Good Gardening , April 1935

Do you ever long for a glass house? Filled with forced bulbs and exotic species and the perfect place to hold decadent cocktail parties, and hold intellectual conversations on the upkeep of ones pineapple trees. Where the gardening magazines have a column written by a dashing bachelor composer. and they cost just 6D?

I am feeling very gardeny, and have bought lots of bare rooted roses, herbs and spring bulbs in the green. I have potted up terracotta pots with the bulbs, the window is filled with them, sometimes simple is just right. My fingers are black from compost, but I am "in the style of" Jackie O with sleek hair and a set of pearls.

Hantied bouquets - to cut or not to cut the raffia?

I favour the handtied bouquet, you can cut the stems, place it in a vase safe in the knowledge you will not be ridiculed for your feeble attempts at flower arranging. Or if you like an arrange of an evening, simply cut the raffia and play away. Alternatively, if you happen to be the delectable Javier, arrange as a swag over the delicate shoulders of a female bust. O Bravo!

n.b. Should you be unfortunate enough to receive an aqua packed bouquet. Please my darlings, unravel those 3 metres of spotted cellophane, allow the water to spill out in the kitchen sink and over your Manolo's, cut the stems and place in a vase. Flowers cannot survive by cello and a cup of water alone.

Did you ever see anything prettier than a turquoise shoe?

Images from the new Spring Summer Toast catalogue. The last of the snow has finally melted, we were awoken by birdsong this morning, and the sun is nearly shining. A sharp rise in temperature, has brought out customers eager to embrace Spring, pots of locally grown tete a tete are being snapped up to sit on windowsills. The Hound has his watercolours out and is busy designing a summer scheme for the garden, eager to look the part he is sporting a beret, smock and a glass of Absinthe. My thoughts turn to shoes of turquoise.

Things that have occupied my mind today

1. Last night I had dinner out, as we left the maître d' presented me with all the red roses they had left over from Valentine's. There were 14, is this the new dozen? Is it coals to Newcastle? - No it's not by the way.

2. Has Liberty's revamp changed the inherent quirkiness of the shop? I will find out on Sunday, London trip planned.

3. Is The Hound the most photographed dog in the world?

4. Is buying a 4 litre commercial blender for domestic use really necessary?

5. According to The Telegraph KFC are creating 9,000 new jobs in the UK. One of their new restaurants in Winchester took £100,000 in it's first week - Mr Ferrari and I tried to work out how many pieces of actual chicken this would equate to - never having been to one before it took a while, and there were a few guesstimates and assumptions made - who is eating all this chicken?

6. I have also had thoughts on blogging, today somebody in the industry said that they wouldn't as it gives too much away, which is true, larger floral organisations and competitors read it, and some of my posts are copied and recrafted elsewhere. Do you worry about this sort of thing? Still it has to be easier than pitching up at Random House with a manuscript."The tales of a gin drinking eccentric florist and a gangly lurcher" Non?

57. Does dropping a digital SLR onto a concrete floor affect it's performance? - seemingly not, although thankfully it was mine and not Mr F's.

96. If like me you sometimes take to hoovering in your underwear, make sure it isn't the day the window cleaner comes.

Hot dog, jumping frog, Albuquerque

I know odd title, the Prefab Sprout song was on the radio as I drove home on Saturday night - and it beats the rather predictable post title - Valentine's Day

I present to you, the "Leopard" bunch, and the "Marry me" bunch. We have yet to hear whether the Leopard bunch had the desired effect......

I can declare that the Marry Me bunch, was a resounding success. I actually cried when it was ordered, - I am a sucker for a romantic tale, but also the couple in question are just lovely. We have seen them through the wooing bouquets, the I love you bouquets, the birth of their beautiful daughter bouquets, and now an engagement. Despite the downsides of being a florist, as you will recall here and here, being a small part of the monumental moments of peoples' lives is truly wonderful.

Photo shoot

Here we are being photographed for a gardening magazine, a lovely "behind the scenes" shot. The photographer is a Mr Tom Bailey. I did my best to sound and look intelligent and not strumpet like.

Press play

The band are called Au Revoir Simone - genius

Is it because I is blonde?

The Hound and I have just spent 2 hours in Burghley Park frolicking in snow that is up to 2 foot deep. We spent the first 25 minutes reflecting on things, you know the usual life, love, squirrels. The last hour and 35 minutes were spent looking for the keys I had obviously dropped somewhere in the 10,000 acres that is the park.
After an hour of looking we hit upon the plan of a metal detector, but couldn't think of anyone we knew that one - mental note made to widen my circle of friends. Instead we kept looking and pondered the best way of telling Mr Ferrari we had lost the keys to The Navarra. Just as the tears set in, and the snow started to fall again, there they were.
It was nothing short of a miracle, suddenly the problems of this morning seem daft, and I am off to buy a lanyard for future snow walking - I think McLaren do a nice one.

How to arrange flowers

You will need

1 Bonne Maman jar
1 bunch of spring flowers

Cut flowers at a 45 degree angle, place in jar filled with lukewarm water and a bit of a steri tab. Sit back and enjoy, marvel at your talents, impress friends and revel in their compliments.

We made it in.

Powered by Navarra, we made it into the shop this morning, to be greeted by sheet ice roads and pavements.

The solution was salt, I bought the last salt in Stamford.

We also discovered the merits of Paint charts as bridal swatches, and painted another piece of furniture - Moroccan Velvet 3.

Saucy

A gentleman has asked me to make his girlfriend's Valentine's Day extra special.
I am assuming that he meant providing stunning flowers, and not an invitation to join them in a threesome.

Where I blog

Life is black and white

1. The Garden at The Shop, 2. Ranunculus 3. Phalenopsis orchids, 4. Swissify your Valentine's message

Frolicking, photo shoots and the FT.

The Hound is fond of the snow, packed off with a piece of Kendal mint cake and a woolly scarf, he has frolicked in the field all morning.

Yesterday Mr Crush came to take lots of photographs. He is a real life professional, with fancy Nikon camera and an umbrella. Do you think Crush might just be the coolest surname in the world? We have another shoot happening next week for a gardening magazine.

I love the Financial Times, informative and it comes in pink.

Last night I had dinner out here, the place where everybody knows your name. I had the chicken everybody else had the Halibut. Good food, fabulous company and a glass of the good stuff - treats indeed.

We will endeavour to get into the shop tomorrow, hopefully lorries won't block Barnsdale Hill, and Rutland County Council will have found some grit.

Snowed in

We have awoken this morning to a lot of snow. The picture believe it or not, is of the truck, and my next door neighbours Aston Martin - neither of which are able to get off the driveway. Which means that for this morning at least the shop is Ferme.

The Hound and are are mounting an expedition Chez Mother Hen, as we have no food. All I could find in the freezer to feed him on was a chicken kiev from Marks and Sparks. On our return I will post of this weeks adventures, photo shoots, dinners out, and the odd flower.

Keep warm, curl up with your lover and watch Phil and Fern.x

Statement

The Hound has asked me to make clear to everyone that despite recent events: he is, has, and always will be a loyal McLaren fan. No doubt about it.

Road trip

The Other Miss Pickering and I have been on a road trip, she drove there, note the five to two driving position, and new jumper. I took photos of road signs.

We reminisced, laughed,and sang a lot of Rod Stewart - it was marvellous.

Miss Pickering presents Valentine's Day....

Love potion number 9 - a mix of vintage roses, viburnum, tulips, myrtle, rosemary and ivy trails. Small £50, Medium £70, Large £100 plus delivery*I love you more than ice cream, grand prix and amalia roses, anenomes, tulips
Small £50.00, Medium, £70.00, Large £100.00 plus delivery*

All wrapped up in grey tisue paper, with a bright pink ribbon.

Or you can have The Sheldon - a dozen red grand prix roses with eucalyptus and pussy willow £85.00 plus delivery

If you are in Sheffield, or maybe Bristol, wishing you too could have one of our bouquets, fear not we send our bouquets nationwide. All packaged up in one of our boxes and delivered overnight, they can be with you on Saturday morning, or delivered to your place of work on Friday. Call us on 01780 482961, dramatic gestures, love tokens, and wild abandon our speciality.

* Delivery charges nationwide £10.00 for Friday 13th, £15 for Saturday 14th, Please enquire for local delivery charges on 01780 482961.

Know your customer

Today started out as a good day, a little early at 4am, but a good start none the less. One of our packaging suppliers delivered something for Valentine's Day, and with it a Galaxy caramel bar. They do this every time they deliver, a thank you for your order kind of thing, sometimes it is Green and Blacks, once it was a Hershey bar. I shared a little with The Hound, don't all call the RSPCA, he had the caramel part. Here he is looking just dandy.

As the afternoon went on the day got gradually worse, mainly due to people trying to sell me things. Not the usual electricity, or telephone supply calls, but wedding sales calls. Now, I have a sales background, but even to the uninitiated calling a florist to sell them wedding advertising on a Friday afternoon is just foolish. Any florist worth their salt is busy actually doing a wedding, and doesn't want to chat.

Would you like to advertise on our CD-Rom? No I would not, who looks at those? Unless they are all forced to watch the adverts like on 4 on demand, or at the cinema - what is the point? Would I like to advertise on our chav wedding website? No thank you, May I ask why? - the fatal question, if they are pleasant I tell them we don't have any money left in the advertising budget, if they are pushy, I tell them exactly why.....

Rant over, thank you for listening, as a reward here is a picture of some flowers, I hope you all have a lovely evening, I think mine may involve a glass of the good stuff. Tune in tomorrow for more on that Valentine's Day packaging - it is not red - deal with it.

Today we have mainly been......

Making an amusing opening times sign

Using locally grown flowers, tulips, anenomes and because this is Lincolnshire a few hundred daffs. Field to vase -2 hours, HFW eat your heart out. Is there a more annoying man on TV at the moment? aside from Jamie Oliver that is.

Also we have been drooling over the Valentine's Day menu at Oundle Mill, discovering strange songs have mysteriously ended up on my Itunes, and craving Parma Violets

Presenting the results of the Great Valentine's Day experiment

On Saturday I conducted what will become known as the Great Valentine's Day experiment. I would say n=98.

Several bouquets were made up as an alternative to the dreaded dozen. Every single man chose the one with the red roses, most ladies chose a more vintage pastel palette. In conclusion, we will do our best to influence their decisions, and we have decided that mixed with a hot pink, Amalia rose, anenomes, and some of those dark and brooding Ronaldo tulips - red roses on Valentines ain't all bad? I will do my best ladies, if he is insistent we will make them beautiful, and not at all Sheldeon like.

Meanwhile, Martha Stewart has felt the need to defend her staunch stance on pencils. I can't help but think creativity is an individual thing, and if you want to use a Hello Kitty fruit flavoured marker pen, you should be allowed.....only please not in my shop, traditional red and black striped HB only if you please. Still you have to hand it to the woman, the defence comes with 2 links to stores where you too can purchase her standard issue pencil.

Do you write with a biro, scribble with a 2HB or like me use a fountain pen filled with purple ink?

Outfits for a wedding

My lovely friend Michelle is getting married. This is a rare occurrence in my circle, the high levels of debauchery mean that we rarely get around to it. So it is with great excitement that I am planning wedding flowers for a friend. Yesterday she emailed me a picture of her dress, I am desperate to share it with - it is really beautiful, but I fear she may shoot me.

Instead I have been doing some late night Net a Porter window shopping for my own outfit.

Dresses by Tibi, Diane Von Furstenburg, and those shoes by Givenchy

A Saturday in the shop