Ali Conway, Rambling Stems

25/11/2024

LUXURY wreath workshop event. Last tickets remaining!!

Friday 6th December 7-9pm
Husborne Crawley Reading Room Woburn MK43 0XB

Come and join Ali of Rambling Stems for a fun evening learning from a trained florist. Beautiful materials, using only natural ingredients - Ali’s style is wild and naturally beautiful. Luxury ribbon, dried adornments and expert tuition - you will be so pleased with the results! Our past participants are ALWAYS blown away by what they have created.

We create full, luxury wild Christmas wreaths from scratch, on a moss base, and supply a huge array of dried materials and fresh foliages so that each participant can make a unique design, to suit them.

For a special discount code, all you have to do is LIKE this post and SHARE with a friend. Comment ‘wreath’ to let me know you have done that and I will send you the discount.

See you there!!
Ali
X

19/11/2024

✨ A huge THANK YOU to everyone who joined our webinar last night! 🎉 It was such a fun session, and we hope you learned loads about the beautiful world of funeral floristry. 🌿💐 If you missed it or want to watch again, the replay is available right here in the group! 🎥 Feel free to ask any questions as you go – we're here to help!

🌟 We’re SO excited to announce the launch of our Farewell Blooms Course! 🌸 This course is packed with everything you need to create meaningful floral tributes, and as a special bonus, if you book by MIDNIGHT TONIGHT, you’ll receive 5 extra tutorials on Sustainable Floristry! 🌱💚

💡 Lifetime Access to all course materials means you can learn at your own pace, and the value is incredible – just selling ONE coffin topper can cover the course fees! 🏆

Don’t miss out on this amazing opportunity! Here are all the details you need to join the course: the link is below.

We can't wait to welcome you! 🌺 Let's create beautiful, heartfelt florals together! 💖

GBFS

17/11/2024

🌿” I’ve been to lots of wreath workshops and Ali’s is by far the best”
🌿 “this is definitely the best wreath class I’ve been to, I’m so happy with what I’ve created. thank you!”

Just two of my happy customer reviews from last years classes.

There’s just a few spaces left, if you’d like to come join us this year. Price includes all materials, from a huge selection, drinks and Christmas nibbles.

Book your slot here, online:

https://www.ramblingstems.co.uk/workshops-courses/event-two-7xsy9

16/11/2024

Sustainable Floristry Webinar
Mon 18th 7-9pm

Come and join us for lively debate, discussion, Demo…. Q&A session…. 🌿💚💚

16/11/2024

FREE floristry seminar and demo session.

Whose coming ? 🙌💚. (Please register as we will also send out the recording if you can't make it or want to refer back to it for all registrants)

Roz and Ali will broadcast a free webinar - streaming into their Sustainable Floristry FB group - on Monday November 18th, 7:00pm GMT.

The Farewell Blooms webinar will include:

🌿 Live Demo with Ali
Watch Ali demonstrate how to craft a natural, eco-friendly funeral wreath from a wicker vine base and moss. Get hands-on tips on creating beautiful, biodegradable arrangements that make a lasting impact without leaving a trace.

📈 Building Your Audience with Roz
Roz will share strategies on growing visibility and connecting with an audience interested in sustainable funeral work. Hear her insights into the planning and strategies that make this niche flourish.

What You’ll Take Away:

• Step-by-step techniques for crafting foam-free funeral flowers

• Essential tips on creating an engaged audience for your farewell flower business

• Inspiration to start or refine your own sustainable floral journey

If you have friends or colleagues who would like to join us on the 18th who are not already in this group, please ask them to register via this link:

Ready to discover how to create beautiful, eco-friendly farewell flowers without floral foam? Join us for an inspiring evening designed to bring together creativity, sustainability, and practical business insights.

13/11/2024

FREE WEBINAR - FAREWELL BLOOMS DEMO AND CHAT ABOUT THE BUSINESS OF FUNERAL FLOWERS.

Who is coming on Monday? We will also send out the recording if you can't make it or want to refer back to it for all registrants.

Roz and Ali will broadcast a free webinar - on Monday November 18th, 7:00pm GMT.
The Farewell Blooms webinar will include:
🌿 Live Demo with Ali
Watch Ali demonstrate how to craft a natural, eco-friendly funeral wreath from a wicker vine base and moss. Get hands-on tips on creating beautiful, biodegradable arrangements that make a lasting impact without leaving a trace.
📈 Building Your Audience with Roz
Roz will share strategies on growing visibility and connecting with an audience interested in sustainable funeral work. Hear her insights into the planning and strategies that make this niche flourish.
What You’ll Take Away:
Step-by-step techniques for crafting foam-free funeral flowers
Essential tips on creating an engaged audience for your farewell flower business

Please register here.

https://fieldgateflowers.kartra.com/page/foamfreefarewellflowers?fbclid=PAZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAaZUAMzAK-pFqHiikbBGwKojW0Ty3blzFGzXScx34RGC1HDA91i5l5FA_68_aem_YePuFJnn-leACqi1ljYOjA

11/11/2024

❤️Lest we forget ❤️

This handsome young man pictured post-war in 1922, is my great grandfather - Henry Herbert Hope ( known to all simply as “Harry”). He proudly stands behind his wife Winifred, and their daughter Joan (my grandma).

Harry served in the Great War being taken away as a young man to the front line serving his country in France. Working with the war horses looking after them in the battlefields. He’d started life as a gamekeeper and lived in the family farm cottages surrounding the estate where he grew up with knowledge and understanding of country life, looking after horses and gamekeeping.

Harry, unlike so many others…survived. He was badly injured during service and was brought back for a serious operation, removing one of his kidneys. Where in recovery he met his soon to be wife Winifred, my great grandmother at Tunbridge Wells infirnary.

Harry dedicated the rest of his life in a career as a head gardener for large country houses looking after the house gardens the vegetable produce and large estates. Harry lived to a ripe old age into his 90s - where I very much remember him as a child. Even with grandads shaky hands (severe shakes from Parkinson’s that he suffered) his rows of seedlings always remained POKER straight! And the carrot tops would pop up in a row that could have been drawn with a ruler!

For many many years Grandad was proud to be the standard bearer for the British Legion for remembrance services on this day, to honour and remember those that were lost.

Today, we remember them all.
❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

28/10/2024

Run Profitable and Successful Workshops: Expert Online Session with Roz Field Gate Flowers and Ali Ali Conway, Rambling Stems

Are you ready to take your workshops to the next level? Join us for a one-off online session with Roz, a flower farmer, mentor, and trainer, and Ali, a renowned sustainable florist celebrated for her natural and beautiful style. Together, they'll show you how to confidently create, market, and run successful workshops.

IN THIS WORKSHOP, YOU'LL LEARN HOW TO:

• Maximize profitability while delivering value

• Market your workshops effectively to attract the right audience

• Set up for success with streamlined logistics and planning

• Follow a proven structure that works every time

Using Christmas wreath-making workshops as a model, you'll gain actionable insights that can be applied to any workshop you run, from floristry to crafts and beyond!

Details:

• Date: Monday, 28th October 2024

• Time: 7.00 PM (BST)

• Where: Online (Zoom)

• Cost: £10.00

• All registrants will receive a recording of the session.

Don’t miss this chance to learn from two experts who have perfected the art of running successful workshops.

The Great British Flower School

28/09/2024

Hurry!!

Just 1 place left for our Fundamentals of Eco Floristry course! 💚

Doors are closing, so don’t miss out. You will learn:
5 fundamental foundation tips
5 individual lessons with video demo, and accompanying pdf downloads covering all foundation aspects of eco floristry

You will have:
Live q& A sessions
Group support from private membership
Top tips and insider info

Delivered by:
2 x industry professionals who have been there, learnt from experience and are happy to give lots of shared knowledge.
No nonsense, practical straight talking but friendly people!

Do come join Roz and I…and the rest of our students 🙌

GBFS

25/09/2024

Ooops, did you miss it? If you missed our 2-hour live, showcasing the launch of the Great British Flower School…don’t worry!

There is still time…

You have until the end of day, midnight tomorrow night to register for our Fundamentals of Eco Floristry course.

Have a look - for more details here….

https://fieldgateflowers.kartra.com/page/fundamentalsofecofloristry?fbclid=PAZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAaZxpqKHqHOhP4-DU0N6pKCzVz5Z1yFN2IP03DEK4KEZuBLbSyRPw7VymvQ_aem_A1R6nla__oNq0W-hqH8vfg

GBFS

20/09/2024

https://fieldgateflowers.kartra.com/page/fundamentalsofecofloristry

GBFS

06/09/2024

And just like that. Autumn has come, the cosy Cardi’s are out and everyone’s back at school/college/uni …and literally overnight it seems here in Beds, UK - the sun has disappeared 😳🥲

But trying not to be sad, I’m looking forward to the next run of weddings, a fabulous wedding fair (more news to come of that) and exciting new course developments. 🙌

And what’s not to celebrate with these gorgeous Autumnal colours, the explosion of grasses, dahlia, cosmos continues…and we’re a long way from that first frost….so the pickings from the flower farms are still absolutely glorious, at their peak 🙌🙌❤️❤️

In fact, there’s always something more akin to the ‘New Start’ for me in September…more so than in Spring for me. I think it’s because I think of myself foremost as ‘mum’ - 19 years of the ‘back to school’ chaos, school runs, mum cabs and after school clubs. Over the years that has meant the juggle of working around dance class, swimming lessons, gymnastics and rock climbing (amongst others!! I think there was a small spate of ‘trampolining’ from my eldest….but we don’t talk about that!😜)

Feeling reflective this week and a tad emotional about my amazing girls who have grown into incredible, independent, brave young women. Facing their fears this week and pushing themselves out of their comfort zones to achieve what they want in life - moving on to bigger things as they both face their big new challenges this September.

So back to it!!! I’m back into the studio with renewed confidence and energy (I just might need a little hug occasionally if you see me! 🤪🥰)

26/08/2024

Funeral flowers don’t always have to follow ‘convention’, and they certainly don’t have to be in oasis/floral foam. A simple low sided wicker basket casket topper, full to the brim with beautiful British flowers that can all be taken home by individual members of the family, afterwards, to enjoy.

Isn’t that a nicer way to say goodbye? 💚🌿

Proud to be part of the directory - a whole network of like-minded florists who are able to create foam free and biodegradable arrangements, all across the UK. Heart warming to know the word is getting out and we are making a positive change. 🙌💚♻️

Message me if you would like to know more.

Ali x

25/08/2024

WHAT LIES BENEATH….. 😱😱

Yep. It’s true. This isn’t the most attractive image that has ever appeared on my grid; but it’s showing the true ‘horror’ of what’s hidden beneath a lot of outwardly ‘beautifully aesthetic’ floral displays.

This is the ‘hidden stuff’…the mainstay of the floral industry, and why we have such a shockingly bad track record of sustainability. 😱💚🌿

From top, clockwise…

1. Leaf ‘shine’ spray (anyone know what’s actually in this and why we need it? Tell me below)

2. ‘Square/round’ tray sits on top of most vases (that water could have gone into, crazy right?)

3. Oasis/floral foam - we all know this stuff by now…or do we?

4. Plastic wreath wrap - backing for most wreath products to ‘protect’ your door

5. Poly ribbon - reels and reels in every florist shop. Plastic content. Sometimes wired for good measure.

6. Assorted tapes, fixatives and stemtex - we still use tape to hold items in place…trying to replace as much as possible.

7. Plastic card sleeves and plastic picks to poke them into gift or funeral arrangements.

8. Cellophane- used to ‘aqua pack’ a huge majority of bouquets, used as sleeves for flower transport.

9. Elastic bands - on just about every wrap of flowers, box of gift boxes …usually cut off and discarded.

10. Cable ties - used to hold just about every floral installation you’ve ever seen…in place. Cut off and discarded.

11. Oasis plastic ‘paddle’ - used for foam bricks for floral displays on event signage, arbours, staircases etc (combined with cable tie).

12. individually wrapped packages of flower food. Snipped and discarded.

Do you think most people are aware of what lies beneath? Should we be asking more questions… like;

‘WHY???!!!’ 😜🤷‍♀️

Thankfully, it’s not all doom and gloom. There are alternatives and we can make positive changes …if we can just get the word out there 😍🙌🌸

Please do SHARE and SAVE this post for a quick reference visual reminder, when you need it!

24/08/2024

The Secret is Finally Out! 🌿🙌

I’m beyond excited to finally share that I've teamed up with the amazing Roz of Field Gate Flowers to launch The Great British Flower School. After months of plotting and planning, we are ready to open our doors and tell you more.

🎉 Join us for our Open Evening in this Facebook Group on the 19th of September at 8pm BST! 🎉 It’s totally FREE and packed with valuable insights: from cutting and conditioning blooms to demos on sustainable techniques. Plus, we’ve set aside plenty of time for Q&A. 🙌🌼

👉 REGISTER HERE: https://fieldgateflowers.kartra.com/page/gbfsopeneve

This School is perfect for:
🌸 Flower Farmers diving into floristry and mastering sustainable techniques
🌿 Florists eager to embrace sustainability (we know it’s hard, but we’re here to help!)
💐 Anyone who adores flowers and wants to learn floristry an eco-friendly way

We can’t wait to welcome you! 🌷💚

Great British Flower School