rakesprogress

What did you do before turning to flowers?
My background is in handbag design. I went to college to study fashion design and then did a graduate programme in fashion history. Before flowers, I was a handbag and accessories designer for 13 years. I’m based in Brooklyn now.

How did you end up working with flowers?
I always gardened and I really disliked my office job, so I started working with event planners and set designers in my time off. I ended up doing flowers as an offshoot of that work. I love the idea of working with what nature gave us.

Describe your practice and style?
I do a lot of installations, so I’m usually working with what the space needs; I like that challenge.

Florist or floral artist? How would you describe yourself?
I’d usually say event or set designer that works with florals. But maybe just floral designer is fine – it depends on who needs to know and why. I like that it’s always shifting.

Do you have a favourite palette?
Not really, it depends on my mood. I generally avoid dark flowers if I know the piece will be photographed a lot because they tend to look like black dots in pictures.

Do you have a favourite flower or one you hate?
No, they’re all special! I am excited about my zinnias growing this year; I love how bright they are.

Who are your favourite artists and why?
I have loads, but for flowers, I love Sophie Parker of Wife NYC. I feel success isn’t measured just by output but how you conduct yourself, and she is admirable for that too. I’m inspired by how humble and kind Sophie is; she introduced me to a lot of the people I ended up working with.

Do you have a garden?
I have a small plot at my community garden and it’s very special to me.

Where do you go to get your green fix?
I get my green fix in my garden, or I bike to Prospect Park if I need lots of trees.

Do you grow your own flowers? If yes, what lessons have you learned from doing that?
I’ve grown my own flowers for about seven years. It’s taught me that nature is better at arranging flowers than most people ever could. If you study how things naturally occur and grow it helps make more interesting arrangements – they look less forced.

As a child, were you interested in nature and the botanical world?Yes, always. I grew up in a not super green part of New Jersey but I was fortunate to live near a green park.

What flower would you have at your wedding? On your grave?
At my wedding, I’d have all the fancy orchids I never let myself buy because they’re out of budget. On my grave, there would be lilacs.

What advice would you give to an aspiring floral artist?
Take good care of your back and feet, find a good acupuncturist and make sure you stretch throughout the working day. I know it’s fun but take days off so you recharge and stay creative. Use your gut. If you don’t vibe with someone, then don’t work with them. Think about mechanics and structure first, especially if you’re making something big.

What floral addition would improve your world?
I want a wider selection of flower emojis.

Tell us about this arrangement you’ve created…
It’s bright and wild. I usually do at least a quick sketch to figure out what shape I might like and what flowers will help me achieve that shape. The flowers I’ve used include zinnias, scabiosa, forget-me-nots, sunflower, and asparagus fern.

Interview: Victoria Gaiger

For more on Ashley Palmer and her work, click here.

Portrait by Leyla Yucel

Billy Hillhouse is a London-based florist whose work can be seen in Burberry, Holland and Holland, the New Craftsman gallery and many other places. Her work is characterised by its naturalistic style, ‘dishevelled elegance” and her love of foraged flowers.

What’s your background ?
I’m London-based and I’ve always been a florist. I did a History of Art degree at Bristol University, but had pretty much made up my mind that I wanted to be a florist while I was there, so I took on work experience at flower shops during the holidays. When I left university, I got a job in a lovely flower shop around the corner from my house. I moved to London shortly after that and worked for various florists learning on the job. I set up Billy Loves Flowers 11 years ago, when my son was born. I concentrate mainly on weekly contracts for restaurants, shops and offices as well as flowers for events, photoshoots, weddings and workshops etc.

How did you end up working with flowers? And why use flowers as a medium to express yourself?
I’ve just always loved flowers, even as very small child. I hadn’t considered floristry as a possible career until I was interning at a gallery on my gap year and saw some incredible arrangements being delivered for a grand event. Suddenly, it fell into place, and I could see that it was the ideal way to combine my creative and practical sides. I’ve always enjoyed the beauty of art that lasts for a moment and then is gone forever, and flowers give me that thrill every day I work with them. I’d even argue that they can be more beautiful when they’re dying. A blemished rose or a dying tulip has more beauty to it, to me than when they’re in perfect bloom.

Describe your practice and style?
I’m hugely influenced by Cecil Beaton. He once described Nancy Lancaster’s style as ‘off-hand perfection’ and that really struck a chord with me. So even though, I arrange flowers as beautifully as I can, I don’t want them too “done” or matching. I want to give flowers their own space and allow their natural beauty to shine through. I think we can all be guilty sometimes of trying to cram too many into a vase so you can’t actually see what’s there. And I value imperfection and asymmetry hugely too. I’ve never really understood why we want to straightjacket nature into some sort of “perfect” mould.

Do you consider yourself a florist or a floral artist?
A florist, for sure. It’s the flowers that are bringing the beauty, and I really don’t like messing about with them too much. One of my favourite types of arrangements is large branches of blossom, pretty much shoved into a vase.

Do you have a favourite palette?
I firmly believe in seasonality, so my palette is dictated by the time of year. I always like white and green. I also love gothic black/red in autumn and winter. After Christmas, I really need all the cheery oranges and yellows, then I tend to be drawn to various pinks and oranges… it’s that variable.


What are your favourite flowers? Are there any you hate?
I love English flowers with movement and romance, those with a feminine, Edwardian feel: fritillary, aquilegia, hellebores, poppies, garden roses, foxgloves, parrot tulips, lilac, mock orange and flag iris. In truth, I find it hard to hate any flower, but have always struggled with those that are a bit stiff and have a spiky texture, like rudbeckia, eryngium and statice. They just seem a bit mean and sad to me.

Who are your favourite artists and why? And what else inspires you?
Every florist is a magpie, so I pick and choose from all sorts of people and places. In art, I’ve always loved Manet’s sense of composition, and Matisse and Piero della Francesca for their skill with colour and shape. Hockney’s drawings have a delicacy to them that that’s always inspired me. I could go on and on… Titian, Hilliard, Ingres, Sargent, Meredith Frampton, Gluck, but I guess the joy is you don’t normally have to choose. I’ve already mentioned off-hand perfection, and many of my influences circle around that idea. Christopher Bailey used to talk about dishevelled elegance; almost the idea of an aristocratic world curling at the edges, and many of my influences come from that place, interpreted through different generations – dilapidated country estates, Lord Berners with his hand-dyed doves, Stephen Tennant’s eccentricity, Celia Birtwell, David Hicks, Powell and Pressburger, Evelyn Waugh, Constance Spry, The Mitfords. Again, a small selection of an endless list.

Do you have a garden?
We’re revamping the garden at the moment to bring its wild side out more and make it less polite. At the heart of it will be the kind of romantic English flowers I’ve mentioned here.

What in nature inspires you? Where do you go to get your green fix?
We’re lucky to live opposite Kensal Green cemetery; I can hear the mowers buzzing as we speak. At the moment, its faded elegance is countered by an intoxicating wildness – overgrown grasses, dog roses and daisies, and foxes wandering through it in the early hours. I love finding the beauty of flowers in unexpected places. There’s a small patch on the corner of Cheyne Walk, which I drive past on my way to the market, and it’s looking particularly good at the moment. But a tiny violet peeking through the pavement, erigerons miraculously thriving on a dusty balcony, or the indefatigable fullness of cow parsley growing on railway sidings and the edges of the motorways is just as fulfilling. As you can see, I love it when nature gets messy and intertwines with itself. This winter I was really captivated by a silver birch tree near where I live that had Old Man’s beard growing through it.

Do you grow your own flowers? I don’t. This may sound selfish, but I love having a space I can retreat to where the flowers are mine and mine alone. The joy flowers can bring someone else is one of the main fixes of this job, but sometimes you need to have something that’s just for you.

Were you interested in nature and the botanical world as a child?This really has been a lifelong obsession for me. I was that kid who had her nose buried in flower-fairy books and then botanical encyclopaedias. My mum says that I was always just as interested in the style of them as much as the nature – and when my grandfather gave me a patch in his garden to grow flowers, I chose black cornflowers to match my Laura Ashley wallpaper.

What flower would you have at your wedding, and on your grave?
I didn’t have a big wedding. My husband and I had been together for a long time, so we just went to Chelsea registry office one Saturday morning; it was just us and a couple of friends as witnesses. I wanted my bouquet to reflect the intimacy of the occasion, so I gathered together a handful of Amnesia roses in a beautiful bruised coffee colour and tied them with a navy-blue grosgrain ribbon to match my dress. I kept them and I can see them gathering dust in the corner of my room. If anything, they seem more beautiful now. I’d want snowdrops to take to my grave – the first flower of the year. There’s something about their bravery against the intolerance of the winter that gives me hope every time I see them, and I love the way their heads nod in the wind.

What advice would you give to an aspiring floral artist?
Love the hard work involved as much as the beauty. So much of floristry is physically exhausting. It’s also filled with the horrendous odour of dirty water and slime of week-old tulip stems and punctuated by the kind of early starts a breakfast TV presenter would baulk at. All hard work that just makes the end results all the sweeter.

Has the lockdown affected your love of flowers?
During the lockdown, when I haven’t had my usual work, my need for flowers has been acutely clear. I’ve felt bereft without any flowers in the house, but even picking a few weeds made a huge difference to my wellbeing. It’s made me realise how much of who I am and what I value is dictated by flowers.

Finally, describe one of your arrangements (see image to the left)
Last year I had the chance to exhibit at the Chelsea Flower Show and I wanted to use the opportunity to bring together all the different themes I’ve been talking about here. I’d been inspired by a show I’d seen at Tate Britain called ‘Ruin Lust’, and wanted to capture that moment when a grand interior has been invaded by nature and has given in to its faded, wild beauty.

Its title sums it up: Ravished. The overall effect I was going for needed to be over the top and theatrical, but I wanted the wildness of the flowers to balance this out. So, I used a large cabinet, urn and upholstered chair, and then punctuated them with flowers foraged from the cemetery opposite my house and a whole palette of English seasonal plants, from foxgloves and aquilegia to blousy roses and tiny violets.

Often when I’m working I’ll have a few key words in mind to help guide the arrangement, and for this one, it was ‘spontaneity’. So the walls and floor were littered with inspirational pictures and books, as though we’d just interrupted someone in mid-flow. And that word also dictated the approach when we were on site. I knew the general composition I wanted, but also needed to allow happy accidents to happen once we were putting it together. So, the chair wasn’t planned, but when we were at work it became obvious that the dog rose needed something to hang from. In the same way, we scaled back the planned arrangement in the rusted urn to keep it more casual – the off-centre cow parsley and daisies needed the space to sing for themselves. I’d also originally planned to have flowers inside the cabinet, but in the end to have space in the middle of such abundance just pulled the whole thing together. You’re never 100 per cent happy with what you do, but this arrangement just felt like ‘me’.

@billylovesflowers

for more information on Billy hillhouse go to her website here

Foxglove image: Joakim Blockstrom

Romy and Iona are the formidable pair of florists behind Sage Flowers based in Peckham. They create stunning colourful arrangements and installations for local clients and big name fashion brands such as Gucci and Louboutin.

“Inspired by a wide range of art, design and subculture, arrangements are contemporary and modern, often using different floral and non-floral elements to come together as a unique sculptural piece. Form and texture are at the forefront of the design, achieved using a variety of dried and dyed items, as well as fresh flowers”

What’s your Background... where are you based?

I: I'm based in Peckham, but grew up in between Brixton and the highlands of Scotland. Before turning to floristry I worked in and ran restaurants and was in that industry for pretty much a decade, starting at 14 in my local chippy in Scotland.

R: Peckham based. Born in Hackney and raised in Sussex. I studied Biology when I left school and worked in healthcare consultancy after I graduated, where I essentially learnt how to project manage, look after clients and number crunch.

How did you end up working with flowers? and why use flowers as a medium to express yourself?

I: After working and living in Hong Kong I wanted a change, so I came home and trained as a florist, first unpaid at a flower shop, then got some events under my belt as a freelancer. I wanted to set up my own thing. Executing someone else's vision through flowers taught me lots, but I always knew it wasn't my ultimate goal. I love both the fragility and strength of flowers, they say so much - finding out the story in them makes them a medium I love to express myself with.

R: I became pretty miserable with the lack of like minded individuals and creativity in my profession so started looking for work in other fields, like floristry, dance and architecture. I eventually met Flora Starkey, and that was my fantastic initiation into floristry.

Having grown up in Sussex around flowers and vegetable patches and having studied Biology made it a natural progression. I love the dichotomy of expression with the need to understanding the science. I also think the value flowers hold in all cultures is truly fascinating.

Describe your practice and style.? what would you call your aesthetic/ signature style? what scale do you work in?

Both: It’s fun and ever changing. When we’re feeling soft we'll make soft things, when bolder we'll go bold. We love working with lots of colour, and bringing texture into arrangements too. We're lucky that there's two of us, so we have someone to riff of and give advice and help where needed. Our scale ranges from small, personal bouquets hand delivered to large scale installations for events and weddings. We're really missing these blow out jobs at the moment, but it’s lovely to be able to deliver so many bouquets with such loving messages, it's like delivering a slither of joy from friends or family.

Florists or floral artist? How would you describe yourself?

Both: Because we have a flower shop and do installations, we kind of skip between being both. We’re happy with just florist! 

Do you have a favourite palette? 

I: I'm into pinks, peaches oranges and darker burgundy colours at the moment. This changes season to season and depends on how I'm feeling! I like pink, red and lime too. Sounds gross but it works. 

R: I’m enjoying putting oranges and reds against pale blues.

Do you have favourite flowers? or flowers you hate?

I: Again, this changes season to season, but of course at the moment it's sweetpeas and dahlias. I'm looking forward to the short time that lupins are available. I'm obsessed with the Westminster Abbey rose at the moment, and chocolate cosmos are a close contender for all time fave. Hate sunflowers.

R: I’m a big fan of irises and orange Gloriosa. For fragrance, it’s lilac, jasmine and sweetpeas. I try not to hate specific flowers, like fashion, things I once disregarded in a different context become fantastic and things I once loved become overused.

Favourite artists and why? what else inspires you? 

I: Food, youth culture, design, architecture, clubbing, Rye Lane, aunty's style, kids on the school bus, lots! I think being inspired from and seeing the beauty in a broad range keeps our eyes sharp and our practice varied.

R: Travel, architecture (Pierre Chareau), clothing (Supriya Lele), science fiction (2001: A Space Odyssey), photography (Richard Mosse), music. Culture.

8. Do you have a garden? 

I: No! I'm moving in a couple of months and it's a top priority.

R: Yes, I have free rein in the garden and have been doing lots of planting since the lockdown.

What in nature inspires you? where would you go to get your green fix? 

I: When I lived in Scotland i hated being dragged up hills by my dad, but now it's my favourite thing - I'd happily spend all my time hiking if I could. Obviously there's not much of that in London, so I try and get to the countryside as much as I can, somewhere I can see the lichen on the trees and smell the moss as it crunches under my feet like a wet sponge. That's inspiring for me.

R: I used to live on the river Ouse and love village open gardens, from the manicured cottage beds to the lemon drizzle cake. Charleston is fantastic. But maybe Kerala, on India's Malabar Coast, is the most beautiful place I’ve ever seen.

Do you grow your own flowers?

I: No! I wish.

R: I’ve dabbled rather unsuccessfully so far. Hoping for my peonies, lupins and digitalis to flower soon.

Were you interested in nature and the botanical world as a child? 

I: My grandmothers - both Scottish and Jamaican - taught me about the botanical world from a very young age. One taught me a lot about flowers and the other would brew me up a home made herbal botanical tea (which mostly tasted disgusting but she swore by) at the mere mention of any ailment. I owe them both a lot. 

R: Yes! The reason I studied Biology was to go into botanical body product design later in life. I was always mashing and distilling petals and herbs as a child, but lab life wasn’t for me.

What flowers would you have at your wedding? and what flowers at your grave

I: Ah! I thought I knew what I wanted at my wedding until I started doing flowers for weddings, now I've seen so many beautiful ideas I'm not so sure anymore! I switch between a very kitsch pink and blue clashy garish affair and a very stripped back nude palette. I guess I'll decide when the time comes! 

R: Impossible to answer concisely. My partner is Indian so there’ll certainly be marigolds. I always joke that I want a sea burial, but I suppose some rambling Bougainvillea could come overboard with me.

What advice would you give to an aspiring floral artist? 

I: Keep at it! You will have to work for free/rubbish money, but learning how to work on events technically is really invaluable knowledge that will no doubt help you one day. Don't just follow the insta feed of other florists, what you start to make will inevitably start to look like what you're constantly looking at. Follow pages on a range of design and art. I follow a page solely dedicated to fruit sticker design, it's sick!

R: Agree!

sage flowers

Arrangement shown: peonies, carnation, lupin, delphinium, shaking grass, and dahlia

Caroline Lumia is a florist based on the outskirts of Brussels. Her flower studio launched in 2019.

Her work is influenced by her background in fashion and photography but her compositions and design are filled with a tangible energy that comes from her love of the natural world.

What’s your Background… where are you based? How did you end up working with flowers? and why use flowers as a medium to express yourself?

I wanted to be a botanist… At University, I fell in love with the Botanic course. It was the pure magic of the greenhouse and I also found my love of drawing plants.

From there I changed direction to Visual Arts for six years: studying Photography and fashion design in La Cambre mode(s) in Brussels.

But I felt something was missing, a chance job offer led to me becoming a plant and flower merchandiser in 2014.

A lightbulb moment! The natural world opened the door to me. and finally I knew where my place was.

I took three years of floristry training and all this connected my experience in fashion and photography - my knowledge of colours, textures, light, perspectives, scenography…etc with my passion - what drives me: Flowers, plants.

Flowers are such a incredible medium - because nature is so powerful, inspiring, they give us so many important lessons in humility and are of course exceptionally beautiful!

Describe your practice and style.? what would you call your aesthetic/signature style? what scale do you work in?

Customers say - I have a sensitivity to details, a mixture between flemish painters and the 21th century… I would say: Savage beauty. I’m torn between minimalism and abundance, simplicity and complexity.

My preference goes to big installations, I’m obsessed by movement, a physical dance with materials. There is so much to express in a composition, and by letting nature guide the dance.

Florist or floral artist? How would you describe yourself?

Both I would say. Florist because of all technical side of things to know and floral artist with my qualities of research, aesthetics, and details. Always learning and creating worlds, a story teller.

Do you have a favourite palette?


Not really, it depends on what flavors have to say, the interaction with the client and my moods.

Do you have favourite flowers? or flowers you hate? why?


Hahaha, sorry to say but I love red roses (except complicated ones),

and I ‘m not found of anything synthetic .

Favourite artists and why? what else inspires you?

Thierry Boutemy, Fjura, Marc Colle, Dries Van Noten, Martin Margiela, Luc Tuymans, Fernand Khnopff, Frank Lloyd Wright, Le Corbusier, Ikebana, everything!

Do you have a garden?

Yess! Freshly designed, english style garden , and also mixing veggies and flowers in the style of the first french gardeners.

What in nature inspires you? where would you go to get your green fix?

Movement, renewing, ephemeral, generosity, adaptation, force of life.

In the field, where I live. Luckily!

Do you grow your own flowers? How long have you been growing your own flowers and what lessons have you learned from growing?
How does this inspire your work?

Not yet but there’s a project on his way, to be continued…

Were you interested in nature and the botanical world as a child?

I grew up in the middle of my grandmother’s garden: Cabbages, Hollylocks, leeks, hens, Delphiniums, Dahlias, Lupins, Digitalis, Alliums, Snapdragons, Clematis, Wisterias…

What flower would you have at your wedding? what flower would you take to your grave?

Wedding: Percival Delphiniums, Grasses, Prunus branches, ferns,…

My grave: Branches of elder tree.

What advice would you give to an aspiring floral artist?

Hold on!, Don’t lose passion, be humble, always listen to yourself.

Anything to add?

Thank you!

Finally describe one of your arrangements - How do you go about arranging - do you usually plan carefully or is it a work in progress? what flowers have you used?

Finally: I will choose the yellow/pink arrangement . My ideas are there, flying around, not really precise but I’m creating an atmosphere, inspired by the flowers I find. For this one it was the two colours , I thought about a flower forest /ikebana inspired/fashion colours at the same time…I used Anemones, dried Bougainvillea branches and old elder branches from my garden, it was the beginning of spring so I wanted to represent death and life reborn together...

https://carolinelumia.com/caroline-lumia-floral-designer/

Instagram

Hazel is a passionate floral artist and designer based in North London with a varied and rich background in the creative arts her work spans installation, events and smaller floristry projects.

What’s your Background… where are you based?

I grew up in leafy Middlesex and I’m now based in Stoke Newington, London. I almost did a fine art degree but instead went to study Broadcast and Journalism at the London College of Fashion. Following this I worked in live television production and music management for many years. Wanting to own my own business I set up a vintage retail and event company. This previous experience has been fundamental in navigating both the business and creative elements of running a floral design company.

How did you end up working with flowers? and why use flowers as a medium to express yourself?

I have always had an inquisitive mind and deep love of many different creative mediums. This was nurtured by my parents who are both very creative. It wasn’t until I was diagnosed with cancer back in the early noughties that I discovered the rewarding and calming benefits of gardening. I came to a point where I no longer had the driving passion for my vintage business. It was this that propelled me to re-train in floristry at McQueen’s Flower School. Flowers are not dissimilar to fashion - they both have seasonality and trends. I thrive on the constant change, new discoveries and working with a natural product.

Describe your practice and style.?

My style is a painterly fusion of texture and colour. I like to work with the natural form of flowers adding in dried and silk elements to create a unique scene and tell a new story. I could be creating a delicate arrangement for a product shoot one day then be designing a colossal installation for a brand event the next. Each project brings its own challenges and rewards. This perpetual motion and constant variation keeps me enthralled.

Florist or floral artist? How would you describe yourself?

I call myself a floral artist or designer but due to COVID I’ve expanded to delivering fresh flowers and creating postal flower kits. I don’t really like titles as I think we should be more fluid, open to change and evolve our services as needed. Why pigeon yourself. I’ve definitely learnt this other the last few month.

Do you have a favourite palette?

It really depends on the brief and what message I’m trying to convey. My relationship with colour is always evolving but left to my own devices I’m naturally swayed to the bold and bright. Many different inspirations inform my colour choices and these change from day to day.

Do you have favourite flowers? or flowers you hate?

I like anything rangy and dramatic. I think this originates from my love of the dramatic! Eremurus, Allium giganteum and dwarf Delphiniums are highlights. I not a huge sunflower fan. I think those 80s Takara dancing sunflowers have something to do with it.

Favourite artists? what else inspires you?

I’m inspired my pretty much anything my eyeballs see from wallpaper to packaging and everything in-between. I always find inspiration in architecture, especially brutalist and modernist buildings. Architects I admire are Ricardo Bofill, Louis Kahn, Alvar Aalto and Pierre Koenig. I’m attracted to artists who have a visceral reaction to colour such as Mark Rothko and Georgia O'Keeffe and mixed-media artists such as the Memphis Group and Niki de Saint Phalle.

Do you have a garden?

Yes, which is incredibly lucky in London. My starter garden was in my previous flat in Walthamstow which taught me a lot. It was petite and mostly paved, so I educated myself in container gardening. I have more space in N16 and have recently redesigned the entire garden from hard landscaping through to planting. I’m officially obsessed.

What in nature inspires you?

The determination of nature astounds me - you can see a wasteland and there are poppies growing in abundance. Sissinghurst Castle Garden and Great Dixter are always at the top of my green fix list. I also find beauty in environments that are lass grand. My Dad’s work was based in the Barbican when I was younger. I was lucky enough to be privy to its many secret areas. The conservatory is an incredible oasis but it’s the more subtle areas I seek out. Nothing beats sitting by the courtyard pools surrounded by Gunnera.

Do you grow your own flowers?

Since I have had more outdoor space, I have grown flowers. Very few of these are used in my work as I love to preserve them in situ for myself, visitors and our goldendoodle to enjoy. That said, I do dry lots of the garden’s bounty which does make it into my designs. I’ve learnt to be patient and to evolve and keep learning. You only truly know your garden once a full season has been and gone; even then it will keep you on your toes. My motto is if it can be moved and you want to move it, move it! I am a big believer in shifting things around and removing things that no longer work. Understanding how flowers grow in their natural habitat directly informs placement within certain arrangements. If varieties work harmoniously in the garden, they will work on a table display. I have a whole new level of respect for professional growers. The labour involved is intense.

Were you interested in nature and the botanical world as a child?

I was very privileged to grow up with a garden and I was always outside. Mum was constantly gardening or watching gardening programmes – she’s a very talented gardener. My three siblings and I would be taken off to garden centres and to my favourite destination, Regents Park. One school trip we went to the Chilterns which beauty has stayed with me. The sense of calmness that trip gave me alongside summers visiting my Grandma in North Wales confirmed my love of nature.

What flower would you have at your wedding? what flower would you take to your grave?

I got married in 2016 in rural Italy and choose seasonal flowers, lots of wild red roses and large urns filled with olive branches. I would take trails and trails of rambling rector with me.

What advice would you give to an aspiring floral artist?

Grab some flowers and start practising. People may think they have to know all the names and get the best materials before even attempting to design. You can use foraged or shop bought stems – it’s rewarding and confidence building to see what comes out. Do not compare yourself - it’s a hard enough profession without berating yourself. Creating in a way that is true to you is always going to ultimately be most fulfilling.

Tell us about the hanging installation - shown here

This is a giant hanging installation for a lovely couple I worked with in London. Like everything it started on paper and the ingredients were broken down by variety in terms of texture and colour palette. I’m a big planner and like to work and test mechanics before any new design concepts. Some of the dried ingredients were colour sprayed to match the palette with fresh floral touches supplied by Wolves Lane Flower Company.

Hanging wedding installation - Jessica Williams Photography

Image credits

Hazel portrait shot - Nina Wernicke

Hanging wedding installation - Jessica Williams Photography

Fashion editorial – Tiffany Mumford

Styled shoot - Dave Bullivant