I love late summer. You can feel the change of season early in the morning, and a sunny day is apparent, but it arrives like an elderly person rising from an armchair.

I arrived home a few days ago, during the showery weather and spotted this lovely rainbow. I quickly leashed the dogs & went in search of treasure, which I found in the form of shimmering sunlight on the water, bright green moss, conkers and cones, hops & blackberries.

The flowers at the shop are looking decidedly more autumnal. We have berries, chilli peppers, more reds & oranges, but the late summer flowers are still fantastic – huge alliums, velvety celosia, grand foxtail lilies, skyscraper gladioli and dramatic trailing amaranthus.

It’s a beautiful windy day today, with golden sunshine & big, puffy clouds:

” I saw you toss the skirts on high,

And blow the birds about the sky”  Robert Louis Stephenson

I have the lovely Kumiko, from Japan, working with me at the moment. She has just attained a degree in Textile Design from Central St. Martin’s, which is situated opposite our shop. She’s been asking me about the history of Stems, and my experiences in the business. This has brought back lots of happy memories for me – Pat & Mike from the USA and the lovely dinners! Mike was a professsor at The University of Notre Dame, and they spent a couple of years in london, setting up a facility for their students to spend a year in London.

Apparently, I had told Pat that she could bring the money in sometime for the flowers she bought, as I had no change,and she was so touched by my trust in a stranger that she signed up for the flower arranging classes.We became great friends, and still keep in contact after all these years.

Then there was the Swiss opera singer, at The Royal Opera House for the summer season, who was so horrified by her meagre accommodation in Covent Garden. I explained how many of us would simply die to live in Covent Garden, and also suggested she should move toPrimrose Hill if it was making her so unhappy. Over a period of months, and frequent visits to fill her flat with flowers, we had some great chats, which culminated in her giving me a wonderful card thanking me for the support, gentle irony and laughter.

 We were delighted to provide the flowers for a ruby wedding anniversary lunch at Chelsea Physic Garden a couple of weeks ago. We used hydrangea, Black Baccara roses, pink lisianthus, eryngium thistle and lavender, myrtle & lauristina from our garden. What a fabulous venue for a party!

Next weekend, it’s flowers for a wedding at the beautiful St Ethelreda’s Church on Ely Place – site of the former estate of the Bishops of Ely.

The mint is flowering now, and the bees are busy on the lavender bushes. Most of the tomatoes are still green, & we have flowers on the cucumber plants. I picked the blackcurrants last weekend & made a puree to have with yoghourt – delicious. The plums are also ripe, and it’s great to eat them straight from the tree.

I’m really looking forward to getting back into the flowers again. I’ll miss the dogs, and I’m sure they’ll miss their long walks by the river. I have had the flowers in my garden to play with, but I’ve missed the wonderful flowers at the shop.

Being a florist in Central London, I’ve noticed how much people appreciate a bit of the countryside in their bouquets. There was a girl in the shop on Friday, enthusing about the little posies of garden flowers. Hers contained flowering marjoram, sweet peas, lemon mint & spearmint – all from the garden.

I think the lack of uniformity in the garden flowers adds interest to the bouquets. Years ago, when most of my flowers were English grown, it all looked more natural. Now, every flower in the bunch is the same size – just like the fruit & veg in supermarkets. It makes me wonder how the display will look in supermarkets as the organic ranges grow.

We had a lovely lunch with friends in the garden one sunny Sunday afternoon, and decided to have a plate garden competition. We used anything we could find – sweet peas, nasturtiums, hollyhocks, mint, lavender, curry plant, grass, ivy, virginia creeper, blueberries, stones, sticks  – even firelighters & foil! Hanna’s plate was beautiful, with blueberries and even finely grated lime peel on the mint leaves. It was hard to judge who should win, as they were all so original & pretty. It was a great way the while away the hours in the sunshine.

Our bouquets now contain lavender & lemon mint, spearmint or garden mint. They smell wonderful!

A lady phoned a few days ago to ask what it was in her bouquet, and to tell us that she’sd been adding it to all her cooking during the week. She said everything tasted great. We identified it as lemon mint.

You can make lovely lavender shortbread with just lavender, flour, butter & sugar. It tastes great with ice-cream, or with a cup of tea.

 I’ve been picking herbs & foliage from the garden to add to our bouquets this week – rosemary, curry plant, lemon mint, spearmint, garden mint, rosemary, myrtle, lauristina and lavender.

Having given up the allotment, I’m quite pleased with my herb & vegetable collection which I have in pots on the patio. The purple sprouting broccoli plants are already too big for their container, & I’m wondering where to plant them out.

It seems to be a bad year for strawberries, but the raspberries are looking good, along with the blackcurrants. The plum tree is heavily laden with fruit.  I walk along the lane & collect cherry plums to make jam with.

We have a wasps’ nest in the loft, & bees nesting under the shed. Sean’s worried the wasps will become a nuiscance, but they just seem to be busy with the nest at the moment.

Let’s hope this gorgeous weather continues!

Why not send some beautiful flowers to someone? It’s the best gift on earth! When the situation dictates tact, when someone’s feeling fragile, when words can’t express the emotion – flowers are just the best.

Sean’s in hospital at the moment, and the wards don’t accept flowers anymore. many people don’t realise the the habits of plants & flowers – giving out oxygen during the day, but using it at night, Also, the build up of bacteria in the water if it’s not changed regularly, accelerated by heat.

I was happy to tell Sean today that his nasturtiums have started to flower, along with the sweet peas. Hopefully, when he comes home, his garden will be looking amazing. What a great time to recuperate.

We send flowers all over London, and you have the added bonus of a few flowers or foliage with great healing powers, grown in our own garden at this time of year. They smell absolutely gorgeous! Call us on 020 7831 6776, and we’ll talk you through what we have to offer, or place an order online through the website www.stemsfloraldesign.com  I think you’ll love our flowers!

 What beautiful weather we’ve had lately. We spend all weekend in the garden. The honeysuckle is climbing up the old laburnum tree, the aliums and lupins are beautiful, and there are masses of buds on the roses.

We now have flowers to use in bouquets at the shop, so our Stems signature bouquets and edible bouquets are on offer. Take advantage of the next few months, and send someone a bouquet – we deliver to Holborn, Mayfair, W1, Kensington, the City and all of central London.

One of my mother’s sayings was ” you reap what you sow”. There was always a pregnant pause after the comment. She was a wonderful, self-taught philosopher/psychologist/maverick. I cannot say that she came across as a warm person – unless she particularly warmed to the other person, and she would then reveal the full extent of what she had to offer to another human being. I remember her recounting chance meetings with strangers whilst sitting on a bench in Windsor Great Park, or on Castle Hill, and two hour long conversations, in which she found the utmost pleasure … people literally telling her their life story – and I’m sure my mother sharing her own experiences. I can still hear her deep exhalation of relief as she expressed how much she had enjoyed the day. This was her form of therapy – an honest one to one with a stranger – a chance to get it off her chest, to hear someone else’s highs & lows, and then walk away.

And yet the irony is that I don’t know if you do reap what you sow. I don’t think my mother did. She lived a few years of her young life with an aunt, because her father was away fighting during the First World War, and her mother had younger children to care for. It caused her the pain of rejection, and eventually, she didn’t want to return, but did so, and felt her reluctant role was to help with the five younger children.She spoke of two people, whom I have interpreted as being her role models. The first was her girl guides’ leader. She loved the strict regime, the smart uniform and the instruction. Apparently, this is where she learned left from right. I now realise how little she must have been taught in the way she needed until this point in time for her to have treasured this experience so much. The other was her poetry teacher – a passion she passed on to me.

Having lost her husband at fifty,outliving two sons, and still managing to be a wonderful mother to me – the youngest child, I can’t see how she reaped what she sowed.

 ”And then my heart with pleasure fills,and dances with the daffodils”  William Wordsworth