Mother's Day

This year I wrote it down.  What is in my head.  The things I never say to my Mum.   It helped me reflect on being a Mum myself. 

Here is Mother's Day 2014.

Posy collection.  Pure blooms, no foliage.  Thoughful and simple.
£5 for a little posy- choose from 20 stems of narcissus, 10 stems of anemone, 10 stems of tulip or 5 stems of hyacinth
£10 for medium posy - choose from 40 stems of narcissus, 20 stems of anemone, 20 stems of tulip or 10 stems of hyacinth
£15 for lovely posy bunch - choose from 60 stems of narcissus, 30 stems of anemone, 30 stems of tulip or 15 stems of hyacinth
£20 for a large posy - choose from 80 stems of narcissus, 40 stems of anemone, 40 stems of tulip or 20 stems of hyacinth

Beautiful Seasonal Bouquets.  Flowers and foliages.  The best of the season.
Seasonal bouquets start at £25 and will include the best of the seasons flowers and foliages hand selected by us to make sure all blooms are tip top and pretty. Arranged in a hand tie design, these lovely bouquets will reflect our classic and pretty house style.

All posies and bouquets are wrapped with our signature brown paper and white tissue paper and this year, we'll be finishing each posy or bouquet with a bow of twine. Heart strings if you will.

Order by Thursday 27th March for collection on Friday 28th, Saturday 29th or Sunday 30th.  Sunday 30th collections before 12noon by email to laura@lauracolemanflowers.co.uk.

Laura x

The Big Hint

Ah yes.  Valentines Day.

The 14th February.  Annually.

This year it falls on a Friday.  A useful planning fact. 

All the prices are under the chalkboard.

 

Men. If you need clarification.  If she has done any of the following, please take it with the subtlety of a sledgehammer through a glass window that yes, she would like something ordered. 
a.  Sent you a direct link via email or social media
b.  Laughed out loud in your presence and said that she finds this incredibly funny and that you 'really should have a look at this'
c.  Left the page open on your jointly owned tablet in the hope you'll see it
d.  Made it quite clear and told you outright

I am of the 'b' variety.  Generally this means I get nothing.  I draw the line at making my own Valentines gift.  Ladies, (or gents, you too, you may well like flowers) be subtle at your peril.

THE PRICE LIST
£15 Single Red - Single red rose set with foliages inspired by nature.
£25 Small Bunch - Hand selected seasonal blooms* and greens inspired by nature.
£35 Lovely Bunch - Hand selected seasonal blooms* and greens inspired by nature.
£35 Class Voucher for one of our 'Classes for the Florally Curious'.
£40 Half Dozen Red - Half a dozen beautiful red roses set with foliages inspired by nature.
£45 Good Bunch - Hand selected seasonal blooms* and greens inspired by nature.
£55 Big Bunch - Hand selected seasonal blooms* and greens inspired by nature.
£65 Dozen red - A dozen red roses set with foliages inspired by nature.
£75 Oh My - Hand selected seasonal blooms* and greens inspired by nature.
  
The Lovers Deal - £5 off any of the above flower prices when you purchase a voucher for one of our 'Classes for the Florally Curious' at the same time.  ie Single Red and a Class Voucher would total £45.

All bouquets are wrapped in our signature gift wrapping.  Brown Kraft Paper, clear cellophane and finished with an elegant finish of grey and red grosgrain ribbon.  Hand written gift tag and flower food are included.

THE DETAILS
All or our bouquets are designed to fit within our house style.  We simply can't compete on price with major high street supermarkets and department stores, so we've opted for doing what we do best.  Quality.

All flowers will be looked after by us.  Think of us as floral babysitters.  Conditioned to last, hand selected for their beauty and we're staying away from cost cutting foliages and sticking to beautiful blooms.  Expect lovely eucalyptus, touches of thlaspi green bell and whatever takes our hearts on our buying day.  Roses will be long stem, large headed 'Freedom Roses'.  We are happy to create bouquets using Grand Prix.  Please quadruple the above costs.

The *seasonal blooms that we use will be just that.  The absolute best that we can buy for the money.  There will be a complete mix and they may not even be red.  Roses won't be included unless they 'work' as part of the designs.  Hand chosen to be simply beautiful and to reflect our own personal love of all things nature inspired, you could get anything. It might be tulips mixed with ranunculus, it might be some broom.  What it won't be is 'bulked' out with the 'not nice' stuff.  Gerbera are off the list. These designs are perfect for the person who simply loves flowers, whatever they are.

ORDERING
You can order your bouquet directly from us.  Email us the following by Monday 10th February (ideally) or Tuesday 11th February (at a push.)  We're on laura@lauracolemanflowers.co.uk.
- Your name
- The name of the person the gift is for
- The title of the bouquet as per the price list
- The date you would like it (13th, 14th or 15th)
- Short message (about 15 words, we don't mind whether they are romantic or naughty, it's your message, say what you will)
- Whether you would like collection or delivery - see below.  Delivery does incur additional charges and is only available on Friday 14 January to the South Manchester area.  Ask us for details.
- Make a payment to us via bank transfer before V-day.  We'll send you details.

COLLECTION AND DELIVERY
We are happy for you to collect bouquets free of charge.  Just let use know a rough time.
Thursday 13th - Noon until 8pm
Friday 14th - 8.30am until 8pm
Saturday 15th - 8.30am until noon.
Delivery can be made locally on Friday 14th February only and charges will apply.

If you have any specific requests, (floral ones) then we'll see what we can do.

Laura xx

Flowers for Her Majesty The Queen

Today is a proud day. 

Yesterday was a giddy day.

The day before that was full of stress.

And now I can breath.

Today, Her Majesty The Queen was presented with a posy of flowers that I created when she went for luncheon (yep, they call it that in Downton Abbey, rather grand) at The Monastery in Gorton.   She will sit at a table in front of the table displays we created.  I tell you, that vaseware hasn't gleamed this much since I don't know when.

We were commissioned by The Monastery to create some displays for a very VIP lady.  There were details I needed to follow including red. white and blue blooms.  But The Monastery put their trust in me for the overall design. We worked our magic.  It would have been all too easy to go with expensive roses, set with standard foliages because they were a safe bet. Too easy to say, yep, let's put everything in.  Not us. We took a step back.  We kept it seasonal.  We put an autumn spin on the shades we used.  We used the interiors and intricate details of the nave at The Monastery as our starting point.  We used British narcissus.  We bought all the flowers at the wholesaler because they have looked after us for years. At this point I did not know the design was to be for H.R.H.  Luckily the Monastery team loved what we came up with.  Phew and thank you.

So, hurricane lamps and seasonal wreaths it was.

On the day they could officially tell me that The Queen was visiting I was giddier than a spinning stop.  I stopped talking I was so giddy.  Those who know me know that silencing me is tricky.  Then they mentioned posies.  I was so quiet that they checked I was still on the line.  They invited me to design this however I wanted to.  It was my gift to her.  So, I thought about it.  Again, I kept it seasonal.  Agapanthus, oak, seeded eucalyptus, thlaspi, rosemary, gentiana, faded autumn hydrangea, pincushion flower seed pods, ammi, waxflower, ranunculus and British narcissus.  The first attempt at the bouquet I wasn't my relaxed self.  I didn't like it.  I shook.  I have never shaken with flowers before.  Not even with too much caffeine.  So I calmed down.  I started again.  I smiled and thought about it.  Her Majesty is a family woman.  So I thought of my family.  What would my Grandmother like?  So I made it for her.

I know my Grandmother will love the design.  I hope The Queen did too.

Here are some pictures.  In my garden.  Due to being searched by a Police team, all vases, toolboxes and water sprays examined and the flowers needing to be checked out by Colin the sniffer dog, we couldn't put them on the tables today.  It all went in in secret on Wednesday.  Excitement indeed.

 

On a personal note. Thank you to my daughters nursery for looking after her at short notice so that I could carry out this once in a lifetime commission. And to Lisa and her Mum for sorting their diaries at the drop of a hat. All these things put my mind at rest that both the flowers and my little girl were in the safest of hands.

Checkered past

When given the challenge of black and white for a wedding.  One could start researching roses.  One could research stocks.  One could look at black stones.  I'll never research black stones.  That's just the way it is.  Sorry.

 

Then there's the way my mind works.  Black and white you say?  No problem.  According to science, white is the colour the eyes of a human sees when it looks at light which contains all the wavelengths of the visible spectrum. (Reference, Wikipedia).  Thank you Wikipedia.

 

So, my black and white was inspired by the works of clever old Isaac Newton.

 

Here it is.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

High Rangers

That's what my pal Alice calls them.  High Rangers.

 

I'm happy to go with that.

 

Here are High Rangers alongside roses, ornamental cabbages (because I can, and they are fabulous), waxflower and a number of other bits and bobs.

 

All at The Monastery.

 

High 'Ranger; five.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Flowers and the empty flour bag

There was a mixer.  And empty flour bags.

 

There was a day some time in September.

 

In attendance were people who may have considered that I had lost the plot.  I proved them wrong, naturally.  It is entirely possible to create designs from things that would otherwise wind up in the recycling.

 

There were many flowers.  One I can't remember the name of.  It happens to us all. 

 

Here's what happened when we did a Floral Demonstration for the Florally Curious at the pop up cafe run by And The Dish Ran Away with the Spoon.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Because it's never too early to have flowers in your life........

.......or have too many ways to occupy children during the half-term holidays.

Blooms.  It's never too early.  According to my family, I walked, then there were flowers.  Almost before food.  Clearly hadn't discovered chocolate at that point, or there may have been a different order to things.

So, because no child is going to want to get involved in the latest garden inspired floral fashions, we've focussed on it being more about what they want.

There's cake.  There's spiders.  There's face painting.  There's colouring (although it doesn't say that on the picture, that's a surprise).  There's stories.  There's a cuppa for Mum, Dad or other responsible adult.

Here is it.  Flowereen.  A morning of spooky floral fun at And The Dish Ran Away With The Spoon.

Boo!