“I can’t imagine my life without flowers. I still get so much pleasure after all these years” - Muir Simpson NSDF

Past

Meeting Muir was a pleasure; with a smile she welcomed my questions. She has lived a very eventful life and is not ready to slow down. Mixing with celebs and royalty much more often than your average person during her career, yet she stays so very humble. With a big squeeze Muir revealed she had met and presented flowers to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth on a few occasions. Along with that privilege she has designed flowers for other members of the Royal Family too.

Muir also did the wedding flowers for Phil Redmond and then went on to do his house flowers on a regular basis. This friendship was formed through her days of working on Brookside whenever flowers were needed!. What a great project for a florist! As well as TV work and meeting many celebrities she has worked on big function and events including the Common Wealth Games, building towards her vast array of friends, colleagues and contacts. Muir told me of her shop she happily ran for 27 years until she sold it in 2000, and is delighted that it is still thriving today under the same name, Harvest Flowers.

Present

It’s clear Muir likes to keep busy as she is a teacher, demonstrator, assessor and the President of Flowers North West which is an Area affiliated to NAFAS. If you are not familiar with NAFAS, it stands for the National Association of Flower Arrangement Societies. Put simply it is the organisation that connects flower clubs and groups throughout the country. Muir`s involvement with NAFAS has given her the opportunity to arrange flowers all over the country including arranging flowers in Westminster Abbey.

Alongside all of this Muir is a school Governor which she enjoys very much. After all she has been doing it for over 20 years. Up until recently she was also a Director of the British Florist Association. A position she held for nearly 20 years but felt it was time for a change. I’m still unsure how she has fitted everything in!

Future

At Tatton Muir hosted The Flower School marquee and even did a couple of workshops herself. One I actually helped with which was fun! In a crash course to buttonholes, she gave me the knowledge to teach alongside her as the class grew. We will see Muir again when we go to Southport Flower Show. There she will be hosting workshops again as well as being part of the team working on the Flowers North West Flower Lab stand. Oh and yes – designing an exhibition piece and creating three other designs to be displayed at the show!!! PHEW!