Downton Abbey Flowers

We had a busy and educational Spring here at Park Florist.  Not to mention Upper Crust.  Aristocratic, actually.  And, of course, flowery.

In April, fans of Lady Mary, Cousin Mathew, Mrs. Padmore, et al., were out in force to attend our special Downton Abbey flower class. So many, in fact, that we held two separate classes, where we created a frothy floral confection based on the show and typical floral styles of the Edwardian Era.  Bethany painstakingly researched (aka, "google-ed" and "pinterest-ed") images of the show to find this inspiration from Lady Mary's wedding:

We love how Lady Edith, (actress Laura Carmichael), ever the Wall Flower, patiently waits her turn, next to the cherub urn overflowing with yellows and whites.  Wispy and Romantic, to say the least.

Not having bronze cherub urns at our disposal, we instead opted for ceramic, high-gloss urns in soft spring colors to compliment our flowers.  We collected the usual English Garden team-players: larkspurs, stock, roses, asiatic lilies, lisianthus, hanging amaranthus, ranunculus, and an in-season treat of daffodils.  We were hoping to achieve a look of Delicate Excess, with the flowers shooting up and spilling out of our petite vase.  In keeping with the style, the focus was on color and the airy form - distinctly different from today's neatly compact designs with strong focal.  But we so wanted to make Lady Cora happy.


 The final touch is a unique collection of foliages - tree, palm, and sword ferns gave us the ephemeral, yet intriguingly botanical look we were after.

In keeping with the era, we created a form for our design using chicken wire.  It is a tricky structure to work with, but more forgiving than floral foam and more in keeping with what Mr. Carson would have instructed the Gardener to use.

The Dowager Countess would have expected that we only use roses from her prize-winning collection, while Cousin Isobel would sigh and roll her eyes, but that's for another class.