And we are back, bright & beautiful!
Here's your Thursday morning flower stories to savour!
A big Blathanna hello this new year which has certainly stormed in with aplomb & altogether awfulness combined. Gosh, weather, fires, world events and more, I think that all of our intentional January plans whether they were simply to rest or to restart, have been interrupted considerably.
With all of that in mind, our Substack is gently arriving back as we reignite our passion for all things blooms and find the floral stories we hope that you will love. Our newsletter has a mission to bring botanical glimmers of light and bright as we wait for morning skies to wake earlier in Spring. A big huge welcome to our new subscribers. We hope that you enjoy our inbox drops each Thursday and Sunday and please do keep in touch as it's great to hear from you in our Substack world just here.
Then, today's first drop of 2025 is a soft selection of stories, all floral in manner with uplift & imagination at their core. Find out how L.A. florists are supporting each other post fires with a feature on an Irish florist called Orla Floral who lost everything but in plucky fashion, have already started their new beginnings. Harriet Parry brings humour, happiness with a mindful effect in her series 'Floral Interpretations' whilst Joann, an AI floral artist recently featured on Design Boom makes us want to run through fields of cosmos made of delicate lace whilst The Japanese Daily brings a good news story as they print their plantable newspaper. And a story I had meant to show before the end of year overtook is one that definitely brings flowers, light & butterflies to fashion & haute couture. How wonderful to visit the Undercover Lab Spring Summer 2025 catwalk of terrarium dresses lit up with skirt encased worlds of natural beauty we all wished we could wear when we were small.
Have a great Thursday morning folks and it's great to find floral stories for you again. X
SOME FLOWER STORIES -
A gathering of all we spotted this week whilst working in our store of seasonal blooms :
IN L.A. - AN IRISH FLORIST & THEIR AMAZING FLOWER FRIENDS AFTER THE FIRE
'At Orla Floral Studio, our work has always been rooted in artistry and craft — creating moments that transport, uplift, and take your breath away. This mission feels more important now than ever. We want you to know that we are still open for business and operating from a temporary space in downtown Los Angeles. This is not the end — it’s the beginning of a new chapter. With courage, determination, and the love of our Altadena community, we will rebuild our home and studio, striving to come back even stronger and more inspired alongside our neighbors.'
The L.A. fires were so ferocious and from where we flower, we can only imagine the devastation to lives and communities as reality settles in for so many. Here is a heartening story about community support & help for an Irish floral studio called Orla Floral, previously based in Altadena. Mark's Garden, a superstar L.A. florist has put any florist who has lost their production havens on their social media with the relevant GoFundMe links, using their profile to help other florists wherever they can. Renata & Andrew had become established and were creating such cool event work and more until both their home and studio were lost in the fires, such ultimate devastation. Being brilliant at what they do, they are already back making blooms. The flower community worldwide have wrapped their supportive arms around them which is very special and here's to Orla Floral bouncing back before they know it.
IN FLORAL INTERPRETATIONS - HARRIET PARRY PLAYS WITH NATURE IN ART
Harriet Parry produces the most playful pieces as she combines her love of flowers & nature with a background in Fine Art. Her series, 'Flower Interpretations', recently featured in Vogue Portugal and it shows her referencing contemporary and historical art through the medium of flowers.
As a fellow postcard collector since childhood, I love how Harriet, always looking at her postcards of art nonchalantly in her kitchen at home, saw each artwork as a floral composition. As you can see from the images here, Harriet takes an artwork and recreates it as floral compositions. First, she selects the blooms that emulate the textures, colours, shapes of the elements in the artwork. Against a fabric backdrop, the interpretation takes shape as Harriet draws inspiration from her chosen art piece. She then photographs her floral arrangement making sure that she mirrors the angle the initial piece was created by the artist before digitally editing the photo to match the original. She then allows them to sit side by side in virtual form as this allows their comparison and also a unity of form, colour, shape & idea.
'I would love for people to pause. Study my floral pieces. To share in the wonder of nature and to ultimately create; just for a moment, a sense of stillness in our fast-paced world. I also want each piece to resonate personally with whoever is happening upon it. We all have different experiences and approach artworks through our own lens’. I like to think that my works are nuanced in their meanings and interpretations, some subtle and others more present. I love the narratives and feelings that my work could evoke. A space and conversation between myself, the viewer and the flowers themselves. A collaboration. A tapestry of inspirations and influences, that speaks to each person individually. I want to push boundaries and create something fresh and exciting each time I work on a new creation.'
Harriet brings technology and nature together, showing how we can support nature and our world in the future by allowing digital formats further the ephemeral elements of flowers in new ways. I am a fan of how her flower work allows for a mindfulness as we viewers see new perspectives as floral artistry, art & nature flourish using technology & innovation.
READ ABOUT HARRIET IN VOGUE PORTUGAL HERE
SEE ALL OF HARRIET’S FLOWER INTERPRETATIONS HERE
IN LACY BLOOMS - JOANN VIRTUALLY FILLS UP FIELDS WITH FLOWERS
Just fascinating. I still can't make my mind up about AI floral art but this experimentation with delicate lace textures in flower form has enchanted my head. I was struck by these magical works whilst reading the online Design Boom magazine.
Joann, an AI artist and design has a design studio that creates for many fashion houses, brands and more through technology and art. However, the attention to detail, intricacy, colour and botanical appreciation in each of these videos shows a nature study lover who has happened to make virtual flowers in fabric form. Each one makes me want to touch it, the cosmos are a personal favourite signalling a summer meadow I wish I could run through.
The AI floral debate is surging as we who create with the real physical flowers compete with virtual forms of edited florals but as botanical technology starts to explode, perhaps we should embrace it safe in the knowledge that feeling a flower stem & smelling it's fragrance will always reign as the superior thing.
IN THE JAPANESE DAILY - A GREEN NEWSPAPER PRINTED WITH SEEDS
As a business that strives to be better at sustainability and recycling daily, I loved this feature on the Japanese publisher of ‘The Japanese Daily’ who devised a green initiative which means people can plant their newspaper. We ourselves will even stock plantable greeting cards very soon to help inspire sustainable planting & recycling waste reduction.
Anyway…this publishing company not only publishes their Green Newspaper on 100% biodegradeable paper with plant-based inks but seeds are embedded within each page. Some copies grow pollinators for bees & butterflies, others sprout herbs good enough to eat. All instructions guide each reader to tear the newspapers into small smithereens before planting them in soil like any other seedling.
IN HAUTE COUTURE - UNDERCOVER LAB SURPRISE WITH TERRARIUM GOWNS
Still looking for bright stories, this Undercover Lab feature unfurled before me full of couture light. The creative director, Jun Takahashi was inspired by the invisible angels in Wim Wenders renowned Berlin set film ‘Wings of Desire’. He created a fairy tale finish to his Spring Summer 2025 show in Paris when he sent out models in magical creations. Lights went down as three models floated down the catwalk full of an ethereal glow from within the dresses that bound them. Tulip-shaped clear skirts served as terrariums, filled with real garden flowers & real butterflies fluttering about. Degas style lighting accentuated the delicacy of each dress & all guests felt like they were in a fairy tale. Oh, how I would have loved to have been there.
IN LETTING THEM - MEL ROBBINS & JAY SHETTY CHANGED OUR MINDS THIS WEEK
This episode stopped me in my tracks so many times that Ella, our beagle even got annoyed. Mel Robbins ‘Let Them’ phrase has now populated minds all around. If you are looking for a practical podcast to help steer your mind to new waves of thought, this is it…..And for business owners especially in retail, this is a must-listen!!! (IYKYK)
UNTIL NEXT WEEK FRIENDS - OUR WEEKLY GLIMMER: LESSONS FROM DAVID LYNCH
“Ideas are like fish. If you want to catch little fish, you can stay in the shallow water. But if you want to catch the big fish, you’ve got to go deeper. Down deep, the fish are more powerful and more pure.They’re huge and abstract. And they’re very beautiful.”
A teenager when Twin Peaks appeared, David Lynch changed how we perceived television & creativity to be. We discussed, debated and mused over each precious episode every lunchtime in tuckshop and I followed David Lynch and all the magic he made for the rest of my years so far. Rest in Peace David Lynch and may your meditation be even more wonderful in your new home in the sky and thank you for all of the life illumination you so generously gave.
“I learned that just beneath the surface there's another world, and still different worlds as you dig deeper. I knew it as a kid, but I couldn't find the proof. It was just a kind of feeling. There is goodness in blue skies and flowers, but another force--a wild pain and decay--also accompanies everything.”
― David Lynch