Thoughts in Spring time

I was incredibly honored—and pleasantly surprised—when The Florist magazine in Japan reached out to interview me. Back in January, I was sitting on my childhood bed in Taipei when Yuri and I had a lovely chat over video on a sunny day.

The interview was focused on the importance of using organically and seasonally grown flowers. The conversation stemmed from a tragic incident: a French florist had passed away due to prolonged exposure to pesticides. This raised awareness—not just within the florist community but among the general public—about the need for change and the benefits of sourcing more locally and organically grown flowers.

I shared how my journey began from arranging flowers for my friend’s wedding in Kew Garden; I was asked to sign a declaration of only using EU or British Grown flowers for the floral display. I started researching and sourcing from English flower farms. I remember reaching out to Fern Verrow in Herefordshire, and they delivered the freshest blooms, resting in cool mountain water outside my flat in Brockley.

Since the pandemic, these flower farms have flourished, offering an abundance of choices during the English growing season (April to October). I’ve experimented with flower growing myself, though not deeply enough to be mentioned alongside experts like Clement Bouteille in France or Pluktuin Bloemrijk in the Netherlands. Still, I hope that one day I can explore it further while maintaining a balance with floral arranging.

Using seasonally grown flowers has become central to my design process. You get the best, the strongest and the most natural looking flowers (this might sounds ridiculous, but most of the imported flowers are stiff and lack spontaneity). Plus, most of the flowers I use are sourced within 50 miles of London, offering great quality and value.

As a florist, I deeply appreciate the way flowers are grown, how nature works, and how floristry can—and perhaps should—embrace its natural essence. I don’t believe everyone needs to follow the same style or aesthetic, but I do think there’s value in observing how nature can inspire beauty, whether in floristry, music, art, film, architecture, or literature. This is just my small way of making sense of it all.

Farms that I’ve worked with

Fern Verrow

Stokesay Flower Farm

Kernel Spike

Marlston Farm Girl

Sitopia

Hawksbury Hunt Flowers

這個話題，其實我想用中文再延伸更多。我並沒有在台灣從事過花藝的工作，但是每次去到台灣花市，吸引我的目光永遠是在歐洲想買都買不到的蘭花，淡水阿北種的天堂鳥。

我並不是園藝專家，但是台灣的氣候跟英國濕冷的地方比起來，生長季節可能長了許多。當然要面臨的挑戰可能會是過熱過曬或是病蟲害、溫帶品種的花可能需要環境跟技術才有辦法生長。鬱金香，現在很紅的罌粟花都是需要有一段低溫的時間，球根跟種子才會發芽。我對於台灣花藝的趨勢的印象，覺得大家還是喜歡進口花居多，當然完全可以理解這種物以稀為貴的想法，但是還是希望大家可以很簡單的想想，在自家長得最好，最漂亮，甚至價格最親民的花，就是這個地區這個產業值得被注意的優勢。

接下來，如果可以的話，或許也可以開始談論有機或biodynamic 的耕種法。我身在的英國 ，在60、 70年代曾經一度也有花卉農業的存在，後來才被荷蘭完全國家式的經營取代。真的是在2020年前後，因為脫歐跟Covid當然還有氣候變遷的關係，有機農場增加，大家才開始討論“季節性“跟“在地性”這些看似理所當然，但是普羅大眾卻完全不了解的資訊。回歸土壤、Farm to table 、永續經營都是這樣的概念。大的產業都開始急速加入永續經營的模式（管他是不是在騙笑）如果小的產業，尤其是我們本來就是在靠農作物在吃飯的花藝師，是不是也盡可能把對自然環境的傷害降到最低。小小的開始也好，做什麼都可以，少用一層塑膠，今天多買一把在地花農的花，在社交媒體上寫一些關於蘭花的好話 （？？）這樣。

Pandemic Flowers

3 months after lockdown lifted, a so-called normal life is still stuck in somewhere unknown. The word ‘pandemic’ is from the Greek word all+people, according to the dictionary on Google. I’d never used the word ’pandemic’ this often, as well as ‘quarantine’ or ‘furlough’ or putting ‘sanitise’ in front of as many nouns as possible.

I don’t need to describe how surreal it is at the moment, everybody feels it that we probably can’t call its surreal anymore. The idea behind this “Pandemic Flowers“ came from a lonely overground (any transportation ) carriage that used to be full of people. The flower sculpture took over empty seats, mimicking, traveling alone. The moss island was inspired by just a single quote from John Donne’s “No man is an island“ that I learned and got interested in when I binge-watching Downton Abbey during the lockdown. It seems ironically fitted that “No man is an island“ with this '‘all+people pandemic’, the best solution is isolation. Does that mean we all still need to be an island sometimes? or learn to be one? Does the continent have its limit?

Photos by Fang-Yu Cho

High Summer/ 仲夏

It was weeks after lockdown lifted, temperature was still soaring, flowers suddenly become available again that I was almost overwhelmed by the selections I came across at the market.

The idea was simple, I saw this petit, jewel-like watermelon in the farmer’s market on one Saturday. Yes, most definitely I’d like to have the taste of watermelon right now! The lady at the stall kindly reminded me its £6.5 each. I knocked every single ones to make sure the one I picked had the most perfect echo. (That was a bad example, please do not do this if you can resist. Knocking the watermelon is just a thing we do in Taiwan, you want to find the one with a hollow but kind of bouncy sound, that means its juicy inside. )

In lockdown I’ve become a scavenger, I collected whatever I can find to make arrangements or just something for the table. In this case, there’s no way I was going to throw that shell away, it’s a perfect vessel for making a Summery arrangement. It’s watertight! It’s Red!

I used Dahlia labyrinth, wild Fennel, wild Mint (literally pulled out from the crack between the tiles) , Crocosmia, Lily (I forgot its black mamba or dark secret) and Ricinus. The photograph was taken by @chofangyufoto that I’ve secretly admired her works for a very long time…We found out we actually live in the same area, London is small sometimes.

我偷偷在instgram上搭訕老桌 @chofangyufoto, 她一口答應要來幫我拍照。我們約在Hilly Field，推著阿婆推車抱著西瓜，兩個人氣喘吁吁地爬上坡。

主要就是想要一個夏天的顏色，西瓜的顏色。Dahlia labyrinth 給我一種西瓜肉透心涼的感覺。我發現我很少用紅色，但是今天受到了西瓜的啟發。

那天風很大，在山坡上花被吹得亂七八糟。老桌要我現場做一個，我邊做邊聊她一邊幫我拍照。這是跟新朋友第一次見面的好活動。老桌之後給我看的照片讓我瞠目結舌，說真的照片比本人美。我們留了一些花在草地上，花束送給老桌，西瓜我最後還是丟掉了。