Frolicking with very British flowers

Lara from Manor Farm Cottage Flowers

On Friday we welcomed Lara to the Flower School with her buckets of very British flowers to collaborate on our first British Flower Day Course.

Getting to grips with our natural hand tied bouquets

After an introduction to British flowers from a grower's perspective it was time to get hands on and create gorgeous natural hand ties as nature intended them to be. When flowers are this fresh and this seasonal, there's no need to over style - they simply speak for themselves in all their British glory!

A beautiful kind of floral chaos

Just some of our flower heroes for the day included bright blue Cornflowers, deep purple and pink heavenly scented Sweet Peas, Dahlias, Zinnias and Larkspur - all of which are at their freshest right now so if you are looking for some July floral inspiration, they are a great place to start.

A big thank you to Lara for nurturing these wonderful blooms and of course to our day students who we had a blast with!

You can see more of Lara's beautiful blooms and her styling of them via her Manor Farm Cottage Facebook page.

Floral Musings

The Tallulah Rose Flower School

invites you to

Floral Musings

14th & 15th October, Brixton East, London, SW9 7JF

This Autumn we're going back to our roots, to the soulful heart of Brixton and invite you to come on a journey of Floral Musings with us. For two days this October, we are making the old furniture factory in Briston our home and are opening the doors to all those who share our passion for design, flora, texture and colour.

Against a backdrop of raw wooden beams, vaulted ceilings and smooth concrete floors, we're going to slow things down a little, enjoy local artisan produce together like fresh ground coffee and warm baked croissants and revel in the art of conversation as we muse openly about our floral aesthetic. With natural light pouring in through the large glazed windows, we may be lucky enough to catch to morning Autumn sun and enjoy the courtyard - where we will later introduce you to the principles of floral photography and capture our day's work on film.

Over the course of two days we will be running a series of practical floral demonstrations and lectures, giving you a real insight into our world of floral design. Whether you are an existing florist looking for fresh inspiration to move your business forward or a complete beginner, we will guide you through a range of techniques (and insider secrets) using the freshest flora the season has to offer.

Course Content:

Day One - Musings on balance, scale & form

Once we've taken time out to get to know you over a steaming cup of coffee we'll introduce ourselves and our floral passions to you. We'll kick start the day with a nod to the history of our building and create beautiful meadow boxes together - using the traditional wooded crates that the building is famous for.

In the afternoon there will be a thematic lecture and a floral demonstration as we show you how to create one of the flower school's signature pieces - the floral door garland. This will allow us to take you though the key areas of floral selection, colour, balance and form whilst working on a grand scale. Then it's over to you to create your own garland using all of the knowledge you have learnt from the day. We will then take you through the principles of floral photography, sharing our hints and tips on proportion, positioning and light before you find your perfect place in the building to photograph your work.

Day Two: Musings on proportions, details and finishes

Hopefully you will have spent the night dreaming of flora and this morning you will be totally inspired and raring to go, so after breakfasting together, it’s straight on with the aprons as we delve into the romance of floral bouquets. Through a series of practical demonstrations, we will show you various styles of hand tied bouquets and present our own signature style. Then it’s over to you as you are given the freedom to find your own conversation with flowers and create your own wonderfully romantic design. We will then wander through our gorgeous archive of silk ribbons and teach you how to finish your designs and prep them for more individual photography throughout the building.

After lunching together, there will be another thematic lecture followed by an introduction to wired work and the delightful art of floral crowns. Late in the afternoon, we will end the course as we began, slow things down, put a pot of coffee on and share our learnings, hopes and dreams in an open forum with the full flower school team.

Come and muse with us a while…

Date: Tuesday 14^th – Wednesday 15^th October

Time: 10.00 – 17.00 each day

Location: Brixton East, 100 Barrington Road, London, SW9 7JF

Cost: £1600 per person*

To reserve your place, simply email us at: hello@tallulahroseflowers.com and we'll arrange the rest.

*Included in the course fee are all fresh floral materials, floristry equipment, vessels used in your floral designs, breakfast, lunch and light refreshments for the full two days.

Rachel's top 10 tips for Social Media success

So, this week has been Business Week for our May Career Course students with a large part of our focus on Social Media and how to get the most from it when setting up a new business.

Social media has completely transformed the way we communicate and is allowing us as florists to get connected with wide audiences all over the world. This in itself can be a little daunting when you are just starting out so we teamed up with The Florist and Rona Wheeldon of Flowerona this week and shared our tips for Social Media success.

Here are Rachel's 10 top tips:

1. Account names - Standardise your account names across all social media platforms to make it easy for people to find you. With the international reach this is important to build a strong local brand.

2. Personal photo - Have a professional headshot taken and use the same one on all your accounts. People respond much better to an individual photo rather than a generic photo of flowers or a shop front.

3. Location - Unless you’re running an international business, make sure you mention where you operate. It’s more likely that people will be looking for a local florist.

4. Portfolio – Use of photos in Twitter increases retweets by 150%, so keep your social media accounts regularly updated. These will act as a current portfolio, far better than the old fashioned tatty, out of date, hard copy.

5. Conversation – Social media is all about engagement, not about blasting out marketing bumph. Ask questions, talk to others and you’ll be reap the rewards.

6. Personality – Don’t overthink before you post. Let your own voice, views and opinions be heard but never be offensive or critical of others.

7. Social media management – There are lots of tools to help you manage time. Hootsuite and TweetDeck are just two platforms that allow you to compose one update and send to many different platforms. You can schedule in advance, perfect for updates when you are busy.

8. Frequency – There’s lots of science behind when and how often to post. But it’s your business and there will be some trial and error. Monitor how many likes, pins or retweets you get. Regular refining means you’ll hit on the right way for your business.

9. Respond – not every post you publish has to be yours. Find things that you like and inspire you and share them. It’s all about conversations, have these and you’ll build your network more quickly.

10. Commit and be consistent - Be prepared to be in it for the long-haul and you’ll get results.

Ultimately, we love connecting with you all via our Facebook, Twitter and Blogger pages and our advice would be to roll up your sleeves, be honest in how you communicate and get stuck in!