Talks About Eco Floristry And British Flowers
Wild Garden Style On The Road
WORDS:
Kathryn Cronin
PHOTOS:
Ricky Bache
Ihave been out and about over the last month speaking on subjects close to my heart like the rennaissance of british flowers, sustainable floristry and what I call the 5Fs of my wild garden style floral design.
Driving to the first engagement, to talk to floristry and horticulture students and staff at Wigan And Leigh College, I confess I was a little apprehensive. However, I need not have been nervous at all for their welcome could not have been more warm. The interest of staff and the next generation of horticulturalists and florists in eco flowers and sustainability was genuinely heartwarming and my conversations with them after I had finished speaking were inspiring. Sometimes things are unexpectedly really wonderful and this was one of those times.
My final speaking engagement for the Autumn season was at the local Wistaston Flower Club AGM. In the short video clip below, you can hear me speak about two of the five Fs of wild garden style floristry - Fragrant and Fresh. Once again I was encouraged by the engagement and the level of interest in growing and using British flowers. Thanks again Wistason ladies for the opportunity to talk to you and to Judy Gratton - specifically for inviting me.
Thrilled we're in the voting for the 2019 UK Blog Awards in the Green & Eco category.
The fierceblooms blog has been going for about 3 years now. In this section of my site, I write about my exploits and passion to grow British flowers in my canalside cutting garden with other articles and videos on how I use them in my floral designs. I am thrilled that the blog has reached the voting round of the 2019 UK Blog Awards in the primary category of Green and Eco.
May I please ask for a little bit of your time to vote for me. It would mean such a lot to me if you did - all you have to do is click a little heart next to my name - the link to the voting site is below..
Blog Awards Voting
Arranging British Flowers Wild Garden Style At Wistason
a taster for fierceTVA short excerpt from my talk about wild garden style floristry at my local Wistaston Flower Club in October 2018.
See more tips on how to 'do the flowers' or visit my magical places on our very own video outlet here on the fierceblooms site - fierceTV
Episodes
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.
Follow Me On Instagram
@fierceblooms
While Mothers day 2021 may not be what any of us really want, there's just 1 more sleep to our first reimagined Mother's day online flower class......
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No year is ever the same, no season is ever exactly the same either, and while very few of us would wish 2020 back (I am thinking of a beautiful lockdown bride in particular here), there are things that have changed that are making everyone really think.
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One is our world and how we are in that environment. Our Nature and Nurture online floral classes reflect that. Are you curious about creativity? We really want everyone to be an eco florist, not just ethical green wash, but to buy only what is locally grown, to understand what is authentically of its seasonal time.
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Our wild garden style booklet is written, packed with sound advice from a flower arranger who grows her own flowers. The cake is rising.
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If you want our Nature and Nurture floral design principles to be winging their way to you, or your mum, or anyone you would like really, DM for details. They'd be most welcome to join us, virtually for now, in our Cheshire cutting garden next to the Shropshire Union canal on Monday or Tuesday.
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#ecoflorist #onlineflowerclasses #springbouquet #wildgardenstyle #slowsimpleseasonal #homegrownflowers #ayearinmygarden #flowerworkshop #grownnotflown #gardengathered #realflowersoftheseason #onlinefloristry #seasonalfloweralliance #learnfloraldesign #ecoflowers #floristrycourse #flowerschool #gardeninspiredfloristry #floristrystudent #aseasonalyear #thefloralseasons #britishflowers #sustainablefloristry
There's a gathering at the Wharf this Monday and Tuesday.....
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There'll be tea and Welsh cakes - well, once you've made one batch, it's easy to make the next one.....
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....and it's the same with making bouquets, once you've found a way to think about them, to understanding your way to creating with the things growing around you, they're easy.....and I'll show you an easy way to wrap your spring bouquet too...
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Come to Cheshire in the North West of England this Monday and Tuesday, there's a few seats, virtually for now, but with all the clever cameras and sound, it feels like you are right here. See our canalside cutting garden, still damp and cold but starting to spring. The beautiful @smithandmunson tulips have arrived (ours are just peeking), so like proper school, our online flower school is back again on Monday. DM for details.
On the edge of spring, there is but one question....
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when will there be blossom?
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I confess I do have a method to help our blossom along a bit as I know I want it for our virtual flower workshop next week, even though it's a damp dark driech day here in Cheshire......do come along if you're curious.........
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#blossom #gardeninspiredfloristry #thatwinterspringthing #slowsimpleseasonal #homegrownflowers #flowerworkshop #grownnotflown #gardengathered #realflowersoftheseason #seasonalflowers #seasonalfloweralliance #ecoflowers #aseasonalyear #thefloralseasons #britishflowers #sustainablefloristry #wildgardenstyle
It is the day of yellow and Daffodils and celebrating being Welsh.....
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Its the first day of March and I am resolved in a Fawlty Towers-esq fashion to not mention the war - or the rugby on Saturday even ha ha 🏴....
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Rather I am dreaming of warm Welsh cakes cooked on a Welsh steel griddle that my father made me.
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That heavy bake stone holds heat like nothing else I possess. That steel holds so much more than heat. Home and hiraeth and love and laughter are melded into that steel just like the scent of daffodils drifting over all of Wales on dydd Dewi Saint.
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This Welsh girl is wishing all her followers a very happy St David’s Day today.
It appears the only thing the rabbits don't like...
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...are the daffodils! So, there's going to be the odd daffodil bouquet this spring!
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...and the season is marching on with just over a week to go for our wild garden style online floristry classes with British flowers, of course. Will you be joining us?
Nurturing our wild garden is my focus right now......
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.....or is my wild garden nurturing me? Things in life are often the other way round. In late winter, as my potatoes are chitting on the Wharf's window ledge, there are patches of frothy cow parsley shooting and bulbs braving the Cheshire weather.
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Most gardeners are already planning, weeding, sowing, if not quite digging for the season ahead. Our floral seasons are carrying on, whatever else is happening. So, I have decided to take a leaf out of its book, if you'll pardon the pun.
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Along with our garden, we've been carrying on too. We're daring to be different, and reimagining how we do our flower classes for a more sustainable mothers day.
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Our wild garden style "Nurture and Nature" booklet is written and our mothers day bouquet class is coming up soon. In this world of ours that is feeling disconnected and isolated, we want our "online" to be so so much more than the click of a button. I think it matters to nurture both our environment and ourselves. I think it matters to use local seasonal, and in our case, British grown flowers. And more than ever, I think it matters to keep creating.
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I hope you do too. DM to join us
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#flowerclass #britishgrownflowers #slowsimpleseasonal #homegrownflowers #ayearinmygarden #flowerworkshop #grownnotflown #gardengathered #wildgardenstyle #realflowersoftheseason #seasonalfloweralliance #learnfloraldesign #floristrycourse #flowerschool #gardeninspiredfloristry #aseasonalyear #thefloralseasons #britishflowers #sustainablefloristry #onlineflowerclasses #mothersdaybouquet
Where do you get your inspiration?....
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.......was a question I was asked just the other day. The answer is both short and long, appears both superficial and deep. It is both simple and complex......
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....and I think to do it justice, to hold the authentic discussion if you will, it is beyond the written word even. It is a conversation, an engagement if you will, with the things that matter to you. Then, and only then comes the how. How to translate that into your floral design.
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The swallows will be swooping when next I can gather the stems for this spring bouquet from our canalside cutting garden. DM if you would like to converse with us.
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#springbouquet #inspiredbypetals #wildgardenstyle #slowsimpleseasonal #homegrownflowers #ayearinmygarden #flowerworkshop #grownnotflown #gardengathered #wildgardenstyle #realflowersoftheseason #onlinefloristry #seasonalfloweralliance #learnfloraldesign #ecoflowers #floristrycourse #flowerschool #gardeninspiredfloristry #floristrystudent #aseasonalyear #thefloralseasons #britishflowers #sustainablefloristry #onlineflowerclasses
Growing wild garden style bouquets...
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.....and like every other grower of seasonal British flowers up and down the country, I am sowing seeds for our canalside cutting garden. Rather than germinating too many though, I now have a method after ending up with hundreds of plants and no beds left to plant them! So I have learned over the years that if I sprinkle enough seeds to cover a single small pot, it is more than enough for 4ft blocks of different types of home grown garden flowers.
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After a disastrous "weeding" of one of our flower beds, or perhaps a stroke of genius on his behalf dear reader, the darling Scot proved he is unable to tell an emerging flower from a weed. The flower beds are not covered in anything, I want them to be be beautiful and plastic free. And having just the bare earth means there's always lots of self sown plants free from mother nature. So as it's just me on the weeding front, I am also filling our cutting garden with perennials, bunnies willing. We're playing to our strengths here though. He is, after all, far better at the IT.
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And if you'd like to experience our extended zoom platform incorporating multimedia, multiple camera angles, great sound technology, and a few flowers, DM for details of our classes.
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#gardengathered #gardeninspiredfloristry #littlegardenstories #slowsimpleseasonal #realflowersoftheseason #wildgardenstyle #ecoflowers #gardenbouquet #onlineflowerclasses #learningfromnature #seasonalfloralstyle #naturalflowers #authenticflorals #gardengrown #floralstories #akinderwaytoflourish #seasonaltales .
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Last summer in our cutting garden.......
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........when the copper beech tree is in his splendid red coat, when there are foxgloves and roses and sweetpeas and flowers and colour. More though, dear readers, when there is the scent of summer, and the life of a garden with all its imperfections.
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Garden inspired floristry is seeing a branch and then gathering other flowers for the bouquet in a sesaonal and authentic way. It is being knee deep in weeds and the wild garden and knowing that part of the cutting garden is as necessary, if not more so, for the sustainable, for the creativity, as the more formal cutting beds.
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Experience our wild cutting garden next to the canal, from the chair in own home. Contact me for details.
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#gardenbouquet #ayearinmygarden #gardengrown #littlegardenstories #floralstories #gardengrown #aflowerenthusiast #aflowerfilledlife #ecoflorist #britishflowers #realflowersoftheseason #natureandnurture #onlineflowerclass #sustainablefloristry #aseasonalyear #gardeninspiredfloristry #britishflowers #wildgardenstyle
Delivered by a beautiful canal boat.....
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.... my fid. A what? A fid, a tool, a rather old fashioned tool, but a tool none the less, used to work with rope.....
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.....we grow flowers right next to the historic Shropshire Union canal. We live in an industrial Wharf, with Jacobean gable end walls, and stone finials. Beauty and aesthetic with function at Bridge 14. That is where you'll find us, with all of the nostalgia of the Cheshire countryside that surrounds us. You'll find us crafting and making our wild garden style floral designs.
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One of @country_cut_flowers rope wreaths hangs on our door. Our friend Emma appreciates that history of crafting, handed down by her uncle to her.
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A grateful thank you always to @coalboat_alton and @fuel_boat_halsall, for passing slowly on their beautiful historic narrow boats. Frankly , they make our day whenever they pass our Wharf. And although you can't physically come here right now, you can escape here to one of our classes from your very own chair at your home.
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If you want to learn how to craft your own bouquet of flowers, DM me for our classes. I can promise you'll adore the canal, and the beautiful narrow boats that pass here, oh and did I mention the swans? See our stories....
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#inspiredbypetals #wildgardenstyle #slowsimpleseasonal #homegrownflowers #ayearinmygarden #springbouquet #flowerworkshop #grownnotflown #gardengathered #wildgardenstyle #realflowersoftheseason #onlinefloristry #seasonalfloweralliance #learnfloraldesign #ecoflowers #floristrycourse #flowerschool #gardeninspiredfloristry #floristrystudent #aseasonalyear #thefloralseasons #britishflowers #sustainablefloristry #onlineflowerclasses
The reason I know that spring is coming is....
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...the rooks are attempting to rip off the chimney cowls. You know, the covers at the top of the chimney pots.
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It has me thinking of making, as clearly the enterprising pair are thinking of their next nest. Some of their predecessors were not as efficient in their design and came tumbling down into the Wharf. That's what put the cowls there in the first place.
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Learning how to make things well is an age old tradition. Here at our Cheshire canalside garden, we craft bouquets. Our purpose is encourage an enthusiasm for design, but not any old design. Wild garden style floral design that uses garden gathered materials, that make our wild garden style bouquets, well, wild. There is nature in the crafting and nurture in the giving.
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Escape to our Wharf from the comfort of your own home to learn how to craft bouquets, with nature and nurture and the hope of the spring season. DM for details.
Home grown flowers for a Saturday at home........
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The Wharf feels like a boat today. It is built slightly lower than the canal, so when the wind is whistling across our cutting garden, as it is right now, we're looking at waves through the goods entrance, now our low window. And just like a choppy sea, I suspect it far too tricky to navigate.
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So I braved the elements to check on our bulbs. Yes, they are still there. This is good because I want our grown not flown flowers for our online flower classes. And whatever the weather and whatever the circumstances, our flower workshop will still be happening.
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Join us for some online floristry in our boat like Wharf. We'd love to have you aboard. DM for details.
In ever hopeful anticipation of spring, and bouquets...
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"Are you Fierceblooms?" was the shout from the canal tow path. I almost didn't hear knee deep in weeding as I was.
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"I recognise the hat!" was the next sentence (my current favourite green one in case you're wondering). And then we had the lovliest of conversations about her plans for flowers and growing.
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Isn't it a small world?!
Today's thought on tulip bouquets......
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....is that the rabbits in our paddock appear as enthusiastic as I am about these seasonal flowers.
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Arranging tulips in a bouquet can be a bit tricky though but I do have a method, says the ever experimenting botanical scientist!
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So I thought I'd share the mechanics with you. How I add their beautiful but rather large headed stems into my wild garden style bouquets.
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And what I've learned also? Now is the time to note all the names of your favourite tulip varieties, yes, now rather than the autumn when you're forgotten all your favourites and truly forgotten the names for the ones you want to buy.
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Join me for our first live bouquet class in March.They'll be tulips. DM for details
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For the love of a spring wreath...
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......and lichen.....fitting I think for Valentines, as they are a symbiotic partnership of two different things, then it feels entirely the right thing to have lichen covered branches to represent love.
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Thinking beyond the conventional was one of the things that sometimes ended up happening in a previous corporate career. "It can't be done" was the one response never given, and actually, when you thought about things, something could always be done, but perhaps not what was "standard".
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So, on the edge of winter, with ice on the canal but my spring bulbs starting to peak, I am dreaming of daffodils and tulips, and light and love. Do you love Lichen?
In anticipation of spring bouquets.......
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On the edge of winter, the canal is ice white and frozen solid. If any of my British grown slow flowers were enthusiastically growing yesterday, they have been stopped in their tracks today. This is late winter, that wonderful edge when we have started to just believe that there is an end to the cold and the damp.
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And after our wild garden style flower class earlier this week, we're following the example of our flowers, and just keeping going. We've finalised the details for our new Mother's Day bouquet classes. Booklets drafted, zoom meetings scheduled. In a few weeks time, it will be Spring. DM for details. We'd love you to join us.
A wild garden style valentines wreath...
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Made on my "Nature and Nurture" live online class this morning. Yesterday and today attendees at my valentines flower class live and online have been learning from living rooms my approach for making an alternative seasonal love token using sustainable floristry techniques and materials.
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The fourth and last class is at 7:30pm tonight uk time and their are a couple of slots left. DM if this interests you.
A spring bouquet for this Sunday morning.....
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My fingers are emitting sparks of fire in anticipation of the labours to come.......
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Monday is the first of our "Nature and Nurture" series. Valentines reimagined. In a year where I have no doubt I am not the only one who has never cried so much, nor loved as much. Flower arranging classes for the the love of, well love.
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We'd love to welcome you at ther wharf, virtually for now. DM to join us.
A flower wreath for February......
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Forced camelia branches from some winter pruning are what I have chosed to gather to create this floral wreath..
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There may be a flurry of snow due in Cheshire this weekend. For sure there's a flurry of activity at the Wharf. Although 2021 may still be on the unpredictable side of things, we're gathering the technology, and our British grown flowers, for a chat.
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If you're curious about having a conversation, yes, a real one, about what seeds I'm sowing for my flower arranging, in just 2 sleeps, we'll be doing just that. Showing you our wild garden, style and all, seasons and sustainability, and how you can get all creative too with your garden grown flowers.
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Our brand new "Nature and Nurture" flower class begins on Monday. Contact me to join us for the lastl few places. I'd love to see you.
Valentines wreath with dry flowers.
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Rather than sending traditional valentines flowers this year, we think the best way to share the love is to gather together and create, virtually of course. It's why we're sharing how we grow our garden gathered flowers to make our dried flower wreath.
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If you'd like to see the booklet with our mechanics and step by step process for our wild garden style designs, join us at our live on line flower class. DM for details.
