ONE of the most nostalgic settings at the recent Hampton Court Flower
Show was a village fete. It represented Britain in the first years of
peace in the 1950s and it was staged by Marks and Spencer.
A walk along a narrow path around the country church (St Mark's), past
a stone cottage with its line of washing and the village pub (The
Marquis of Spencer), transported you instantly into a bygone age. There
was also a realistic small stone cottage with a strawberry tea set
outdoors on the lawn and an allotment garden filled with vegetables and
a patch of sunflowers.
Little details, such as the whalebone corsets on the cottage washing
line and the one-piece clothes pegs whittled by gypsies, added to its
authenticity. There were blue paper twists of salt in the old crisp
packets, old-fashioned, thick glass Kilner jars holding sunflower heads,
hairy twine and rusting garden tools.
Even the dominoes in the pub were the yellowed-ivory kind in a wooden
box with a sliding lid and the half-eaten sandwiches on the back seat of
an old Austin A30 were wrapped in thick greaseproof paper.
The flower arrangement at the church used old roses, alder and wild
hedgerow parsley with euphorbia. The Mother's Union (who were fund
raising for one of those new fangled vacuum cleaners), had made
elderberry jam and sultana scones.
The whole village had been designed by Jane Packer -- consultant
florist to Marks and Spencer -- who also designed the head-dresses and
posies for the wedding of the Duchess of York. The point of the
sponsorship of this village presumably, was to send the public back home
to investigate their local M and S Horticulture departments.
So I did just that. Marks and Spencer, Glasgow, have a splendid range
of plants and flowers in a recently re-furbished department. Their
Edinburgh branch, in Princes Street, is in the process of opening a new
and larger department to house an even wider range of flowers including
tropical plants.
Kay Yuill, who runs the department, is proud of the fact that the
Edinburgh store is the busiest florists' in Britain. ''We sell more
flowers than any other florist, even the London branch of Marks and
Spencer does not reach the sales of flowers that we do. The biggest
seller is the bunches of spray carnations, because they last so well.
Given the right care, spray carnations will last nearly six weeks. All
our flowers are fresh each day, they come straight from the grower and
we put a 'sell by' date on them all.
''Flowers are sold ready arranged in baskets, in bunches or as tied,
mixed bouquets, but if a customer wants to make their own selection of
flowers, our girls will make a special arrangement of them.''
You can call into any UK branch of Marks and Spencer and order a
flower arrangement to be delivered anywhere in Britain, including
hospitals or hotels. There is a set choice ranging from a bunch of
carnations mixed with gypsophila and greenery, ready to put into a vase,
or a complete display ready arranged in an ornate ceramic pot.
Presentation baskets and a traditional boxed selection of flowers are
also available and for this summer only, a ribbon trimmed basked packed
with a selection of flowering and green plants, is another alternative,
though this offer ends on September 30.
There is a delivery charge. For further information phone 0925 851
100.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article