Sometimes life gets hard and it becomes difficult to see the light in the darkness around us.

To feel better, having a positive mindset is very necessary, but also the objects and beings that are around us are critical too.

Being surrounded by nature has long been known to boost our mood and ease stress, but what if you could mimic that soothing vibe at home?

Having flowers at home could be the secret to improving your health, reducing stress and helping us to find peace of mind.  

Multiple studies has shown that flowers have a brightening effect on the mood that can last for days, proving much more powerful than a bar of chocolate! 

Flowers Colour 

Red flowers such as tulips and roses, are connected to concentration and attention to detail, instead blue blooms such as agapanthus and delphiniums are great to promote free thinking and creativity.

Orange and yellow flowers such as dahlia and chrysanthemum are connected with happiness. By combining both orange and yellow you can promote a calming mood and by adding greens you can reflect feelings of peace.

Scented Flowers & Foliage

Of all the five senses, our sense of smell is one of the most powerful. Not only does it allow us to enjoy some amazing scents and appreciate our food, but it’s also an amazing trigger for memories. When you need to improve your mood or if you know of somebody who needs a bit of an emotional boost, consider sending some flowers.

Lilies are some of the most powerful smelling of all flowers and they have a way of lightening the mood.

Lavender helps soothe away that stress which makes way for a new, better mood.

Eucalyptus with its woody scent is great to energise you. 

The positive impact of flowers

Flowers are a perfect solution to communicate emotions when it’s hard to find the right words.

Also the simple gesture of gifting some flowers is a powerful sign of showing your friendship, love, your support and is so powerful that it can help to lift the receiver from a difficult place or low point.

Scientific Studies Confirm Benefits of Flowers

Flowers not only have the power of cheering us up when we are feeling down, but they also have many other properties such as helping us get a proper night of sleep, boosting our creativity, increasing our productivity, making our tolerance to pain higher, boosting our health, and even improving our attention span.

A study from the university of Texas have found that patients in hospital rooms decorated with flowers and potted plants needed less postoperative pain medication, had lower systolic blood pressure and pulse rates, were less anxious and tired, and generally were in a more positive psychological state than patients in rooms without flowers.

Another recent scientific study finds that nature can also hold the secret to business success.

The research demonstrates that workers’ idea generation, creative performance and problem-solving skills improve substantially in workplace environments that include flowers and plants.

Classrooms with flowers and plants in it have a bigger attention span, and students show more creativity, free-thinking skills, and overall satisfaction.

We do love a good deal and a hunt for a bargain but also we believe that there is an alternative to the ruthless policy of the big retailers to push you into purchasing a deal. Especially when most of the time, we would suggest, the item may not actually be needed...

Black Friday has an incredible negative impact on our planet, it is the biggest sales days of the year thanks to the crazy discounts that generate an incredible amount of waste worldwide.

What we are going to do instead!

We do not support black Friday, it will be very hypocritical if we were considering that here at The Hiden Collective we stand for Ethical & Locally source seasonal flowers, hampers and gifts from local independent business and 100% Eco-wrapping.

Our goal is to generate a small positive impact without costing the Earth.

We would like to offer you for 4 weeks (commencing on the 30th October) unique product discount that is different each week but valid to be used within the next 12 months whenever you wish to!

Unique discounts by week:

30/10-05/11 - Gift Card

- 30% discount on Gift Card from £100 

- 20% discount on £80 Gift Card

- 15% discount on £50 Gift Card

06/11-12/11 - 20% discount on all our Hampers

12/11-19/11 - 20% discount on all our Plants

20/11-26/11 - 20% discount on all our Flowers

27/11 - 20% of every sale goes to the Woodland Trust, the UK's largest woodland conservation charity

 #takebackblackfriday - #greenfriday

#takebackblackfriday is a growing movement started by Global Fashion Exchange and Eco-Age and they are calling on our communities around the world to celebrate a slower, more sustainable ways of living.

#greenfriday is campaign where companies are trying to coax the public out of the shops and away from their computer and mobile screens (where they are spending so much money!!), to instead spend time outdoors, with friends and family, enjoying the wonders that our world has to offer.

They want us to keep buying as if there is not tomorrow, and Black Friday or Cyber Monday are just another way of wooing us into keep spending money and buying “stuff".

When consumers demand more, more needs to be made which increases the negative impact on the environment. Our consumption habits are already taking a toll with increased emissions, increased land-use and deforestation, which is accelerating climate change.

We need to change the way we shop

As global sales on Black Friday and Cyber Monday increase year on year, the phenomenon of frenzied festive discount shopping is growing exponentially.

To move towards a more sustainable future, we need to change attitudes in order to positively impact the way we, as a global community, think and act; changing the way we shop is just one small factor in this.

The Hiden Collective sustainable value:

At The Hiden Collective we are trying to do the right things for our planet and we think that we are on the right path.

So far this is what we manage to do and we still improving every day:

• We only source Ethical & locally grown British flowers
• We also buy only what we can sell and if we have any spare blooms, we donate and brighten the life of the residents of an elderly home close to our studio
• Our supply chain is very simple, trackable and energy efficient.
• All our packages are biodegradable or recyclable
• We guarantee that all our delivery are Carbon neutral 
• We are protecting a parcel of land in the Nicaraguan cloud forest on the Isla de Ometepe
• All the above should be more than enough to offset any Carbon that we may produce, but just to play safe we plant a tree every 100 order
• Also, we donate every order £1 to our current charity

 Would you like to know why it is important to buy Ethical & Sustainable British Flowers for your home or for your flowers delivery UK? 

Read more here on our blog  Best Blooms - British Blooms

Some interesting facts about Halloween in UK 

In Scotland and the Isle of Man, Halloween's Celtic roots are honoured through Samhain celebrations

Samhain (a Gaelic word pronounced “sow-win”) is celebrated in Scotland, Isle of Man, Northern Ireland and Ireland. 

Samhain is a Gaelic festival marking the end of the harvest season and the beginning of winter or the "darker half" of the year and symbolised the divide between the world of the living and the world of the dead.

Traditionally, it is celebrated from 31 October to 1 November.

Samhain celebrations feature rituals such as bonfires and dancing.

Bonfire Night 

Guy Fawkes Day (also known as Guy Fawkes Night and Bonfire Night) has historically been  and still is a big day in the UK calendar.

Celebrated with parades, bonfires, and fireworks on November 5 ― you might be familiar with the rhyme "Remember, remember the fifth of November" Guy Fawkes Day commemorates the failed Gunpowder Plot. The scheme, orchestrated by Roman Catholics in 1605, was an attempt to blow up Parliament in response to King James I's refusal to expand the religious freedom of Catholics.

Halloween's customs are scary

In the UK, we stick to the more traditional horror-inspired ghost, vampire, zombie, Frankenstein, ghoul costumes.

In the US, when kids go trick-or-treating, it seems any costume goes, even costumes that aren't necessarily 'Halloween-y' (including princesses, Spider-Man and so on).

Brits don't go wild with Halloween decor

It's rare for people in the UK to put up an excessive amount of Halloween decorations although every year there seems to be more Brits getting in the spirit and decorating their homes.

Trick-or-treating is more common in the US.

Going door to door for  treats is not as a big a deal in the UK, however again there seems to more of growing trend within some age groups to get dressed up and go out trick or treating possibly with an adult in tow!

Guising has a Scottish and Irish tradition

Dating to the middle ages, guising ― a shortening of disguising ― refers to the tradition of dressing kids in old clothes and having them mimic evil spirits on Halloween (known then as the Eve of All Saints Day).

Going from house to house, they would be given offerings for warding off evil.

Today in Scotland, children still go guising.

But they're expected to show off a talent (like singing or reciting a poem) in order to receive a treat.

A city in Northern Ireland is famous for its annual, four-day-long Halloween fest.

In Derry, the second-largest city in Northern Ireland, people celebrate Halloween with a four-day-long event called the Banks of the Foyle Carnival.

The festivities include a haunted house, a parade, and more.

In Scotland and Ireland, it's traditional to carve a swede or turnip instead of a pumpkin.

Pumpkins are synonymous with autumn, and it's hard to think of Halloween without picturing a glowing jack-o'-lantern.

People in some parts of the UK, however, make lanterns from other root vegetables ― namely, swedes or turnips.

The practice can possibly be traced to an Irish legend about a man named Jack who was cursed to wander the Earth by the light of a turnip lantern.

This is a very old tradition in Scotland and Ireland based on Celtic mythology.

There’s too much carbon in the air