is yours to keep and you can stop, pause and rewind.
WHAT’S THE PROCESS
Go to our Flower Bucket Shop
Select which bucket you would like, make sure you choose between it being delivered or collected and whether you want a creative package.
Once ordered sit back and relax and wait for your bucket to arrive.
GET 10% OFF YOUR FIRST BUCKET WITH PROMO CODE ‘FLOWERBUCKET20’ ON CHECKOUT
Places we deliver to: Hurstpierpoint, Hassocks, Ditchling, Burgess Hill, Albourne, Henfield, Cuckfield, Haywards Heath and Lindfield.