My Garden

Only a few days left until the winner will be drawn, it's all pretty nail biting stuff... Visitors to the BFA Marquee at the Tatton Park Flower Show will remember voting for their favourite competitor in order for them to win a FREE bouquet of flowers delivered to their own front door for the whole of next year.

In just a few days the lucky winner will be revealed. Well folks,let me tell you, the tension is rising here in the BFA office. We're probably just as nervous as the unknown winner at the moment!! This prize worth £500,- is quite something to be sniffed at as a matter of fact, in more ways then one. Who wouldn't appreciate a beautiful bouquet of fresh flowers in this gloomy times? As the press is having a field day with our global slow down issuing articles on a daily basis in the papers and on the news I honestly feel that we could do with a bit of a break now. Let's have some happy news for a change...

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It's been a while since my last post so here's some news from the BFA camp. Visitors to the BFA Marquee at the Tatton Park Flower Show were in for a bit of a shock when the floristry demonstrators started asking for volunteers from the audience for our Ready, Steady, Floristry! challenge.

After a brief introduction the volunteers were shown the item they would have to re-create following a short demonstration by the florist expert. What the volunteers didn't know though when they had stepped onto the stage was that they would only be given four minutes to create their masterpiece

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Months of planning in advance and then, in just a few days, a whole year of preparations just flies by. But it goes without saying that the event was a huge success and has managed to bridge the gaps in our industry by bringing all the different organisations closer together working along side eachother to deliver a united front for professional floristry.
With this years introduction of retail floristry on BBC national tv in a three minute report as well as numerous local radio, tv and newspaper coverage we have managed to open a door that until now has always remained firmly shut. This acchievement is something we can be incredibly proud of as this long awaited introduction of professional retail floristry to the consumer has certainly kicked of the BFA's four year consumer campaign with a flying start and who knows where we will end up next year!

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With only a few more days to go it's getting very close to the Tatton Show now. All preparations are well and truly up to speed and it's not long before I pack my bag to set off to Manchester. My rain dances every night here in London seem to be doing the trick as I manage to keep it dry during the days to avoid the wash out that we have seen for most of the week at Hampton. I am dancing the nights away in the hope of nice dry days!! (or trying at least.... haha)

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Wow, what a week! It's seriously tempting when you're working the stand at Gardeners World Live to indulge in the yummie foods on offer in the food hall. All the marvellous aroma's wafting through the plant hall were giving my nose a serious beating and have now left me with some crash dieting to do for the next week or so to work off the added extra's!

Tatton is almost upon us and just enough time left to tell you about our fourth demonstrator on Saturday 26th July, Neil Whitaker.

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It's been a couple of weeks since Chelsea and after winning our first ever Bronze Grenfell medal for our stand at the Chelsea Flower Show I told you all to watch this space as we would be going 'onwards and upwards' and I am pleased to inform you that I have managed to make that statement a reality!

To say that we were pleased with our Silver Gilt Medal for our stand at Gardeners World Live would be an understatement as the screams of delight were able to be heard in Solihull and beyond! Thrilled to bits and over the moon are just a few phrases that I can use to describe how pleased we all are with our result

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Our third demonstrator on Friday 25th July in the BFA Marquee is Tracy Rowbottom. Tracy started her floristry career early at the age of 14 as a Saturday girl, she caught the floristry bug and went on to pursue a career. Tracy trained at Bath college under the tuition of Pat Reeves-Jones and Hazel Bushell and successfully achieved her N.D.S.F. at the age of 22. Tracy started her florist business called Cherri Burrelle in 1989 and since then she has become well known as a national demonstrator, lecturer and designer. Tracy's proudest achievement has been exhibiting at  the RHS Chelsea Flower for which she has been awarded a Gold and two Silver medals. in her spare time, of which there is very little, Tracy is also a sculpter.To find out more about Tracy, please visit www.bfaflorist.org

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After a very heavy week at Chelsea it's been a delight to walk back into the shop again and smell the flowers. It's funny how you miss certain things when you're not around them. Some of you might think how weird? Being at Chelsea would have meant being surrounded by flowers and yes, this is true. But the scent from plants is very different than that from cut flowers in a florist. There is that certain aroma that wafts towards you when you enter a florist, and that is what I realised I had been missing when I was away from the shop last week.

Our Bronze medal has taken pride place on the counter and is the talk of Lower Sunbury! The team of BFA members that worked on the stand did incredibly well and we are all immensly proud of our acchievement. Roll on Gardeners World Live I say! We are re-creating our Chelsea exhibit for those of you that missed it the first time round with a few slight alterations here and there. So if you're coming along to the show, do please pop in and see us on the BFA stand in hall 18

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It's all stations go at the moment, I am spending my days at Chelsea from early in the morning until late at night. How the other half live eh? Not a bad job I suppose, I can think of worse places to be! Amy and Marilyn are certainly attracting plenty of attention from the visitors and our floral jewelry is going down a storm. If you are still able to come and see our stand in the Great Pavillion, pop in and say hi. We're on stand GPC8 and who knows, you might end up wearing one of our masterpieces if you're brave enough...

But now the reason for my blog today, I am about to introduce you to our second demonstrator at Tatton Park, Helen Jamieson who will be taking to the demonstration stage in the BFA Marquee on Thursday 24th July.  

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After a lot of hard work, dealing with several set backs along the way (as nothing ever goes as planned) and days of working our socks off we did it, we have managed to win a medal at Chelsea. I was absolutely delighted to arrive at our stand this morning to find we had been rewarded with a Bronze medal!

For our first ever entry at the Chelsea Flower Show, to walk away with a Bronze medal is something we can all be very proud of. Now that we have had a successful introduction all I can say is watch this space as it's all onwards and upwards from here..

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Me and my big mouth, boasting about the lovely weather we are having.... It's raining now :-( Oh well, that's just another typical summer in the UK I suppose....

I have an update on the regional heat for you as promised.21 competitors took part in the Northern Ireland competition, with a wonderful selection of flowers and sundries they all set to off to complete the first task , an arrangement to go on/or at the base of a grand piano. Several competitors used the purple Midelino Sticks to represent the music bars and notes, which created both rhythm and movement through their designs. The body adornments were both creative and varying in styles and designs, and followed on by their presentation bouquets and chaplet, which was to be placed around the head of Sir Malcolm Sergeant, proving to cause them the most problems.

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Oh what wonderful weather we are having! It certainly feels like summer has arrived here in London. It's days like these I wish I had a garden instead of a roof terrace to retreat in. But back to the order of the day, the blog writing... This year the brand new BFA Marquee will be buzzing with activity in the competion area where the WorldSkills UK 2008 Floristry Final is being held. This prestigious competition is currently in the middle of it's regional heats selecting the finalists to appear in the final at the Tatton show.

Take a look at the pictures from the Irish regional heat held in Greenmount Northern Ireland where over 20 competitors entered with stunning results

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Almost another week has passed and loads more has happened. I promised a demonstrator update in my last blog and here it is... Our first demonstrator on Wednesday 23rd July will be Sarah Horne.

Sarah Horne AIFD is an International Designer, working most recently in Canada, France, Spain and the USA as well as widely throughout England, she is owner of the Award Winning Sarah Horne Flowers in Leamington Spa. Sarah is also an industry consultant working for clients such as BBC television Flower Council of Holland and Interflora

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It's been a while since my last blog and I have not managed to get into my 'new habit' of updating on a weekly basis yet... But since I remembered today I thought I'd drop a few lines. Visitors to the BFA Marquee at Tatton Park this year will see some of the finest BFA member florists share their floristry skills with a live audience. The latest floristry trends will be created before your very eyes using mainly English grown flowers. For those of you that wonder what the BFA is all about, why not have a look at our consumer website. Visit us at www.bfaflorist.org for more information about the BFA and where to find your nearest store. More on the demonstrators in my next blog!

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As Tatton is getting closer so are all the tasks surrounding it. Despite my increasing workload I am becoming even more excited than I already was and I still have about 3 months to go! The demonstrators have been booked, the competitors are competing for a place at the Tatton Show in the regional heats that are being held up and down the country, all I need to do now is to book the weather for the week of the show...
 
Sourcing our English grown flowers for the show is a task that's set to challenge me. Never one to shy away from a challenge I am quietly confident that we will not disappoint but it's a mission and I am now using skills a crusader would use when setting off on a round the world trip. The BFA crusader, Around the country is 80 days, England here I come....

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