The sugar flower specialist

Born and brought up in a tiny village on the borders of the Wye Valley and the Forest of Dean, Lou was surrounded by flora and fauna of the hedgerows and farm lands.  Her home garden was awash with colour every year.  Her Mother would plant boxes full of annuals and bedding plants in borders wider than the pavements we all walk on today.  In summer, vibrant walls of colour were all around.  Dwarf dahlias flopped onto the pathways and geraniums clumped at the edges of the rockeries.  Peace Roses grew huge in the borders and tiny rows of orange white and blue bedding plants grew perfectly aligned around the edges. Peonies stood tall around and tiny lily of the valley grew in the damp gullies around the old sheds.  Fruit trees grew in the lawns and the vegetable patch was so unruly that her Dad often took the mower to it before it could be dug in the Spring.   She grew up playing between the high hedgerows and fields of the old Common where she had the freedom to collect bunches of Cuckoo flowers or Ladies Smock to take home for her Mum.  This is where her passion for all native flowers has come from.  She says "To recreate these flowers in as much detail as I can, for special occasions, that are as beautiful as those in nature, is a complete pleasure." 

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"I love my garden"

My better half and I have been together for more than forty years now and are proud to say we have two grown up married children and now two beautiful grandchildren as well,  whom we adore spending time with. When it’s just the two of us though, we enjoy spending our weekends in our much-loved garden and visiting our favourite local restaurants for an evening of rich food while Fred has the odd glass of good wine.  We also enjoy our visits to National Trust gardens or just a wander around local villages taking in the odd tea shop with a thick sticky piece of homemade cake and a cuppa.  We love taking the bus to London to visit our Son and his husband so we can take in a show.  Kew Gardens or the V&A museum are  must do visits, to see the latest flowers and exhibitions. 

I have always loved my garden and I am a keen flower grower and member of the RHS.  My favourite flowers are roses and peonies, and the bright flowers that bring us out of the doldrums of winter.  Azaleas and rhododendrons, daffodils and the beautiful delicate snowdrops and nodding English bluebells that form the first carpets of colour in spring.  But sugar flowers…?  Well, my favourite sugar flower to make is a Renaissance Rose, but a close second comes the Peony with the stigma, stamen and carpels all forming such an artistic work in the centre of that magnificent petal crown.

My passion for real and sugar flowers overflows into my life every day. I like to be surrounded by flowers wherever I am. They give me peace in a troubled world. Their soft and delicate smells carrying with them birdsong and serenity. No matter if it’s a garden or a florist shop;  heather on a windy hill top or grasses blowing by the sea or flaming orange lilies in the warmth of the sun languishing in a courtyard pot, they all invoke a happy place for me.  Just the same as my happy place is making and teaching their sugar replications.