vintage

Great to be in London this w/end - I thought I'd been promised a place on the main drag at Broadway market but no I was off in the schoolyard, but it was still fun though I didn't sell quite as much as I'd hoped, and I'm sure next time will be better as everyone who passed by loved our flowery offerings. Lovely to see another spectrum, but rather worrying that the 70s and 80s are so popular again, I'm really not sure about that particular "vintage" trend  as I don't think fashions looked that great first time around, though at least they're worn with a certain cliched panache these days. Whoops I'm sounding really vintage myself, and not in a good way either.....

On vintage - I just purchased a load of lovely metal mesh bottomed dutch bulb trays. The guy I bought them from imagined I'd be reselling them somewhere but they are now all in use for their original purpose, trays and trays of bulbs in waiting. I don't want to plant for another month but wanted to be sure I got the varieties I wanted so orderer earlier than usual. So it was fab to find exactly the right method of storage. Half of the remaining space in the tin barn is filled with buckets and buckets of foliage as I'm experimenting with preserving different forms. Fingers crossed that many of them will work as I've a wedding next month in a substantial venue that is crying out for huge autumnal arrangements, but all autumn leaves will have fallen by then so I'm trying to get the same effect. I always find it hard to predict exactly what I will use for any event, and do tend to take inspiration from what's around in the week leading up to the date, but I do need to plan a bit more for winter weddings as bad weather can mean little to inspire. So I'm filling up with lots of old man's beard and trailing berries too. and will see how they keep, they may look lovely against coloured twigs and preserved foliages. And I've been experimenting to see how late things can flower in the tunnel once the light dims. Stocks and cleome are looking as though they may get to do their thing, but they may just stop on the point of flowering in which case they'll have to be ripped out as they won't overwinter at that stage.