The beauty of flora

Goodness everyone seems to be posting pics of garden flowers in simple pots on IG.

I gathered a sweet cherry blossom bough,  a handful of Cow Slip spays and a few Stinging Nettles with tiny blue flowers from the local overgrown church yard. Yes, I bunched them in a glass bottle and voila, instant happiness. 

​Flowers bring joy. Whether so fresh they look as if they have been brushed with watercolour, when they are just on the brink of turning or already fallen as in Dutch floral masterpieces.
 
Creatives are drawn to flora and fauna. For centuries artists have captured their rich symbolism and for designers, flowers have been a constant leitmotif in their work.
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I love seeing the homes and showrooms of those I work with filled with mood-making flowers and plants. Standing alone they make a strong statement and no matter how mixed and massed, we see how effortlessly beautifully nature is.

Enjoy a few of my snaps and some styled pictures...

Bennison: English Country-house style in the Georgian home of Gillian Newberry. 

Jamb work alongside Coade. This Coade Lion Cistern was used as a planter by florist Charlie Mccormick to create an English country garden outside Jamb's Pimlico showroom during Chelsea Flower Show last year.

​Cox London’s Pimlico showroom with lush, sculptural arrangements where everything is extraordinary.

​Ochre always have the prettiest of flowers grouped together and often in a series of simple glass vases.

​Stately Fox Gloves planted in pewter in the home of artist-designer Margit Wittig. Beautifully sculptural like her designs.  

Tara Craig in her London apartment. In a word - exuberant. 
Photo © Tillmann Pretscher

This is Scott with the most blowsy show of Hydrangeas in de Le Cuona's Pimlico showroom

A bunch of inspiration to finish with….

Gathered by Mary Norden
A beautiful book by interior stylist Mary Norden and photographer Polly Wreford. Mary and Polly indulged themselves with this year long project, photographing flowers from Mary’s garden, that culminated in this self-published book.
 
‘I wanted to create something more than ‘just pretty pictures’, images that the stir the emotions, sometimes in an unexpected way. I have always loved flowers. I have my own garden, and what I’ve come to realise is that my love of flowers and plants is not just about their colour and scent, but also about their seasonal cycle of blooming and dying. I love those first tight buds, and the blossom in spring that offers hope just as everything is at its greyest. Then there are the lush greens and glorious blooms in the summer, which are followed by autumn, and that sense of things decaying and ending. I wanted to express all of this, and doing a book seemed the perfect way to do this.’

'Gathered' book by Mary Norden & Polly Wreford published by Us Publishing.

Bloom, the first trend magazine for flowers and plants and how they relate to fashion, interiors and other industries. 

Bloom magazine
@bloom_the_magazine

Alexander Hoyle is a London based plantsman and garden designer. 
"My design aesthetic is best described as the modern English country garden. It combines form, and function, structurally and architecturally,
and with a sense of serendipity in the cacophony of planting. I like gardens that are a little wild, have flair and zest, and are a little camp." 

​@alexander.hoyle
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Charlie McCormick is one of gardening's most powerful new voices. He gardens in West Dorset, and is now making a new plot on the West Coast of Scotland. ​​

@mccormickcharlie