About Fierceblooms - A Wild Garden Style Artisan Florist
It started out with a kiss how did it end up like this WORDS: Kathryn Cronin
PHOTOS: Ricky Bache
Wild garden style floral design is a passion for me. It probably always has been but I took a different career path.
Not too long ago, a rather large pharmaceutical company decided to move to Cambridge. I decided to stay in Cheshire.
So here, in our vintage warehouse beside the Shropshire Union Canal (that’s the Shroppie cut to you and I), I started to watch the seasons in the hedgerows, to belong to a village who hardly knew us when we were jetting here there and everywhere, to notice the swallows when they returned and even, when I was very lucky, to catch a glimpse of the beautiful brilliant blue kingfishers as they darted along the canal.
I have also reconnected with some much earlier influences.
My grandfather built a greenhouse. It was half the size of his garden. I was quite small and so was his garden. When he used to open the greenhouse door, I would take a deep breath. The scent of geraniums was intoxicating. I can see him now with his tie and his tank top, shirt shelves folded neatly over and over and held by his steel arm bands.
My grandfather built a greenhouse - It was half the size of his garden. I was quite small and so was his garden.
On the greenhouse shelves too were pots and pots of cascading fushias in all colours and all manner of shapes and sizes. I spent hours watching him tend his amazing blooms.
I was very fortunate to study Botany at University. I suspect this was always meant to be from my grandfather's early influence. And now, I feel I am exactly where I am meant to be.
As a wild garden style artisan florist, this blog is about my wild garden style floral design where spirited flower curation captures the essence of each and every passing month and season. Each floral arrangement is designed to engage, to literally make you stop and gaze a while. A moment to rest in this rather hectic world of ours.
But why fierce I hear you cry? Isn't that a bit violent, its' meaning almost aggressive and forceful? What attracted me to the word 'fierce' though has its roots in its alternative meaning and the writing of David Whyte , a poet who is rather fond of using the 'F' word to discuss engagement in life.
I want to know if you are willing to live, day by day, with the consequence of love and the bitter unwanted passion of your sure defeat. I have heard, in that fierce embrace, even the gods speak of God.David Whyte
So my floristry is fierce in the sense that I approach it in a heartfelt and intense way, spirited if you like. The work I do of learning from others is done with humility. I risk by putting my floral design out there while giving others the gift of my insight for what it is worth to them.
I have studied floral design at Reasehealth Collage in Cheshire as well as having an honours degree in Botany from Nottingham University. As an aspiring artisan florist, I was delighted to achieve 2 second prizes in my first ever South Cheshire (Nantwich) Show (2015).
For each project, I:- Grow (some) flowers and foliage in my cheshire canalside flower cutting garden - e.g. see my recent post on choosing dahlias for that wild just picked look. I forage for other foliage (responsibly in our beautiful British hedgerows).
- Design using the unfolding seasons as inspiration observed from our home next to the canal.
- Create bespoke wild garden style cut flower arrangements that generate atmosphere for wedding and styling events.
You can also browse through other examples of my work on my wild garden style floral design portfolio page and let me know what you think.
You can read even more from this british artisan florist and flower grower on the floristry blog.
Do get in touch to discuss your wedding or event. You can also get inspired and learn what informs my designs by attending on of my fierce flower classes.
If you are interested, you can also review some of my wild garden style wedding flowers ideas.
My Studio And Canalside Cutting Garden
a taster for fierceTV2020 Flower classes
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@fierceblooms
I am feeling a little wild this Friday morning..
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This small wild garden style bouquet that is.
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With sweetpeas, Nigella, scabiosa, their seed pods, lysimachia beaujolais and grass from our paddock she’s a floral miniature marvel. Beautiful but not exuberant or overstated, this one would make an ideal bridesmaid bouquet -
complementing but not upstaging her bride whom she is there to support on the latter’s special day.
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Given these unique times and curtailed attendee numbers limitations at weddings, I realise bridesmaids may be rather thin on the ground at the moment - so let’s give them a shoutout and big flowery hug today.
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Which supporters and background helpers would you call out this Friday?
A pink bouquet of the day…..
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…..gathered in our garden when the sky was pink in the cool early of yeaterday’s morning….
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For those of you who follow me, over on stories today I have shared the floral ingredients for this pink bouquet. Pop over for Thursday’s floral fix.
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Are you feeling in the pink today?
August and our cutting garden is ripening….
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I have been gathering flowers and potatoes in-between the Cheshire storms this late summer. Everything feels Autumnal and fruitful and harvest.
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I have put the storms down to the first appearance of our summer quilt. I apologise unreservedly to everyone in Cheshire. Hot chocolate and hot bottles are popular this August.
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A flotilla of holiday narrow boats has appeared with many stopping on the tow path next to our canalside garden. I used to wonder why. The village pub is doing well though, thank goodness.
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For those of you who follow me, over on stories today I have shared the floral ingredients for this summer arrangement. Pop over for your floral fix.
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How’s your garden growing today?
Looking for Trevor…..or the dahlia formerly known as David Howard……
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There is the perpetual question of labelling for dahlias. The dahlia label is a thing of myth and legend. You need the label to be sturdy enough to see out the summer, then sufficiently robust to be readable by the end of the winter…
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More often than not, there is disappointment at either or both ends of the season. Surely, I can hear you cry, not at the end of summer when you can still see the flowers? Well, let me tell you, dear floral readers, I won’t have been first or only flower grower to loose sight of any variety in a swift frost, in Cheshire or otherwise.
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And the reason we call David Howard dahlias Trevor? After the British actor Trevor Howard of course, the one who stars in my all time favourite film, Brief encounter.
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Do tell, what is your all time best dahlia labelling plan?…..for my own future sanity even. By the way, for those who follow me - over on stories today are some top tips for growing and drying alchemilla mollis. Pop over and have a peek.
Some floral inspiration for the start of the working week…..
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In my previous role, there was always a push back for us to have resilience. That word keeps returning to my mind now. Truthfully, I used to think it was just another way for my global employer to keep us all going. Now, I think of it as a gift.
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Finding purpose can be tricky. Taking time to look after yourself, including enough sleep and rest, well, that’s challenging sometimes but can be done. Responding to change and things out of your control. Now you are getting to the heart of it and the things I find difficult……
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The flowers in our cutting garden are having to be their resilient best as the weather changes but somehow they keep going and are always ready to present their best face to us. They are a reminder to me to do the same.
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So I made this bouquet yesterday with the things in my garden, played and experimented, evolved my art - in a word practiced what could be called my floral resilience. By the way, those of you following me can see and hear about how I made this bouquet over on my Instagram Stories.
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What source are you getting your floral resilience from today?
I made a flower crown at my virtual class on Friday…..
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This is a picture of another one though, with my favourite everlasting dried flowers. As you know, dear floral readers, I am fond of making the odd floral crown, but even fonder of wearing them. I defy anyone to not feel immediately better with a dried flower crown like this one on their head.
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I confess that headwear indecision is an issue in this floral home. The constant dilemma is what to wear on my head on any day, being quite partial to the odd hat as you know….
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As you can imaging, there’s the odd bunch of sustainable dried flowers hanging up at the wharf at the moment. Always experimenting with my botanicals , I am looking to find new dried floral ingredients to create, yes you’ve guessed it, flower crowns.
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What flowers are you drying this year?
Its Saturday, its August and Summer is back...
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Sadly, as we heard on the news yesterday, life is not quite back.
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Many who had set their hearts on a wedding with 30 close friends and relatives or those who had hoped to celebrate Eid in these parts in the North West of England, are disappointed.
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Funnily enough I went out on a rare trip to Taporley yesterday morning, to pick up from lovely vessels from Carol @caroltheatticroom. It was a nice warm day and the village was extraordinarily busy and so well.. normal. It all felt a bit surreal like I was an not there but observing a scene from maybe that eternity ago that was last summer. Two old blokes side by side passed close to me chatting animatedly as I swerved to avoid bumping into them, a gaggle of kids swept noisily down the middle of the pavement. Then I spotted a movement in a reflection of the shop window - a strange lady unlike anyone else I had seen in those few minutes wearing a mask.
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It was me.
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I got home and had a cup of tea like I always do when I feel sad. I've woken up this morning and the sun is still shining. I'm going out to pick some sweet peas now to take to my friend Val who has kept us going throughout all these last months with our fruit and veg. Its Market Day in Nantwich. Our masks lie waiting beside the bag door ready with the shopping bags as we dust ourselves off psychologically and prepare to engage in this new normal world again today. Oh and the dahlias are going for it now in the cutting garden.
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What are you up to this first August Saturday?
A dahlia bouquet and roses……
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…and the abundance of summer. This is the sustainable and seasonal combination from our cutting garden today.
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Orange and pink were the colours in my minds eye. The cut flower garden had other ideas. That is what I adore about our cutting garden. It whispers to you, speaks to the knower behind the thinker. Shouts of what you are really surrounded by. Honeysuckle and spirea are the scented ingredients, with stems of sweetpeas brought down by the summer winds.
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What are you planning to gather from your garden?
I am constantly experimenting with using dried flowers in wreaths and other floral things……
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This dried flower wreath is made from the helichrysum grown in our cut flower garden and dried in our wharf last year. At last! An advantage to living in a draughty house……..
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What flowers are you growing for drying this year?
It is all about timing your run but mostly I am cutting our garden gathered flowers in the rain......
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........and then the sun comes out! The day someone designs a coat that avoids water running down your arm or is long enough in the right places to avoid a damp derrière without tripping over, that is going to be a good day.
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Have you been cutting flowers in the rain?
I wasn’t the only one busy #inmygardentoday
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Yesterday actually as its tipping down as I post this.... Anyway, as I sat down on our little patio area to have my morning cup of tea I could see out of the corner of my eye that there was a hive of activity amongst the alliums.
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These bees, solitary bees who you may know don’t in fact live in a hive or are the subject of a monarch (queen) , flitted from stem to stem hard at work doing their pollinating thing. And it got me thinking that without these little creatures, working diligently pollinating my plants, I wouldn’t have my cutting garden.
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So today, shoutout on my grid to my little friends the bees - nature’s gift of an indispensable partner in horticulture. Do you have many pollinators in your garden right now?
The dahlia’s on our kitchen table are making it look like a cafe…….
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……not that I have visited any cafes although there’s quite a few cafe au lait dahlias safely socially distanced at the top end of the paddock. As you’d imagine, they are getting quite large, and rather too big for their boots.
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We do love them though, even though their front facing heavy flowers can be the trickiest of things to arrange, and their huge heads are marvellous homes for earwigs. Our trick is to use upturned jam jars stuffed with newspaper tempt the earwigs away from the flowers.
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Have you got any socially distanced diva’s in your flower garden?
Sometimes, your day takes quite unexpected twists and turns……
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….and so it was for me……..
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Yesterday, I promised myself a one day staycation. Much as I love cutting flowers for our #seasonalfloraldesign , and making our wild garden style bouquets, all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy I think. So, the plan was feet up, tea and cake, served by the Scot of course who has been trained how to make a good cuppa, and then we went to the market……….
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When I arrived home, it was with a rather large box of beautiful blackcurrants. I got my cake, curtesy of a lovely blackcurrant cake recipe from @sarahravenperchhill . I also have jam, fruit for more cake, and frozen blackcurrants to delight in a dark winter moment. Like I said, the box was a rather large one.
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How have your plans been subverted this weekend, pray tell? Well it is a Sunday……
What happened when Lucifer met Totally Tangerine……
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…they had a small conversation.
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Initially, they tried to work out who had the best name. Then, they had a heated debate about who had the most beautiful blooms. They understood they were different and eventually both agreed their flowers were floral inspiration in their own very unique ways. Finally, they acknowledged they were both looking rather splendid in their seasonal moment, and Luicfer, with great grace, said he was delighted to be the dancing partner in totally tangerines #dahliabouquet
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What’s your floral fix this Saturday morning?
This Friday morning’s floral thought……
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..is what my ex US boss, a spirited woman I might add, used to say to me on a fairly regular basis, all with a glint in her eye….
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“Proceed until apprehended”
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I took her advise then, and have continued to practise her guidance. So, alongside this bouquet of flowers, all grown here in the Cheshire rain and soil, together with a rather long list of things to do in our cutting garden, we are proceeding until apprehended….
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What are you proceeding with this floral Friday?
A bouncing brides bouquet
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July and summer is here in our Cheshire cutting garden but brides bouquets, well, they have become a rare thing.
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I miss seeing our #bridesbouquet bouncing in the arms of their joyful brides as they dance down the aisle.
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Our garden inspired floristry is our creative hope, alongside the hope of creating joyful bouquets for brides. What's your hope this July?
A summer wreath inspired by the Serengeti summer of a couple of years ago….
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A whirl of nigella and privet, stems of dried lemon balm, and grasses from our paddock. I wanted to take a piece of our paddock to #rhstatton with me that year, to share the essence of that drought dry July 2018 in this summer wreath. To share the enthusiasm of us all in North West @flowersfromthefarm show others when I demonstrated in the flower school how they too could use local seasonal ingredients as their floral inspiration.
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Sustainability mattered to me then. No floral foam even back then, with the base made from moss and a chicken wire frame. There’s no lack of water this July, but there is a lack of our local Tatton flower show, the year none of us will ever forget.
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Will you be joining in #tattonathome on Wednesday 22nd July?
A summer bouquet in celebration of doing something I haven’t done in months……
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Later than you would do for your cutting garden, I am calling this particular haircut my personal Chelsea chop. Given the length, pun intended, and the time, the whole experience is feeling rather novel, and frankly even daring.
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Other things that are getting the chop today are the nettles in the paddock. They have done oh so fantastically well this year but, in their defence, they are brilliant for making a free feed of nettle tea. I pack a bucket, pour water over, cover for a week, then drain and use a dilution of the rather smelly but marvellous solution to feed and water.
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What daring things are you up to today?
We’re talking all about British flowers, virtually…
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Apparently, I have always asked why, even from being knee high. When I think about what guides my choice of British floral ingredients, I have asked why things look the way they do, the ingredients they have to make them look like they do. So, I thought I'd share why I choose what I choose when I am gathering flowers from our cutting garden for our wild garden style florals.
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Firstly, there’s colour. That really a mood thing on my behalf. If I am cold, I choose warm colours. And I make sure that there’s a touch of that colour in everything I pick.
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Then, there’s shapes and textures. You want a focal flower, somewhere you can rest your eye. Then, include a flat faced flower, probably a different size, to smile back at you. Add a stem with smaller flowers that give texture, and finally something that dances to give you movement.
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And then, there’s that one magical ingredient. The one that sings of the season, that you keep coming back to look at in your garden. The one that will transport you back to that moment time and time again.
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Our IGTV is All about British flowers. No ifs or buts on using anything else. If you’re curious about our wild garden style florals, DM me for details of our virtual classes. There may not be actual cake but there is actual guidance on how to create your very own verison of our wild garden style British florals.
“Pontus must you write”……..
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…..is a quote from the book "Letters to a Young Poet" by Rilke. That line often arrives unbidden in my head, when I am least expecting it but probably when I most need it.
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The essential essence of Rilke’s advice is that no one can really advise or help you with the question of what you are meant to be doing. The only person that really knows is, of course, you.
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So, I have been arranging our canalside garden flowers in a window vase cut under July’s grey and leaden Cheshire skies. What is your necessity today?
