June heralds the start of summer and wonderful British blooms! It is a time when flowers explode with a delicious scent and mesmerising colour. To celebrate British Flowers Week, we visited Sarah Richardson of Leafy Couture Designs based in West Yorkshire and it was just AMAZING.

British Flowers Week is a campaign run by New Covent Garden and unites florists, flower growers, tutors, and flower lovers in honouring Britain's best blooms and the amazing talent we have in floral design.

Visiting Leafy Couture

I have wanted to visit Sarah and her fabulous team at Leafy Couture for years now after swooning over her gorgeous bouquets and arrangements on Instagram and I am very grateful that we managed to go and see her incredible workshop.

As soon as you walk in you are greeted with big smiles from the team and the wonderful sight and smell of fresh flowers!

Leafy Couture has been creating beautiful flowers, arrangements, and installations for weddings and events since 2006, they design and create everything from small buttonholes to large floral installations and everything in between!

As well as having an established floral business Sarah also teaches florists and beginners everything she knows about floristry, for information on the courses please click here. I am certain I will be booking on to a class very soon.

Here is what Sarah had to say about British Flowers week.

How important is it that you use British Grown Flowers?

British flowers are super important to me as they represent seasonal produce at low mileage. They are the cherry on the cake for weddings and they are fabulous to use in bunches for people's homes.

They are in abundance from May to October and we try to use them as much as they can, they are often grown with fewer chemicals and have a lower carbon emission too.

It is important to me to use seasonal flowers that are the best quality and British flowers so often tick this box. Dahlia and sweetpeas are much stronger and last longer if they haven't travelled too far.

We have done some wonderful installations with 5th generation growers smith and munson who grow lillies, tulips, and ranunculus. We have worked with them to raise the profile of British blooms. We also use fab suppliers such as Picked at Dawn, Pickers Flowers and Flowers by season. We love the variety that you can get and it is so exciting getting the deliveries. Flowers that are grown by small growers often have wonkier stems and much prefer water to foam, It's a different way of working and it is a brilliant choice.

Do your customers ask that you use British Grown Flowers in their bouquets?

British flowers are becoming more and more popular for our clients as they want to know the provenance of their florals. We take pride in saying that some of their wedding flowers are grown here in Yorkshire, by us too. We grow dahlia, herbs and a mixture of other delights such as achillia, ammi, aquilegia, tulips, forget me knots, and more.

What is your favourite season for flower arranging?

My favourite season is all seasons, each has its own joy! It is the seasons that inspire us from the hellebore and tulips in spring, to the peonies and snapdragons of summer to the late summer dahlia and then the hydrangea in autumn and foliage's in winter. Each has their own stars of the show and keeps us as florists going into the next weeks and months with excitement.

A big thank you to Sarah for chatting with us and showing us around the Leafy Couture workshop!

How can you get involved in British Flowers Week?

To get involved this year New Covent Garden are encouraging businesses and the public to decorate their windows with British grown flowers, preferably where passers by can enjoy them from 14th - 20th June. Whether a single stem picked from your garden or a bouquet from your local florist, a decorated window will show your support an passion for British flowers.

Share your display on social media using the tags #BritishFlowersWeek and @marketflowers .

Happy British Flowers week everyone!

Click here to read all about our visit to 'The Flower Connection'