Q&A thursday: athena, mairead and gus of rebel rebel

how/why you got into the flowers

on a whim, with no experience whatsoever.

on your current playlist

sbtrkt, ben howard, wretch 32 and in the shop bbc radio 6 music.

savoury or sweet?

savoury

best ever flower (for this week at least)

this week english dahlias, otherwise coral charm peonies

tipple?

negroni sbagliato

your most unappealing habit

athena - writing lists, mairead - not writing lists, gus - snoring.

couldn't live without

broadway bookshop, across the road from us.

favourite website(s)

fantasy league football

what makes your heart sing

new covent garden flower market when the english flowers arrive at last heralding the end of winter and a time of plenty.

tell me a secret

hackney is full of posh people

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rebel rebel is in london.

bad dreams

two nights ago i had the worst flower related dream yet. you know when you actually wake up in a cold sweat and it takes you a few moments to get out of the dream? yeah, one of those.

i'd delivered and set up a wedding and was suddenly a guest at the church. the ceremony was about to start, the music was rolling, the bride was coming down the aisle and suddenly the bouquet started unravelling. the music stopped and i was at the front of the church trying to fix the ribbon but i had no pins or anything to mend it with. i was all fingers and thumbs and completely forgot how to bind a bouquet. the whole room was hushed and everyone was glaring at me whilst silent tears rolled down the bride's cheeks. 

stuff of florist nightmares.

in other news, one of the brides this weekend took diy to a unprecedented level. she actually made the bridesmaid dresses herself and had never even used a sewing machine before i don't think. they looked bloody amazing. liberty fabric, finished like a pro. she wore clogs for her wedding shoes, and you know how i feel about those.

she also gave me the best thankyou present ever, this little flower holder is so lovely and i'm going to treasure it.

Q&A thursday: morgan peronne of valley flower company

how/why you got into the flowers

it was almost by accident. i graduated from art school in boston in 2002 and was working at a graphic design firm making boring charts and graphs for a huge medical company. did i mention boring? needing something to supplement my brain's quest for fun i added a couple of nights a week at my neighbourhood flower shop. i was just going to sweep up and help with the clearing, you know the "fun" stuff. within a year i was managing the shop and had left my boring charts and graphs gig. i left boston in august 2005 and opened my store october of the same year in my teeny tiny home town of vermont.

on your current playlist

mushman, coconut records, buddy holly, nicki minaj, tom waits, girl talk...i'm a bit all over the place.

savoury or sweet?

hmmm...toast

best ever flower (for this week at least)

mimosa. it's always mimosa.

tipple?

i honestly had to look this up...i thought you were asking me asking something dirty. i assume we're talking booze? i went through a major whisky phase...i'm now on a self induced hiatus. drink of choice: ice tea.

your most unappealing habit

i swear like a truck driver and allow my nail polish to chip off completely.

couldn't live without

toast. oh, and fred, my darling manfriend...

favourite website(s)

i'm currently obsessed with pinterest (who isn't really?), perez hilton (totally unashamed). spoonflower and ny daily news (it's honestly the trashiest bit of "news" out there and i love every bit of it)

what makes your heart sing

my cat waking me up in the morning, laughing and talking with my 20+ collected children who belong to other people, our new house, sleeping through the night without waking to think about flowers.

tell me a secret

it took me 4 hours to answer these. i am not exactly "focused".

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valley flower company is in vermont. 

hamlet church

i'm always partial to a small rural church, especially if it is on the west coast scotland. they do a great line in dour and forbidding like nobody else. in my head i imagine characters from the village visiting there on a sunday in cloaks. i think i could have an overactive imagination though.

i had to collect the key in an envelope to let myself in. when i got there the church flower ladies had "heard there was a wedding on" and had made some special arrangements for the ceremony. it was a really sweet thing to do and i felt awful having to squirrel them away. church flower ladies: if you are reading, please don't be cross.

i like the cut of your jib

next time i'm popping out for something i might be sticking some flowers in my boots, it could just be the thing.

*ashish spring summer 2012, london fashion week

the big sink R.I.P

i love this today. it's the roses of heliogabalus (1888) by a dutch guy lawrence alma-tadema and tells the chilling story of the deranged roman emperor elagabalus suffocating his guests with rose petals. wow. i think it might be a true story too. tadema painted it in winter and arranged to have rose petals sent weekly from the french riviera to ensure that each petal was accurately depicted. that is a fair amount of excess right there.  

another week just rattled off, just where is time going? a skip and a hop and we are hurtling towards christmas. now there's a sobering thought. the builders start next week on the house. it's going to be 2-4 weeks of utter chaos and i am adopting the brace position already. you know, like when a plane is going down and everyone shouts BRACE! BRACE!

amongst other things though i am finally going to have a proper workshop again to work from. yesterday i found the perfect HUGE belfast sink for it, in the best condition i've seen for a while. i'll let you in on a secret: as a florist, it all really boils down to a killer sink. took two guys to carry it out and they were bemoaning the fact that they "really should be using a trolley to shift it" and as they turned it to lift it up to the car one of them lost his grip and it was all over. oof.  i felt sad for myself obviously, but also for the sink that it had meant an untimely end like that. maybe they should have looked out that trolley after all...

Q&A thursday: nicolette owen of nicolette camille floral design

how/why you got into the flowers

i've always been a bit of a flower/plant nerd. i spent my childhood in the garden with my mother and grandmother. i studied fine arts in college and after a few years of working in new york i decided to move to california. i wanted to change things up completely and work with flowers or in a garden. i found a job at a little flower shop and i knew from the very first morning that working with flowers was exactly what i wanted to do. i moved back to new york a few years later and slowly started building my floral business.

on your current playlist

the antlers 'burst apart' album has been in heavy rotation at the studio, i love smog, stevie nicks (of course!), karl blau...oooh and i just got the new nikaido kazumi album which makes me wish i could speak japanese.

savoury or sweet?

savoury

best ever flower (for this week at least)

ooh such a hard question...i can't just pick one...i adore ranunculus...cafe au lait dahlias...foxglove...garden roses...porcelain vine...

tipple?

champagne!

your most unappealing habit

my inability to put my clothes away. i prefer a pile on the chair or the floor...

couldn't live without

my dear friends and family

favourite website(s)

i love to see what treasures russell finds at erie basin

what makes your heart sing

holding my 3-month old niece carina

tell me a secret

my great grandfather was a dahlia farmer

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nicolette camille floral design is in new york. nicolette also runs the little flower school with sarah from saipua.

castle hopping

my husband is truly the unsung hero of lotte and bloom. he unloaded the van for me on 3 separate occasions this weekend when i was too tired to move another muscle, swept the floor and made me rounds of honey on toast. 

one of the additional benefits of living in scotland (apart from the weather quite obviously) is the proximity to wonderful mountains and castles that just take my breath away.

i get to go on road-trips through scenery like this:

to end up in places like this:

and then i get to make flowers! sometimes i really do have to pinch myself.

Q&A thursday: mckenzie powell of mckenzie powell designs

how/why you got into the flowers

it's in my blood. my grandma was an amazing gardener and passed the love onto my mom. as a little munchkin, i spent summers outside running around in the dirt, while my mom planted, weeded, watered and picked. when i started to take an interest in creating my own little arrangements for the dinner table, her garden provided me with more than enough practice material. of course i was probably only six years old at the time and had no idea that i would make it a career later in life. my degree was in graphic design and after a few years of working in the corporate event planning world, i knew i needed a return to greater creativity. i had recently gotten married and loved the long and crazy design process, so when the opportunity presented itself, after a year of taking on small weddings on the side, i quit my day job and officially launched my business.

on your current playlist

i think i'm the only person left without an iphone or ipod, and my itunes has about eight different albums, one of which is a disney soundtrack. i know. i'm not a big music junkie (as if i need to state that) but when i am craving some tunes, i usually just sign into my husband's pandora account and click on the 'mumford and sons' station. when i get sick of that, i don't know what to do, so i just shut it off.

savoury or sweet?

savoury. ham and cheese croissant or chocolate filled? definitely ham and cheese. definitely a croissant.

best ever flower (for this week at least)

i'm currently having a love affair with clematis (don't you see how peaceful and in love we look?) any and all varieties - vines, flowers, or fuzzy pods. i love it all.

tipple?

my husband can whip up some amazing cocktails. he's all about simple and fresh ingredients. we're heading to the lake with friends at the weekend, so we currently have a large bowl FULL of lemons and limes and a jar of just picked mint for the lemon drops and mojitos that will be in high demand friday night. a double batch of sangria is also on the menu.

your most unappealing habit

when i get a tickle/itch in my throat, i have to make this scary growling/coughing/hissing noise, and i sound like a little devil. but i have to. it's the only thing that works.

couldn't live without

thai food. red curry to be precise.

favourite website(s)

sunday suppers, saipua, once wed, amy merrick's new website (so pretty!), the list goes on...

what makes your heart sing

an early morning walk when it's still foggy, with a latte in one hand and my husband in the other. when i first notice the crisp air of fall. good food with good friends. planting a way-too-huge field of pumpkins and watching them overtake everything in their path. flowers!

tell me a secret

in second grade, i entered the school talent show (kindergarten through 12th grade!!) and performed a jump-roping routine. i wore a pink tutu and won a ribbon. i'd like to say it was "best overall" but that'd be a lie. i can't actually remember...probably "audience's choice" because i'm pretty sure i pulled out their heart strings in a big way.

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mckenzie powell designs is in seattle. mckenzie's blog is here.

once more unto the breach

i've got an epic wedding weekend coming up. i also seem to have put my back out *insert swear word of choice*. will still rock it like a pro though that's how tough i am. i'm northern and it's just how we roll.

i've prepped up the q&a interview for thursday so it will miraculously appear as if i'm there. but in fact i won't be because i will be up to my neck in flowers, busy setting up weddings, eating far too much haribo whilst probably a little lightheaded on painkillers. tally ho!

we all love a church flower lady or two

show tune

for this small west coast wedding the bride sent me images of old maps as colour reference for her flowers. her sweetheart is a sailor and together they have lots of travelling adventures - i like that. you don't hear of so many sailors these days do you? i snuck some edelweiss in. all the time whilst making up this wedding i couldn't stop humming the song.
 
you know the one

Q&A thursday: vic brotherson of scarlet & violet

how/why you got into the flowers

completely by chance. my mum had split with my dad and came to london to find herself completely liberated and living in a tiny little flat. i slept on the floor. she was working in an antique shop round the corner from wild at heart westbourne grove which nikki had just started. i had just graduated with a fine art degree and had to work fast so i went to see her (nikki) on my ma's tip off. she threw a money belt at me and told me to start straight away. i was a bit cooler then - 1992, dungarees, lots of beads and much more confidence. i worked my arse off and stayed there for over a decade

on your current playlist

i am hopeless with music but my daughter betsy (aged 13) and simon (my husband) are both obsessed. betsy plays piano and sings adele constantly and si has a huge vinyl collection that he and his late night mates blast out after hours. otherwise i am a radio 4 fan

savoury or sweet?

i am sad to say both. midnight laptop munchies tend to be savoury - cheese on toast, a jar of picked onions, packet of parma ham. it's bad! day time - reeses pieces or galaxy praline

best ever flower (for this week at least)

rather predictably it's all the seasonal british things that get me going. boxes of marjoram or larkspur, cornflowers in black, pink and blue. the crazy mixed dahlias and it goes without saying, sweet pea, peony and lily of the valley. i love it because we can make huge bunches inexpensively, hurrah!

tipple?

red wine all the way. if i can't go straight to red wine then a super spicy bloody mary with sherry, mmmm....

your most unappealing habit

too many and way too awful to write down

couldn't live without

my unbelievable girls in the shop...lucy, kate, roma, gabi, hannah, amy and our handsome driver anthony

favourite website(s)

i have to be honest and say that i find it much easier to be blinkered. i get a bit panicky if i continuously browse and whip us all up into a frenzy that we aren't doing enough and we must do XYZ to keep up and be on top of our game. in the short time i have had the shop i have learnt that i have to trust my instincts and not be swayed by what is or is not acceptable

what makes your heart sing

going up to the lakes (cumbria) and walking, drinking and searching really hard with my eyes to see how we can possibly emulate what nature does automatically. ultimately i think that is my job

tell me a secret

i get hugely nervous every job we do as what we do is so completely subjective. touch wood all okay so far but i have total fear until i know the brides are married or the guests are sat down to dinner

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scarlet & violet is in london