September - Strawberry Hill Flower Festival

The seed season is upon us, and being self-titled seed enthusiasts, Paris and I are currently in our seasonal element. Not only are the seeds being packed up and sent out, but we’re still doing harvests from the crop on the field. After a dry day yesterday, little stars of cosmos seeds, ready to spring from the stems, were plucked into a bucket by the last light at dusk. They’re now sitting in a dish on the big table in the studio, drying out a little more before we pack them and ready them for the shop. It’s a satisfying and busy time.

To celebrate the seed season, we created a piece we lovingly called the seed stack for the Strawberry Hill Flower Festival. This festival captures the spirit of locally grown flowers and the creativity of designers, artists and florists who work with them. We came away with many ideas for next year- from pressed flowers to dried ones and a million ways to create with fresh stems too.

The big end-of-season clear-up is beginning this week too. Paris and I are prepping for long days, clearing old crops to the compost heap and readying the beds to sow the hardy annuals directly. It’s all changed. This is, I think, the sweetest time of year, for folded into the seasonal shift is the gratifying melancholia of the end of something beautiful. And yet- there is so much beauty on it’s way. The leaves have only started to colour; there is plenty of Autumn joy to come.

Milli x