The English Garden Raleigh Florist Blog

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When a couple have a vision for their wedding day and then entrust their vendor partners to fulfill the vision , the result can be stunning (and the wedding process can be a breeze.) Such was our experience with Hannah and Steve. From our first consultation, they shared their vision for their wedding day- a “romantic first date”, that date of course being the start of their new life together. Red roses, a blending of Opium and Freedom varieties selected from our ever growing palette of reds, classic white Escimo roses, subtle touches of beautiful foliages, seasonal blooms like lilies and waxflower  and dramatic branches transformed the veranda and ballroom of the Governors Club in Chapel Hill.  Hannah’s bouquet, a stunning presentation of red roses captured so elegantly by the artistic photography of Brian Mullins, epitomizes the romantic feel of the day. No detail eluded Brian’s keen eye. Every time I look at the gallery I discover another element captured by his lens. Hannah and Steve’s classic style and shared vision made their wedding day one to remember. Their  connection as a couple and their incredible personalities will ensure that every day of their married life will be as romantic as their “first date.”

We recently got back some of the pictures of a wedding we completed at Cafe Luna. Diane McKinney was the photographer as you can see from the photos. She really captures the florals in a magnificent way. We love working with her for this reason!

As usual the day my day started with reading the headlines at CNN.com when I found a great article contributed by writer Bob Greene on how summer can be our most productive and fruitful time of the year not just a series of lazy afternoons sipping lemonade by the pool.  We had planned to be pretty lazy this afternoon even though we didn’t have any lemonade in the fridge and we didn’t anticipate going to the neighborhood pool since Viv was at a friend’s house and she is the only reason I will don a bathing suit. Warren and I had to run in to the shop for awhile to handle the daily rituals of watering the plants, checking on the cooler and making a few deliveries. Five hours later inspired by the vibrant summer skies and one too many cups of coffee, we had reconfigured the workroom, helped a nice gentleman with anniversary flowers, and redesigned our front displays (with some beautiful new items worth checking out). Now we just had to sustain that energy as we planned to repurpose 220 square feet of sod left from our design work at Raleigh Fashion Week http://www.strut09.com/. What was dressing a walk-way a week ago is now framing one my flower beds where delicate sprouts of cosmos, zinnias, daisies and phlox promise to offer phenomenal summer color in the coming weeks. I guess you could say I am a “scratch” gardener experimenting with a little of this and a little of that. My efforts are often hit and miss but this year the early results are looking pretty promising. Maybe I will finally fill out and fax in that application to take Master Gardener classes. Viv and I planted hundreds of flower and vegetable seeds and we have been keeping a close eye on them with the anticipation of fresh corn on the grill and vibrant zinnias on the table. If we have a bumper crop, who knows maybe some of those blooms will end up in an English Garden bouquet?

We will be doing the arrangements for the second chance prom again this year. We look forward to a look of great arrangments and decorations. We will also be discounting our corsages, boutonnieres and wristlets for guests.

Owner, Cydney Davis-English was recently featured in the recent issue of Floral Management. The article covered her work as the guest for the annual Art in Bloom event at the Iredell Art Museum in Statesville, NC. One of Cydney great talents has been to merge art and flowers. Read the article here: Floral Management Page 12.

Our local news station WRAL ran a nice story on the pitfalls of ordering online. See Story Here. Check out the video below.  WRAL picked up the story after catching the trail of an e-mail exchange between several local florists in the Triangle and Wilmington.  The e-mail centered around a collaborative effort to dig up information on ‘The Flower Guy’ website.  After some digging, we determined that the Flower Guy has closed their retail location several months ago.  After getting our Teleflora rep involved, the plug was pulled!

This is our opening post for our new blog. Welcome!