Let's play catch up 5: the jewellery

Well, it has been a hectic few months at Wild Acre jewellery. There was the WISE Creative pop-up boutique in Marylebone in the last week of May, joining JeDeCo jewellers and OXO building gallery (with the new designers launch in mid June), then my own Private View at home at the end of last month. Phew! Thanks so much to those who managed to come along to any of the above, it is always really lovely to see friendly faces at these events and meet online customers for the first time too, but thanks also to those who cheered me on from near and far, it means so much.

Wild Acre jewellery can now be found at the JeDeCo gallery, OXO tower wharf

new puddle of colour pendants at my Private View

In the middle of all that I finally got my licence to use Fair Trade, Fair Mined gold, which really was the most exciting development of all in terms of my central goal to make Wild Acre jewellery about more than just trying to create beautiful looking jewellery, I'm after beauty in the provenance too. Over the summer I am hoping to design a very small debut Fairtrade collection to launch at the end of the year - a bit of a dream come true if I can make it happen!

But much sooner than that, I have an invitation for you!  I am delighted to say that I have been invited to have my work at a joint showcase with some wonderful jewellers and a very clever handbag- designing lady, all at Craft Central, Clerkenwell, from 15th July to 18th July - I would be over the moon if you dropped by and said hello! :)

My new summer swift collection will be available plus the new puddle of colour pendants plus lots more - please come and have a look. x

an unbeatable floral duo for January: hellebores and snowdrops

Just when it seems the garden will sleep on forever, the unbeatable, unbreakable duo of hellebores and snowdrops pop up in my woodland garden. They are so faithful, so tough, so beautiful. My go-to plants for January floral therapy!

The only help they need is a little dividing and replanting for the snowdrops every five years or so and a chopping back of the huge amount of hellebore leaves in December, so the new shoots can emerge all gorgeous and Venus-like, unhidden by an unruly mop of old leaves. Anyway, that is what has worked for me.

Have you got any January wonder going on in your garden, would love to know? xx

last flowers standing

These were literally the last few flowers left standing in the garden that were worth picking - the Wild Acre cut flowers are done for another year. But it is 29th October so I really can't complain. The velvety plum colours of the dahlias, penstemon (Garnet), annual scabiosa, cosmos and teeny clippings of achillea and sedum are a surprisingly gutsy farewell, no going out with a whimper around here!

There were also a small handful of Graham Thomas roses still struggling through the wet weather, I popped a few in a little cream jug, but I don't think they'll get to wednesday. Enjoy the moment though, no? (And it has reminded me of how much I love the unlikely combination of yellow and grey.)

For more late season floral loveliness, pop over to Jane's who is still bravely hosting the knees-up despite the impending hurricane Sandy and a migraine storm of her own.

Inspiration: the coast

We try and spend some time by the sea in the summer, and by September all the lovely images and textures and sounds of the coast begin to feed into my jewellery designs.

 I have never done a 'coastal' range before, but I think I have enough ideas now to formulate one for 2013. I shall be spending lots of time this autumn and winter at my jewellery bench trying to create shapes in precious metal from the wealth of memories in my mind. The haunting marshes of north norfolk, the huge expanses of sand imprinted with the eddies of the retreating tide, the tiny, sea-smoothed pebbles and spiral-shaped, roughly ribbed shells left on the tide line - all these things are filling my mind and I hope will find ways of interpreting their patterns and curves in my jewellery.

So, plenty of material to work towards a coastal - inspired range for 2013, watch this space!

the cut flower series: suppliers of seeds, bulbs and plants

After blethering on about so many wonderful flowers to try in a cutting patch last week, I thought it only fair to point you in the direction of some fantastic suppliers. Except it isn't really fair because I can only recommend UK suppliers, so if you are reading this from 'broad would you be lovely enough to share any great suppliers you have found in your home country in the comments section after this post, to spread the flowery joy further, so to speak? And fellow Brits, please add your own faves in the comments, I'm sure we'd all LOVE to discover some new places to browse! The list below represents my absolute favourites, and whilst there are hundreds of suppliers out there, these lot, well they are, as my lovely dad would say, top-hole wizard!!

Sarah Raven

My first port of call for inspiration and supplies is the Sarah Raven website. Seeds, bulbs, corms, plants - they are all there in season. I posted more about it here. She also sends out a cracking catalogue - this is glossy magazine stuff, beautifully photographed and extremely provoking of the wantywanties!  Sarah just seems to have a fairly unerring eye for form and colour and cut flowers are her first love, so even if it is just for ideas rather than purchases, her site is worth a gander. I just think she has brilliant taste and a cavernous knowledge of cut flowers,  which makes her an obvious supplier for me. (Apparantly her mother finds many of her choices vulgar - I heard her say that with her mum in earshot, and she nodded!) Anyway you will find almost all the plants I have listed in her shop. If they are too expensive, and that is my only gripe - it is on the spenny side - there are of course other suppliers selling most, though by no means all, her selection. She does spend part of the year sourcing new and interesting flower varieties in Europe, so some stuff is hard to find elsewhere and gives some of her flowers the buzz of being new and different. See what you think.

Crocus

A supplier extraordinaire of top notch plants - and favoured by designers for their truly mahoosive selection, their ability to supply for huge orders and the fantastic condition in which their plants seem to arrive. Very impressive in my experience, but again, not the cheapest by any means. Is top quality ever cheap?
As Farrow and Ball is to paint, as it were.

Seedaholic

I wrote a post about this super Irish company here. Fantastic for interesting seed varieties with the best instructions and information I have ever seen. Really helpful on the phone/internet too if you have any queries.

J Parkers

A huge Dutch-based bulb and plant supplier that always sends a catalogue through my door each season. If you are planting in big numbers the wholesale catalogue is breathtakingly cheap and the quality seems fine. No frills, few thrills but good value and covers the basics, especially good for tulips, alliums and narcissi.

Blomsbulbs

Another excellent Dutch company selling in the UK. A great selection, and a few unusual ones to pique interest. Definitely worth a look.

Dobies of Devon

A good, long established and award-winning supplier with a wide range of plants, reasonably priced too.

Your local horticultural nursery

Best of all, check out your local horticultural nurseries, there is sure to be one or two somewhere not too far from where you live.  This way you get to see what you are buying and ask as many questions as you like - that expert knowledge, the selling of plants that do well in your local area, and the pleasure of buying local all thrown in for free! Mine does 20% off all plants on a Thursday. Funny how often I am 'just passing' on a Thursday!

I'm hoping that has whetted your appetite for some floral retail therapy. September is the perfect time for planting bulbs, plants and many seeds. Oh, and it is September any minute, how handy!!

Next Friday, a few tips about a free and very satisfying way of increasing the flowers in your garden for free - collecting seed and other ways of propagating. xx

******* 

Just copy and pasted some fantastic sounding suppliers that lovely readers have shared in their comments, the first 3 referring are UK companies, and the others are U.S. Suppliers - thanks Jan, Foxtail Lily, Pauline, Webb, Edi and Jane!

I buy most of my seeds from Chiltern Seeds. I find they have nearly everything I look for, including most of Sarah Raven's choices. The catalogue which comes through the post doesn't have pics (although that does make you feel like a professional plantsperson!) but most of the varieties have photos online. Would very much recommend them. 

I would not buy from Parkers -since all my Rip city Dahlias from them were not true-bright red! Purple Dahlias were orange.. etc, etc. The customer care was dreadful-no `Sorry, or money back-BEWARE!!

Another good seed firm is near us in Devon,
www.plant-world-seeds.com
They have a fantastic selection and are always very helpful

I spent a good bit of Tuesday looking at the big commercial seed companies in the U.S. (Park Seed, Burpee Seed and a new one (to me) Johnny's Seeds) and while no one had all of them, I was able to find just about everything you recommended. I am hoping that someone in the US who is already knowledgeable about quality will list where they shop. I understand there are lots of good small seed companies, but have no experience.

For bulbs I can recommend Brent and Becky's Bulbs, which is a smaller Virginia supplier but quite good. For perennial plants High Country Gardens is wonderful, and White Flower Farms has an excellent reputation. I don't think they sell seeds. 

Webb, I think Colorblends.com offers the best price and quality. I have ordered over 8000 bulbs from them and every single one thrived. I also like KVB wholesale for tulips and casa blanca lilies.

I find Flower Farm overpriced and loaded with grubs. My favorite perennial catalog is Bluestone Perennials and of course Klehm Song Sparrow. They offer wholesale as well. I forgot another gem is Willow creek gardens. 100 Cafe Au Lait dahlia tubers for less then $ 100.

http://www.plantdelights.com/

http://www.eat-it.com/

In the Wild Acre flower garden

So, every Monday of the growing season, I am going to post a quick round-up of what is blooming in the garden and therefore what Wild Acre will be selling in bouquets. (Which isn't to say more varieties aren't available because I have a couple of friends who are kind enough to let me raid their stunning gardens!)

Over in our garden it is mainly whites and creams and fresh greens this week. The last of the range of fragrant narcissi are still in bud, but will mature in the vase to look like the photo below, and even blousier. The Pheasant's Eye Narcissi, white with the thinnest ring of red at the centre are gorgeous massed in a jug too.

(Spot footie goal attractively placed in background, this is a family garden first and foremost!! To the left of the flower bed, nigella seedlings have gone beserk this year, so lots of them in future bouquets!)

White tulips, the fresh looking 'Spring Green', and unsurpassable 'Mount Tacamo' - this all peony-like and decadent - are both glorious cut flowers, and I have a lovely deep purple variety as well, visible still in bud in this bouquet I did for a customer today.

Still on a white theme, the anemones, dwarf narcissi and ranunculus are looking lush for posies, available wrapped or in antique bottles or Scandanavian posy vases - all are so elegant in their pure, whipped cream loveliness.

For a pop of brighter colour there are muscari and still a few orange tulips left, which look super-zingy with bright yellow euphorbia (polychroma), but there is also rosemary, epimedium, pussy willow, euonymus and cherry and apple blossom for foliage/fillers.

The weather has been unbelievable for April in Blighty - three days of cloudless blue skies, it has been a joy to be in the garden and I'm hoping that joy somehow spills between my fingers and into my customers' bouquets!

Who will buy??

Ohh, the glorious Spring weather at the moment, it is making me feel slightly giddy and excitable - amazing warm, sunny days, gentle breezes and the flowers blooming so fast I feel like if I stare hard enough I will actually see them growing!

Right now I also feel a bit like the Covent Garden flower seller of yore, with her buckets all full of lovely flowers, calling out for buyers because Wild Acre opens for the season today! Yipee, I am really excited and have spent the last few weeks busily scrubbing out all my buckets, getting all my tools sharpened, weeding, mulching, sowing seed and generally getting ready for my first proper, keeping records and all, season!! I have two other fabulous friends growing for me too, so we are good to go!

It is such a small affair, here at Wild Acre, it has been relatively straightforward to get the garden ship-shape-ish and ready for business. The season will have a slow start because I rely totally on word of mouth, and I'm thinking it will be a while before I feel that frantic sensation! I already have a few gigs on the books, and individual orders coming in, but the pace feels relaxed. At the moment it is all gorgeous white and cream scented narcissi and a range of delicious coloured tulips, muscari, a few anemones and ranunculus plus a range of garden foliage.

Every monday I will post a short roundup of what is looking lush and bouquet-worthy. There will be more up-to-date info, contact details plus care tips etc via the Wild Acre Flowers tab on the sidebar. So if you live in the north Hertfordshire area, and you want some super-fresh Spring flowers, I have a garden-full of flowers waiting for you! If you don't but love flowers, I hope the photos will bring you pleasure.

And the jewellery? Well,  I'm working my little fingers off trying to create enough lovely pieces for the little on-line shop I am creating on BigCartel. It won't be long now...

So, I suppose this is really what my blog is all about - a passion for flowers and metalwork, a bit of a love-affair with nature generally, and other bit and bobs that get thrown into the mix. I'm getting close to a whole year of blogging - thank you so much for reading, commenting so supportively and interestingly, I could never have guessed how wonderful this whole creative adventure was going to be. Meeting so many like-minded people, writing, photo-taking and looking more closely at the good things in my life has made this a very special year.