Our lifelong love of certain pretty blooms

THE highlight of my weekend was a trip to Sandra at Kristal in London’s NW11 to discuss the wedding flowers for Daughter the Younger. The little bride wore roses in her hair and a floral skirt especially for the occasion.

I admit to being a tad partial and I couldn’t take my eyes off her. “I know what you like,” said Sandra sagely and pointed to tiny pale pink roses, snapdragons, ballerina-skirted and sweetly perfumed stocks.

“You’re exactly right,” said Saskia dreamily. “But how on earth do you know?”

Sandra replied: “Young lady, never forget, I did the flowers for your bat mitzvah.”

Dear reader, that happy occasion was a full 15 years ago so what have we learned? Once an antirrhinum fan, always an antirrhinum fan? Do we fall in love with certain flowers as children and love those very same varieties our whole lives long? I remember a magnolia grandiflora hovering over my pram. I’ve been besotted by the waxy, stately blooms ever since.