What a year it's been on the wild frontier of west Wolverhampton.
Weddings, farewells, bouquets and buttonholes in adundance, along with workshops, growing and learning and making new friends along the way. I have once again, had the privilege of providing beautiful, seasonal and sustainable flowers for so many lovely folk.
Thank you to everyone who has supported my small, sustainable flower business this year.
May started with a brilliant willow weaving workshop led by Eddie from @blithfieldwillow. He makes the most incredible woven structures, and is an all round top chap. He is blessed with the patience gene as well.
He spent a week teaching various classes @mastertheart in Shropshire, and I hear he is there again in 2025.
Wedding season began on a lovely weekend in May with not one, but two weddings. Thank goodness for the clever hands of freelance flowery friends!
Both Shropshire venues are old favourites of mine, and I am lucky enough to be included on their preferred suppliers list.
The Bridal Barn in Claverley is a wonderful venue, tucked away in a wooded dell.. small, but perfectly formed, with a gorgeous woodland ceremony area, a tipi and original barn, which has been sympathetically restored. Megan and Dominic chose a green, white and blue colour scheme with lots of seasonal foliage and ferns to suit the woodland setting.
Cheswell Grange is near Newport, Shropshire is a larger lakeside venue with a timber framed boathouse, marquee and a wide open space facing open land and the Shropshire hills. Wonderful.
Lydia and Ollie opted for a hot pink theme, that worked so well in the large, white space in the marquee.
I was lucky enough to be invited back to The Royal Windsor Flower Show for the third year. My paper zinnias were well received, and I met some lovely folk who joined my workshops. Mr Alan Titchmarsh OBE, his lovely wife Alison and Mary Berry were some of the delightful folk who wore one of my buttonholes, as did HRH Duchess Of Edinburgh, no pressure then!
I will be making more paper flowers and other pretty things next year, and running workshops too.
I have learned so much from Charlotte from @fleurdecirce. Charlotte has been making wax flowers for many years and is so very talented. I have made snowdrops, geraniums and magnolias all under her gentle guidance and speedy hands.
Fiddling with flowers for Meaghan and Adam who tied the knot, and planted a tree, this summer, with the bestest of backdrops at Cheswell Grange, Shropshire.
Meaghan & Adam were the most lovely couple, who chose seasonal flowers for their special day.
Flower growing
I'm in my tenth year of growing flowers, and this year has been the most challenging to date, not just for me, but all of my fellow growers who are part of the merry band of folk wanting seasonal and sustainable flowers. Most of us are part of the growing nationwide organisation, Flowers from the Farm. Two of my absolute favourite local growers and friends, are Hanna, from @bespokeflowersbyhanna and Tammy from @wildbunch. Hard working women who know what to grow, and how to do it best.
Wet weather and cool temperatures may be good for some plants, but not growing flowers for cutting.
Comparing photos on my phone of my allotment last year has been helpful, and clearly shows how fewer flowers there have been this year. Seedlings were too wet and died in their little pots, despite my efforts to nurture them.
Dahlias were very late and I lost many newer varieties to the massacre of the slugs. It finally felt like things were getting going around mid August, but with shortening day length, so many flowers just didn't get enough sunlight. I have never been so grateful for what my cutting patch produced this year.
The season was abruptly curtailed in early October with a sharp frost and it was goodbye to all of my dahlias, apart from 'Small World' that sits under an apple tree. I cut them today and will use them as dried flowers. Asters are brown, their unfurling petals, saturated with endless rain.
Cosmos are still battling on, but are tiny and a bit wonky, as are the remaining zinnias.
Having planted out my autumn sown sweet peas quite late, they, however, have been a triumph, and flowered generously with a pretty good stem length into late September. Their roots loved the rain. Hallelujah!
So, now that the growing season is over, I have turned my attention to seed sowing for the year ahead.
Sweet peas, Larkspur, Corncockle, Orlaya, Sweet Rocket, Cornflowers and Violas. All tucked up in their brown beds in the polytunnel dormitory. Ranunculus and anemones are next, and then spring flowering bulbs.
Other autumn into winter projects I'm hosting my first 'Bulb Lasagne' Workshop with the lovely Kate of Master the Art. She provides the warmest of welcomes in her beautiful home in Leighton, between Much Wenlock and Telford.
The workshop is now fully booked, but I'll be putting details in my next newsletter of Spring flower workshops for next year.
My ever popular Christmas Wreath Workshops are booking up fast. Sarah at Crafty Happenings, just around the corner from me, has once again invited me to host four workshops at her lovely shop, filled with locally made gifts and good things. All workshop details can be found on the Workshop tab.
In addition, I will also be running two workshops at the Inn at Shipley, running up to the festive season.
This pub and restaurant is very familiar to me, having visited many times over the years, from when it was known as the Thornescroft, but a first for workshops.
I'm really looking forward to welcoming my 'regulars' and creative folk new to wreath making.
As usual, there will be plenty of seasonal foliage and locally sourced materials. Bows and bells optional!
Bespoke orders are always welcome.
Farewell flowers are always such a privilege to make, and are one of my favourite floral commissions.
They can provide such solace at a time like no other. It can sound so cliched, but nature really does help to heal, and take your mind to another place, if only briefly.
What's coming up..?
Along with preparing for Christmas wreath workshops, I will be using my dried flower stash to make seasonal wreaths, panels and posies. I have dried more flowers than ever before, and they are all tucked up in their tissue paper beds, waiting for their moment to shine.
Anyway, I think I have rambled on enough for now.
I do hope you have enjoyed looking through these windows into my flower- filled world.
Toodlepip,
Gretel xxx
Oh, one last thing..I do seem to have an awful lot of pink going on. Maybe the Barbie effect has unwittingly taken hold of me! I have learned to love pink, in all its shades.. calamine to coral; bubblegum to baby blanket soft tones. It warms everything up without being too much of a diva, and is available throughout the seasons. Well, if its good enough for Rod...
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