Pryke - Floristry Now

PAULA PRYKE OBE

FLOWER DESIGN AND INSPIRATION

For Lizzie and Anne with love

I have been working in the flower industry now for over 30 years, and started my own flower business in 1987. I feel privileged to have found an occupation that I love and to be able to work with the seasonal colour palette of nature. Flowers are central to my life, and whether you work with flowers or not they have the power to lift your spirits and bring colour, beauty and scent to our daily lives. They are often the most emotive gift we give, and they are present at our most important events, from the cradle to the grave. Whether it is growing and tending flowers in the garden or enjoying arranging them for friends, family or just yourself, they have widespread and perennial appeal.

This book is a celebration of floral design and a personal insight to my inspirations. Whether you plan to work with flowers or whether you just enjoy flower arranging in your own home, my advice is to hone your own creativity. Floristry, like fashion, has cycles and trends that appear and reappear, and so this is my personal view of flower design today.

The most wonderful thing about working with flowers is that there is a constantly changing palette to play with. This is in part because of the seasonality of the plant material. But it is also because new cultivars and varieties are constantly being presented in the international flower markets, offering exciting new design opportunities.

The power of flowers is undeniable.

Who wouldnt feel uplifted by such a pretty combination? Lady Bombastic spray roses, Viburnum opulus, and white and pink sweet peas combine with forget-me-nots (Myosotis sylvatica). The darker tiny blue flowers are green alkanet (Pentaglottis sempervirens), which grows wild in my garden.

Taking inspiration

Eryngium is becoming an all-year-round flower and Sirius, pictured here, is one of the most popular varieties. It has a good metallic colour and adds great texture to designs.

I was inspired to be a florist by the flowers themselves. My environment and early influences in the Suffolk countryside were undoubtedly the seed from where the plant germinated. From that all kinds of other forces have galvanized and energized me, and that in turn has informed my style. Gardens and landscapes, art works and architecture, the interiors of my clients homes and their desires, product launches, PR events, fashion shows and the city vibe: all have suggested designs to me. My team always inspires me, too. We chat about how best to tackle a new design, the best mechanics, the best combination, or just talk flowers! Working with other talented people is exhilarating. I am an avid book collector and before the internet, I found lots of influences from books. Now we have Pinterest and Instagram for our daily animation. I have worked in many different cultures and countries and this has also had a great influence on me. Keep an open mind, keep up with the new trends, fashions and styles and the inspiration will come to you.

The giant heads of Hydrangea arborescens Annabelle are stunning enough to display simply in vases, accompanied only by single leaves of Brunnera macrophylla Jack Frost.

Inspired by nature

Nature is my biggest inspiration and the best teacher. It can be a wild and rugged landscape, a well-designed garden, manicured borders or just simply the plant material itself. There is just such a huge variety of plant material available and always new varieties being offered, that there is always something fresh to consider. Colour, texture and the shape of individual flowers can often inspire my designs. It is important to study the natural world and take inspiration from the seasons.

Enjoying a moment with the wild meadow buttercups (Ranunculus acris) and the common daisies (Bellis perennis). Important for pollinating insects, both these weeds are to be encouraged and not mown when in full flower.

WILD FLOWERS When I look back on my career I can see the influence of my early life growing up in rural Suffolk. My childhood was spent riding ponies and playing with dogs on water meadows and picking wild flowers on a disused railway line. I still find inspiration in the woods, in the open arable fields and by streams and meadows. The landscape and the revolving seasons constantly stimulate new ideas or thoughts. A lot of flowers we love in the wild, such as bluebells, campanula and achillea, have been cultivated and are now widely available as cut flowers, so we can leave wild flowers in their natural habitat where they belong! Primroses and cowslips are sold as plants and can also be used in cut flower designs or potted arrangements. Added to this there are lots of foliages and branches we can use from the wild, such as the common ivy berries or the more exotic spindle berry. The wide-scale production of berries, hips and seedheads also is testament to how strong the trend is for the wild-flower look.

The wild look can be achieved with a mix of garden plants Crocosmia Lucifer, Echinops ritro Veitchs Blue, Daucus carota and Viburnum opulus berries with cultivated cut flowers that have wild origins, such as the Raspberry Scoop scabious.

A Raku vase is filled with poppy seedheads, Daucus carota, the field scabious (Knautia arvensis), Solidaster luteus, Echinops bannaticus Blue Pearl, Anethum graveolens