Wildstems

Wildstems is a bespoke floral studio specialising in untamed, whimsical and dramatic florals using seasonal botanicals.

27/10/2024

Into the dark…

The changing of the clocks represents such a shift in the seasons for me. The slow down of flowers, the wind down of work, and time for drawing into myself and my family to recharge after a whirlwind of flowering (before the mayhem of the festive season). Working with the seasons, and respecting my body’s need for periods of calm and periods of intense activity, is so rewarding. As is being involved in the most important days of people’s lives.

Beautiful photo of Leonie and George’s reception meal in the orchard

19/10/2024

In my ‘previous life’, I lived and worked in Singapore for 5 years. It was tropical, and hot, and we hung out at the beach and at the pool a lot… dreamy you might say.

But the thing I noticed about living in a tropical climate, as someone from our temperate northern hemisphere was:

1. I physically craved the seasons. I couldn’t get over how middle aged that notion made me feel, but upon returning to the UK in 2015, I felt like I literally ‘had’ to embed myself in the changing of the seasons. It felt essential somehow…

2. The other thing I noticed was that I could not remember when anything happened. I didn’t have a reference point in terms of what I was wearing, or whether I could see my breath, or what it looked like outside. To my (probably untrained) eye, everything looked the same, all year round. My brain needed the markers of the seasons to anchor memories into.

These two facts were fundamental in why I became a season led florist. It has just always made the most obvious sense to me - to anchor myself into the seasons, and the natural landscape, and to help anchor my clients’ weddings and events to the time and place.

I want everything I design to be ‘of the moment’—a unique snapshot of that time—and often there is one ‘hero’ ingredient that informs my designs.

Old man’s beard is one of these hero ingredients. Abundant and rambling, delicate white flowers and its ubiquitous fluffy ‘beard’, underpinned by thick, twisting gnarled vines.

I have used it in so many weddings and events… and it formed the basis for a very special wedding in September… more on that to come…

Anyway, it’s everywhere at the moment. Clambering over hedgerows, and crawling along the roadside verges. It’s best harvested now, when the leaves are on the cusp of green and chartreuse, before the ‘poofiness’ sets in (technical term)…but I also love catching glimpses of the poofy white beard, irridescent in the late winter sunlight against the bare branches of the hedgerow. Yet another marker that helps anchor me to the present moment and appreciate the beauty of our natural landscape.

05/10/2024

Glenn Ligon is widely regarded as one of the leading contemporary artists working today, and his newly opened All Over The Place exhibition at has been designed as a ’thread that winds its way through the Fitzwilliam, loose in some places, taut in others, which the visitor can choose to follow or encounter serendipitously.’

For the opening dinner of the exhibition, and I wanted to capture the notion of this thread winding its way through the museum. Meters and meters of garland of snapdragon heads were wound down the table - taut in some places, bare of flowers in others, and coiled in layers around a few arrangements.

The flowers were arranged in hand pressed foil bowls, intentionally jarring, to reflect the contemporary and confronting nature of Glenn Ligon’s art against the more ‘classical’ permanent collection of the Fitz.

The flowers themselves, all locally grown by Anna, myself and were also chosen to for their variety of texture and form, soft and floaty, jagged and blousy and, frankly, the mental almost knitted form of amaranthus mira which I love to hate but which brought it all together, organically oozing out of the harsh metal ‘bowl’.

Needless to say, the whole lot was composted afterwards and the vessels flattened out and stored to be re-formed for use at a later date.

03/10/2024

A couple of weeks ago, and I found ourselves threading hundreds of snapdragon heads onto meters and meters of garland, and moulding foil into vessels in a car park. A standard Thursday...

I think a lot about the term ‘floral design’. I always feel like a bit conceited using it... It feels a bit too phnar phnar daahling, I’m a floral designer.

But at the same time, the word florist doesn’t feel quite right either. Most people immediately respond with ‘oh, where’s your shop?!’ … Cue my 15 minute rant on why the high street florist is the 6th most in decline business on the high street, and what I see as the future of floristry. (see for more…)

So I find myself in this middle ground of wanting to save the poor innocent people who ask me about my nonexistent shop, and not wanting to sound too far up my own arse, but also striving to explain how what I do goes beyond simply arranging flowers into a vase.

But the truth is, it is design. Working to a brief, within the constraints of the season (and a budget), to deliver beautiful flowers that are connected to and tell the story of an event and the people organizing it, as well as of the time and place.

I spend a long time thinking through what flowers to use, which ones will ‘perform’ in the way that is asked of them, their symbolism, how to incorporate elements that tell the story of my clients, or convey a subtle meaning.

It’s part of the job that I enjoy the most.

And I get to flex my design muscle in full, along with , when we design the flowers for the launch of exhibitions at the

For this, Anna and I always take time to really understand the exhibition, who the artist is and what they seek to convey through their art, and then explore how we can link to this through our flowers…

Which is how we found ourselves in the car park outside the Fitzwilliam Museum preparing flowers for the new. Glenn Ligon exhibition opening.

The rationale and final design will follow… but I should add, when asked, I do still say I’m a florist. Anyone else?!

01/10/2024

Beautiful Gwenan and Frazer, September 2024

“I am so grateful for what you created for us. As I said before you are a true artist and I thank my lucky stars we found you.

From the very beginning of our conversations and plans I knew you’d create the magic we wanted. The flowers were beautiful and I know that because they were created with true passion. EVERYONE was commenting on how gorgeous they looked. They were exactly what I had dreamed in my mind!!…

Although I know I will never be married again I hope I find an excuse to experience your flowers again. ###”

I’m not going to lie, words of affirmation are my love language. 💕 And to know that my work is received in this way means so much, because I do pour my passion and soul into each and every arrangement that I make.

Thank you for entrusting me with your special day ✨

Beautifully captured by
Venue and the insanely pretty Harlton Church
Preparation venue

(Acts of service are also my love language… just mentioning in case Mr Wildstems is reading this post… 😘)

22/09/2024

As I come to the end of a September sprint of weddings, events and teaching, I realize how much I crave connection to nature. How I need to feel the seasons changing through the changing landscape.

But when I’m busy, I forget to stop and take notice.

Yet it is exactly these details—the seed heads, the mottled foliage, the berries, the crisping grasses, the emerging stems—that form the inspiration to my work.

So this is a note to myself. To remember to slow down and take in the beauty. To pause and look properly. To ground myself to the earth.

Wisteria is one of my favourite climbers. It is so structural, with its huge gnarled vines twisting around itself, the delicately fragrant flowers in May, the velvety seed pods in the late summer and, now, the chartreuse tones of its foliage.

And it was this that formed the inspiration for my most recent wedding for Gwenan and Frazer. More to follow…

There is no filter on either the photo or the video. Just the gloomy light of this rainy Sunday. Sound on and you can hear the rain and birdsong.

03/09/2024

Finally, someone let me live out my pink and red bouquet of dreams… ❤️🩷

For Sarah who married Rob.

The loveliest of palettes for the loveliest of couples.

28/08/2024

Hi Instagram 👋🏻 I don’t really have much to say… other than one week to go… and then I can fall face first into flowers like this again.

05/08/2024

The Still Series #3 🇸🇪

I will always and forever love the wild stems the most.

Especially a roadside verge. The gnarled. The crispy. All the bits that traditional floristry would recoil from. But all I see is untamed beauty… full of movement, overlooked treasures and the unexpected.

This arrangement is everything I love in floral design.

Wildstems. Floral design at the untamed edge. If that wasn’t already my branding, I would be rebranding immediately.

29/07/2024

The Still Series 🇸🇪 #2

Lillies and alliums 🐍 from

25/07/2024

The still series 🇸🇪 #1

Arranging in the calm of Sweden for no one but myself.

With beautiful flowers cut from

Poppies, larkspur, snapdragons and dill.

17/07/2024

For Marta and Fred whose brief was for a relaxed, un-wedding wedding celebration

They wanted to celebrate with the best of the season, in terms of both flowers and food, but didn’t want it to feel too wedding-y… which meant roses were off the menu.

Icelandic poppies and sweet peas filled Marta’s bouquet, and were joined on the table by the absolutely wild allium ‘hair’ (my new favourite) dispersed through ikebana bowls and bud vases.

Thanks to and for the beautiful flowers.

27/04/2024

So if you look really hard, there are some of my flowers in this image. I promise.

I just love this image of Charlotte and Ashley too much not to share.

Happy slightly belated anniversary you lovely people.

Captured by the inimitable 🤍

13/04/2024

Pink cherry blossom. Let me count the ways I love you.

Number 1. Artfully arranged by me in a big vase and beautifully photographed by

17/03/2024

(Wo)man it feels good to get my fingers back to work…

Flowers for my beautiful former bride , who is expecting her first, long awaited baby, and who had a photo shoot to create everlasting images of her beautiful body at this special time… anchored to the time and place by my flowers ✨✨✨

12/03/2024

All the cuttings from the garden…

08/03/2024

I cut my first dark hellebores yesterday and it made me think of this beautiful bride and this dark and moody bouquet and image pretty captured by 🖤

From the archives, but still looking splendid.

flowers
dress
makeup
hair
earrings
silk ribbons

04/03/2024

Cut all the narcissi. Arrange in bowl. The end.

Address

Foxton
CB226RP

Website

http://www.wild-stems.com/

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Videos

This week was the last full flower delivery for @annasflowerfarm and my Year of Flowers customers. Next month will be a selection of our most treasured chrysanthemums and dried elements… but for this month, we filled their buckets with all the gloriousness of autumn - dahlias, chrysanthemums, salvias, rudbeckias, cosmos and a riot of seasonal foliage all grown at @annasflowerfarm and @surmium came to the studio to film my monthly arranging tutorial. Look at those colours. Autumn has whizzed by a blur of events and I don’t feel like I’ve taken a moment to pause and really appreciate all the beautiful material I get to work with, so I’m going to cherish each stem before the frosts and I’ll have this video to look back on once the season is over…

Watch with the sound on… 💚💫 A privilege to set up these ceremonial urns for Laurie and John @caiuscollege to the sound of their choir practicing… There was a food theme to all the arrangements for the wedding, with 13 different herbs for the reception centerpieces…. So I couldn’t resist the urge to use artichokes in the urns… (wishing there was an artichoke emoji right now!). #weddingurns #weddingflorist #britishflowers #seasonalflowers #artichokes #cambridgewedding #nofloralfoam #choirpractice

A bridal and bridesmaid bouquet for Laurie who finally was able to marry John this weekend at a beautiful ceremony @caiuscollege and reception @manorbarn 💫 #bridalbouquet #grownnotflown #slowflowers #seasonalflowers #inspiredbypetals #fieldtovase #excessivelydivertedbyflowers #gatherandcurate #prettyperfectpetals #nofloralfoam #underthefloralspell #cutflowers #britishflowers #weddingflorist #caughtflowerhanded #gatherandcurate #fortheloveofflowers #cambridge #saffronwalden #wildstems

British summer in a bowl… 13 different bowl centerpiece arrangements for this weekend’s wedding, each with its own herb foliage base (this was the top table with lavender). Full of movement, texture and scent and locally grown flowers by @annasflowerfarm, me, @themidnightgarden and roses from @therealflowerco. #weddingflowers #grownnotflown #slowflowers #seasonalflowers #inspiredbypetals #fieldtovase #excessivelydivertedbyflowers #gatherandcurate #prettyperfectpetals #nofloralfoam #cutflowers #britishflowers #weddingflorist #caughtflowerhanded #gatherandcurate #fortheloveofflowers #cambridge #saffronwalden #wildstems