The Real Flower Girls love creating wonderful wedding flowers and this summer has been an exceptionally busy time in the workshop much to our delight.

As I write the workshop is buzzing with activity as more wedding flowers are being prepared and the air is filled with the intoxicating scent of roses and herbs.

I thought I could offer an insight into some of the new trends in wedding flowers and I plan to share some of my favourite venues and suppliers with you in the coming weeks and month's. If you're getting married next year there's plenty of time to plan ahead and collect ideas.

We get so many last minute requests for bridal flowers that this seems to be an emerging trend although I suspect that this might also be a result of a very poor summer this year when the plan to collect flowers from the garden has sadly been dashed (along with the flower heads!) by the driving rain.

Actually, while I think about it, I also suspect that it is owing to the trend for using flowers that are in season - but if you use a good florist who can advise what is in season each month you can still plan ahead and use seasonal (and sustainably grown, low carbon etc.) flowers.....but more about that later.

Pot pourri has been out of fashion for quite some time now, in fact so far out that it's ripe for a revival of interest.

We make our own rose and herb pot pourri at The Real Flower Company as it looks wonderful in our little hat boxes. Selfridges home buying team are clearly on our wavelength as they recently placed an order for some large and small hat boxes of pot pourri from us and we all know that Selfridges are usually ahead of the field with new trends.

If you'd like to make some at home it's a great time of year to make it as rose petals dry really well spread out on a sheet of paper or cotton fabric and left to dry in a cool shady place for a week or so.
The dried petals do retain some of their scent but can also be refreshed with some rose oil. They can also be ground up to use as a spice in recipes but make surre that you use roses that have not been sprayed with incecticide.

Little bags of home made pot pourri make lovely stocking fillers for Christmas! Yes I know its early but the roses are blooming in the garden now!

I'm a huge fan of the ''Slow Food'' movement which was set up by an Italian journalist, Carlo Pedrini, in response to the advance of the fast food culture. I had the honour of meeting the President of the ''Slow Food'' movement recently in Selfridges Food Hall (where we now have a shop) when I was introduced to him by Selfridges Food Director, Ewan Venters. He loved our scented roses and herbs which I was thrilled about as I have long believed that the ethos of our company fits perfectly with the principles of the ''Slow Food'' movement which aims to preserve traditional agriculture in order to both safeguard the environment and ensure that local artisanal products remain viable in the competitive and commercial world in which we live.
We have provided table decorations for one of their events in the past and the UK branch and website are well worth a look at.

My personal branch of the ''Slow Food'' movement was called to action this weekend with a Jam making session. The change in the seasons from Summer to Autumn has to be one of my favourite times of year and, although it's not officially that time yet, the shorter days, lack of sunshine and distinct chill in the air are a reminder that the soft fruit season will soon be over. The pots of jam (blueberry, strawberry and raspberry) are now proudly displayed in my kitchen. Our workshop is located here at Durleigh Marsh farm which has a wonderful farm shop and specialises in 'pick your own' fruit and vegetables in a gorgeous setting - well worth a visit if you are ever driving along the A272 between Petersfield and Rogate. They specialise in soft fruit and this is where I picked the fruit for my Jam.
I also made a delightful Rose Petal Sorbet this weekend and would urge you to try it.

600 ml water
225g granulated sugar
A handful of scented rose petals (bitter yellow ends removed)
1 strip of pared lemon rind
Juice of a small lemon
2 Egg whites

Dissolve the water and sugar in the pan and slowly bring to the boil, stirring until the sugar is dissolved. Add the petals and the rind and boil for 10 minutes. Leave to cool and then strain, pressing the petals to extract the juices. Add the lemon juice and pour into a container. Freeze until slushy then beat to break down the ice crystals. Whisk the egg whites and fold into the sorbet. Return to the freezer and freeze until firm. Serves 6-8.

This is fabulous served between courses of Moroccan food....

Well what a wonderful weekend for team GB at the Olympics, I've watched sports that I didn't even know existed and it certainly becomes addictive. We've seen our fair share of medals in the last few days but as you would expect the bouquets have intrigued me. I always thought that the national flower of China was the chrysanthemum so why are the athletes presented with roses? Well a quick look at the official Beijing Olympic site revealed the answer - the native china red rose is the flower of Beijing city and elected such by the residents of the city in 1986.

As you would expect there has been a lot of thought given to the bouquets and their meaning. The flowers reach the athletes within six hours of being picked and all the bouquets are transported in special boxes and escorted to the venues by ''flower protection'' experts to make sure that they are kept in perfect condition. Among the other flowers added to the bouquet are hosta leaves, mondo grass and hypericum. The Beijing Review states that red is the colour for hospitalityand the five flowers added to the bouquet represent friendship,fairness,unity and bless the games with success. There are nine roses because nine is the most honorable number in China and all the other flowers come in groups of six because six represents smoothness. They need to be tightly bound given the amont of waving the winners are prone to!

If preparing 6,000 perfect bouquets sounds challenging then spare a thought for the flower growers who have apparently been preparing for these Games since 2005 and over 40 million plants are scheduled to bloom during sixteen days. It hasn't been an easy task in the heat and humidity of a Chinese summer but hopefully the visitors have appreciated the efforts made.

Let's hope that the Olympic Committee for 2012 have already started to think about the flowers for London as British growers will need to start planning. I've registered my interest and I'm just waiting for the tender to come up. What would be more fitting than British grown roses and herbs?

We have created a collection of images of our gorgeous garden roses.

See the whole collection

What a wash out this week has been.
The roses are in full bloom in my garden and yet there's little chance of spending any time outside to enjoy them . The rain is damaging the heads and the petals are strewn all over the flower beds.
With more of the same predicted for the weekend I've been cutting the partially open blooms to bring indoors and in addition to displaying them all over the house I've decided to collect the petals to make my first ever batch of Rose Petal Jam.
Be sure to use the heavily perfumed varieties and make sure they haven't been sprayed with insecticide!

225g rose petals
225g sugar
4 tablespoons water
1 dessertspoon orange juice
1 dessertspoon lemon juice

Wash the petals and remove the white 'heel' which is very bitter. Place the petals in a pan and add the remaining ingredients. Stir on a low heat until the sugar is completely dissolved. Bring to the boil and boil rapidly until setting point is reached. Use a jam thermometer
for this. Cool slightly before pouring into warm , sterilised jam jars and seal immediately.

I will be making my jam on Saturday and will let you know how I get on!

A rose is a perennial flowering shrub or vine of the genus Rosa, within the family rosaceae, that contains over 100 species. The species form a group of erect shrubs, and climbing or trailing plants, with stems that are often armed with sharp thorns. Most are native to Asia, with smaller numbers of species native to Europe, North America, and northwest Africa. Natives, cultivars and hybrids are all widely grown for their beauty and fragrance. [1]

The leaves are alternate and pinnately compound, with sharply toothed oval-shaped leaflets. The plants fleshy edible fruit is called a rose hip. Rose plants range in size from tiny, miniature roses, to climbers that can reach 20 metres in height. Species from different parts of the world easily hybridize, which has given rise to the many types of garden roses.

The name originates from Latin rosa, borrowed through Oscan from colonial Greek in southern Italy: rhodon (Aeolic form: wrodon), from Aramaic wurrdā, from Assyrian wurtinnu, from Old Iranian *warda (cf. Armenian vard, Avestan warda, Sogdian ward, Parthian wâr).[2][3]

Attar of rose is the steam-extracted essential oil from rose flowers that has been used in perfumes for centuries. Rose water, made from the rose oil, is widely used in Asian and Middle Eastern cuisine. Rose hips are occasionally made into jam, jelly, and marmalade, or are brewed for tea, primarily for their high Vitamin C content. They are also pressed and filtered to make rose hip syrup. Rose hips are also used to produce Rose hip seed oil, which is used in skin products.

The wonderfully scented Deep Secret rose.

It's the perfect time of year for scented garden roses and the rose paddocks on our Hampshire farm are full of wonderful roses in bud waiting to be picked.