'Ten Top Tips for Making your Flowers Last Longer' was the title of the talk given by Jonathan Moseley at the April 9th meeting of Wharfedale Gardeners’ Group.

The professional florist and floral designer for 27 years, Jonathan Moseley is keen to grow most of his own flowers and foliage for his displays. His energy and enthusiasm was apparent as he demonstrated tying bunches, filling vases and creating a huge floral centrepiece whilst telling us about the preferences of the flowers themselves and how we could create simple but effective arrangements using a few choice materials from our own gardens.

The starting point for all of his displays is greenery. As he was keen to point out “you can’t buy good greenery” in a florist shop. He did suggest a little judicious ‘foraging’ but only for rampant growing ivies, leafy branches and a few grasses. Friends and neighbours with large shrubby gardens might be keen for you to ‘help’ with the cutting back too!

Some of his favourite leafy shrubs which can easily be grown in any garden include epimedium, laurel and pittosporum His instructions for ‘conditioning’ any flowers we buy, will be followed, by many of us: remove all plastic packaging, trim leaves and stems, steep in fresh water with added flower food (liquid preferably) and leave in a cool dark place overnight. We can give our blooms a head-start with good hydration.

Even in the world of cut flowers, care for the environment is carefully considered. He is keen to promote British growers, cutting down on the air miles and reducing the use of plastic wrapping when buying supermarket flowers. The old favourite ‘chicken wire’ base is back, obviating the need for the floral foam that was so popular, but is unrecyclable.

In his pop-up shop (full of tempting vases, planters and colourful glass jars) he recommended a good quality toolkit: a pair of short bladed scissors, small snips, and a sharp knife.

As we are often reminded, the sight of greenery and more so, the colour and forms of flowers bring us such delight, that our health and mood improve instantly, especially when we can’t get outdoors to appreciate them. Judging by the “ooohs” and “aaahs” as he swiftly bundled together sprays and bunches, adding only a few tulips, daffodils or hyacinths we shall all be inspired to give it a go, whether it is for a large, verdant display or a few delicate, dainty blooms in a jug.