In my rush to get to the Higgledy Garden by 7.30am in order to be away by noon to be in time for a meeting with a new client, instead of wearing the appropriate gardening footware I found myself supporting the most expensive pair of shoes I have ever owned. Hand made by Jeffery West’s of Nottingham.
Clearly this was a sign that it was not a day for digging but a day for flouncing around and hoping that the lovely ladies of Linton would spot my well healed nature and come a flocking…
Whilst I was waiting for the flock to pounce I came to realise that with a little theft of some Ox Eyed daisies on the waste ground next door and the careful use of self sown Nigella and some ACTUALLY Higgledy Garden intentionally grown cornflowers…(Thank God for small mercies) I might be able to knock up a prototype bunch to show my patiently waiting retailers that something is rumbling on, and that the drought hadn’t completely blown us out of the running.
Unfortunately my chum Nancy wasn’t around to show me how to arrange the flowers…so I opted for the Higgledy Mash Up. I added some White Nigella that I picked from Belinda’s garden at Wildacre. That was over a week ago and they are still perfect. If you live in the Hertfordshire area and want flowers then visit her place. Her garden is choca block with fabulicious floral booty. If you haven’t visited her site before then I suggest you do, it’s full of brilliant photies and wonderfully written pieces.
So there it is….the first Higgledy Bunch…yes I know there is lots of work to do but I can learn this arranging lark.
Now the lovely Belinda showed me how to make a cone for the flowers a couple of weeks ago…it looked easy…I thought…well if a girl can do it… ;) My cone was a disaster…about as much use as a chocolate tea pot.
I tightened it up a bit and wacked on a Higgledy logo…the label will be half the size as the one shown. The price label will be separate.
Regards
Ben
May 29, 2011 @ 11:52 am
I think that turning up in those shoes and with a gorgeous bouquet like that, you have got it made Ben :-)
We find the pricing very difficult. About 5 hours worth of picking and arranging flowers netted us just £27 yesterday after paying 25% commission to the retailer. Our more expensive bouquets (containing Delphiniums, Campanula, Alliums and Philadelphus etc) were unsold with a £9.50 price tag. No doubt the £10 bouquets at Asda were flying out of their buckets!
Trying to make our web-site public at the moment but it seems that WordPress won’t let me!
May 30, 2011 @ 1:12 pm
if you need a hand with any wordpress stuff I have a good and cheap contact. WordPress 3, the new version is supposed to be double super fab…you no longer need to have to rely on the ‘themes’ available but can make the blog look like anything your mind can come up with…also safe and secure ‘shop’ plugins are available for around £30 which look amazing. I have decided not to have an internet shop this year…just keeping everything simple whilst I get the hang of it all.
May 27, 2011 @ 8:07 am
You’re missing a marketing trick -“Higgeldy Bunches” ?
All my flowers get the higgeldy-piggeldy treatment, even the posh ones I get from time to time which I stare at lovingly for a short while then rip apart to put them in a more natural state…. but that’s just me ;)
May 27, 2011 @ 9:00 am
I like that vibe too….hopefully…fingers crossed…the first bunches will go on sale tomorrow…so we shall see! :)
May 24, 2011 @ 4:48 pm
Beautiful! Flowers aren’t bad either… Personally I would have employed you on the shoes alone. J x PS The label looks great with the brown paper. Good choice, sunshine.
May 24, 2011 @ 3:43 pm
Nice one cyril, in your posh shoes!
A delish bunch, and I am glad the nigella is still looking so perky! Thanks for the kind point to Wild Acre too, v appreciated.
Have you staked your seedlings? Just sayin’!! Couldn’t bear it if they got knocked down in this freakish wind after all your waiting! Bossy cow, I know! xx
May 24, 2011 @ 3:56 pm
I have been staking the ones that need it. The Linton plot is pretty sheltered…coupled with the fact that most of my seedlings are only a few inches high! :)
I am hoping to provide just a few bunches to my retailers to give them at least something at the weekends before the Higgledy Machine gets into full production. Less about making money more about keeping people happy. Wishing I had more of your fab nigella to go with my beautiful ‘Black Ball’ corn flowers. :) xx
May 23, 2011 @ 6:51 pm
Lovely flowers, shame about the weeds(grass?). No, seriously, I would pay £5 for them, they look like a bunch of the countryside/meadows. Picked some flowers for myself today as the weather forecast looked ominous and the wind was knocking everything over-peonies and roses with alchemilla, golden rod and mexican orange blossom.
May 23, 2011 @ 6:59 pm
I added the grass as a ‘homage’ to the pagan God Pan. :)…er…not really. The wind knocked over a bed of cornflowers here at Higgledy…but all is well.
The flowers will get less ‘meadowy’ as soon as the blinking Higgledy crops grow…one blessing is it seems to be trying to rain here just now. Fingers crossed. x
May 23, 2011 @ 8:01 pm
PS I think that £5 bunch has cost me about two grand.