Clare Florist Blog

Polly has just come back from her spring holiday. She is lucky enough to have a Dad who lives in Spain, a sister who lives in Wales, a brother who lives in Australia and a Mum who lives in Harris!
So Polly spends most of her holidays visiting family.
Here is a fab picture of Polly and Mum enjoying a wee glass of wine - the question is are they very small people or was that a whopping glass of wine ???

I am just back from a much needed break after all the busy periods we have had.
I took my family to Malta which was very nice indeed! Spent lots of time eating and drinking but managed to do some nice sightseeing as well.
Here are some nice Spring shots of some of the pretty sights in Malta - I have to say it was a bit of shock coming back and finding out it's still winter here! Although the weather is picking up a bit - fingers crossed.
Now that I am nice and refreshed we have been working on a new range of Summer bouquets which we will be introducing over the next few weeks - so watch this space.

Kerryanne

View from my hotel to Valletta and me enjoying the sunshine!

The quirky Bedford buses and Valletta town - how many tiny houses in one space?

Can't resist some flower photo's whilst I'm away....

The Mother's Day rush is now over thankfully! We had a great response to all our new designs which have been received really well by all you lucky Mum's.
Myself and the team worked really hard all week to ensure everything was made in time to be delivered to every corner of the UK.
I have two children who treated me to a cup of tea and a slice of burnt toast with chocolate spread at 8am on Sunday!
Still I suppose it's the thought that counts - looking forward to Easter now so I can help them eat all their chocolate eggs, there goes the diet again!.
Kerryanne

After all the hard work over Christmas we had a great Christmas party at the casino where some of us were lucky enough to win some pennies and leave with them !

We had a really nice meal, the usual Christmas turkey, crackers etc but looking back at the pictures makes me think we looked more like the Simpson's.

What do you think ?

Today I received a Christmas letter from my aunt in Wales, telling me how things have been going for her and her husband and my cousins this past while, and a card from my brother and his girlfriend in Spain. It's been at least six months since I spoke to either —perhaps even a year— and it was lovely to hear from both, though it also left me feeling a little sad that we don't see more of one another. No big family Christmases for me; we're too spread out. Busy, separate lives and all that. It made me think, though, how special it is to have this time in the stillness of winter to pause and think of such distant loved ones, to have an occasion to prompt us to get in touch where it might otherwise be put off repeatedly, indefinitely, not because we don't want to get in touch, but because it's difficult to know where to begin when there is no given occasion and because there's always the laundry, work, the shopping, the dog to be walked, immediate friends... The celebrations at this time of year mean many things to different people —unfortunately including stress for many— but surely this is one of the most precious and universal values of Christmas? A time to share our caring for one another, though we may fail to do so for so much of the rest of the year... Sniff. I think I will have to go watch A Christmas Carol, though I think my choice is between The Muppets or Mickey Mouse versions!

Or maybe I should go to the direct source and finally read the book.
“I have endeavoured in this Ghostly little book, to raise the Ghost of an Idea, which shall not put my readers out of humour with themselves, with each other, with the season, or with me. May it haunt their houses pleasantly, and no one wish to lay it.
Their faithful Friend and Servant, C.D.
December, 1843.”

Best wishes for Christmas and New Year - Lucy

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.

Every time we receive an order, it becomes a kind of mission for us to deliver the bouquet successfully and make someone's day extra great. Just recently we had a heartwarming little tale of 'Lost and Found' here at Clare Florist.

The story goes..that one day, we were rather excited to receive an international order from Australia (always feel extra special to send/receive flowers from abroad!). But then, lo and behold..although the delivery address was in Manchester, the post codes and street names were found to be non-existent. A wrong address! Our hearts sank.. We then tried to see if the recipient was listed in that area of Manchester and called them..still no luck! We kept our fingers crossed and hoped that some Google magic will point us in the right direction..and failing that..surely a call to Australia should point us somewhere?

Well, despite making sure that it wasn't silly hours in the morning when we called, all we got was an answering machine message. By this point it's turned into a bit of a detective game for us and we were unwilling to give up. As a last resort, we checked through all the people with the same surname and telephone area code within the phonebook. The few possibilities were our only hope left for reuniting the flowers with their owners..so we dialled...

What a relief to finally hearing one of them say 'That is my daughter-in-law!". A happy ending. We got the correct details and she ended up with the correct flowers. For us, the extra effort was definitely worth it when the mission is finally accomplished - the whole thing made our day (and hopefully theirs too!)

Clare Florist - the florist you can trust for flowers without the fuss.

Continuing our series on the legends of the Flower Kingdom, what better way to find out about the majestic Rose than from the Queen of Flowers herself? 

Today we finally managed to get hold of her (June was a particularly busy month for her!), and she was more than happy to tell us some stories about the origins and future of this royal family of the Flower Kingdom.

Interviewer: Hello, good to have you with us. Wow those petals of yours have a nice looking glow today!

Queen Rose: (Smiles coyly) Well, I did try to make an effort..

Interviewer: So, let's get started. We are all very curious as to how roses came about in the first place and how it came to symbolise love and admiration. Can you tell us a little bit about that?

Queen Rose: We have always been told that our ancestor was created from the essence of gods and goddesses. It all began, from the body of a lifeless nymph which the goddess of flowers, Chloris, had found in the woods. Determined to make it The Flower of Love, she  saught the help of other gods and goddesses..hmm let me think who they were again..

Queen Rose: Ah yes. She gained the help of Aphrodite, the goddess of love, who donated a portion of her beauty; Dionysus, the god of wine, who gave some nectar to give our sweet scent; and the three Graces who gave us charm, brightness and joy! Zephyr, the West Wind, made the clouds disappear so that Apollo the sun god could make the flower bloom. So enchanting she was..she was crowned Queen of Flowers, and the status has remained with us until today!

Interviewer: And how about the thorns?

Queen Rose: They have another story of their own..To cut a long story short, the friend of a beautiful maiden named Rhodanthe grew jealous of her beauty, and turned Rhodanthe into a rose as it was back then and her eager suitors into these ugly thorns. Those have stuck with us ever since...

Interviewer: But that's what make a rose special! And your beautiful natural colouring - we all know that Red Roses are the most popular breed.. but how did roses first become this intoxicating shade of crimson?

Queen Rose: Wow that's a difficult one..I have heard lots of wild stories about that. My favourite one is probably an Arabic legend where a nightingale's love for a beautiful white rose inspired him to sing...However, when he got close to her, her thorns pierced his heart and turned all the white roses into blood red roses. Such a beautiful story! As far as I know though, I believe we infact originated from the Chinese mountains...

Interviewer: Hmm, interesting indeed. So moving on, do you think the current popularity of roses will remain in years to come?

Queen Rose: In my opinion we are timeless! We are 'The' original flower of love..as I mentioned before, so I don't think that can ever change. Also, the huge number of breeds of us means that there is a style and colour to suit everybody and every occasion. Whether it's just a bunch of us or with our friends, I believe we will always be a popular choice!

Interviewer: Final question. Just out of curiosity, what do you think of the number 12?

Queen Rose: Hmm, personally I prefer 99! Afterall, for us the more the merrier in a bunch. Although the number 12 does have special symbolism for perfection, and it can be associated with months of the year, or number of zodiac signs..hmm..

Interviewer: Well, thank you for the great stories and I should hope to see you again soon. Hope you enjoy moving to your new home today!

`O Tiger-lily,' said Alice, addressing herself to one that was waving gracefully about in the wind, `I wish you could talk!'

(Taken from Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll)

Like Alice, I've always liked the idea of flowers being able to understand when we whisper to them. Many who are passionate about plants would admit to fully believing in the power of communicating with them on a daily basis. My own mother is one of them, having always experienced sensing emotions from plants, recalling memories such as magnolia flowers appearing when they were not in flowering season like a farewell present for her,  and carnations which would stay open for that few extra days when she talks to them more.

In fact this idea of emotions in plants originated in 1848, proposed by Dr. Gustav Theodor Fechner who was a German professor. The idea was that plants and human share the common properties of central nervous system and emotions, and thus human should be able to relate to plants by talking (if only plants have vocal abilities too!). This idea was followed up many years later by Luther Burbank who hypothesised telepathic capabilities for plants.

While there is no way to prove this empirically,  and indeed there has been limited success even in trying to show that talking to plants can improve their growth at all, we at least know that plants can communicate with each other. Past studies have shown that certain plants are capable of emitting wound signals to their neighbours when being attacked by insects - so if they are able to communicate each other surely the possibility of them understanding humans cannot be ruled out?

Sceptics may argue that stories of talking flowers could easily be interpreted as simple coincidences, or at least valid scientific explanations can be given as to why these cases may happen - e.g. carbon dioxide in human breath would aid the growth of plants, or the extra attention given to flowers through the process of talking to them would have made the owner more observant about their conditions.

Whether for scientific reasons or for the sake of holding onto wonderland beliefs of magical flowers, there is certainly no harm in talking to your flowers and trying to understand their language. So next time you see one of your flowers looking particularly sad or lonely,  have a little chat with her and see if she can feel the extra affection!

`We can talk,' said the Tiger-lily: `when there's anybody worth talking to.'

Prepared by Tracy, posted by Bob.