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A Year Filled With Flowers

The year started with a wedding.
Our wedding,
with a bouquet made up from flowers I collected from florist friends around the country, that Billy and I visited on our way north. We get married in Durham, 10 years after we met there.
The florist's year really gets under way with all the rush and romance that is Valentine's Day. Calling into Leentje's tiny, but exquisite shop in Cambridgeshire seemed like a very good place for me to start too.
Soon after cupid delivered his last rose, florists, like Kate in Sturminster Newton packed their shops with plants and posies for Mothers' Day.
In Arcade Flowers in Ringwood local primary school children hung blue hearts on a tree that the girls have planted in their window.
The warm spring rolled into a showery May and into the shops came the summery flowers and herbs; such as the delicate blue Scabious and daisy-like Fever Few.
This was a year for new ventures; Sprout & Flower in Mere in Wiltshire opened its doors selling an enticing mixture of vegetables, flowers and fresh bread,
and Rustic Rose launched its new website - complete with a heavenly day for me helping to photograph bouquets and blooms for it.
It is not only the flower shops that I love but the many flower stalls I visit on my travels, such as this fabulous display outside Bibendum on the Fulham Road.
New faces included Grace,
whose shop Bramble & Wild is a wonderful discovery, perched at the top of Catherine Hill in Frome.
But the year would not be the same without several trips to Ted Martin Flowers in Tisbury, the subject of my first two books about flower shops.
I can always rely on my flower shop friends to fill my life with colour!
From the first spring tulips to the late November chrysanthemum blooms.
It was a year for celebrating, with a party for a my daughter and my birthdays.
(I cannot believe she is twenty one - let alone how old I am!)
There were weddings to help with, including Gemma who did not have a huge budget - but as luck would have it, happened to know a friendly florist.
As a finishing touch I pick sweet peas for her from the pick your own flower fields at Hatch near Tisbury.
It was also a year of flower workshops - one of my favourites is based on the sort of flowers you can find in your garden.
The ladies attending it may be teachers and nurses and retired civil servants but they were born florists.
There were flowers to admire in the many flower festivals around the country - such as the magnificent displays at Salisbury cathedral.
And there were ways to create an atmospheric table display of flowers for yourself, even when you did not have masses of flowers to play with.
My flower filled year would not be complete without mentioning Tom from Tretter's cocktail bar in Prague. I do love a man who puts orchids in my cocktails. And I do love a best friend who takes me to Prague to celebrate my birthday. (Yes, I know, I have been celebrating since the summer!)
As the year drew to a close it is back to one of my favourite flower shops - Ted Martins. Christmas would not be Christmas without stopping by to say hello and to wish them all (and you) a very Happy New Year.

14 comments:

  1. Oh! I love this post! I am going back to look at it again!

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  2. Visual delights in each picture. Happy 2012.♥♫

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  3. Such a lovely post. This is the time of year for reviews from the the past twelve months in all walks of life - but few can be as beautiful as this!!
    Thanks for sharing it with us!

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  4. What a beautiful review of the year looking forward to more lovely posts in the year to come.
    Happy New Year!

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  5. A lovely post to end the year.

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  6. Wonderful review. I agree with all the comments above! Best wishes to you in the new year too Sally. :-)

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  7. Wow what a year you have had Sally... love your blog all year round but this one is something special. Happy New Year and hope we can meet up again in 2012.

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  8. Congratulations on your wedding! I hope that you had a lovely Christmas and I wish you every happiness for 2012. Your card with the F&B paint tin really made me laugh, as I paint furniture using F&B and do wedding flowers. I will have to try and get hold of some of those. Have a wonderful weekend, and many thanks for your inspiration and photos, not to mention flowers! Love Linda x

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  9. all flower arrangements are very beautiful, cool design. Congratulations also for your wedding, hopefully lasting and happy

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  10. just came upon this and love your blog. i will make sure to follow this and i am sure our digital magazine readers will love to come onto it too!

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  11. The year fille dwith flowers is shown here. Have a look at it

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  12. That's really great! Flowers are something which make us happy in fractions of seconds and with an year full of flowers, I really can imagine how beautiful it must be. Amazing post!
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  14. I love flowers, and last year was a great year for flower lovers. Every month, there was a different type of flower in bloom. January started off with tulips, followed by daffodils in February. In March, the cherry blossoms were in full bloom and April brought us lilies. May was filled with roses, and June had pretty sunflowers. July had beautiful daisies, and August brought us gladiolas. September had stunning chrysanthemums, and October gave us marigolds. November’s flowers were poinsettias, and December ended the year with holly berries. It was a wonderful year filled with lots of color and beauty!

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