Flowerona reflects: peonies & publications

I hope you’ve had a great week.  The weather here in the UK has been a real mix of rain and balmy days with dust being blown over from the Sahara Desert!

Perhaps next month we’ll start to see some real signs of summer…in time for the holidays?

It’s so lovely to see all the seasonal flowers in the shops, like scabious, larkspur and love-in-the-mist.

Here’s what I’ve been up to this week…

Out & about

Last weekend

Last Saturday, we went to a wedding in Hampshire.  The flowers were absolutely beautiful and I hope to share a few images with you, but just want to run them past the bride and groom first…

Monday

Wrote blog posts and dealt with emails in the morning.

Then in the afternoon, I met up for a coffee with a PR lady I know. It was great to see her again and she’s invited me to take part later this year in a local internet radio show called Fabulous Women.

Tuesday

Zumba first thing and the rest of the day was spent writing blog posts and dealing with emails.  Also signed off the final copy for my column in The Flower Arranger magazine.

Wednesday

Wrote blog posts and dealt with emails all day.

Then in the evening went into London to attend a floristry course at the Interflora Flower School called Summer Garden Party.

I had such a lovely time and I’ll be blogging about it next month. Here’s a little preview of the flowers we used…

Thursday

In the morning, I wrote blog posts and dealt with emails.

In the afternoon, I went into London to attend The Conran Shop Christmas/AW 2012 Press Show.

Outside their Chelsea store, I spotted these stunning coral peonies in the flower stall there.

Afterwards I went to Only Roses‘s flagship store in Earls Court for a meeting with one of the owners.

I’ll be blogging about my visit soon.  (The first image in today’s blog post is some of their amazing Ecuadorian roses).

Friday

In the morning, I finished my column for Wedding Flowers magazine and took some photos for my blog.

I was delighted to receive a pdf of an article which I contributed to in Harper’s Bazaar Brides, an Australian publication.

In the afternoon, I wrote blog posts and dealt with emails.

At home

Reading…

• Living Etc magazine
• Coast magazine

Listening to…

• Imelda May’s album, Mayhem
• Pixie Lott’s album, Turn It Up
• Heart FM

Most popular blog post this week on Flowerona

The most popular blog post this week was Six top tips on how to care for your phalaenopsis orchids.

Other blog posts this week on Flowerona :

• Interview with Caroline Ede of The Flowers
• Three lifestyle blogs I love to read…Laura Ashley, Florence Finds & Pocketful of Dreams
• Introducing cake designer, Rosalind Miller…
• RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2012 – Hillier Nurseries & Garden Centres
• Beautiful Chelsea Garden Collection from Dipingo Design featuring Jo Thompson’s Show Garden
• Stunning exploded flowers captured by Fong Qi Wei

Guest blog post

On the Heart Home blog, I featured Contemporary floral-inspired wall art by Sally Scaffardi.

Twitter links

Here’s just a selection. Simply click on the purple hyperlink:

• Absolutely gorgeous summer floral designs from Wild at Heart
• Beautiful pale pink rose and peony bouquet via FairyNuff Flowers
• 25 Stunning Wedding Centerpieces via Belle the Magazine
• Lovely floral wallpaper called Summer Bloom by Graham & Brown
• Beautiful images of a ‘foxglove forest‘ via Floret Flower Farm
• Wedding Flower Inspiration: Lovely Lavender via Sweet Violet Bride
• Opulent wedding flowers in this Marie Antoinette inspired wedding

So, I hope you have a lovely weekend and see you on Monday…

(Images : Rona Wheeldon for Flowerona, Sally Scaffardi)