Re-imagining Flower Classes For A Virtual World
January 2021 - a time like no otherIt is so sad that the arrival of 2021 has brought us to another lockdown in the UK after the ' annus horribilis' that was 2020 and even with the promise of vaccines life as we know it seems unlikely to be too different at least for the first half of 2021 from what has gone these past nine months.
In all of this upheaval, our Canalside cutting garden has been our focus and our saving grace. Like many others though, our fierce ethical floral business, particularly our classes and tuition, has needed to change and adapt to remain relevant and viable.
So, the ever intrepid Scot, who has only latterly discovered I turned the heating down in the Wharf to store the tulips, is turning himself into a TV producer. As the historic narrowboats drift past on the canal with their ticking bolinder engines, we have the latest digital technology beaming from our 19th Wharf. In this new virtual Wharf world, we are making the experience as immersive and connecting as we possibly can, exploring every boundary of the technology to allow us to reach beyond our sanctuary.
We want our classes to remain warm, human and welcoming. We wanted to add an extra layer of experience beyond pressing the play button on a prerecorded video.
The pandemic has prevented many of life’s touch points so we have especially focused on virtual connection. We want our classes to remain warm, human and welcoming. We wanted to add an extra layer of experience beyond pressing the play button on a prerecorded video. We wanted to hear life and laughter even if we are in separate places smelling the pine and eucalyptus.
Ironically, on the weekend we had planned to hold our traditional face-to-face Autumn dried floral wreath workshop in our little village hall, we launched our digital offering - group and 1-2-1 online flower classes. Following on from the overwhelming response to and success of these live online Autumn Wreath classes and “Tis the Season” Christmas classes, we are continuing in the first half of 2021 with our live online "Nature and Nurture" Zoom flower classes.
We would love to have you join us. Contact me to find out more and book.
In the meantime, come and say hello on Instagram where we post our regularly.
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If it matters to you to make a statement on your wedding day that you honour and respect the environment as well as each other, then I'd love to be right there with you.
Fierce Wedding Flowers
Make A Special StatementI create romantic wedding florals using my unique seasonal flowers and foliage grown in our canalside cutting garden.
My wild garden style floral designs include utterly bespoke bouquets, uniquely different flower crowns, beautiful buttonholes and fabulous floral installations for weddings in Cheshire and the surrounding counties.
I am aware that your wedding is a special moment that celebrates your life and love. It can also signal your unique style and aesthetic and be as special in other important ways too. Perhaps you want your wedding flowers to be as lovely to the environment as they are to look at? If so, then I'd love to be right there with you as your wedding floral partner. Enquire to book your consultation.
British flowers are key to my wild garden style floral design for both aesthetic and environmental reasons.
About Fierceblooms
more about MeIam an artisan florist growing British flowers with a design studio and cutting garden nestled beside a historic canal in rural Cheshire.
If sustainability is important to you, if it matters that your flowers are as lovely to the environment as they are to look at, then I am a kindred spirit.
Get in touch to discuss your wedding or event. You can also be inspired and learn what informs my original designs by attending one of my flower classes . Update - 2020 FTF classes in our local village hall have been cancelled due to Covid, but get in touch with me regarding live on-line 1-2-1s.
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A Valentines wreath with dry flowers......
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We have decided to reimagine Valentines this year. Let's be honest, we're needing to reimagine quite a few things right now. While red roses are the more traditional Valentines flowers, here at our canalside cutting garden, we're continuing to focus on our sustainable floral designs and challenge conformity.
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The roses in my snow covered garden are still in their mid winter slumber. So for the love of my roses, and the earth I grow them on, we're embracing a Valentines that has its roots in sustainability with our Valentines wreath, and our live online flower classes.
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So for 2021, our "Nature and Nurture" series of classes starts with our Valentines Wreath Class. In this sustainable flower class, we'll chat about how developing your own creative practice can be as nurturing to you as our local British flowers are sustainable for the planet. We'll share you our wild garden style Valentines design know how, and the floral ingredients to choose. Of course, we'd love you to use your own locally grown flowers. We'll be using our flowers grown here in Cheshire. Join me live online. DM for details
Apart from summer bouquets, there are two thoughts in my head at the moment.....
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The first. It is always darkest before dawn. And the second? Well, dearest floral friends, as spring shoots are appearing under the sodden soil in my Cheshire canalside cutting garden, that first thought has me galvanised action for my second. Ordering summer bulbs to grow my sustainable and very British flowers. Now you may think this very forward thinking of me in mid January but it appears that I am rather less organised than many of you mind you.......
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So dahlias from @hallsofheddon are arriving including Rhona, appropriately named for a girl born in the South Wales valley's to grow I think. Nerines Bowdenii, Armandi and Alba, Galtonia Candicans and Crocosmia Emberglow are winging their way already as well as Acidanthera and gladioli nanus.
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What's on your summer bulb order?
A dried flower bouquet on a dark January day...
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The owls cry was enough to wake me this morning. Floral inspiration from the darkness of our cutting garden, well, it was going to be a bit thin on the ground.
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At times like these, it is useful to lean on the familiar, something that is well practiced, somethng that is not too difficult. something that is sustaining for you. Research and Development. R&D. Familiar territory from my Pharmaceutical days, and in that familiarity, there is comfort, nurture even.
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When the call came from Australia this morning for a hand tied bouquet, initially I found myself explaining that I do my floral design with seasonal flowers. There was insistence in the call though. They didn't want the usual imported flowers. I'd played with the idea of creating a dried flower bouquet, done the R&D.
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Have a listen to my stories if you'd like to hear more about this garden style bouquet. What's been nurturing you today?
The thought of floral design with our local seasonal home grown flowers in the coming season is keeping us going at the moment....
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And as I listen to the news this lunchtime, the question, or to be more precise the definition, of local appears to be highly topical right now. Walking distance? Driving distance? What I think we could all agree on is that flying distance would perhaps be beyond that definition......
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And so it is with me for flowers.
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The issue of provenance and using local seasonal flowers are the things that got me growing in the first place. Frankly, I was feeling frustrated with creating hand tied bouquets that captued nothing of season I saw unfolding before me. There was something else too. An incresasing feeling of guilt about my floral footprint.
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Then I found our solid clay soil could grow flowers. Then I found @flowersfromthefarm a UK wide not for profit organisation of like-minded enthusiasts that encourages the growing and utilisation of local seasonal british flowers and this started me on my present floral journey. What started you on your floral journey?
A Summer bouquet.........
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"I’ll be fierce for all of us, for our planet, and all of our protected land."......These are the words of @repdebhaaland the first Native American cabinet secretary in US history. I send you my fierce cheer for your appointment and your passion for our environment.
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Here in our canalside cutting garden, we may have a smaller territory to oversee, but of one thing I am confident. We all share that fierce sentiment. It matters to us to protect the land we grow on. Garden grown summer bouquets that have scent and season and sentiment. I believe each of our sustainable endevours can and does make a difference.
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In a strange conincidence, I ordered "Cherokee trail of tears French beans" from UK seed grower @realseeds. When the Cherokee people were driven from thier lands in 1838, they took these bean with them. Along with our fierce flowerrs, these beans will grow here and remind me of my fierce floral endevour.
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What sustainable flowers are on your fierce growing plans this year?
A spring bouquet on a dark January day….
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Seeking nature and sharing nurture is my fierce endeavour for 2021.
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And not just words but deeds. I am sharing what mechanics and ingredients I use to create my bouquets, even how I seek out the fierce so you can find that part of you that is passionate about natural things and supporting sustainability too.
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I share how you can discover your own creative and seasonal style. In my view, that takes a real moment of conversation, me looking you in the eyes. You looking back into our Wharf from your home.
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No standard set of ingredients is sent for my flower classes but what is sent is a practical booklet on my wild garden style guidance rooted in the principles of floral design.
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I describe my creative method. Authentic experiences about being inspired by the wild nature that is around us. Perhaps you are inspired by flowers too but are unsure about how to take that next step to translate that to an expression of your own artistic voice. That is my fierce passion for 2021. Contact me to join our fierce classes this year.
Dreaming of a spring bouquet between my routines and rituals is keeping me sane.
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The 3pm greenhouse alarm is one of my regular reminders. Christmas has been packed away but the wreath is still on the door. Soon, all will be tucked up for the night, ready to repeat the pattern the following day. This morning, the glass door was frozen shut.
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Briefly, I wonder if I will have the same problem tomorrow, then the ambulance roars past. Our Wharf is on route to the hospital. In a moment, all trivial thoughts of frozen greenhouse doors are forgotten. That siren has become a heart stopping reminder of the invisible threat that surrounds us.
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That's why the routine of opening and closing the greenhouse matters. Opening parcels of seeds and dreaming of the blooms we will grow for our garden gathered bouquets matters. Can you ever order too many seeds for your floral fix? It's not really a question that ever crosses my mind. Pop over to my stories to hear how I store our seeds so they remain viable for years and years.
This white winter bouquet is our floral inspiration for this new year.
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When the earth in our cut flower garden is hard as iron and hope feels as fleeting as daylight, I am choosing to focus on wishing you a happy new year, and filling my floral days plotting and planning for 2021.
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Sustainable flowers remain our fierce focus. I have agency over that. I can decide what to grow. I can decide where the flowers will bloom for our wild garden style bouquets in our canalside cutting garden. When to grow our British flowers though? Always for that decision, I will embrace the seasons. Nature and nuture is our fierce mantra for this new year.
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The thought of making tulip bouquets with the bulbs I planted last year is keeping me going right now. I have decided to share how I make and add the seasons in my bouquets for our next live online classes. Nature and nuture are the watch words for me and my fierce business and the title of the series of live online classes I am running in the first half of this year. Contact me for more details.
A Christmas wreath in the depths of Cheshire winter....
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The light is beautiful today. That cold clear cool northern light that says winter. With luck, we will see the great conjunction later. Frankly, you couldn't see our farm neighbours across the canal for the rain yesterday.... This floral wreath is for their front door.
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Pheasent feathers, beech and dried euphorbia are added to our all British grown pine and eucalyptus for this festive Christmas wreath. Sustainable ancd embracing the seasons this wild garden style wreath contains no floral foam. With a bit of luck, Angus the farm dog will not be able to reach it this year.....
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Are you ready for Chrsitmas?
A dried flower wreath for our Christmas table..........
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Our British flowers may be a twinkle in my minds eye right now, but I have decided that our Christmas florals are going to be dried flowers this year. Just he and me, these wild garden style dried florals are the Christmas decor for our table pour deux.
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No floral foam in our Christmas florals of course, just sustainable flowers, grown and dried here in our Cheshire Wharf. And once this dried flower wreath has been used for our festive table, it will hang as an everlasting wreath on our wall.
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How will you be florally decorating your Christmas table this Christmas?
My favourite Christmas wreath I have made this festive wreathing season is this one.
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Asking yourself which of your pieces you like now and why you like them, can help divine new fruitful creative paths for you. Also, the same is true for the pieces you don't like. The nuggets of learning I have discovered are where you get a strong initial reaction to something.
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And my favourite Christmas wreath? This one of teasels and feathers which was made in my one hour live online wreath class on Sunday 29th November.
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A big learning I have identified for me is not to "over-think" one's work but trust your instincts. Making this wreath "live" in front of folks that morning meant I switched off my thinking mind and the resultant creation was looser and with more movement as a result.
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Post captions are also important to me and I try to reflect what has struck me of import on the day of writing. On this Sunday it so happened this Welsh person was upset about the curtailment of singing this festive season and wrote about these feelings. This 'in the moment' caption struck a big chord (excuse the pun). Many comments and DM's I received related strongly to this little symbolic loss and it was definitely of much virtual comfort.
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So with those learnings, and the resonance of all those Christmas's singing at home, that is the reason why this wreath is one of my favorites.
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What recent flowery creation have you learnt most from?
A Christmas wreath this Sunday with teasels and pheasant feathers.
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With its golden yellow ribbon and ochres and tans, I imagine it as a swirling hoop of light and hope - an antidote against the dark.
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This festive wreath is perhaps a harbinger to the astrological show coming to a sky near you later tonight the astronomers say. If the sky clears as forecast, then there is a good chance of nature treating us to the sight of meteors blazing across the dark night sky. “ Great Balls Of Fire” as the great musician Jerry Lee Lewis would have sang....
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And speaking of music, many people have been complementary about the music on our stories and have asked what it is and about the whole tricky question of music copyright too. Just to be clear we do license the music we use. We subscribe to @artlist.io - yes it costs money but it allows us to curate quality music to set along with our visuals which matters to us aesthetically. It also seems hypocritical to lobby customers to accept the need to pay a premium for original floral work and in turn rip off musicians by not paying them for their creative efforts. Currently we are loving “Jester” by Ian Post which has been the backing to a few of our recent stories and Christmas wreath classes.
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What music are you going to listen to alongside this Sunday’s celestial extravaganza?
A wild garden style Christmas wreath made while the ghosts of Christmas swirl....
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This wreath has honesty, eucalyptus, pine, seed heads of lysmachia beaujolais and larch.
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There is another question I am often asked as well as about our sustainable flowers grown in our Cheshire canalside cutting garden.......
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......and that's about my apron. I wear one all the time. In the house, in garden. It's a habit really. That habit comes from the person who served sweet sherry and warm mince pies on a tray at Christmas.
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You never really realise how much you are influenced by people or places often until well after they are no longer with you. My Nana wore aprons. She was rarely out of one. She greeted me at her door in one. She cooked Christmas dinner in one. She drank sherry in one. Years later she said it was to protect her clothes. It took time and effort to clean them, and she had enough to do.
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So, in the morning, I put my pinnie on and then I am set for the day. Do you wear one?
A wild garden style Christmas wreath and embracing strength and positivity.
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I must confess to feeling a little subdued last thing last night. The "performance adrenline" drop and inevitable tiredness after the last of our 15 "Tis The Season" live classes last night, not to mention the news were I think the culprits.
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The cooler more muted tones of this Christmas wreath, in contrast to some of my more exuberant recent festive wreath creations, perhaps subliminally reflected that mood. This wreath with its dried allium, alchilea summer pastels, ivy, limonium and pine is somewhat understated for a Christmas wreath but hopefully you still like it.
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However,my spirits where lifted this morning when I read all about the colour story around the new @pantone #pantone2021 colour of the year. Or colours actually, because there are two. "Illuminating" is a vibrant mid yellow and "Ultimate Gray" a cool complementary blue gray. Ricky and I are colour geeks who always are interested in the Pantone COTY announcement which happens at this time every year. This year, their combination of a solid grounding gray with a sunny warming yellow emblematic of hope I believe has struck the right style chord.
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Because, to quote Leatrice Eiseman, Pantone's Colour guru "We need to feel encouraged and uplifted; this is essential to the human spirit".
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And I am especially pleased with the loads of daffodil bulbs I have planted which come next Spring are going to be right on colour trend - yesss.
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You can see more of COTY over on my Story today and I would be fascinated to hear what you make of the floral potential of "Illuminating" especially for your 2021 spring creations.
A traditional wild garden style christmas wreath.
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With winter proper at last descending upon us here in rural Cheshire on a damp bitterly cold day and canalboats sailing past bedecked with Christmas lights I'm feeling all traditional.
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So this sustainable Christmas wreath, with the reddest of rose hips from along our canal towpath, holly from our cutting garden and the greenest of pine shouts out tradition. The addition of the nigella seed heads, also grown and dried here by me, gives the wreath my signature wild garden style movement and I hope more vibrancy.
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As I said on Instagram stories earlier, its been a busy day - out around the world virtually in our morning online Christmas garland class where I learnt that, in contrast tothe 2 degrees centigrade on the thermometer here in the wharf, it was 31 degrees in Hawkes Bay New Zealand. Ricky was glad to be discussing clootie dumplings with a Scottish class attendee too.
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And speaking of classes there are a couple of places left on Wednesday's live online Christmas Garland classes - the last of our "Tis The Season" online classes for 2020. Let me know if you are interested.
A Christmas wreath with honesty, larch and finished with feathers...
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“I’m not a pheasant plucker...” as the tongue twister goes, but fortunately I know someone who does...
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In my live online Christmas wreath classes, I have been talking with folks on the classes about the concept of “sustainable friends”.
By this I mean other good folks in your personal orbit whose occupations are such that their waste product is your “gold” if you like me are a sustainable florist grower.
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So for me it is my friendly arborist, who will ring me up and say he is cutting down this or that tree and would I like some of the brush. This has me driving straight to his worksite before said branches are shredded. And it is also the lovely poultry lady at my local market (my metaphorical pheasant plucker) who will save me feathers from her poultry like the beautiful ones in this wreath.
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Come this time of year, it is an absolute pleasure to pay back in kind (though this is never sought) with the gift of one of my wreaths as a thank you.
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We have finished the last of our Christmas wreath classes today, and are running some other live online classes this coming Tuesday and Wednesday where I will be showing how I make a Christmas Garland and complementary table arrangements - let me know if you are interested.
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In the meantime, maybe you could comment on who your “sustainable friends” might be.
A Christmas wreath for Constance.
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Delighted that my live online Christmas classes have been featured in an article in the magazine of today's Daily Telegraph on virtual Christmas ideas. So you can... sing along to the nine lessons and carols from @durhamcathedral bah humbug Scrooge in A Christmas Carol from @oldvictheatre or.... learn to make a Christmas wreath or garland with Fierceblooms - all without leaving your living room.
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Also on this day, someone destined to be a floral phenomenon was born. I am referring of course to my floral heroine Constance Spry who was born on 5th December 1886.
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Often imitated never bettered the original wild. Constance railed against the convention and strictures of the floral establishment between the wars. She dared to use unconventional ingredients (then there were flowers which one arranged and “not flowers” which one eradicated) using them in daringly different and exuberant ways for that time.
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In fact she’s an exemplar for the spirit of the iconic Apple ad campaign of 1997 “Think different” with it’s unforgettable intro narrated by the late Steve Jobs himself....
“Here’s to the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers, the round pegs in the square holes… the ones who see things differently — they’re not fond of rules… You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them, but the only thing you can’t do is ignore them because they change things… they push the human race forward, and while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius, because the ones who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world, are the ones who do.”
So here’s to Constance on her birthday - our floral crazy one who was also not fond of rules.
Will you dare to be different this Saturday in your creative practice.
A wild garden style Christmas wreath in homage to the Silver Darlings...
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This festive wreath was created by me at one of my recent live online Christmas classes. The wreath contains pine, berried ivy, thlaspi and the highlight - those beautiful iridescent silver discs of my own home grown and dried honesty (lunaria).
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It is the latter which the Glaswegian says reminds him of one of his favourite novels - The Silver Darlings by Scottish novelist Neil Gunn. This is a story about a Highland boy Finn growing to manhood as he goes forth to sea in search of herring. The book is set in the early 19th century when, after the highland clearances, many dispossessed Scots turned their desparate hands to herring fishing.
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So much of Scotland has been shaped by the humble herring. It’s the fish that built Tarbert Loch Fyne; Mallaig; Ullapool; Lochinver. The herring is a sociable, shoaling fish and used to move in vast and exuberant swarms up and around the Scottish coastline; it must have been beautiful to look on a shoal – a radiant, swirling silver - just like the discs of honesty on my wild garden style Christmas wreath. The vast shoals of Scottish herring are alas no more but this wreath is inspired by that lovely thought.
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As a Welsh girl, I happen to know this random Scottishness, because I was dragged into the Neil Gunn Museum in Dunbeath whilst we were touring the North Coast 500 Route around the top of Scotland a couple of years back. But I'm glad to know about all this.
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What has been your source of creative inspiration today?
This is my wild garden style Christmas wreath welcoming in December.
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And already this first day of the month has brought with it a change in our little part of Cheshire to crisp cold bright altogether more seasonal weather. You will have seen this if you have already had a peek at my Instagram Story today.
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A walk along the canal towpath this morning with the sun coming up and feeling the crunch of the frosted leaves underfoot as you trudge onwards has been a restorative balm for me today. It has been so dull and grey for what seems like weeks now so this is a welcome meterological change.
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As the poet Willam Blake famously said "My fingers emit sparks of fire in anticipation of the labours to come" and this is how I felt this morning after my walk returning to my canalside cutting garden and flower studio for the inevitable further wreath making.
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The next tranche of our livestreamed online Christmas wreath classes continue over this weekend and our Christmas Garland and Table Arrangements classes are next Tuesday and Wednesday.
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We have been having such a lovely time with these Christmas classes welcoming people from all over the world virtually into our home. We are so excited about further floral interaction and fun with like-minded flower enthusiasts at these additional classes to come. There is still time to book your slot on one of these - DM me if you would like more details.
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In the meantime, I hope you too have enjoyed good weather as we lean fully into this winter season.
This wild garden style Christmas wreath simply sings of the festive season...
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I made this sustainable Christmas wreath earlier today for this Sunday morning’s live online Christmas wreath class.
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It was created with the ingredients that sang to me this morning of the first day of advent here in rural Cheshire - pine, larch, dried bracken and teasels.
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However, literal singing is going to be a bit more curtailed this winter season. I read this morning that for the first Christmas in 100 years, King’s College Choir Cambridge will sing to empty pews and there will be no live audience to hear that iconic sound of the chosen young soloist from the choir open with a soaring Once In Royal David’s City.
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Of course compared to the other woes meted on us by this pandemic, this pales in comparison, but somehow it is these little small symbolic losses that unexpectedly and inexplicably get to me. As the composer John Rutter said "Turkey and Christmas pudding are fine but for me what makes Christmas perfect is the music. Perhaps for me it is the flowers.
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What sings to you this Advent Sunday.....
