Jane packer suggests co-ordinating your flowers and your interior
Our growing passion for cut flowers is reflected in the enormous rise in the amount of flowers bought over recent years.
Most of us buy them on a weekly basis and enjoy indulging in a selection of blooms from around the world - courtesy of hothouses and air transport.
More than that we often choose their colour or effect to contrast or blend with our interior styles - even if we are not aware of it.
Florist Jane Packer's imaginative style is well demonstrated in a nostalgia-filled alternative to a table centrepiece - a stack of glass cake stands decorated with tiny paper cake cases displaying flower heads.
Ironically those traditional English blooms are what first captivated her over 20 years ago when as a 15-year-old schoolgirl she got a weekend job in a small flower shop.
It was the start of what she calls her "obsession" with flowers. She recalls: "I spent my first day's pay on a bunch of narcissi. I arranged them in a brown pottery jug with a band of orange and yellow marbled glaze that picked up the tones of flowers.
"Without realising it I'd colour co-ordinated container and flowers and ever since then I've developed that."
When she opened her first shop in London 1982 she banned carnations and chrysanthemums with rigid stems and funeral connotations and instead opted for country style flowers.
"Then I wanted to bring nature into the city and celebrate those lovely flowers, Sweet Williams, lavender and pinks and even weeds from the hedgerows.
"I still love those but it just shows how everything comes back into style eventually as carnations and chrysanthemums are back in favour with me as much as anyone else."
She advises when giving flowers as a gift: "Even if you get flowers from a garage use a bit of imagination and wrap your flowers in a paper photocopy of a picture of you and your partner."
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