Britain’s brilliant floral designer, Paula Pryke, shared her story with Editor Margot Shaw at the 2008 Chelsea Flower Show.
flower: Great to see you again, Paula! It’s been four years, I think, since I took your flower school.
PAULA PRYKE: Yes, it has, and looks like you’ve been really busy.
You were part of the inspiration. Your way of making floral design accessible through schools and books spurred me to attempt the same thing with the magazine.
So glad to hear that.
Speaking of busy, I know you’re here for a BBC interview, so let’s get started. I know our readers, and I, would love to hear about your first encounter with flowers.
I grew up in Suffolk on a holding farm, with lots of meadowland that was marshy and loamy, full of marigolds—which are still my favorite. But, I remember one afternoon when I was seven or eight, I had a friend over and, when I went out to pick wildflowers, she preferred to stay inside and help my mother prepare dinner. My first sense of making hard choices regarding flowers, I guess you could say.
Sacrificing your friend’s company for the company of wildflowers…
When was your first exposure to flower arranging?
I had no exposure in the country to any sort of commercial design, you know, hotels, events, etc. It was mostly garden club type arranging that I grew up seeing. Oh, yes, and my mother always finished off a thorough house cleaning with an arrangement. So, I grew up seeing that when you make anything look lovely, flowers are the final thing. I still associate flowers with a clean house, and they’re definitely the most fun part of cleaning.
So what about later, as a young adult, any floral interest then?
Looking back, by the end of university I had an enormous collection of plants. Not exactly cut flowers yet but a definite interest in growing things. I was a history teacher after university but soon realized it was not for me. Everyone was always counting down the days till the end of term and I didn’t want that kind of job.
So what started you in the flower business?
I remember going to Heathrow one Valentine’s Day to pick up a friend and noticing the commercial aspect of flowers. Everyone was selling them for the Day, AND people were buying them. It occurred to me that something I thought was lovely could become a career.
Would you say you’re self–taught?
Actually, one of the benefits of being a teacher is the summer break, so I used that time to take a four-week certification course in floral design from Constance Spry. After that, I knew I loved it and wanted to get into it.
I found a flower shop in the West End of London that took me on part time so I worked in the shop three days a week and taught [history] for three days for two years. Eventually I realized there were things I wanted to do style-wise that I wasn’t going to be able to do in the shop.
Hence, the first Paula Pryke Flower Shop.
Yes and I thought it would be easy to make money. Oh here’s a funny bit. My husband told me that since I had made £50 a day teaching, I had to make at least that in my flower shop. I lost £50 a day for a good while in the business.
But it’s not all about the money in flowers is it?
Well, no, I love it so much that that’s the main reason I do it, but of course it is nice and helpful to turn a profit.
We all associate you with the hand-tied design, but what is your favorite floral style? I love classic with a twist. Rich colors, full loose arrangements, all one color or all one flower-great. I really prefer the more bespoke work, working with the people who want my style rather than just the retail flowers that someone sees passing by and wants. But, I mean, the shops are a great way to expose lots of people to great flowers.
How did you get into contract work, and I guess beyond that into the big events, books, etc.?
Well, my husband is an architect and I realized through his commercial work, that people when they redo their spaces or create new ones like to add flowers, so I began contracting to do weekly flowers for different offices.
Then, two things happened that really helped things take off. Terence Conran came into the shop and said he’d heard it was the best flower shop outside of Paris. He started restaurants and gave us contracts to provide flowers for them. And we still do.
Then, I had a customer who was a book publisher, and she always came in on Saturdays and saw more interesting things going on, for weddings, parties, etc.
One day she asked if I wanted to do a book. And of course I did. She put me together with an artist and all the artistic types needed to pull together the book, The New Floral Artist. And there have been 12 more since.
Would you encourage people to get into the flower business?
I’ve loved it, and I think if you love it, do it. It’s a lot of hard work and sacrifices must be made. But, again, if it’s a passion, the sacrifice is worth it.
