The summer season

The summer season arrived with a fierce heat and a sheer abundance of roses during June when we held the Summer Season of the Season-Led Sustainable Florist Programme (although July has turned into something of a damp squib… great for the occupants of the Walled Garden, less so for brides with outdoor weddings…).

A time of the quintessential English country garden and all the flowers associated with it - clambering roses, spires of foxgloves, delphiniums and larkspur, delicate meadow flowers of corncockles, cornflowers, catanache and poppies, fragrant sweetpeas, meadow grasses, smokebush, frothy umbels… the list could go on and on.

It is also a time for understanding the impact that the heat has on flowers, and how to minimise their transpiration and maximise their longevity in designing and arranging with flowers. Flowers were cut at different times of day, and conditioned in different ways to explore the impact on the flowers’ ability to cope with arranging, and we covered the mechanics required to ensure that they can withstand the heat and perform as required.

The abundance of choice, colour and volume of flowers, whilst an utter joy on one hand, can also pose challenges from a design perspective. Too much choice and you can sometimes end up like a deer in headlights… in some ways the constrained parameters of the winter months make designing easier, in spite of the fewer materials to work with. We explored how to approach a design, in terms of colour palette, flower selection and designing with form at scale. With a bounty of beautiful flowers, all grown on site within the Walled Garden, our students created some incredible designs.

In addition to all the flowers, there was delicious food. The shared experience was always something we were keen to prioritise when we designed the programme (and indeed every workshop we hold at the School). Peer-to-peer learning, a sense of belonging, ongoing support and sharing, and friendship. These are all absolutely fundamental when you are running your own business. A source of fuel that excel spreadsheet prowess, social media expertise and branding 101 simply don’t and can’t provide. So in the middle of every working day, we sit together in the grounds of the Hall, eat freshly prepared, seasonal food from the Kitchen Garden and we talk.

I think what Lucy and I didn’t realise was how much we would get back from that too. Sitting in the company of interesting - and interested - people and hearing about their lives, their experiences and their motivations. We left the course feeling enriched, inspired and motivated, and we know from our students that they felt the same way.

If you are interested in joining us for the Autumn Season, from September 25th - 27th, sign up here.