ROBBIE HONEY BLOG

Moon Flowers

Fri, 20 Apr 2012 16:49:00 GMT

Most often when we think of Ipomoeas we associate them with the “Morning Glory” vines which bloom in shades of cerulean blue. However, Ipomea alba is pure white and blooms in the evening rather than the morning.

I first came across this “Moon Flower” as a teenager whilst visiting with friends on a citrus farm in the Mazoe valley in Zimbabwe. The vine had completely swathed the wall it was growing up and was covered in enormous “ice cream” shaped buds.

I stood in the garden as night fell and as the moon rose in the sky I observed for the first time the buds of this flower unfurl before my very eyes!

20^th Century botanical watercolour of Ipomea albs by Paul Jones.

I was utterly entranced, initially by the fact that I could visibly watch the blooms open (something I had never seen before) and then by the delicate scent that spilled out of them into the warm night air. I lingered in the garden until all the buds had opened (there must have been a hundred of them) their enormous white blooms reflecting the light of the moon and glowing an incandescent white. It was a rare and beautiful sight!

I collected seed from that vine and germinated my first Ipomea alba plants and my love affair with these night bloomers began. I have been growing them for 20 years now, with ease and success in my native Zimbabwe and less easily here in London - Only one year have I managed to get a plant to flower, although I still can’t resist germinating seeds and growing them.

Recently germinated Ipomoea seedling

One of my favourite African past times is to gather with friends at dusk, to sip cool wine and watch in wonder as these blooms unfurl, as each flower opens we applaud!

One year I managed with great success to grow a vine up a telephone pole in Bonnington Square where I used to live near London’s New Covent Garden. That one year it flowered beautifully but was taken out by frost in the winter and since then I have not had a great success growing them in London but I persevere as I love them so.

Here are this year’s hopefuls on my kitchen window sill.

I have always been inspired by the extraordinary flower paintings by Georgia O’Keefe and the way she captured the very essence of a flower in her work.

When I photograph flowers I try to do so with the same approach. Here are some photographs I took of an Ipomea alba bloom. The first is a detail of the open flower and the second photograph is the underside of the bloom, which vividly highlights the star on the reverse of the flower, like a chartreuse star fish!

Ron Van Dongen is one the photographers I most admire. His work is exquisite and I love his photograph of Ipomoea alba’s buds. It perfectly catches their “ice cream” shape. I was lucky enough to meet Ron at a lunch party at the house of my chic friend the author and style maven Stephanie Hoppen.

RON VAN DONGEN Ipomea Alba, 1999

Here’s hoping I have some flowering success with this year’s plants. I will keep you posted!

The Wonderful Scent of Figs

Tue, 10 Apr 2012 19:55:00 GMT

Whilst on holiday on a Greek island I absolutely revelled in the botanical scents of the countryside. The Island (like most Greek islands) was covered in Fig trees. The scent of a hot fig tree is possibly one of my favourite scents - I find it completely transporting, it’s a wonderfully happy and nostalgic scent for me and it was a joy to be surrounded by fig trees and to breathe in their intoxicating scent.

Diptyque has a wonderful Fig scent called Philosykos which captures this scent perfectly and also their “Figuier” candle is wonderful too and both are firm favourites of mine.

Whilst walking up in the Islands arid hills I was also blown away by the hot aromatic wall of scent that hits you in waves. Pine, Cistus, Thyme and a multitude of other herbs jostle together creating that distinctive scent that is the Mediterranean countryside on a hot day.

"Maquis" a candle by Diptyque captures the essence of this wild montane scent and if the Mediterranean countryside in summer captures your soul this candle is heaven.

Chandeliers of Flowers

Tue, 10 Apr 2012 19:57:00 GMT

Recently we created enormous floral Chandeliers as the pieces des resistance for a wedding organised by Party designer extraordinaire Simon Liebel.

Taking inspiration from Preston Bailey's incredible work we conceptualised the structures to be hung in the ceiling domes of the ballroom at the Dorchester.

Lulu spent a few days pouring over an Excel spreadsheet and thus following hours of painstaking sums we gathered all the ingredients together.

Loraine and her team set about stringing the thousands of shimmering Crystals to be hung on the Chandelier structures created by InGenius . We suspended the crystals from the structures and then decorated them with garlands of ivy.

They were then decorated with hundreds of white Phalaenopsis orchids, clouds of white Hydrangea and classic white roses.

Loraine decorating one of the Chandeliers.

The logistics of transport, rigging and the illumination of the Chandeliers was quite a feat but the end result was absolutely breath taking and we relished the challenge. Below is a picture of a finished chandelier hanging in the ballroom at the Dorchester.

Snowdrops

Tue, 15 Mar 2011 10:30:00 GMT

Growing up in Africa I only ever encountered snowdrops in books and remember reading the song of the snowdrop fairy in Mary Cecily Barkers flower fairy, which always enchanted me.

Deep sleeps the winter, Cold, wet, and
grey; Surely all the world is
dead; Spring is far away.
Wait! The world shall waken;
It is not dead, for lo,
The Fair Maids of February
Stand in the snow!

The snow drops have been an absolute joy this year; they are such a hopeful flower. The French call them Perce-Neige – to literally ‘break the snow’. And, as I learned recently from my friend the American florist Randy Outzs, in the US they are known rather melancholically as tear-drops. I was recently featured in the US magazine Flower, working with Randy arranging spring flowers

http://www.flowermag.com/article/party-perfect/

As a self confessed Glanthophile (lover of snow drops), I find great joy in seeing great drifts of them illuminating the cold winter hardened ground.. The Chelsea Physic Garden has wonderful plantings of them and, if you are an urban type, this is the perfect spot to view them in all their glory. If you missed them this year make sure you go next year.

www.chelseaphysicgarden.co.uk

The snowdrops have faded and we are now awash with yellow,- forsythia ablaze all over town and the daffs too. By the end of March I am always a little tired of yellow.

ROBBIE HONEY AT THE DESIGNER WEDDING SHOW

Tue, 19 Oct 2010 14:42:00 GMT

Last week we exhibited at The Desginer Wedding Show at Battersea Park.

We crammed our stand with flowers and inspiration for prospective brides. This included a glamorous arch of roses and three tablescapes of flowers: from herbs and little rose plants arranaged in rustic terracotta pots in shades of Farrow and Ball to simple, elegant beakers of paper whites, white tulips and freesias to the more glamorous crystal candleabra and a classic, vintage-look of a silver rose bowl bursting with an array of roses in faded pastel hues. And, of course not forgetting, Sebastian one of our trademark white peacocks presisded over the stand, garlanded with flowers, to finish the look. At one point he was described as a bridal swan!

We also had a collection of bouquets which we invited brides to hold to help them imagine a look or style they might decide to choose for their wedding day.

We very much enjoyed the show, conversing with prosepctive clients and contemporaries in the industry and look forward to creating some beautiful and individual wedding flowers in the coming year.

To see more of our wedding work click here.

SHOE GALLERIES AT SELFRIDGES

Thu, 07 Oct 2010 15:55:00 GMT

Selfridges recently unveiled their luxury shoe galleries showcasing over 55,000 shoes with 11 designer boutiques. Dior commissioned Robbie Honey to arrange flowers in the Dior Apartment for a party held to celebrate its much anticipated opening. The space drew its chic inspiration from the original Dior apartment on the Avenue Montaigne in Paris and for the opening we arranged masses of blousy Illusion Roses in a collection of vases.

Selfridges Shoe Galleries

Fragrance launch at The Connaught

Thu, 07 Oct 2010 15:48:00 GMT

At Robbie Honey, we are frequently commissioned to create glamorous flower installations for premium brand fragrance launches and we pride ourselves in meeting the challenge of delivering designs that not only reflect the brand attributes but also employ the flowers that inspired the scent. Recently, at the Connaught Hotel, we achieved just such a result by creating four panels of Sweet Avalanche Roses framed within a mirror.

This rose is a firm Robbie Honey favourite and when it comes to pale pink roses, it is hard to beat. For those interested in delving into the world of scent, we highly recommend Luca Turin & Tania Sanchez's book, Perfumes, The A-Z guide.

Perfumestheguide.com

FLOWERS FOR THE LAUNCH OF MISS DIOR CHERIE

Tue, 20 Apr 2010 15:36:00 GMT

Parfums Christian Dior asked us to create a bower of roses for the press launch of their new scent Miss Dior Cherie at 33 Fitzroy Square. Taking inspiration from the Tim Walker campaign we decorated a pergola with an abundance of soft pink roses, ivy and jasmine. It looked glorious and the press loved it.

After the success of the rose bower at the press launch Dior asked us to re-create the bower of roses on a grand scale for the exclusive launch of the scent in Selfridges.

We arrived at Selfridges very early on Easter Bank Holiday Monday and set about decorating the pergola that had been assembled in the store the night before.

The installation needed to last a week so we decorated the pergola using faux ivy and roses and enjoyed the challenge of working with silk flowers and instilling “life” and movement into them. Dior were thrilled with the result and we were too.

OUR NEW STUDIO

Tue, 20 Apr 2010 14:24:00 GMT

We are very excited to have moved into a new studio and office space just off the Wandsworth road in Vauxhall . Our new space is double volume with masses of natural light and we are still very close to the Flower market where we buy most of our flowers.

Below is a picture of our mezzanine floor being constructed. This has doubled our storage space which means we can house all of our props under one roof which makes production of our events even more streamlined.

We are loving the extra space and are looking forward to producing some exciting creations in it the coming year.

Flora Delanica

Mon, 01 Mar 2010 09:39:00 GMT

I was invited by a friend last weekend to see the exhibition of the works of Mary Delaney at The John Soane Museum, www.soane.org.

Mrs Delaney (1700-1788) created botanical collages of flowers using hundreds of pieces of cut coloured paper put together with astonishing precision and her collection of botanical collages were self styled as Flora Delanica.

She was also a keen embroiderer. Some of her embroidery was exhibited and although it was beautiful it did not capture my heart like her ‘Paper mosaicks’.

I think the Spider lily collage above is absolutely exquisite, as is the Passion Flower below.

Can you even begin to imagine the precision time and effort to cut those tiny strips of paper to make up the Passion flowers filaments?

After the exhibition we took a brisk walk to Soho and had tea at Maison Bertaux where I ate a life size marzipan fig!

Perfect Paperwhites

Wed, 24 Feb 2010 15:01:00 GMT

Paperwhite Narcissi are in the market at the moment and they are my absolute favourite Narcissi. Each tiny flower is like a little white daffodil (for those of you who are not familiar with them) and they have a distinctive scent that you will either love or hate. Even a few of their tiny flowers will perfume an entire room. I love the scent; though I have been know at times to claim that the scent is faintly reminiscent of horse manure!

Paperwhites make a charming and simple hand tied wedding bouquet. Chicly finished with a band of white satin ribbon for a comfortable grasp.

Recently we did some charming collections of paper whites cut short and arranged in clear glass nightlights in a grid on square mirrors. A modern, chic and stylish table centre which captured the naive look our client wanted to achieve.

As we dressed the tables with the flowers on the evening of the event I silently prayed that the guests seated at the tables would enjoy the scent of the Paperwhites and not wonder what the strange smell was in the room!

Glorious Gloriosa!

Wed, 24 Feb 2010 15:11:00 GMT

Gloriosa are a flower very close to my heart as they are the national flower of Zimbabwe, the country I grew up. They grow wild in the bush there and appear all over the countryside in the rainy season in vivid splashes of Orange and red. They are locally known as flame lilies or Jongwe which in Shona means Rooster.

Below is a picture of me in Zimbabwe admiring a Gloriosa growing on Domboshawa (a large Granite rock structure which lies just North of the capital city of Harare)

A few years ago Hermes commissioned us to create a curtain of flowers to drape over the entrance of their Sloane street store for a party. It was to the Gloriosa that we turned to create the fabric of this curtain.

We strung hundreds of them onto fishing line to create the curtain which we finished with a boss of velvety rouge noir roses and a fringing of red Amaranthus which you can see below.

An abundance of Gloriosa looks incredible but just a few flower heads floating in a glass fishbowl look very striking too.