SPEAKER_01 0:00

BBC Gardeners World Live at the NEC. Hot days, busy days, but lots of smiling faces, including Jordan West, who joins me to talk about his days here and what he's been up to. Not many of you will know him as the bearded botanist. Still got the beard. Well done. That's your trademark. You can't get rid of it now. I've got to keep it forever. Now you've been um incredibly busy because you've been running sessions about bouquets. Yeah, haven't you? Tell me what you've been doing.

SPEAKER_00 0:30

Yeah, so we've been doing a workshop, five workshops today, actually, over the four days, where we'll be just talking through, creating a simple arrangement which you can easily recreate at home, and just lots of tips and tricks on how to keep flowers fresher for longer, how to arrange a certain way, and also maybe what to use that can dry so you've got your fresh flowers, but then it's also can be a dried bouquet after. So everything we've used in the workshops, one thinking about people walking around all day in the sun and not having any water, um, but two, just things that are fresh when they arrange with them, but then they can have a dried arrangement after, so they've kind of got a bouquet forever.

SPEAKER_01 1:06

So I had a sneaky look at what you were doing, and when it was all laid out, I thought, well, there isn't much there, but by the time the the the uh arrangement is made, it sort of exponentially grows in volume, so it's trickery.

SPEAKER_00 1:18

It is trickery, and that's the that's the tips and tricks that we learned on how to arrange to you know obviously create the bouquet and get that look at the end. So, what are you using in the bouquets that you're doing the demonstrations with? Yeah, so we've tried to use things that you can get in this country or grow yourself in the garden and then pick from. So we use sanguasauber, which is a quite a common perennial that we can grow over here. Auringium, so the blue thistle, which dries lovely and keeps that lovely blue colour, and then we've used alliums as well, so the spring flaring bulbs, so they're some still about now, they're just starting to go over, but they're gorgeous in an arrangement, but also in the garden to dry and use in maybe seasonal and festive arrangements in the winter. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:54

You must come across lots of people who uh, with no disrespect to them, think they are uh able to arrange a bouquet. I might even be one of them, but I'm not sure I've done a pretty good job of it. What are the common mistakes that people make when they're creating their own bouquets?

SPEAKER_00 2:08

I mean, floristry is um it is about the technique, but it's also about the creativity and the artisticness behind it. So it's the combinations of flowers, colours, textures that really create something different. Um, one thing that people do, because maybe that's how they see them at the supermarkets, is all the flowers are one level, but if you're looking at it side on, you're not seeing the arrangement, you're seeing what you can see from the front. So if you can create different levels of flowers, so when you're looking at it side on, when you're sitting on the sofa and it's on the mantle, you can see all the different flowers it's in your arrangement. So layering the flowers as you're arranging just creates a bit more height and depth to the bouquet so that you can, you know, you can see it from all.

SPEAKER_01 2:49

I noticed walking around the show gardens and the beautiful borders here, and a lot of grasses are making an appearance now in in the gardens that are out there. And years ago in bouquets, every bouquet had to have gypsophila in it, didn't it? It sure did. Don't quite seem to see as much now.

SPEAKER_00 3:07

Have the grasses replaced that? Grasses are a huge part of floristry. They had great height, great texture, and also they dry really, really well. They're great as dried bouquets, dried arrangements. Um, there's lots of changes in floristry over the past few years. Um obviously the fashions change and the trends change, um, colour palettes change, clashing's a good thing, I think. Um, pink and red were never seen together ten years ago. It's everywhere now, you know, interiors, exterior in the garden. So I think it's all about just playing with colours, textures, but also just trying something new. So the grassy isn't maybe quite a new thing, and there's lots of grasses we can use from our own garden just to create that wispy look in a bouquet and add a bit of texture and movement within the bouquet. It feels like you're suggesting that breaking the rules is sticking with colour i is a good idea. Yeah, I think so. You know, there's no right or wrong. Yes, there's techniques to creating a bouquet in floristry, but there's no um there's no rules of colours and combinations and things, and I think that's where people can really set their mark and be a bit different by using different things and things that maybe other people don't do or don't get typically used when training or studying for floristry. Yeah. Um just think outside the box a bit, have a little look in the garden and and throw something together.

SPEAKER_01 4:23

So let's go from from garden to bouquet. Um, there will be people who've who've done your workshop uh join uh join the show here, yeah, who will think right, I need to now make my own mark of my own bouquets. What should they be looking at growing to to make their own sort of signature bouquet that that makes the process as stress-free as possible?

SPEAKER_00 4:43

Yeah, well, another thing that I've done with obviously the workshops is use things that people can grow in their own garden. So um I would love to maybe here one day do a show garden that is a permanent garden, but it can all be picked and cut from. Um what a great idea. Yeah. Hope nobody else nicks that idea now. Um, so I you know, annuals are great for cutting. Um, dahlias, I'm a huge dahlia fan, but I wouldn't plant a permanent garden at my home with dahlias because they're not a permanent feature in the border, just like all the annuals aren't. Um, so I use the cutting patch at the nursery for that. But you can use lots and lots of common garden perennials in your garden that you might already have or that you can easily introduce to your garden that last a good four to five days in a vase, if not longer, and there's lots of it which dries lovely as well. So things like the Eurynium, the blue thistle that I've used is a perennial that lots of people have in their garden, and it looks lovely in a vase and it dries wonderfully. All your spring bulbs, so or your daff's tulips, or your alliums, um, but then salvias verbena, all that kind of stuff looks really, really nice in an arrangement. It adds a nice floaty wispy look to it. Um, foxgloves, you know, delphiniums, all that kind of common garden, cottage garden style perennials, 90% of it will work in a vase.

SPEAKER_01 6:03

They certainly work in a vase and in a garden because you mentioned salvia and foxglove, uh, which I've seen in several gardens and beautiful borders that are here this year. Uh which begs the question obviously, you meet a lot of the public through through the nursery. Um, and in the time that you have been running the business, are you seeing fashion's trends change that what people are buying and what they want?

SPEAKER_00 6:27

Yeah, I think that people, obviously, now we've been established for about a year and a half. People have got to know me and what I'm into. And as much as obviously running a business is about making money and maybe doing things that people want you to do, I want to introduce people and educate people into maybe doing something a bit different or something they haven't tried before. So historically, dahlias are they're full of earwigs, I don't like dahlias, you know, etc. But doing a lovely big arrangement with dahlias now, I can't grow or sell enough dahlias at the nursery because of me chatting with people and you know talking about how they grow and how the more you cut, the more they're gonna flower, and they flower some sometimes from June, July, all the way until the frost in November, and there's not a lot of perennials, if any, that do that. So, from a production point of view, for cut flowers, dahlia are incredible. Um, but it's just maybe putting things in front of people's you know faces and under their noses that they haven't seen before or something a bit different, but it does the same thing, and you get the same thing from it, but it's just maybe not in supermarkets or not commonly used, but you can still use it the same way, it still looks pretty similar, and you're still getting a beautiful bouquet of flavours, but of things that you might not be aware of.

SPEAKER_01 7:40

Yeah. Uh there are lots of people like yourself here who have stands with uh with fantastic displays and and plants on them. Interesting, I just wanted to pick up on the the daily one. Lots of people come to the show and uh want to go home and within 24 hours replicate what they've seen at the show, which of course involves a little bit of planning. Uh huh. Coming to the show this weekend and buying dahlias, you can take those home and enjoy those right through to to frost at the end of the year, you're saying?

SPEAKER_00 8:08

Yeah, okay. Yeah, they're one of the longest flowering tubers, bulbs almost. Um, and you get bedding dahlias, you know, which obviously have got a longer season in the sense of beddings like from June till September, October time. But the tuba raised dahlia, some of the early flaring ones, will literally keep on flaring until we have that harsh frost. So they'll tolerate a very mild frost, and you might get some blacking on the leaves, but then you need the harsh frost, then, and then you cut them back, and then you can either lift them and store them for next year, or I'm a bit naughty and I'll leave mine in the raised beds because it's quite well drained. I moved to the top and then I'll keep everything crossed that in March time I see them all coming up again.

SPEAKER_01 8:46

I'm glad you mentioned raised beds because I've spoken to so many people at the show over the last couple of days who are using raised beds. Yeah. Um, particularly and interestingly, people who have perhaps mobility issues where it's coming into its own, and they sound perfect for that. And also containers and pots, I mean dailies would would work beautifully in those.

SPEAKER_00 9:04

Definitely. I think if you don't want to lift and store in the winter, uh something that's raised, so in a container that can be moved to a more sheltered area, or a raised bed that's well drained, of course, because it's raised. So if you've got clay soil, raised beds are great for growing dahlias and other um seed grown annuals for cutting because they don't like to be wet in the winter. So if you don't plan on lifting them, a raised bed that you can mulch the top, and um obviously it's got well-drained soil and it's not sat in clay, then that's the best for growing dahlias, really. Marvellous.

SPEAKER_01 9:33

And are you still busy online?

SPEAKER_00 9:35

Yes, yeah. I do my best to keep everything up to date. Uh the nursery's keeping me very busy as well, so uh that's taking up a lot of time, but it's yeah, it's all good fun. What where can people find you online? So you can find me at the Bearded Botanist and the nursery is Western's nursery, and we're in Stratford upon Avon, just by Stratford Race Course, if anyone knows it. So pop in and say hello. And I'm always there.

SPEAKER_01 9:55

And you've got another couple of days to come here at the show. Uh doing it, you you're constantly on the go, aren't you? Every couple of hours or every hour or so, you're doing the uh doing the demonstrations. Um, what's the sort of feedback like that you're getting from the people coming? I walk past, and everybody's smiling and they're doing as they're told. Yeah, and they're listening to you, which is great, isn't it?

SPEAKER_00 10:14

They are, yeah. I think just putting something in front of people that's a bit different that they might not see in supermarkets or other high street florists, they find really, really interesting. But also using things that they've seen in the garden but maybe not thought to pick it because it's a part of the garden and not can bring it in, you know. But I always think it's important to bring a bit of the outside in if the weather's not very nice, you know, if we've got wind rain and you can't get in the garden and it might get damaged in the garden, cut it and bring it in and enjoy it inside and just see what happens, see how long it lasts, see if it dries nice, and then that might make you think a bit differently how you plant if you like to enjoy your cut flowers as well. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 10:48

And just finally, I've spoken to a number of the uh exhibitors here and and the uh the nurseries who are coming in and saying, Look, you know, how is trade, how is the business, what what are things like, how interested are people, how adventurous are the customers that are coming to you? You're uh over a year uh in now with with your your new venture. Is it going well? Is it what you expected?

SPEAKER_00 11:10

It's going incredibly well. Good. I um didn't really know what to expect, but I can't complain. It's definitely keeping me very busy. Um obviously being in the industry for 20 years and thinking you know what people want, I do to an extent, but different locations, people have different trends and different like colour palettes. So in Stratford up and Avon, I'd probably say like whites, purples, blues, and greens are very, very popular. Whereas me personally, I like all the hot colours, all the oranges and you know, bright pinks and the burgundies and things. So that was a little bit of learning in the first year with what we're growing. Um, maybe grew more of the pale colours this year. Um, but it's definitely um very busy, and I absolutely love it. And I'm constantly thinking of new things to grow, little parts of the nursery to expand and develop over time. And exhibiting at Gardeners World as a plant nursery 18 months after taking over Western's nursery has just been incredible. And I had nothing to compare it to because we've never been here in that capacity before. Um, but it's it's going down really, really well. We've got some quite unusual things on the plant store, and people just like to see something a bit different. I do.

SPEAKER_01 12:18

Well, that is very good to uh to hear, and I'm pleased for you for that. And I'm fascinated, I'm gonna follow this up. I'm fascinated about the idea of different colours in different parts of the country being popular. Yeah, that's that's an online map for somebody, but I think that's worth pursuing. Yeah, there's a book in there somewhere, Jordan. Maybe one day I'll add it to the list. Enjoy the rest of the show. Great to catch up with you. Thanks for popping in. Thank you so much.