I love a good business idea so when I read about Petalon Flowers, a new venture that delivers small and large bunches of flowers on bicycles in London I was straight to liking their Instagram feed! Whilst I haven’t bought a bunch as yet the beautiful images of the weekly two flower options fill my feed regularly making me smile. Before Christmas the founder, Florence, posted a wreath workshop which I signed up for immediately for a perfect opportunity to learn a new skill and decorate my front door. Fate would have it that my work christmas party was scheduled the same night so Florence was kind and let me book into a bunch workshop in January instead.
Arriving at the Dalston warehouse location we were greeted by Florence, her husband James and Huxley the Great Dane who offered us a glass of prosecco to start the evening. Around twelve of us were taken through the flower selection by Florence who was using the same flowers types that she has in her delivery service. We were then shown how to start a bunch and set free to pick flowers and greenery to get going! There was a little hesitation by all at this point and we were all really gentle with handling our flowers as everyone tried to work out the colour mix that they wanted. However after a bit the music was turned up, the prosecco flowed, snacks were nibbled at and encouraged by Florence, who managed to work one on one with everyone providing pearls of wisdom, we started to produce some stunning bouquets. It was fascinating to see what everyone was producing, as despite pulling from the same large selection of flowers on offer we all managed to make unique and individual bunches. At one point I was uncertain about adding some eucalyptus to my bunch and where exactly to ‘condition’ the stem so that any leaves wouldn’t taint a vase of water later. Florence could see my hesitation and with one swoop she had dramatically removed all the leaves and after I took a moment to absorb this professional quick and swift approach I was full steam ahead again! She then declared my first bunch a triumph and there was plenty of time to make a second bouquet.
There was no real time limit to the night and once completed I walked away with two large bunches and a smaller posy for next to my bed. We were entertained throughout by Huxley and his friend Ollie who is in the pictures but is so small and young that his enthusiasm has meant he is just a black blur! On the tube home I realised that in my current temporary accommodation I would hard pressed to display one of the bunches so seeing a girl my age smiling at the flowers I gave her one of them. She was quite surprised and I realised that I am not a tough Londoner just yet!
Florence used to work in sales and saved her pennies to start Pentalon having trained one on one with a number of well known florists including Cornish wedding designer The Blue Carrot. I found her enthusiasm for floristry and hearing her story of developing her business inspirational and another person who has inspired me in my own endeavours. There are plans for more workshops in the future so sign up for the Petalon newsletter or follow on instagram and if you need a pick me up order a bunch of flowers as a treat to yourself.
Who are your favourite modern florists? Are you signing up for any workshops this new year?
PF xo
