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Wild blooms and 80s arrangements: top cut flowers trends for 2017
Wild and free
The fondness for looser, whimsical arrangements has been around for a few years now, and doesn’t seem to be going anywhere fast. “A lot of brides want to look like they’ve just walked through the garden and picked a bouquet,” says Bath-based grower Fiona Haser Bizony of the Electric Daisy Flower Farm.
The trend is aided by a heady combination of whimsical, nature-inspired arrangements which proliferate on Instagram and Pinterest, as well as an increasing number of new florists taking up the trade from non-traditional backgrounds who are challenging long-held techniques in the process.
Shane Connolly, a floral stylist who provided the flowers for the wedding of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, concurs: “The very heavy balls of flowers are looking terribly old-fashioned as the trend for a looser, lighter arrangement takes over”.
Abundance
There has, however, been a slight shift towards the more Eighties look of opulent, overflowing bouquets, which florist Simon Lycett says is a reaction to the rise of shabby-chic floral styling – commonly found in jam jars.
It’s not a cheap style, he says, but one that can be improved by using British blooms: “It can be a costly look but in summer you can have an abundance of British flowers, such as stock, sweet peas, nigella and delphinium, which gives the option of doing something big and blowsy on a smaller budget.”
Leave the vase behind
For florist Carly Rogers, one of the five chosen to represent British Flowers Week, the lines between gardening and floristry continue to blur as flower arranging moves in an ever more natural direction and becomes more pared down and grounded to its origins – the flowerbed.
“Flowers are going more natural but in a less contrived way,” she explains. “We’re seeing a stronger and earthier feel”. This even means taking the vase out of the equation entirely in lieu of representing a “hedgerow down the middle of a table or a flowered grassy mound”.
Go bright or go home
One trend sees colour schemes being stripped to the bare minimum, with impact coming from the choice of hues used, rather than the number of them. Both Lycett and Haser Bizony have noticed a rise in demand for blush and blues, with peach foxgloves proving popular with the latter’s clients.
“People are asking to see a single colour or a couple of tones of the same colour,” Lycett comments. “Bold corals and deep blues seem particularly fashionable and can be achieved with cornflowers in a spectacular way, and also with other bright flowers such as dahlias and cosmos”.
Nicely neutral
But, just as “millennial pink” reigns supreme, a soft pastel that is adorning everything from cafés to sofas enjoyed by the fashionable generation, softer colours are thriving in floristry, too.
Yellow is out of Haser Bizony's beds as “peachy, blushy colours, pale purple and a lot of white” take over. Connolly has also noticed neutrals coming to the fore: “Pastels seem to be very fashionable, especially mixtures of pastels and neutral colours.”
Rise of greenery
Colour gurus and trend forecasters Pantone named the lime-hued “greenery” their colour of 2017 and foliage-rich gardens dominated at Chelsea. In floristry, too, the greens are starting to take centre stage, with the more exotic usual suspects abandoned in favour of filler found closer to home.
“There’s less reliance on greenery such as eucalyptus,” says Haser Bizony, “instead, people are finding beauty in the leaves that can be found growing in hedgerows. Foraged foliage is a growing trend.”
In wedding trends, East London florists Grace & Thorn have made a name for themselves by abandoning flowers altogether and dressing venues and brides in the rich, textured foliage of ferns and other dramatic plants.
Keep it seasonal
Arguably, florists have to reflect the seasons to use British-grown flowers, but there is a genuine enthusiasm for using flowers when they are at their natural best.
In her latest book Flowers Every Day, Petalon florist Florence Kennedy organised the chapters by the seasons and encourages rookie florists to “take the next step from buying supermarket roses” and embrace local and British growers.
Connolly, too, has noticed that people are keen to reflect nature’s patterns: “I think people are getting more aware of the seasons when they’re choosing flowers, and I 100 per cent approve of that.”
Furthermore, as Haser Bizony points out, seasonal bouquets provide natural beauty: “Often, things that grow next to each other will look really wonderful in a bouquet.”
Dutch masters
Some florists are looking back centuries and developing the naturalism trend. Kennedy says: “I feel like there’s a lovely scene at the moment that’s taking influence from Dutch masters in form but with a more contemporary approach.
It has loads of effortless, tumbling florals in block colour and more structural designs. The really good examples seem to be letting the shape of the flowers themselves dictate the design, rather than forcing them in to a predefined structure.”
For further information about events in celebration of British Flowers Week, visit britishflowersweek.com