Best of British

Florist Nikki Pierce takes inspiration from Constance Spry to make her Christmas wreaths

Wild and wonderful wreaths

NIKKI PIERCE FIRST became interested in floristry after moving from Vancouver to London in 2002. ‘I was obsessed with 18th-century Dutchmaster paintings of floral still lifes and market scenes, and that got me interested in floristry,’ she recalls. At the time she was working for an auction house, but in 2010 she left to take up an apprenticeship with a west London flower shop. Four years later, she opened her own florist business, Petal & Grace.

Pierce, now 40, spends the majority of her time in her studio in Kensal Rise – a light-flooded room (so bright that in the summer she boards up the windows to protect the plants), with Nils Frahm playing in the background.

Her busiest time of year is Christmas. Preparation begins in October, when she starts to source hydrangeas from New Covent Garden flower market to make her wreaths. ‘I’ll dry them so I have them ready for December,’ she says. ‘You can buy them imported from Europe over Christmas, but I’d rather have them local.’

She goes to the market three times a week at 5am to buy other fresh flowers and foliage for the wreaths too – these choices are inspired by Constance Spry, the renowned 1920s florist who ‘embraced the fact that nature has funny curves and angles’.

‘The wreaths have this wild element to them,’ explains Pierce. ‘They don’t have to be perfectly symmetrical. If a branch has a cool pine cone on it, and I want to highlight that, I do.’

Her wildest wreath was made for a wine shop in Mayfair, Hedonism Wines. ‘They have a tiny mouse house, no taller than 20cm, so I made a tiny wreath and garland for it,’ she says. ‘The rest of the store we decorated with wreaths filled with grapes and mini wine bottles.’

This year she has made six types of wreath – the bestseller is the Red Willow, comprising white moss, curly willow, hydrangea, mimosa and rosehip berries. ‘I start by wrapping the moss around a wire base and then wrap around a thin wire to secure it into place,’ she explains, adding that she repeats this process when adding in the other flowers. She cuts the stems with floristry scissors (or secateurs for bigger branches) and takes 40 minutes to fashion a wreath. She can make 15 a day.

They are for sale on her website (she has no plans to open a shop), but she has also taken home armfuls of foliage and flowers to hang on her staircase, above a fireplace, and on a living-room wall. ‘It’s like bringing Christmas into your house,’ she says. ‘And I get the hugest tree that I can possibly fit into my flat. I go Christmas crazy.’

Right Nikki Pierce. Above Red Willow wreath by Pierce’s Petal & Grace; she uses wire to secure each layer of her wreaths. Interview by Jessica Carpani. Photographs by Leo Goddard