Having last week posted about my final flowery stall of the season, I got a surprise phone call on Thursday night asking me to do a prestigious local Farmer's Market on Saturday. Couldn't really say no as I've been trying to get on it for ages, so...out came the scissors, purple buckets (and torch), and off the merry-go-round went again!
Spent Thursday night thinking "But what have I got? What can I sell?" and came to the conclusion that if I could muster flowers in April after a foot of snow the week before, I could come up with something in late September....
A session of sitting in the sunshine peeling the papery cases off honesty seedheads proved worthwhile, as I dressed up some of my dried herb wreaths with these, and the results proved popular on the stall.
The dahlias provided much of the bounty once again, bless them - such good bloomers (of the petalled kind). Also taking a starring role were schizostylis coccinea 'Major', although my mind went completely blank when asked what they were by curious customers. I could only think of the 'coccinea' part of their full name, as it puts me in mind of the red food colouring, cochineal.
Schizostylis Coccinea Major
I decided that I should start an 'Aaaaaw, cute!' monitor, as it seemed to be an exclamation drawn from a large number of passers by as they gazed upon my stall. Should set myself targets for how many I can extract from people at each market, and see if there is any correlation with my takings!
Had my first wedding meeting last week (for May next year) - the most laidback bride imaginable in terms of being relaxed about the small details, so that should be a kind introduction to this element of the floristry world. Lots of teacups for tables, which is right up my street. It's a win win situation as the bride to be gets teacups for her guests, and my guests get more room to swing cats etc as my spare room is currently crammed with china on every once-vacant surface.
Still have to plant all my spring bulbs to provide me with lots of fragrant narcissus, tulips and other lovelies, and to sort out my china teacup planters which I'll be selling with white crocuses as Christmas sets. Lots of prepared hyacinths to force for the festive season too, so have now got to set my mind to the issue of what containers to use for those. Ah the dilemmas of the day job. Beats the educational funding minefield of my previous working life hands down!
