Sourcing your flowers
with WILLOW CROSSLEY
Lesson 4 of 43
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Sourcing good flowers within season is key to your arrangements. Willow reveals how to find the best growers local to you and where to go if you need large quantities of out of season flowers. This lesson’s notebook also lists Willow’s favourite seasonal flowers to use, season by season.
From the Lesson Workbook
Sourcing Your Flowers
Keep your arrangements as seasonal as possible and try to source locally. The flowers will be of better quality and they will suit the occasion for which you are arranging.
Find local growers to you. For those based in the UK, Flowers from the Farm and British Flower Collective allow you to find established local growers.
If you need out of season flowers, Holland is your best bet. Hoek, Fleurametz and Flowervision are who I use. If you want to buy quite a lot of flowers from Holland as a one-off (if you're helping at a wedding for example) Jan Van Vliet are a good option. Florca is an excellent website for finding Dutch growers who ship internationally. It is a leading flower export company, specialising in buying, packing, and shipping high-quality flowers, plants, and accessories by air freight worldwide.
My British favourites are The Land Gardeners, Bayntun Flowers, Green & Gorgeous, Babylon Flowers, Flowers by Clowance, and Scilly Flowers. My top favourite flowers are; Solomon Seal, Foxgloves, Tulips, Dahlias and peonies.
Suggested Homework
Go to your local flower shop and select five different types of flowers that you love. Use Instagram. Try the hashtag #britishgrownflowers or #locallygrownflowers or #grownnotflown to find a shop that sources locally if you're struggling.
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Your Instructor
Willow Crossley
World-renowned florist, author and designer, known as the UK’s ‘Queen of Flowers’.
Willow Crossley is a professional floral stylist, creating wild and whimsical arrangements full of colour, pattern and movement for an array of top British brands (Jo Malone, OKA). She is the author of four books and is regularly featured in House & Garden and many other publications. Willow is passionate about the profound impact nature can have on how we feel, and has gained a substantial following for her down-to-earth and inclusive approach to floristry and gardening. Willow firmly advocates a sustainable approach to floristry, working with the seasons and sourcing locally grown stems wherever possible.
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