I have a huge passion for everything floral and purchased a Collins Flower Guide a while back to learn more about flowers and names, I didn’t read much of the book, just looked at the pictures and tried to say the odd Latin name.

Creating something with flowers was my dream, I have placed flowers in vases and cut stems, but never really had the confidence to design a display or even know where to start.

Browsing the internet I came across the Judith Blacklock Flower School, the courses looked amazing, the flower displays created by the students were impressive and I thought this might be a good place to start, but which course should I pick?

I went for the New Covent Garden Market Tour and Workplace Flowers, the course description was informative and sounded very interesting, so I booked up with my mum.

During the week of the course I received details of where to meet for the start of the course, under the clock in New Covent Garden Flower Market, it sounded like a film.

It was an early start but to be walking around New Covent Garden Flower Market at 8.20am on a Saturday was an amazing way to start the weekend, all the students gathered around the clock and Judith Blacklock arrived. She was so friendly, warming and everyone listened to her every word, her flower knowledge was impressive.

We walked around the flower market, looked at different flowers and Judith talked to us about what to look for when buying fresh flowers and the seasonality of flowers, we met traders and were treated to free flowers from some of Judith’s friends at the market.

After the tour we headed back to the Flower School in Knightsbridge in taxi’s and was greeted with fresh croissants and coffee, served in Emma Bridgewater mugs, the sun was shinning and we sat outside in the mews and drank coffee and relaxed. I was lucky enough to spend some time chatting to Judith about what inspired her career, she was so friendly.

We then headed into the practical room which looked amazing, all set out for each student, aprons laid out with name tags on the table and all our fresh flowers behind us in buckets ready to start the practical part of the day. To say I was excited was an understatement.

Step by step Judith took us through how to build the flower arrangement and talked through questions and tips as we went along, her method of teaching was powerful and the whole room was listening and watching her every move.

We followed the steps and created a beautiful flower centre piece which could be used at work or in the home. Judith made it look easy but it was quite tricky to get each part right but at every step, Judith and her assistant would check all the displays and lend support.

We talked about how to start the display and how to use different flowers to create a shape in a container that would work. Judith explained about heights of fresh cut flowers and I learnt so much, I would feel confident to arrange flowers for a special event now.

If you have an interest in flowers and want to learn more than just placing the flowers in a vase, the London courses are fantastic, I truly believe I could create my display again. At the end of the course we was handed a tote bag to take home our flower arrangement. I left with a sense of pride and achievement and will be returning for another course very soon.

If you want to learn about flower design you need to look at Judith Blacklock’s Website

 

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