January was very January. Tax returns, shot days, long night and not much in the way of beautiful flowers and ingredients- all in all a tiresome month. And then February arrived, the birds began to sing again and the snowdrops began to flower. The hellbores are flowering away and have been joyous. We have forced bulbs in pots and they’ve been lighting up the greenhouse with their colours and scents. Every day brings new growth and more crocus’. We’ve had our first few shoots of the year- the first with Eva Nemeth and the second with Michael Sinclair for The World of Interiors. We’ve got so man ..read more

In a year where counting our blessings feels more acute than ever- 2023 has ultimately been good to us here in our home and at ALMA|PROUST. There have been many ups and downs, some days, weeks, months a real struggle and challenge but on a balance- it’s been a good one. I learnt how little sleep a human can get by, how to juggle many items with insufficient amounts of hands ( I can now do so many miraculous things with a single hand), and how well the mind and body can heal with enough time and support. It has been, personally, a journey of epic proportions to get through these last 365 days ..read more

As the last dusk of the year draws ever closer, I have, as many of you will too, been reflecting on this last year. I love that we have a moment in our calendar to mark a new chapter in the seamless, endless passing of days, to have a moment to simultaneously look forward and back feels utterly precious. Reaching back through the months under today's pale winter sky, I reckon that my biggest takeaway from the previous 12 months is relatively simple- just keep going. And, in the spirit of that energy, I'm thrilled to announce two new books coming out in 2024. They're a different format from my ..read more

The tulips for next spring are still sitting in a box, waiting to be planted. We are growing them in containers this year, and only a few of them. We reigned in the order after the spring this year was too wet for them, and we couldn’t sell most of the crop- tulips are just too much of a gamble for the flower farmer, but we still couldn’t be without them. When they burst into flower, it feels like the first moment of the year when the colour palette opens up when harvesting for use in our design work. We’ll likely wait until the first week of January to get them into the ground now while we ti ..read more

Time has been moving most peculiarly, bending, shifting, swelling and fading. The shift in seasons has happened in a drizzly blur- out of focus with only tiny glimmers of illumination from a passing gap in the rain clouds. Rain and glimmers have, of course, meant rainbows. Rainbows at any time or age are good for stopping and staring, an ideal pursuit this year while meeting the illimitable demands of the little one; I've been attempting to honour (read juggle) life as a still newish mother by living as much as one can in the present. This has sometimes looked like time lost staring at rainbow ..read more

The seed season is upon us, and being self-titled seed enthusiasts, Paris and I are currently in our seasonal element. Not only are the seeds being packed up and sent out, but we’re still doing harvests from the crop on the field. After a dry day yesterday, little stars of cosmos seeds, ready to spring from the stems, were plucked into a bucket by the last light at dusk. They’re now sitting in a dish on the big table in the studio, drying out a little more before we pack them and ready them for the shop. It’s a satisfying and busy time. To celebrate the seed season, we created a piece we lovin ..read more

In between the seed mania Paris and I have been quietly living through, we have been joyfully flowering weddings and events in London and Sussex and having the best time doing it. From a colourful wedding on Brighton Sea Front, a flower-filled country house wedding, to an elegant wedding at The Dorchester. We’re having so much fun working together, creatively and companionably- after working alone for so long, I can now highly recommend finding yourself a business pal. business pals in our element The lift had broken when we pulled up to The Dorchester in the pouring rain. With many crates of ..read more

I’ve been writing to you in my head all season. We’ve been so busy that there’s not been a moment to get it all scribbled down and ready to press send. A cold, wet spring was tough on a lot of our crop, and yet we had the best narcissus we’d ever had that flowered and flowered for florists and our own events for what felt like months. It’s been, as always, a time of ups and downs, wins and sorrows. We’ve enjoyed cutting and suppling for others more that I ever imagined we would, and our ALMA|PROUST florist list is still growing rapidly. It’s utterly joyful working a colour palette, choosing th ..read more

It’s been one year to the day that From Seed To Bloom made its way into your hands, opening up its pages to the world. The process of pouring countless hours, days, months into words on a page is intense. I now have infinitely more respect for novelists, cookery book writers, writers who work to deadline than I ever did before having experienced some of the fervent wrangling of how those things are put together. And after all that- to have to let it all go, allowing those painstakingly woven words to no longer be yours alone- it’s all a bit nerve wracking to say the least. I’ve learnt a lot fr ..read more

We made it through January. And then we made it through February. I know they’re always hard, but this years tricky months felt particularly challenging. It was my first winter of juggling a baby, life, and work. Having solo-parented my way through weeks of it while my partner worked abroad, on top of being more than a little convinced I might be solar powered…. I. Am. Tired. A flavour of tired that I’m not sure I’ve felt before- I’ve always been ok on not much sleep, I’ve never minded long physical days on my feet, and I can keep a cool head when there are many plates that need to be kept spi ..read more