Ellie Jauncey and Anna Day are Hackney-based florists with backgrounds in textile and illustration. As The Flower Appreciation Society they create beautiful, quirky arrangements using British seasonal flowers from local markets.
They’re not your average florists: when not surrounded by blooms at their Hackney studio, Anna is training to be a midwife and Ellie runs a hand-made knitwear clothing label. They also offer a unique flower subscription service, in which they make and deliver bouquets to a person of your choice for an agreed length of time. Committed to supporting local markets and returning to simpler floristry, the pair create wild and natural arrangements from beautiful flower crowns to hand-tied seasonal bouquets.
Today Anna and Ellie launch their new book, The Flower Appreciation Society: An A-Z of All Things Floral, which covers everything from old wives’ tales to corsages. The book is full of beautiful photography and detailed illustrations, with easy how-to guides on arranging loose flowers in a jar and making your own floral headdresses, ideal for summer festivals.
If you’ve ever wondered how to bake using edible flowers, how to use foliage, or you just want some quick tips on how to brighten up the flowers on your table, the A-Z has it all. We talk to Ellie Jauncey about the best flower markets and making the most out of used jam jars.
What made you decide to transform The Flower Appreciation Society into print?
It had been a dream for a long time to do a book, but we didn't for one moment think that it could become a reality until we were approached by a publisher. The writing, drawing and photography took us nine months from start to finish. We were given a lot of creative freedom: this allowed us to include slightly random sections like hand care tips, what to do with edible flowers and how the water travels around the plant - it's the xylem, which sorted out X!
You source your flowers from a variety of local markets. What's your favourite market to buy from?
We buy most of our flowers from New Covent Garden market in London but we also buy from independent British flower growers who deliver to our door. We value these relationships highly for the beautiful blooms they provide us with and their great friendships.
If you had to choose a favourite flower, which would it be?
We can't possibly choose one! Anna absolutely loves wisteria, sweet peas and peonies, and I’m a fan of peach foxgloves, Icelandic poppies and ammi.
Can you share some floristry and flower-arrangement tips from the book with our readers?
Here are some of our top tips: take all leaves off the stem which sit below the water line in the vase to stop the leaves rotting. Cut all stems at an angle to allow more water to the flower. Change the water in your vase every two days, take out any dead flowers and re-cut the stems. This will give your bunch a much longer life, even if you end up with three stems in a bottle when you started off with a full vase!
Another good tip is make sure never to chuck out jam jars as they’re perfect for arranging flowers in. Wash them, remove the labels and they are good to go. Collect bottles of different heights and sizes and place one large bloomed stem in each bottle. Either group them together or arrange in a line down your table. Both wonderfully effective and cheap!
The Flower Appreciation Society: An A-Z of All Things Floral is out on 18th June and published by Little, Brown Book Group.
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