Last month, I was invited to attend a Mother’s Day course at the Covent Garden Academy of Flowers in London.
There was a special ‘two for one’ offer, which gave people the opportunity to spend time with their mother, daughter, son or friend.
It’s such a lovely idea for a course…spending time with someone special and learning how to mark the occasion with a floral creation.
The day started with Madeleine, one of the teachers at the Academy, showing us how to prepare (which is called condition in the floristry world) our flowers and foliage.
She then demonstrated how to make a classic hand-tied bouquet with spiralled stems.
First, Madeleine made a bouquet of purely foliage to give a framework, before adding the flowers and some larger leaved foliage.
It was then our turn to make our hand-tied designs.
Gillian Wheeler, the Principal at the Academy, pictured below, showed us how to use different shaped containers to display our bouquets.
After lunch, Madeleine demonstrated how to wrap a bouquet and make a water bag.
Having mastered and wrapped our hand-tied designs, Madeleine and Gillian showed us how to make a rose buttonhole using wiring techniques, before we all made one to take home.
Here’s another picture of my hand-tied which included stunning ranunculus, anemones, skimmia, statice and berried ivy.
There’s always such a lovely atmosphere at the Academy and it’s no surprise to me that a number of the students on the course were there for a second or third visit.
And what I love about floristry is that you never stop learning. I learnt from Madeleine that the foliage in the UK which we generally know as salal, is called lemon leaf in America.
If you’d like to keep up-to-date with news about the Covent Garden Academy of Flowers, they’re on Twitter and Facebook.
P.S. These are the truly wonderful Japanese scissors which I came home with from the Academy. You can buy them in person at their shop or online.
(Images : Rona Wheeldon for Flowerona)
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