Find a course or workshop to get the best from your blooms – from dried flowers, pressed flowers and wreaths, to striking formal arrangements, there’s something here to help your skills blossom, says
Jenny Oldaker
COURSES
It seems straightforward enough to make flowers look pretty, but if you’d like to extend your skills beyond simply popping some blooms in a vase and plonking them on a windowsill, there are lots of expert-led courses and workshops around to help you raise your game.
A good place to start is the National Association of Flower Arrangement Societies (NAFAS), set up to advance education in the art of flower-arranging and related subjects, and to encourage a wider love of flowers and their decorative value. Via its website you can choose a NAFAS course in floral design for your skill level. Simply find your local area’s NAFAS branch to see what’s available nearby.
It’s also worth looking online for other local professionals offering in-person sessions in floristry subject matter, as there are many experts out there eager to share their skills. But there are lots of online options, too. Flower novices could consider starting with the British Academy of Floral Art’s online Flower Arranging Course (£95) for a satisfying floristry taster, while Learning with Experts courses (from £45) include Paula Pryke OBE’s wide-ranging Flower Arranging, and Shane Connolly’s The Art of Environmental Floristry, which places a focus on environmental sensitivity when working with your floral arrangements. Willow Crossley’s Complete Floristry Masterclass (£147) via Create Academy is another excellent starting point for enthusiastic novices, and covers everything from sourcing flowers to creating arrangements for every occasion – her students will learn about key floristry techniques and tools, and enjoy a selection of step-by-step seasonal projects.
Beyond traditional flower-arranging, it’s easy to find good workshops in pressing and drying flowers. If you fancy learning how to dry flowers, Bex Partridge will take
