Let the festivities begin

drum roll please ......

the grand unveiling of Green Parlour's Christmas door wreath.

ttfn x

Florists in India

Well this is not a post about Green Parlour for once but instead a note about flowers from around the world and how, on several occasions I have had to stop myself jumping into flower shops in India to show them 'how we do it in England'. Flowers are big in India, we are currently in Mumbai on a pre Christmas break, just a short walk from our hotel are 2 florists, shops open to the elements (30degree heat) with tiny yellow roses galore. They also seem set on strangling their colourful gerberas with an excess of cellophane wrapped so tightly all the petals are pressed up shaped into a tight funnel.

National Flower of India: Lotus flower (although I have seen none, they do seem to have a strong passion for yellow roses)
The meaning behind the Lotus flower: it symbolises divinity, fertility, wealth, knowledge, enlightenment and triumph. Generally growing in mud ridden areas and untouched by its impurity the flower is also meant to symbolise purity of heart and mind.

Onto the design...small dark wicker baskets with huge trangles of yellow roses sprouting from them and a collar or foliage around the base. Not a hand tie in sight. These colourful spears of flowers provide a rich colourful backdop to otherwise dowdy buildings.
They also make garlands to hang around their sacred objects in an act of, as offerings to the gods or Buddah or other religious figures. These bright colourful floral garlands are garish and enchanting and really quite beautiful. I think of the time and skill that goes into making these quite magnificant objects.

I want them to ask me what I do for a living and then I can be invited in to show them how I arrange flowers, talk of all the wonderful colours and feel like part of the 'florists' club. what on earth would they think of our style I wonder?

the Black Barn gets a splash of colour

This wedding held in the Black Barn was anything but a blackout when it was transformed with a riot of colour. The inside was turned into a true country style wedding complete with barn yard wedding cake!

We also transformed the church into a kitch country wedding setting with a kissing ball complete with gingham hearts and rustic wreath pew ends.

flowers that mean business

Supplying flowers to offices and hotels is an exciting part of our job. It really lets our creative side reign free and push the flowers design content to the limit. Check out some examples of our corporate work below.

weddings galore

Well its been a while ... but we've been up to our eye balls in weddings and boy oh boy have we enjoyed it. Below is a taster of some of the bouquets we've delivered all over Berkshire to some amazing brides.

Our late summer blooms arranged in this gorgeous wedding bouquet went down a storm with one of our brides. With free reign on suggestions this bride really loved every idea we brought to her but finally settled on this rather stunning arrangement of Memory Lane and Sahara roses, scabiosa, flowering mint, thistles, oregano and a collar of hydrangea leaves. A true celebration of summer.

The above bouquet was inspired by our brides garden with that all important oriental twist. After taking cuttings from the brides herb garden (basil mint, purple sage, variegated green sage, rosemary, mint and lavender) and using true English scented roses along with individual orchid heads and snowberries it took her breath away.

We are one! ... some more pictures

Its been a while ....

We have been very busy immersing ourselves in the planning of our birthday party which took place on 6th June 2009. I am pleased to announce it went with a bang and a good time was had by all. Thank you to everyone for coming along, especially the Cake Collective who provided all the cakes and cocktails. Delicious.