A considered floral practice
Working from our Hampshire farm,
we create across a portfolio of practices centred on English provenance, restraint and a cultivated approach to
floral design.
Weddings & Events
Hortus Poeticus creates weddings shaped by romance, narrative and attentiveness to season and material. The result is wedding florals that are atmospheric, immersive and always reflective of client and place.
Whether developed through our Couture Weddings, formed through close collaboration and bespoke design, or our Studio Weddings, which distill our aesthetic into a more streamlined approach, each is framed by our honouring of stems, season and setting.
Working in dialogue with the land allows us access to flowers less often seen, fleeting stems and uncommon varieties giving depth, texture and nuance to all our work. Alongside its wedding portfolio, the studio creates flowers of presence and charm for parties, house parties, weekends, shoots and all manner of celebrations.
Editorial & Cultural Work
Alongside private commissions, Hortus Poeticus undertakes editorial and cultural projects in which flowers are approached as both material and meaning. As one of a small number of English growers working at this level, the studio operates within a revived floricultural tradition of cultural, historical, and ethical significance.
Shaped by attention to form, atmosphere, and spatial context, this work is expressed through still life, installation, and carefully composed studies, allowing flowers to be encountered slowly. These projects position floristry as a living practice — rooted in English land and season, yet in dialogue with contemporary art, design, and curation.
Farewell Florals
The studio is renowned for its funeral and sympathy work, creating floral compositions using English-grown stems to mark a thoughtful and resonant farewell. With sensitivity and imagination, each piece is shaped to reflect the character, story and affections of the person being remembered.
Our work ranges from coffin sprays and wreaths to flowers for funerals, memorials, wakes and receptions, and is approached with a clear understanding of the protocols and practicalities involved.
Further reflections on our approach can be found in our Field Notes Journal.
Flora Poeticus - created for florists
The studio is pleased to offer a creative bespoke pick service to speciality florists.
Within the four corners of their design brief, our florists walk our farm drawing both upon stems of outstanding colour, nuance and form grown for their character and joyfulness, and their own deep knowledge of how they will perform in a design setting and in composition.
The result is a pick of depth and presence entirely bespoke to the commissioning florist.
Exceptional English Flowers
Hortus Poeticus works with English flowers, usually entirely grown on its farm, of rare character and selection.
Drawing upon decades of pursuing, growing and arranging the most beautiful flowers she could find, Hortus’s founder, Gillie, together with Fi, have curated a collection of stems that is unique in its breadth and depth.
Their growing methodology, working with Hortus’ Senior Grower, Caroline, supports an holistic approach kind to land, stem and wildlife, where a flower’s character and joyfulness is encouraged to flourish.
Private clients
Alongside our studio work, we offer an ever-changing selection of stems to private clients and businesses seeking seasonal material of depth and individuality.
Stems are chosen for how they behave in the vase, as well as for their beauty, how they move, open, find light, and age, resulting in flowers that reflect nuance, texture, and season.
Teaching & farm visits
The studio and farm are working places and are generally kept private. From time to time, however, we open our doors for small farm visits, workshops and masterclasses across our growing and floristry practices.
These sessions offer insight into the rhythms of the field and our approach to selection, timing and composition, and are kept intentionally small and considered.
Places are limited and announced occasionally. To be the first to hear about upcoming dates, we recommend signing up to our Almanac Newsletter, or following us on social, where we share notifications as they arise.
Our approach
1. Dialogue
Each project begins with conversation. We take time to understand the setting, the season, and the sensibility of the occasion, ensuring every commission is shaped with care from the outset.
2. Design Development
From this base we develop a considered floral narrative grounded in deep knowledge of our own stems, their behaviour and always English provenance. Proposals are bespoke responding to client, place and the guiding spirit of the event.
3. Execution
Flowers are grown, gathered and selected within the shape of the creative brief. Our approach in field and studio is responsible, towards stems, land and wildlife alike, underscored by careful use of materials and thoughtful, sustainable working practices throughout.
4. Creation & Completion
Installation is undertaken with great care allowing the work to sit naturally within its surroundings. Materials are returned to the land whenever possible ensuing each project respects setting, season and environment.
