Book Review: The Surprising Life of Constance Spry

The Surprising Life of Constance Spry: From social reformer to society florist.

(Sue Shephard, Macmillan, 2010)

I picked up this book for two reasons; I have the David Austin rose “Constance Spry” so I wanted to know about its namesake, and I enjoyed a previous book by this author, Seeds of Fortune: A Great Gardening Dynasty. I’m delighted to report that this book is a much faster read than Shephards’ previous book, and in fact was a real page-turner. Spry’s life really was surprising!

Shephard brought to life the interesting tale of a forlorn child with a rather miserable beginning who, through many odd twists and turns, ended up the florist of choice for the UK’s elite, even doing the flowers for a royal wedding! The book had to be a biography; as a work of fiction it would never be believable.

I won’t give away all the interesting parts but will instead dwell on what the book revealed as the cutting edge of floral design in the 30’s and 40’s—the use of kale leaves and other edibles in arrangements. Indeed, a floral design in a shop window featuring these elements was such a head turner that the police had to be called to clear a sidewalk! Startling for the time, I’m sure. But what struck me is that these are the very elements we see touted now, both in cut flower design and in planted containers, that are thought to be so “on the edge.” How did the floral design and gardening world lose these elements between the middle of the last century and now?

Also interesting is that Spry, who was really behind the birth of formal floral arranging competitions (oops, I gave away more of the story!) completely disapproved of the idea of competition in floral design. She thought it should be a venue for self-expression, and a way for everyone of any economic means, to have beauty in their life. Furthermore, she abhorred the idea that there were set “rules” for design (you know the ones we all contort ourselves to for floral shows—flowers must not touch the table, the proportions must be thus and so, etc.) 

For gardeners and those who like to arrange flowers (and yes, even grow Rosa “Constance Spry”) this book is worth a read. 

Princess Pineapple

A full review of Canada Blooms 2011 is still owed to this space, but there's so much to say about Canada Blooms that I'm going to need a good amount of time to do justice to it, and that time just hasn't been available lately.

Until I get to that though, I thought I'd share my latest little adventure in flowers. As a member of a society that's part of the Ontario Horticultural Association (OHA), for the last couple year's I've participated in the OHA's floral competition, which is housed at the Successful Gardening Show.

So, last night I took a bucket of flowers...

...which I'd been hiding in the bathtub (one of our cats thinks all flowers are "salad" and she loves this kind of salad), and started to play around.

I get a bit nervous competing in OHA-wide events in the "formal" design categories, as there are some highly talented and very experienced who also compete. But I figure the best way to learn is to give it a shot.

So, in the category of "When the time is Ripe" I created this:

My idea was that your eye would move from the "unripe" green on the right to the "ripe" oranges on the left, and then land on the eruption of a bright little flower arrangement.

As uncomfortable as I am competing in the formal designs, I was excited about the "fun" class. In this competition you were to decorate a fruit or vegetable to reflect the theme of "Once Upon a Time."

I went grocery shopping a week ago and stumbled across a unique looking vegetable known as a chayote, which my friend blogged about recently, and a lightbulb went off...

May I introduce, Princess Pineapple...

I had fun with this one! Her body is a pineapple, head is a chayote, hair and cape/dress are chrysanthemums, tiara is statice, eyelids are seedpods from Blue False Indigo (Baptisia australis,) and her eyelashes are dried seaweed.

I also entered a grape or oak-leafed ivy in the "trailing houseplant" category.

Judging was this morning. To my great surprise my "When the time is ripe" design placed SECOND! I was thrilled--as I mentioned, my competition in this category was very steep.

The oak-leafed ivy was second.

And "Once upon a time" with Princess Pineapple? FIRST, of course. She's royalty.