Mother's Day Window Dressing at Flower Design, March 2009

Mother's Day 2009

My parents have always had flower shops, my memories of Mother's Day are filled with the fragrance of spring flowers, bright vivid colours, very very busy florist shops, my Mum's main shop in Rochdale is the one we used to live above, I can still remember the massive excitement of having a snake like queue of customers right the way around the shop, all patiently waiting with arms full of personally selected blooms, I can still see how fast the florists could arrange them, wrap and take the money (there was no slow credit card processing then).

I wish with all my heart it was still like that, but it isn't and florists are being replaced by impersonal internet sites and supermarkets.

We are very very lucky here on the Fylde our community is seriously commited to saving independent artisans like our selves, if I do get some sleep this week I'll be dreaming of queues of customers outside Flower Design all being thoroughly entertained by the fabulous spectacle of fresh flowers and spring plants.

This Mothers Day window was inspired by our collective love of Russian Dolls, Childhood memories of playing with them at Grandma's house. The entire Russian Doll vibe will be evident in many of our designs over the next few weeks, the bold and vibrant colours and the kind of "Barge/long boat" style graphics will seriously feature.

My own Nana used to let me play with them under the dining room table hidden from my over bearing brothers by a long lace edged table cloth, we used the dyed net curtains in the window to re-capture the imagery.

We've bought some superb Calceolaria plants, mainly for nostalgic value, Calceolaria were the very first plant I ever bought with my own money, I kept it, nurtured it and talked to it daily, it still died after a few weeks but I've always loved their almost un-natural bubble like blooms.

Emma who is such a talented artist designed & painted our Russian Dolls, Jo & Rachel also seriously talented artists created their beautiful faces. Our florist's have degrees in Fine Art & Graphic Art, we are a very creative, arty bunch.

Here's a link to a trend blog with Russian dolls
The side window is awash with the amazing artistry from our local budding flower designers from all of the local schools, selecting the winner will be sooooooooooooo difficult!

Here is a link to an earlier posting of mine when we were discussing these thoughts and ideas "Mother's Day 2009"