OUR GARDEN LIFE
The duo in charge at Kitten Grayson Flowers reveal all
QWhat sparked your passion for flowers?
Kitten: Growing up in the countryside in Somerset, I was always drawn to the plants around me and to their extraordinary healing and calming powers. As soon as I left school, I started training in floristry. Harriette: I began my career as an interior stylist and art director and loved working with flowers even
then. When I started art directing events with Kitten, she inspired me with her knowledge of flowers and I became completely hooked.
QWhere and with whom did you train? Kitten: I trained with Wild at Heart and Scarlet & Violet in London, and then worked with the landscape architects Urquhart & Hunt and also Dutch landscape designer Piet Oudolf on the perennial meadow at the Hauser & Wirth gallery in Bruton. Harriette: Having trained at Camberwell College of Arts, I art directed TV shows and luxury events, which is where I met Kitten. Since setting up Kitten Grayson Flowers in 2016, she’s taught me all I know about flowers and floristry.
QWhen was Kitten Grayson Flowers born?
Kitten: After working with Urquhart & Hunt, I returned to London and set up with Harriette in 2016.
QTell us about your creative inspirations. Kitten: Mother Nature is my main inspiration. We’ve recently been working at luxury country hotel Heckfield Place with Jane Scotter, who also runs a biodynamic farm in Herefordshire. She is a source of endless ideas. We’ve worked with Jane to establish a cutting garden at Heckfield, where we’re growing rare species for our arrangements. Harriette: I’m inspired by prints, paintings and architecture. I love the William Morris Gallery in London.
QWhat’s your most memorable commission?
Harriette: The RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2018 was an amazing project. We designed a living garden at the London Gate entrance to celebrate the royal wedding.
Kitten: There were a few hairy moments at Chelsea – like when the lorry carrying our trees reversed with millimetres to spare through the gates.
QWhat are the new trends in floristry?
Kitten: We’re currently creating ‘living planters’. These are filled with rooted plants that we dig up from the garden. When they’ve finished flowering indoors, we replant them outside and replace them with fresh seasonal alternatives. These planters are ever-evolving, sustainable features for the home.
QWe love your Instagram page. How do you curate it?
Harriette: We like to tell a story with arrangements that are rich in colour and texture. Our aesthetic creates a sense of hyper-reality – pumped-up colour that illuminates nature at its most fantastical.
QWhat are your favourite flowers right now?
Kitten: We’re using displays of seasonal plants, like cyclamen, irises and daffodils, which are more sustainable than cut flowers and herald in spring.
QWhat’s next for Kitten Grayson Flowers?
Harriette: We’re planting madly at Heckfield and working on our mood boards for our brides – we have lots of weddings in the pipeline.
■ Kitten Grayson Flowers, 07850 177755, kittengrayson.com.
“the installation we did at chelsea to celebrate the royal wedding included an english oak and california cedar”