Finally are here!

After many request from September we will start to host a range of different workshops at The Rutland Garden Village in Oakham and at few other venue within the Rutland, Leicestrshire area.

Create with your hands

There’s something wonderful about working with your hands. 

Floristry has a calming, restorative effect. We call it flower therapy. 

Our workshops are designed to inspire. You’ll leave full of confidence and an urge to create. For friends, for teams, for flower lovers flying solo. 

Beginners or seasoned snippers.  The experience is relaxed, fun and filled with flowers.

The workshops

We are passionate about using British flowers and we will sharing our world of sustainable floristry.

You can learn how to arrange flowers for your home or create the essential bridal flower bouquets and accessories that you will need for your wedding.

Our one day Introduction to Floristry workshop will give you a taster as to what it's like working as a florist, or if you want to take the plunge join us for our Career Course, an intensive three day workshop where we cover all you need to start your flowery journey.

Light refreshments and all the flowers and materials you will need are provided in all of our workshops. 

Workshops list

This is a list of the workshops that we are planning to run:

FRESH FLOWERS

• Hand Tied Bouquet 
• Low vase floral arrangement (without the terrible flower foam)
• Introduction to floristry
• DIY Bride
• Autumn Wreath 
• Flower Crown
• Seasonal Flowers For The Table
• Christmas Wreath Workshop
• Afternoon Tea/Prosecco + Hand Tied Bouquet Workshop
• Christmas Table Arrangement
• Festive Tablescape 

DRIED FLOWERS

• Dried Flowers Wreath
• Dried Flowers Arrangement
• Dried Flowers Terrarium
• Dried Flowers Crown
• Dried Flowers Hand Tied Bouquet
• Dried Flowers Terrarium

PLANT

• Terrarium
• Macrame

Chicken wire is much better that floral foam and should be the first option when you are going to create a floral arrangement.

Is reusable, is more economical, the flowers are able to drink naturally and is much much better for the environment.

A win win for us and the planet.

Step by step to how to use chicken wire in a floral arrangement:

• Cut a square of chicken wire and fold it into a cushion shape, making sure that all the sharp edges of the chicken wire are twisted towards the inside of the cushion to avoid damaging the container.
• The size of the chicken wire required depends on the size and shape of the container. Unfortunately there is not a specific rule to follow but I am sure that after few attempts will much easier.
•  Place the chicken wire cushion into the container and if you have the possibility you can fix it with floral tape or with any other tape that you have available. The best method is create a cross on the wire with the tape and stick the end on the container. Try to use as little tape as possible and try to not make showing that much or you will need lots of flowers and foliage to cover it.
• If you decide to use a transparent glass vase a good trick is to line the container first with large simple leaves or a twist of trailing ivy to conceal the wire.

• Add water to your container and possibly includes some flowers food. Start your decoration by adding you foliage, make sure that the stems are long enough to reach the base of the vase and so they can drink easily and last for long time.
• Once you are the majority of foliage add your flowers and use the last foliage where required.
• Every few days or whenever you fill that is need it top up the water in the container.

Do you wonder why floral foam is not good for the environment?

Read here our blog post THE GREEN ALTERNATIVE TO FLORAL FOAM

Floral foam, usually referred to as Oasis is much loved by florists worldwide for its convenience.

Oasis is really appealing for any florist, those green blocks of sponge foam are brilliant for making arrangements from small to large designs as they are able to absorb and hold water.  This means that the floral design can be kept fresh up to 4 days without adding any extra water.

It is also simple to cut and mould,  is easy to transport and holds flowers tightly in place even for lengthy journeys in the van.

However, there are a few significant problems with the floral foam that are difficult to ignore.

It’s made from synthetic non-recyclable plastic and is created using a combination of carbon black, formaldehyde and phenol foam, which are all toxic both to humans and animals.

Each block of foam contains the same amount of plastic as 10 shopping bags.

But what is floral foam?

Invented by Vernon Lewis Smithers in 1954 it was a milestone for floristry and has become very quickly an essential tool in the floral industry for creating quick floral arrangements.

Each block holds up to 50 times its weight in water and keeps the blooms fresh up to 12 days.

Why is floral foam bad for the environment?

Floral foam is contributing to the growing crisis of plastic pollution. 

Thanks to its mossy texture, green hue and the fact that it's used with flowers, it can be easily  be mistaken as a natural product.

But in reality floral foam doesn’t fully dissolve in water or degrade in landfill or soil. Instead, it breaks down into smaller and smaller micro-plastics and can take thousand of years to completely revert into natural elements and are a real menace for the environment by contaminating our marine life and food chains.

Our Commitment:

Fortunately we live in a growing environmentally-conscious world.

We all got captivated, young and old by David Attenborough’s Blue Planet who bought our attention to the issue of plastics in the ocean and highlighting now more than ever it is important that we do our part for living in harmony with our Earth.

At The Hiden Collective we are floral foam free and instead we use either chicken wire or keizan (a metal spiky devices that sit in a vase or bowl and hold the flowers stems shown in the picture to the left).

Also we feel that it it is important that we voice our concern and that we try to raise the bar of the floral industry to a more environmental friendly place.

We are really happy to see that The Royal Horticultural Society has banned  the use of  Oasis from all its garden and horticultural shows from 2021.

Join now the floral foam free movement!