19

Jun

2017

Ask the Experts: British Flower Week – What’s so good about British Flowers with Campbell’s Flowers

Good afternoon everyone and welcome to Monday! I hope it is treating you well? Today I am thrilled to welcome Tracey of Campbell’s Flowers back to the blog. As you know she is our resident florist expert, and this week we are celebrating british Flower Week here on the blog with a double dose of flower inspiration today and tomorrow. Today she is here to tell you all about the brilliance of British blooms! So I’ll pass you straight over to the expert!

What’s so good about British Flowers?

Ask the Experts: British Flowers Week – What’s so good about British Flowers with Campbell’s Flowers Ask the Experts: British Flowers Week – What’s so good about British Flowers with Campbell’s Flowers Ask the Experts: British Flowers Week – What’s so good about British Flowers with Campbell’s Flowers

Hi everyone, today we are thrilled to be on Kelly’s wonderful blog again, discussing something we get very excited about over at Campbell’s HQ: British Flower Week.

Ever since I set up Campbell’s Flowers I have endeavoured to use and champion beautiful British blooms whenever possible. It’s a passion that stems all the way back to my childhood and my wonderful Welsh grandad’s incredible country garden. Crammed with indigenous gems and complete with a vegetable patch inspired by the ‘Dig for Victory’ campaign, it was the place I cultivated my green fingers and fell in love with all things floral. So to watch the renaissance in British grown flowers flourish alongside as my floristry business has been a real pleasure.

As the annual celebration of our home-grown flowers and foliage kicks off, we want to talk you through the very best of British. From why you should think about using locally-grown flowers on your big day, the benefits, what’s in season when and which underrated British blooms are starting to make a comeback.

Ask the Experts: British Flowers Week – What’s so good about British Flowers with Campbell’s Flowers Ask the Experts: British Flowers Week – What’s so good about British Flowers with Campbell’s Flowers

The Benefits of going British

There are many, many reasons to go British when it comes to your wedding flowers. We could happily spend many hours waxing lyrical about being able to make the very best of what’s in season from big, blowsy Peonies in Summer to berries in a such a variety of tones it would put a Pantone colour sheet to shame in Winter. And of course, by choosing to look close to home for some or all of your wedding flowers you’d be limiting the environmental impact considerably and most likely saving yourself some money on that all important wedding budget too.

But for us, as florists, the biggest benefit has to be the flowers themselves. For sheer variety, it’s incredibly hard to beat British blooms. You can go wispy and ethereal with meadow and woodland flowers, bold with supersize hydrangea heads, pretty and romantic with scented garden roses; the possibilities really are endless and exciting to work with.

Then there’s the scents. Flowers from our green and pleasant land, don’t just look amazing they very often tend to be perfumed and smell incredible too. Smell is such an important, sometimes over looked sense, and plays a crucial part in the sensory experience of a wedding. Scents can be very emotive and evocative, bringing memories linked to them flooding back as soon as they hit your nostrils, so we always work hard to incorporate scented flowers into our designs. After all, who doesn’t want to be whisked back to their wedding day every time they pause to smell a gorgeous garden rose in the future?

Finally, we adore the perfectly imperfect look of British flowers. Unlike many other commercially available blooms they aren’t always uniformed, regimented or completely textbook. Instead, they tend to be that bit more wild and less regimented, which works beautifully with the natural, romantic style we love to create.

Ask the Experts: British Flowers Week – What’s so good about British Flowers with Campbell’s Flowers Ask the Experts: British Flowers Week – What’s so good about British Flowers with Campbell’s Flowers

Our favourites

It’s always hard to pick, but some staples on are list of firm favourites are:

  • Sweet peas
  • Scented garden roses
  • Herbs like flowering mint and oregano
  • Peonies
  • Scented stocks
Ask the Experts: British Flowers Week – What’s so good about British Flowers with Campbell’s Flowers Ask the Experts: British Flowers Week – What’s so good about British Flowers with Campbell’s Flowers Ask the Experts: British Flowers Week – What’s so good about British Flowers with Campbell’s Flowers

What’s in season when

Like all things in nature, flowers err on the unpredictable side and depend on factors like the weather, but as a rough guide you can expect the following:

Spring

  • Tulips
  • Ranunculus
  • Blossom
  • Lilly of the Valley
  • Lilac

Late Spring

  • Sweet peas
  • Bluebells
  • Poppies

Summer

  • An abundance of herbs
  • Pinks
  • Alliums
  • Scented garden roses

Midsummer

  • Peonies
  • Sweet William

Late Summer

  • Hydrangeas

Early Autumn

  • Hydrangeas
  • Dahlias
  • Physalis (Chinese Lanterns)
  • Crocosmia
  • Pom Pom Chrysanthemums

Winter

  • Helibores
  • Seeded alliums
  • Dried Hydrangea heads
  • Berries
  • Seed pods
  • Pine Cones
  • Foliage
Ask the Experts: British Flowers Week – What’s so good about British Flowers with Campbell’s Flowers Ask the Experts: British Flowers Week – What’s so good about British Flowers with Campbell’s Flowers Ask the Experts: British Flowers Week – What’s so good about British Flowers with Campbell’s Flowers

What’s under the radar

While we all know and love Peonies, roses and bluebells, there are so many locally available lovelies that it’s really worth asking your florist about blooms and foliage you might not have considered. For example, it used to be the case the carnations and chrysanthemums were absolutely wedding no-nos, but both are definitely enjoying a resurgence and will soon be a fully-fledged wedding trend. I’m particularly in love with Chrysanthemums as they come in so many different types, shapes and sizes.

It’s also worth remembering it’s not all about flowers when it comes to going home-grown.

Herbs are a wonderful addition to wedding flowers from rosemary to flowering mint. Tree ivy, usually considered a pest, is beautiful, especially in winter. Tiny crab apples and many other fruits like blackberries can look incredible as part of an arrangement and even really simple things like twigs and large branches from the forest floor can look incredible if a little imagination is used. We love hanging glass baubles brimming with flowers from oversized branches, so it really is just about letting your imagination go wild.

Whilst it’s great to get involved and unleash your creativity, be careful before you set out on a foraging expedition to the forest. It’s important not to pick protect species from the wild, and not damage local habitats by taking too much or the wrong thing. Working with a florist with expert knowledge will help you get the most from British grown. Helping couples to do this is one of the reasons we are expanding our tiny urban cutting garden into something on a much bigger scale that will provide us with all the seasons can offer.

Ask the Experts: British Flowers Week – What’s so good about British Flowers with Campbell’s Flowers Ask the Experts: British Flowers Week – What’s so good about British Flowers with Campbell’s Flowers

We’ll also be continuing the British Flowers Week celebrations by sharing a beautiful shoot we created brimming with British blooms on the blog tomorrow, so be sure to come back and take a peek.

Much Love ,

Tx

 

AS ALWAYS YOU CAN FIND CAMPBELL’S FLOWERS IN A NUMBER OF WAYS

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Tracey Campbell

Tracey is an uber creative and multi-award winning artisan florist & lover of British flowers. Tracey adores individuality and is inspired by you and your special day.

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