Clare Florist Blog

As you may know, St Andrew is the patron saint of Scotland and here in
Scotland ---and in British embassies and societies and around the
globe--- St Andrew's Day (November 30th) is celebrated in a traditional
fashion with the flying of the Saltire (the flag of Scotland, which
features a white cross on a blue background), ceilidh-dancing and live
traditional music.

St Andrew was reputedly a fisherman in Galilee before he became an
apostle of Jesus Christ and champion of the Christian faith. Along with
his younger brother, St Peter, he devoted his later life to spreading
Christ's message. How did he come to be the patron saint of Scotland?
There are a number of stories, but one legend has it that an angel
appeared to a Greek monk named St Rule (aka St Regulus) in a dream and
directed him to take the remains of St Andrew to the "ends of the
earth". It was a long journey from Constantinople but St Rule eventually
made it to Fife, which was deemed far enough, and he founded the
settlement we now know as Saint Andrews.

This and other stories explain the link between St Andrew and Scotland ,
but in Germany,
Austria and Poland rather more mysterious and romantic traditions
surround the eve of St Andrew's Day.

On what is celebrated in Germany as Andreasnacht (St Andrew's night), a
girl is said to be able to divine and attract her future husband through
various magical rituals. It's said that a single woman who wishes to
marry should ask for the aid of St Andrew, or, in Austria, perform the
spell of the St Andrew's prayer, Andreasgebet. She should then sleep
naked and she will see her future husband in her dreams! Other such
customs include listening for the barking of dogs (this will tell you
the direction the groom-to-be will come from); floating cups in a tub
(whose will float next to whose?); pouring molten metal into water to
divine the future husband's profession (depending on what shape the
metal forms); and throwing a clog over your shoulder to see whether
you'll be married that year (yes if it's pointing to the door).

However you may be celebrating, I hope your St Andrew's day brings some
cheer at the end of grey November.

Happy St Andrew's Day!

Christmas is here again! Is it just me or has it sneaked up without noticing? 
We all know you love traditional Christmas reds but this year we have included a few bouquets that have your other favourite colour options in the design.
We have so many Christmas designs you need to take a look but here are some of my favourites...
Traditional amarylis bouquet, an all time favourite with everyone for it's vase life, they just seem to last forever and ever!
For the young trendy girls we have our sassy "Christmas Baubles" sweet pink flowers with bright pink and purple Christmas tree baubles.
Or for those of you who love something truly extravagant (like me) you can choose our truly bespoke Festive Opulence bouquet where our experienced florist's will select a combination of crisp roses, calla lilies with long lasting unique cymbidium orchids.

I'm sure there is something here for everyone this Christmas and flowers are such a great gift for those people who you just don't know what to buy this year. You really cant go wrong with fresh flowers so go on take a look at our new designs.

Here of course  is a link to our Christmas Flower Selection

P.S Dear Santa

I've included an image of my favourite bouquet - just in case you're reading!

Kerryanne
 

Thanksgiving is observed on the fourth Thursday of November in the USA. However in Canada it is celebrated on the second Monday of the month due to the earlier harvest further North.

It is a time for family feasts of turkey with cranberry sauce and fabulous pumpkin pies. Often friends and family bring along a dish each and share in the social aspect of the preparation.

The Thanksgiving holiday was established as a national day of giving thanks and praise to God. the Plymouth settlers called the Pilgrims set apart a holiday immediately after their first harvest in 1621.

Black Friday is the day after Thanksgiving in the USA where it is the beginning of the traditional Christmas shopping season. Many people have this as a holiday and spend a long weekend with family and friends.

So to those of you who are celebrating Thanksgiving this year - have a fantastic time.

As you know throughout October we had a fantastic "In the Pink" bouquet that we had designed to raise funds for Breast Cancer Care. Every bouquet  received a sparkly pin badge and £1.00 was directly donated to the fund.

We've just sent off a nice cheque for £200 and would like to thank you all for your support. If you have a charity that we can support get in touch and we can see if we can design something suitable.
designers@clareflorist.co.uk
We have a few more pin badges available so you still have a chance to order.

The Clare Florist prize draw winner for October was Hayley Widdowson from  Norfolk.
Hayley wins a beautiful bouquet of fresh Autumn flowers worth £50 which is delivered to her with our best wishes.
All you have to do is post back our comments card when you recieve flowers and you will be entered into our monthly prize draw.

http://www.clareflorist.co.uk/

You don't need a reason to send flowers, whatever the weather, the state of the world or the time of the day, people are delighted to see a flower delivery when they answer the door.
Our unique box has been designed with a clear window so the recipient can peer into the box and see their flowers before they even take them out the box.
Flowers are genius communicators. Combined with the opportunity to select your own unique design for your gift card whoever you are sending these to will feel you have really chosen something especially for them.
Sending flowers "just because" is a great reason to make someone feel really delighted because they are so unexpected.
So go on make someone's day !!!

http://www.clareflorist.co.uk/

The Clare Florist prize draw winner for September was Jayne Taylor from London.
Jayne wins a beautiful bouquet of fresh flowers worth £50 which is delivered to her with our best wishes.
All you have to do is post back our comments card when  you receive flowers.

You may have been seeing lots of our jaw-droppingly drop dead gorgeous roses livening up various travel agents around the high street all over UK. What's the occasion? A little early for Valentine's Day perhaps..but it's never too early for going on a wedding cruise!

And as it happens, we've just had a massive order - think thousands of grand prix red roses. It's all in aid of promoting getting married on board Princess Cruises who just had a new brochure to prompt all the to-be-fiancés out there to go the extra step for the 'cruise of a lifetime'.

Robin's mighty boxes all prepared and ready.

Roses! Say hello to the camera..We'll be having you nicely wrapped up pretty soon..

Height is never a problem for us.

Mass Proposal - all set to go!

Team ClareFlorist pleased with themselves (..but Robin is distracted. Maybe missing his boxes?)

Much as traditional big white weddings in churches are pleasant, one can't help but think they can be a little clichéd at times. So yes, exotic weddings are definitely the way to go! Alternatives are endless - gardens, beaches, mountains, or just even being abroad. But of course, cruises have the advantage of a built in honeymoon and of course all the romanticisms that go with being in the sea and on the move at the same time.

Therefore..guys, if you augment 'The' question with say, a couple of cruise tickets, or better still, hire out a whole cruise if you have a few millions of pounds to spare - chances are, as a female first instinct she would think 'hell yeah!'.

Just the tickets missing!

Umm..that may have been ever so slightly exaggerated. Bonfire night was really nothing to do with the dead except for the fact that he is dead - although besides fireworks, the way we used to celebrate Guy Fawkes in this country was reminiscent of trick-or-treat Halloween traditions before we finally decide to just accept being Americanized!(Accidentally slipping into controversial zones...)

However, even though we all know 31st October as the day of tricks and spooks,the two days which follow get relatively few attention in comparison - All Saints Day and All Souls Day (1st and 2nd Nov). Despite it being much less celebrated in this country than e.g. Mexico, Phillipines, it's still a busy time for us florists!

In short, these two days have their origins in the pagan traditions which sparked off Halloween in the first place. The idea was, the dead would return to their homes on Halloween, where families would prepare some food,drinks and sometimes wash basin and towel for the visiting ghost(s). Different cultures commemorate the dead in different spirits (no pun intended), ranging from the enchanting magical display they make of it at cemeteries in Poland to some of the more light hearted celebrations in Philippines!

Above all it's a great party time for flowers - some even start a festival outside cemeteries. Marigolds and Chrysanthemums in particular, are the usual favourites for the dead and frequent suspects for overcrowding the graveyards! In France and Germany, you can easily find white chrysanthemums across churchyards. At this time, prices for flowers would of course go through the roof at the Dutch auctions, making it a rather more lively than morose event. It's a good time for remembrance, but also a time for families to get together and celebrate the lives of the dead.

Happy Guy Fawkes Night!

** By the way in case you haven't already noticed, our website has undergone some major transformations recently and it's looking more fab than ever - do let us know if you have any suggestions for improvement or just what you think of it!