As is the custom at this time of year it’s a time for
reflection. I was reminded of the attached photograph when someone asked me where the flowers that I collect end up. This bootfull of loveliness was collected by me from a corporate event in the city at 5.00 am one sunny June morning. I expected that it would be a quiet collection but on the contrary the venue was teeming with hi viz vests on a tight schedule to vacate the premises within 2 hours. I did my bit and stealthily removed my allotted flowers and by 12.00 pm that afternoon the flowers had been put to good use in a workshop at Lordship Recreation hub, Tottenham. I’m extremely grateful to the lovely Jo Wise for finding us. Increasingly this year we’re picking up more flowers from corporate companies and I even have an event in the diary to collect from the V&A in September 2020. It’s been pure luck so far that we’ve been contacted by some corporate firms this year but in 2020 I’m going to target the corporate market properly - as increasing our supply of flowers means that we’re able to do more in the community. Next Sunday 5 January you’ll find The Flower Bank joining the zero waste market at Myddleton Road, N11 where we’ll be one stall of many promoting zero waste and selling everything from confetti to re-purposed bunches of flowers - thank goodness the kids are on school holidays! This week the amazing Simon Lycett posted a magazine article on The Flower Bank that had appeared in a March edition of Midweek on his Instagram page, As a result I received 80 new followers and counting on Instagram. The comments that these new followers made have been incredibly heartening and humbling, more so as they are from fellow florists. Their comments coincided with Max’s first visit, Max is the first Barnet young offender to visit us at the shop. He arrived with a grunt but after an hour’s flower arranging for his mum and Nan he was positively bubbly. Flowers really do have the power to reach the parts that other’s can’t!