World Cup Flowers

Many florists are getting into the football spirit and producing window displays featuring World Cup themes.

Vandella Flowers in Carlisle is one such high street florist.

They have produced three large window displays at their store in Carlisle, Cumbria.

With an England theme limiting the designers to white and red, the colours of St. George,  the challenge of producing a display was no doubt quite hard.

Sadly they may have had to resort to some non British cut flowers to pull the task off.

Limited colour pallet

With Scotland, Ireland and Wales not in the World Cup the British florist is somewhat stuck with two colours to work with.

Carnations are the staple of the flower designer providing a multitude of colours.

Here are a few ideas for seasonal flowers to populate your display

England colour scheme – red and white

• Carnations – red and white
• Roses – red and white
• Poppies – red and white
• Daisy family including agyranthemum
• Ranunculus –  red and white
• Lilly – including Lily of the Valley, Asian Lily,
• Red fruits including the strawberry would work for a short duration table display.
• Cow parsley in abundance from British hedgerows is an ideal white bulk flower to fill out any display.
• Japanese Iris and Iris Germanica can be garden grown and provides structure and architecture.
• Pieris – new leaf growth on this shrub is often in shades of red.

Share your designs

Have you produced a World Cup themed display for your window or maybe produced an exhibit for a local horticultural show?

You may have gone really wild and produced displays for all 32 teams.

Let us know about it, via the contact us form,  so we can feature a gallery of your designs and plant lists over the next few weeks.

Good News for British Flowers

For many years, the UK has been watching the decline of it’s flower farms, wholesalers and florists, as supermarkets source their flowers from abroad but the Wiggly Florist is bucking the trend.

There is no doubt that consumers have become more aware and interested in where their flowers are coming from.  Sometimes they are interested in supporting local farmers, sometimes they would like to reduce the amount of air miles.

The argument about carbon footprint and the importance of global trade will continue to be debated, but the last survey estimated that less than 10% of flower sales in the UK were actually grown here, so it’s good to see the consumer redressing the balance.

In the last year, Dutch newspaper Het Financieele Daglad reported that exports to the UK were down 20% and in times of recession, luxury products such as flowers are vulnerable.  However, sales of Wiggly Flowers increased by 10% this year and were particularly strong at Christmas.

Wiggly Wigglers sources it’s flowers from their local wholesaler who is tasked with the challenge of buying British grown product.  On top of this the Wiggly gardens at Blakemere produce their own crop of sunflowers, herbs and extras, whilst sourcing their foliage from less than 2Km away, alongside a network of British flower farmers.

Many UK customers are starting to appreciate traditional blooms such as stocks, phlox, delphiniums, sunflowers and pussy willow and florists are looking to Valentines Day, Mothering Sunday and Easter to sustain the upturn for the British grown flower market.

The Good Life Made Easy
From growing vegetables and planting wildflowers, to floristry that doesn’t cost the earth, plus a great range of composters and much more…..Wiggly Wigglers have all the goodies that any budding Tom or Barbara could ever need and even a few eco gifts to help convince Jerry and Margo too!

More information
Wiggly Wigglers website
Follow Wiggly Wigglers on facebook

It’s not all roses for Valentines

Many florists are now turning their thoughts to Valentines day on the 14th February and no doubt ordering buckets full of red roses.  However, there are many other flowers to consider, some of which can easily be grown in the UK. [Read more]