Jessie Loves: Flowers
All about my garden, and tips from my friend Willow Crossley
Now that it’s turning chilly, I thought I’d revisit my garden for this issue to cheer myself up. Here’s the story behind my summer garden project, plus some fall floral arranging tips from my amazing, talented friend Willow Crossley — the UK’s “Queen of Flowers.” She shared the most life-changing trick for cutting flowers in proportion to their vase, keys to caring for your arrangements, and so much more. Read on!
When we finished my cut-and-come-again garden, my landscape architect Margie told me, “This is you, as a garden.” I love the idea of creating something that is a perfect expression of who I am and what I love.
And this garden IS me as a garden. It’s wild but restrained. I love the beautiful palette, the raised beds, the gravel stones. I got the idea for this garden watching a Create Academy series by Sarah Raven. (Create Academy is gorgeously filmed online classes from artists, florists and interior designers I admire. I highly recommend a yearly subscription).
The idea is to plant flowers in such a way that you get the most flowers possible within the season. When you cut, the blooms will regrow. Sarah had such an interesting exercise showing how if she planted peonies in a 1-meter square plot, over an entire season she got only a half a bucket. With cosmos, she got over 50 buckets. The key is to plant things that will produce lots and lots of flowers.
Margie and I worked with a clear palette when deciding what to plant. I think this was very helpful in that my resulting arrangements are cohesive.
Some of the flowers we planted that I love:
This is called a cupcake cosmo. It looks like a little cupcake liner!
The dahlias have been the heroes of my garden. The colors and the size. There is such variety.
Anything red makes such a splash, like these roses.
A typical bucket full of flowers when I go out in the morning to do my cuttings.
A few things I like to do with my flowers now that I have them:
Sit in the garden and read, spend time with my flowers
Put a bouquet of flowers by my husband’s beside or for guests when they visit. My mother always does this when I visit her house and it makes me feel very loved.
Make big, wild arrangements each weekend. It’s a very hard decision which ones to cut. I hate to cut the most beautiful ones but I need to cut them before they go over. I really struggle with this!
Save my money. I used to spend so much money on cut flowers in the summer. I gave myself a goal of not buying any cut flowers this past summer and I have kept that promise to myself.
Other flower things I love:
I’m always saving favorite floral prints, design inspiration, and I try to keep a running list of florists by city. A few of my favorites in New York are Flower Psycho, Missi Flowers, Tin Can Studios, GRDN Brooklyn and Flowers By Ford. I’d love to know what florists you love most where you are!
My garden has kept growing through the early fall in the case of some of the plants, like the roses and dahlias. But the season is definitely coming to a close, and it’s time for me and Margie to start planning for next year. In the meantime, though, I’m always looking for ways to keep the joy of fresh flowers in my life while my garden’s not in bloom.
So, I called for help from the wonderful Willow Crossley. Willow is an incredibly talented florist, author, designer and more. I’m endlessly inspired by everything she creates in her Cotswolds studio, from tutorials for perfect arrangements to her new Substack newsletter, The Seedling. Read on for Willow’s helpful list of tricks for florals all season long, and a few more of my favorite floral things, too.
Willow’s Six Tips for Fall Florals
1. Look For Color
“I love bringing as much colour and joy into the house as I possibly can at this time of year. Praying the frosts hold off to keep the dahlias going for as long as possible. The hedgerows are bursting with treasures — so lots of foraging — ruby red berries and drifts of wild clematis that mix so well with the last of the garden blooms. Foliage wise, look out for scented geranium and nasturtium and jasmine vines and then mix in with dahlias, hips, cosmos, hot pink nerines and the last of any garden roses. I always feel they're even more special at this time of year.”
2. Get Creative With Natural Elements
“To add interest to a dinner table or special event, think about scattering things down the middle of the table, I love tiny red crab apples, fallen conkers and their prickly shells, lime green spiky sweet chestnuts falling out of their velvety homes and even dried autumn leaves scattered on the table on floor can add a real wow!”
3. Don’t Forget About Chrysanthemums
“Chrysanthemums still have a bit of a bad rep but there are some seriously beautiful ones out there. Look out for 'Vienna pink' and a very pale pink ‘Avignon’ and mix with towering red Corallo rose hips.”
4. Consider The Vase
“When you’re arranging flowers, think about the vase as much as the flowers, I am obsessed with proportion — you want your flowers to be one and a half the height of your vase.”
5. Take Care Of Your Arrangements
“To keep flowers lasting as long as possible, keep them out of direct sunlight, away from a direct heat sources (radiators) and keep the containers and water clean.”
6. Invest In Good Tools
“If you play with flowers a lot, invest in a good tool kit — great secateurs, flower frogs, chicken wire, pot tape and a good collection of vases are life changing! (I have lots in my shop!)”
…And one thing I hate*
I kind of hate Zinnias. I think I’ll plant fewer of them next year.
*my husband’s suggestion to always include one thing I don’t like at the end Ha!
Please do a full house tour!
Jessie thank you so much for having me!! Such an honour to be part of your beautiful Substack xxxx