My Wild Garden Style Floral Design Philosophy
The 5Fs Of Wild Garden Style Floristry
WORDS:
Kathryn Cronin
PHOTOS:
Ricky Bache
The scent of geraniums surrounds me as I stand by the door of my grandfathers greenhouse. Later those same blooms are arranged on a Welsh dresser. Little did I know that those precious memories would end up being my future guide.
After a professional career that took me around the world, I have come to realise that the creation of my Cheshire canal side cutting garden has been inspired by those very early memories that continue to evolve with every passing season.
I describe my floral design philosophy as wild garden style, inspired by iconic floral influencers like Constance Spry. I seek to pay homage to the past in reimagined floral designs for the future.
But what is exactly is wild garden style floral design?
After much thought and growing experience in my Cheshire flower cutting garden, I have concluded the heart of my wild garden style floral design can be described by what I am calling “the 5 Fs”.
Let me tell you more about why these 5 elements:
- Fierce
- Foraged
- Fresh
- Fragrant
- Follow the seasons
Fierce
You may be wondering about the word fierce. After all, it is far from the first word that springs to mind in the context of floral design, so let me explain.
I believe beauty is unbridled, wild, yes, even fierce. It is a curved stem that does not conform to supermarket perfect. Fierce florals are unique, each stem curated and nurtured with love. It is using foliage in a way that Constance Spry pioneered, letting each piece have it’s space and designing with it the way it wants to go.
Wild garden style floral design is about evoking the wild spirit of nature. It is about the spirited curation inspired by nature and the seasons. So rather than having angry overtones, the term fierce is about living our lives in a more authentic and fully engaged way.
Wild garden style designs are loose and emboldened. They aim to defy expectations of composition, form and colour. It is about knowing the rules to break them in creating one-off pieces of art rather than an assembly line of florals.
Foraged
Foraged foliage and florals give a sense of place and sense of time like nothing else. They are not perfect. Nature is not perfect but perfectly imperfect. A curved branch of a particular blossom in spring, an abundance of unique grasses that flourish in the autumn giving both moment and texture, berried ivy cut for winter wreaths.
Nature is not perfect but perfectly imperfect.
All these things appropriately represent their season and often identifies an area of the world. Each adds a unique natural element to my wild garden floral designs. In fact my view is that dried and dead elements add depth as death is part of our living too.
Feathers are collected from the poultry lady in the market, grass is cut from my paddock, branches of snow berry in winter, all of these things are as important as the flowers to my philosophy.
Fresh
Wild garden design floristry is about using flowers and foliage that has been picked at its peak. It is squeaky tulips or the stem of a just picked honeysuckle.
There are very few miles from my Cheshire cutting garden to a bouquet. Flowers are cut for optimum vase life, and with limited transport, it allows for a much more diverse range of flowers to be included.
Neither do these fresh flowers cost the earth environmentally. British grown flowers in fact nuture an ever growing population of bees and butterflies in my cutting garden.
Fragrant
Scent plays a pivotal role in all our lives. It transcends our thinking mind and takes us right to the heart of our being. It is nostalgia and memory. It is the gardens of our childhood.
Scent plays a pivotal role in all our lives.
No perfumer however skilled can ever truly bottle that loveliness. Warm peonies on a summers day, freshly cut sweetpeas in summer or winter jasmine. No wild garden floral design is ever missing this magical ingredient.
Follow the seasons
There is something quite precious about the blossom of snow white mangolia branches grown in my own cutting garden, or adding lilac from my own trees at the exact moment when it is flowering. Wild garden style floristry is about gathering and using seasonal ingredients to give a glimpse of a nature’s calendar - for example in the creation of a spring flower nest.
You intuitively feel it is the end of winter when snowdrops break the stone hard earth, or the start of spring when narcissi and tulips dance in the warming breeze.
Wild garden style design can be recognised using roses when they show their blousey heads in summer, or when the sweet peas reach their zenith in the autumn just as the fresh hops arrive to garland the beams of our canalside wharf.
Wild garden style floristry is about gathering seasonal ingredients to give a glimpse of a nature’s calendar.
All of these things give a context of time and of place.
Flowers are often there at the notable moments in our lives, our christenings, our marriages, and yes our deaths. Wild garden style floristry uses blooms with character, a curved stem that makes you smile, a scent that makes you remember, a floral design that elicits an emotional response. What I think we’ve forgotten is that the everyday is also important, each and every moment precious never to be repeated.
The absolute philosophy for my wild garden style floral designs is about being influenced by as well as capturing all that is wild and untamed and for those designs to prompt us to want to live a life that is connected with the seasons with a conscious environmental heart. Wild garden style floristry is for living a life that is fierce.
If my my wild garden style philosophy resonates, I would be delighted if you would have a look at some examples of my work on my wild garden style floral design portfolio page and let me know what you think.
Read more from me Fierceblooms on the floristry blog.
If you are interested, you can also review some of my wild garden style wedding flowers ideas.
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.
2020 Flower classes
Scroll Across To Find The Ideal Creative Treat For You
Virtual Zoom Class Live Online
Live Online Christmas Wreath Class
As the nights grow darker literally and figuratively, join me virtually in one of our “Tis the Season” live Christmas online Zoom classes to inspire you to create your own beautiful and sustainable wild garden style wreath....
Virtual Zoom Class Live Online
Live Online Christmas Wreath Class
As the nights grow darker literally and figuratively, join me virtually in one of our “Tis the Season” live Christmas online Zoom classes to inspire you to create your own beautiful and sustainable wild garden style wreath....
Virtual Zoom Class Live Online
Live Online Christmas Wreath Class
As the nights grow darker literally and figuratively, join me virtually in one of our “Tis the Season” live Christmas online Zoom classes to inspire you to create your own beautiful and sustainable wild garden style wreath....
Virtual Zoom Class Live Online
Live Online Christmas Wreath Class
As the nights grow darker literally and figuratively, join me virtually in one of our “Tis the Season” live Christmas online Zoom classes to inspire you to create your own beautiful and sustainable wild garden style wreath....
Virtual Zoom Class Live Online
Live Online Christmas Wreath Class
As the nights grow darker literally and figuratively, join me virtually in one of our “Tis the Season” live Christmas online Zoom classes to inspire you to create your own beautiful and sustainable wild garden style wreath....
Virtual Zoom Class Live Online
Live Online Christmas Wreath Class
As the nights grow darker literally and figuratively, join me virtually in one of our “Tis the Season” live Christmas online Zoom classes to inspire you to create your own beautiful and sustainable wild garden style wreath....
Zoom Class Live Online
Live Online Christmas Garland And Table Arrangement Class
As the nights grow darker literally and figuratively, join me virtually in one of our “Tis the Season” live Christmas online Zoom classes to inspire you to create your own beautiful and sustainable wild garden style Christmas garlan...
Zoom Class Live Online
Live Online Christmas Garland And Table Arrangement Class
As the nights grow darker literally and figuratively, join me virtually in one of our “Tis the Season” live Christmas online Zoom classes to inspire you to create your own beautiful and sustainable wild garden style Christmas garlan...
Zoom Class Live Online
Live Online Christmas Garland And Table Arrangement Class
As the nights grow darker literally and figuratively, join me virtually in one of our “Tis the Season” live Christmas online Zoom classes to inspire you to create your own beautiful and sustainable wild garden style Christmas garlan...
Zoom Class Live Online
Live Online Christmas Garland And Table Arrangement Class
As the nights grow darker literally and figuratively, join me virtually in one of our “Tis the Season” live Christmas online Zoom classes to inspire you to create your own beautiful and sustainable wild garden style Christmas garlan...
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@fierceblooms
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.....
A Christmas wreath for a fast approaching Christmas season....
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and the dates marked earlier in the Autumn in our calendar and thought some time way in the future are ticking over rapidly.
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We have run the first of our live online Christmas classes (this festive wreath is from yesterday’s), ThanksGiving and that rather lurid Black Friday is over and November is close to it’s end.
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Last weekend I mentioned my idea for sustainable wreath Sunday this coming Sunday. In point of fact, Sunday the 29th November is the first day of advent - although the little ones will have to wait for Tuesday the 1st December to munch the first chocolates from their advent calendars.
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And the Scot? Well he is bemoaning the loss of a trip to the ‘Auld Country’ for Monday 30th November which is St Andrews Day.
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We have had some magical trips to the Highlands at this time of year - driving down through Glen Torridon at dusk through the driving snow for a St Andrews Night ceilidh at the Torridon Hotel @thetorridon having got the overnight sleeper North from London Euston is an abiding memory.
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Alas such jaunts are not on the agenda in 2020 and will have to wait.
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What are your abiding memories of this festive season’s turn?
A frosted Cheshire Christmas wreath……
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……well, in all honesty, which also features in this front door wreath, I wanted to include some white in my wild garden style wreath as we haven’t really had a proper frosting here yet!
British flowers are the only ingredients we ever use for our seasonal Christmas wreaths but growing our sustainable flowers is a very different pursuit from what we used to do mind you……
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….and while the stock market may not have appreciated AstraZeneca manufacturing the Oxford vaccine at cost, we were bursting with pride having worked for ICI and AZ for over 50 years between us……
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Just one sleep from the start of our live online wild garden style flower classes, run with the same fierce intent that we used to do at AZ, DM to join us for the few remaining virtual seats this weekend or next.
It's our festive wreath to celebrate the forthcoming Sustainable Christmas Wreath Sunday in a weeks time.
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This wreath has a sustainable base and has pine, holly and my own grown (not flown) dried helichrysum flowers. You can SWIPE ACROSS for more pictures and a little video.
So not heard of the Sustainable Christrmas Wreath Sunday? Ok I admit it, I made it up! In my defence though I'm trying to instigate something more nourishing to counter-balance the consumerist feeding frenzy that will be Black Friday, and its dubious cousin three days after, Cyber Monday.
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Himself is actually quite excited about the latter by the way, and is on the hunt for various photography accessories (he mentioned something mysterious called an ND filter) which can be found at at keen prices on that day, and let's be honest, the Scot is fond of a bargain.
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Anyway, I digress. So I'm proposing, for next Sunday, if folks feel compelled to spend and gift, to gift something local, sustainable and hand-crafted. I think that would be a lovely antidote to all the mainstream commercial madness that weekend.
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And me? Well, next Sunday, I'll be running two of my livestreamed online Christmas wreath classes. DM me if you would like to hear more about these, or have a look on Stories or my website.
Preparations for Christmas are well underway here at the Wharf, wreath making and all…..
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……“Did you make a double batch of that?” came the hopeful question from the ever attentive Scot as the fat rascals ( recipe courtesy of the kind @simplybyarrangement ) cooled……
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We are sending our Christmas in the post this year …..the rascals are on their test road trip along with a front door wreath heading south.
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And as we haven’t had any of our flower classes this year, there’s quite a bit of honesty to peel, one upside at least. Growing and using only British grown flowers for our sustainable wild garden style wreaths is really important to us. No ifs or buts - uncompromisingly ethical flower wreaths.
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I’m sure a large number of festive Christmas wreaths are being mossed to adorn doors this Christmas in hope as well as in defiance of this contagion that has so dominated this year.
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So whether we are allowed out or not this Christmas , we are resolved to be sending out cake and wreaths to those we love.
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What are you planning to “keep Christmas well” in that Dickensian sense this coming festive season?
Some of you will have a clear view on the type of Christmas wreath you are after this year.
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….and if you are seeking glittery baubles and bling, we’re not for you. If you’re after particular foliage and flowers, those out of their natural season, those that have travelled a long way to get here, then choose another.
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Nature and her hand crafted seed heads are our gold. No white bleached stems here either, nor will they ever be. They may look festive but they have added to the environmental problems that our fierce floral business is seeking to reverse.
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And while we are creating the last of our autumn wreaths, we are busy as Christmas elves with finalising our next online festive Christmas wreath classes.
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So, if you have half decent internet, the desire to experience how creativity is keeping us sane, and want to have a conversation and a chat with other like minded creative and ethically focused floral enthusiasts, DM.
A Christmas wreath is said to represent the eternal nature of love, never ceasing, stopping or ending.
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I believe all are in need of flower love in these dark times. As the dark nights draw in, everyone is starting to think about the sort of wreath they would like to adorn their front door for the coming festive season.
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In response to demand, supermarkets and garden centre shelves will be sure to be full of formulaic wreaths for the online or socially-distanced browser to buy.
That for me misses the point, and the meaning for me. This year more than ever, I am sensing a need for people to make their very own wreaths, ones that reflect their own personal aesthetic, wreaths that truly embrace the seasonal moment. Wherever in the world you are, gathering fresh and foraged local ingredients that have been curated by themselves is an important seasonal creative act.
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Our livestreamed online festive Christmas wreath classes also seek meaning, and connection. We are choosing an alterntive approach to pressing a video play button. We want to talk to you in these socially isolating times. We want to invite you into our home studio, virtually of course but none the less, you are here. We can see where you are too. And we can see your smiles, and hear your laughter. DM me to enquire.
Front door wreaths are about home and hearth and welcome……
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…..and this dried flower wreath, embracing the seasons here in Cheshire, has been made with love for a new home and a new beginning.
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In a time of real anxiety and social isolation, sharing our creative passion for how the countryside that surrounds us influences our wild garden design is our hearts desire. We’re not called fierce for nothing.
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And while autumn edges to winter, and our thoughts turn to Christmas wreaths and wreath making, we will continue to gather and curate our sustainable flowers, and make a stand on no floral foam and using only British grown flowers. No bleach and bling here. Our gold is nature’s foliage and splendid seed heads.
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DM me to join us at the Wharf if you want to learn wreath making that is both sustainable and seasonal.
It was an amazing day in Cheshire today. The sun was shining. We haven’t even had a frost yet. Who would think we are just over 6 weeks to Christmas day, and only 2 weeks to our first live online Christmas wreath class.
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. …and when we say “join us for our festive Christmas wreath classes, have a chat about embracing the seasons, see how we make sustainable no floral foam wreaths, talk with us about wreath making and creativity ”, all with British flowers, we mean it quite literally!
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You join us in our wharf studio, right next to the canal. We live stream into your home, direct from ours, where a few steps out from our door and we are on the Shropshire Union canal tow path
When we say we’ve got time for discussion and a conversation, we’re not talking about pressing the play button on a video and listening to a “discussion”. We mean you talking to us, and us talking to you.
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You may not be able to have many home to Christmas, but I hope we get to say hello. DM to join us. We would love to say hello.
Although we are dreaming of festive Christmas wreaths already…..
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…the meteorologists and even astronomically, we are still in no uncertain terms in Autumn. So, while I am rehousing the ladybirds in my greenhouse for their winter home, we continue to create with our sustainable flowers for front door wreaths that embrace all the seasons, including Autumn …..
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After all, wreath making is not just for Christmas…
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What’s your favourite season for flower wreaths?
This wreath started out as a Christmas Wreath idea then it went a bit potty.
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Let me explain.
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Today in the UK is Remembrance Sunday. Remembrance Sunday annually commemorates British service members who have died and acknowledges our indebtness to those who served in wars and other military conflicts since the onset of World War I.
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One group that served but doesn't always get enough recognition are the 'land girls' of the Women's Land Army (WLA). Numbering 80,000 at peak in 1944, the land girls made a significant contribution to boosting our food production during the Second World War. With many male agricultural workers joining the armed forces, these women stepped in to form a new rural workforce.
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I have a hugh admiration for these women who worked the land and so I decided to retheme this Christmas Wreath as a "Land Girls Christmas Wreath" in honour of them this thought provoking Remembrance Sunday.
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@royalbritishlegion who fund-raise for our ex-servicemen and armed forces community are having a tough old time this year, so if you enjoyed my land girls christmas wreath, then why not popover to their account and make a donation to the Poppy Appeal.
#lestweforget🌺
Wreath Making and legends……
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In Greek legend, Sisyphus was punished in Hades for his misdeeds in life by being condemned eternally to roll a heavy stone up a hill. As he neared the top, the stone rolled down again, so that his labour was everlasting and futile.
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Here in our canalside cutting garden, our seasonal Sisyphean back-breaker is lifting the leaves. There are no trees without leaves, and as we gather them on one day, so more appear the next.
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So we are embracing the season of leaf lifting, and with our wild gardeb style British sustainable flowers over for another year, it is Christmas wreaths that are occupying our time.
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What’s occupied your time today?
A Christmas wreath to encourage diversity…..
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…much to my great disappointment, I have only ever had 1 bloke turn up to create a flower wreath…..
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To encourage a change in our fierce flower classes, and inspire the males out there to embrace the seasons and their inner creative, I thought I would offer a front door wreath made with hops. The logic here if things got really dire, you could always fall back on my British flowers to keep a smile on your face…..
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And my moment of floral joy? A visit to @plantagogo and the beautiful flowering heucheras that are now in our Cheshire canalside cutting garden. What’s been yours?
Dare to hope....
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....is my current mantra. Creating a heart shaped hydrangea wreath with dried lavender is our fierce way of sending you love and calm.
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We dare to hope you’re inspired to create your own eco friendly dried flower wreath designs. We dare to hope that you choose sustainability. Flowers grown and dried naturally for their beauty and aesthetic, and in their season. Our wild garden style Cheshire canalside cutting garden is ice white with frost this morning, and we dare to send love to our environment too. This is our fierce floral focus today.
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And my moment of floral joy? That scent of lavender in this dried everlasting flower wreath……. although muddy knees digging in the dahlias came a close second……. What’s been your floral moment?
A Blue Eucalyptus Wreath…..
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……….if you are feeling a wee bit blue today…..
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So, as the wind whistles around our Cheshire canalside cutting garden, and I started to think about wreath making, I have decided to focus on a daily moment of floral joy…….
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So todays #momentoffloraljoy……Passing Vessels by monday.painter and @pipwoodsceramics A beautiful fusion of the arts from New Zealand with florals by my lovely friend Kerin @the_floraliste.
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What’s been your moment of floral joy today?
In our online Christmas Wreath classes……..
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…we are beaming out light…….I could make no comment on the times that face us. Days that are feeling pretty dark right now. The disappointment, the distrust, the distances that will mean being together is going to be a difficult. No let me be straight, I believe a pretty impossible prospect.
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Rather than curse the dark though, join us in one of of live online Christmas wreath classes. Beamed live from our 19th century canalside wharf, our live classes give you time to unwind, to create and to connect with the beautiful winter season that is all around. And things are still beautiful in our world.
DM for dates and details to book.
A floral wreath of mellow yellow.
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…..inspired by the seasonal colours of our horse chestnut that has been in our canalside cutting garden as long as the 200 year old canal. It had a little trim today as it was not appropriately socially distancing with our house.
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We have been gathering sustainable flowers in our wild garden all year for our sustainable Christmas wreath making. For me, autumn always feels like the official start of wreath season. A limbering up, just like the arborists I admired today. There’s a definite skill in climbing a tree, keeping yourself on a branch while simultaneously starting your chain saw.
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There’s also a skill in crafting a Christmas wreath, in choosing the ingredients, in creating a design that you want to hang on your front door. If you are interested in booking one of our live online Christmas wreath classes then get in touch.
Christmas wreath making is going to be a bit different this year…..
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Let’s be honest, many things are going to be a bit different this year……. what’s not different here, at our rather damp Cheshire cutting garden today , is our fierce desire to create sustainable Christmas wreaths together with other like minded ethical floral enthusiasts.
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We really enjoy our Christmas wreath classes in our village hall. Cake and community and seeing people come back again and again......
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.......So we racked our brains for a way to hold our Christmas wreath classes. A way where we could still see and interact with everyone. We didn’t want to put up a video. It felt too cold at a time when we all need some form of direct human connection.
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Our dried autumn wreath classes have been really well recieved. So, we have created our fiercely live Christmas online classes where we can all speak to everyone in real time. A class where you can ask questions while I show you how to make your own fresh foliage wild garden style Christmas wreath.
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Dates and details on our fierceblooms website. DM me now to book.
Comments
You have such a lovely and breathtaking blog, love all the florals.
Thanks for your lovely comment Addy
Amazing and inspirational! I’ve been reading your website. Love the whole concept. I’m considering at course at Reaseheath and a career change, but I’ve lots to learn!! You are so talented!
Thanks for that. Best of luck at Reeseheath.
Beautiful I am so inspired by you. Thank you! Ann🌼