A Summer Garden Party Flower Arranging Evening at the Interflora Flower School

My finished Summer Garden Party Flower Arrangement

A Summer Garden Party Flower Arranging Evening

at the Interflora Flower School

Two weeks ago I learned that I had won a pair of tickets (worth £145 each) to attend a flower arranging course at the Interflora Flower School that was being held at Chandos House, a beautiful Georgian townhouse situated in the heart of London’s fashionable West End; a historical building with elegant high ceilings, beautiful crystal chandeliers in every room and GREAT natural light……when asked if I could attend, I said yes immediately and couldn’t wait to contact my daughter, as I knew she would just love to come along as my guest!  I was even more excited when I learned that the theme for the evening was “Summer Garden Party”……and the information about the event indicated that “whether it was an afternoon tea party, a birthday bbq, or something rather more grand; nothing sets the scene better than flowers. During the class we’ll celebrate the beauty of summer flowers, and we’ll all learn how to create something fabulous to display inside or out”…….and, all the materials that we needed were included, plus, we could take our finished creation home, ready to display or give as a present……it all sounded just wonderful.

Summer Garden Party Arrangement – Photo Bethany Day

 The class was led by David Ragg and David Denyer, who are two of Interflora’s expert florists and with years of experience in floristry and floral design; they were on hand to help after demonstrating the two Summer Garden Party arrangements, which we then created ourselves throughout the evening. Between the charismatic duo they have an impressive haul of no less than eight RHS Chelsea Flower Show gold medals…..so, we knew we were in safe and creative hands throughout the evening, plus their obvious passion and love of floristry was evident through the evening, which created a wonderful atmosphere in which to create our flower arrangements. You can see my finished flower arrangement at the top of this post, but here it is again, as I was SO proud of what I achieved!

My finished Summer Garden Party Flower Arrangement

We were shown two arrangements to make, and the second arrangement, although not as grand as the first one, was delightful and would grace any summer garden party table, as well as being quintessentially English Cottage Garden in looks, excuse the photo quality, my camera batteries ran out and the following photo was taken on my daughter’s iPhone, actually, I think the photo has a rather “dreamy” effect………..

My Finished English Cottage Garden Arrangement

The Summer Garden Party evening class ran from 6pm to 9pm, three wonderful unhurried hours, which flew by actually, and it really was the most enjoyable evening I have spent anywhere recently. The Interflora School has two more fabulous evenings planned for later on in the year, “A Celebration of Autumn Colour” with David Ragg and David Denyer and “Dressing your Home for Christmas” with David Ragg and David Denyer, I am TORN about which one I would like to attend next time, maybe I should just plump for BOTH of them! You can find out more about these courses by going to their website here: Interflora Flower School Dates and Classes. 

My finished Summer Garden Party Flower Arrangement

I was thrilled with my arrangement, as was my daughter with hers; both of our arrangements graced our homes and dining room tables for well over a week, and, we both had numerous compliments from family and friends about how lovely and professional both arrangements looked. With a HUGE thanks to Bethany Day and Interflora Flower School for my complimentary tickets – the whole evening was delightful –  I learned so many floristry tricks and tips, as well as meeting some wonderful people, one of whom, Rona, will be a co-writer alongside me on Sarah Raven’s new Blog, Garlic and Sapphire…….but, more of that exciting news to follow later! That’s it for now, I will be back later today with a recipe…..see you later, Karen

Image Gallery ~ Some more photos of the evening, courtesy of Bethany Day from Bakes, Books and Binky:

David Ragg Demonstrating

Making arrangement

Summer Garden Party Flowers

And finally, one more of my daughter’s photos!

The wonderful back drop to our flower school evening