Floral styling with Willow Crossley

STYLING with Willow Crossley

Based in the Oxfordshire countryside,

Willow Crossley (Corbett-Winder,

2001) is an author and floral stylist, creating wild and whimsical arrangements full of colour, pattern and movement.

Where does your love of flowers come from?

I grew up in a very rural area of Wales, surrounded by beautiful rolling hills and amazing landscapes. My mother is a brilliant gardener; she has grown plants and had flowers in the house for as long as I can remember, so I think it’s been ingrained in me from a very young age.

How did you come to be a floral stylist?

It wasn’t until ten years ago that I really started working with flowers and appreciating them as much as I do now. Whilst I was working on my second book, Inspire – The Art of Living with Nature, I created a whole section on flowers and when I was writing that, I just felt like I had struck gold; that was my ‘Eureka!’ moment. I had been working across fashion, writing, interiors,

Left: Easter table setting for House & Garden.

spreading myself so thin, and I knew I needed to refine what I was doing and focus on just one thing. I had this wake-up call and decided I was going to stop everything else and just focus on flowers.

My husband gave me an intensive flower course at the Covent Garden Flower Academy and the week-long

Above: Willow Crossley

course re-affirmed that this was what I wanted to do. It taught me the basics and I’ve learned everything else as I’ve gone along. Floristry is one of those things that the more you practise, the more you learn, the more you work with different people, the more your skills develop, so my advice for anyone wanting to work in this area would be to get as much experience as you can.

Can you give us some insight into what being a floral stylist entails?

Everyone always perceives floristry as a lovely ‘airyfairy’ profession, but it is really physical and a large part of it involves working at a computer – something no one ever imagines.

Top left: Willow decorating a wedding venue. Left: Staircase arrangement for Saloni. Above: Staircase decorated for a party.

I do a lot of work with brands including Boden, Bamford, Chanel, Anthropologie, Saloni and Liz Earle. It’s quite varied, ranging from creating floral displays for their press days, to running floristry workshops for their teams. The fashion world is quite close-knit, so my work with brands has grown through word-ofmouth.

I also provide flowers for a wide range of events, from large weddings to small family parties.

What is the most challenging design you have been asked to create?

Probably the first installation I did at the prestigious floral art show competition ‘Chelsea in Bloom’.

You install through the night and I created a carnival piece for the natural beauty brand Liz Earle, which I called ‘CarnivEarle’, and made huge horses out of flowers which had to last for a week in the hot May sun. Keeping all that alive was probably the most

challenging, because you are playing with nature – you cannot fully control whether they live or die – and you are being judged. But it was also the most fun and an amazing experience. Last year we were awarded a gold medal from the RHS for an installation I had created for Boden, which I was delighted with.

What do you most enjoy about working with flowers?

For me, being surrounded by beautiful flowers is life-enhancing: I find working with flowers incredibly uplifting and love the creativity of working with their different shapes, colours, textures and scents.

Where do you take your inspiration from?

My work is known for being wild and natural. I walk a lot in the woods and am very much inspired by nature, looking at how things grow and the shapes they create – that all informs my work.

The power of nature to improve our creativity, wellness and happiness is something I have thought about a lot in the process of writing my latest book The Wild Journal – a year of nurturing yourself through nature.

Where do you source your flowers?

I am a huge advocate of working with the seasons and sourcing locally grown stems wherever possible. From May to October I use British flowers – I work with lots of lovely local growers, such as ‘The Land Gardeners’, near Banbury, who grow the most beautiful and fragrant blooms you can imagine. I use local suppliers as much as I can, but for really large-scale events I use flowers from Holland.

What are your favourite flowers of the summer season?

Solomon’s seal, sweet peas, peonies and, for foliage, wild currant.

What are your top tips for using summer flowers at home?

l

Condition your flowers well – let them have a long drink before you start arranging with them.

l

Make sure they have enough water and keep them out of direct sunlight – they will go over very quickly if they are in a hot space, or if you let them dry out.

l

Try to buy seasonal and try to buy local. When flowers are in season they are at their best – healthy and strong – and summer is the perfect time to find amazing locally-grown blooms.

You are already a successful author and floral designer; what’s next for you?

I would love to do television. I have been doing lots of tutorial videos online and these have been going really well, so television is my next goal. R

www.willowcrossley.com Insta: @willowcrossleycreates

Willow is also the author of the beautiful lifestyle books The Art of Handmade Living, Inspire – The Art of Living with Nature, Flourish and The Wild Journal – a year of nurturing yourself through nature.

Left: The Boden store decorated for Chelsea In Bloom.