Comments on: The East End Flower Women Of 2020

By: shelley

shelley — Mon, 01 Jun 2020 07:12:32 +0000

if i only lived closer i would definitely order. what beautiful flowers. wild and free

By: Bob

Bob — Mon, 01 Jun 2020 06:31:00 +0000

Loved this GA. Here in Surrey I have a lovely if small garden, It cannot satisfy my need for cut flowers inside the house. In self isolation my friend Anne does all my shopping. In Waitrose!
The first item on her list is “cut flowers” . And then , of course, there are the wild ones. The moondaisies that I write about and the flowers and grasses growing along country lanes. I wish I could take advantage of your special offer and have flowers delivered every week. How wonderful that must be

By: J.R.

J.R. — Sun, 31 May 2020 19:21:58 +0000

Lovely, and what a wonderful idea.

By: Pamela Traves

Pamela Traves — Sun, 31 May 2020 19:13:29 +0000

What Gorgeous Flowers these Lovely Women have made!!!?????????

By: Debra Matheney

Debra Matheney — Sun, 31 May 2020 18:16:04 +0000

I find great solace in nature, particularly in flowers. Listening to the birds over this spring has been a delight as I stay home. Thank you for the lovely article and all the best to these 3 women.

By: Steve Stuart

Steve Stuart — Sun, 31 May 2020 16:44:28 +0000

Really nice article

By: paul loften

paul loften — Sun, 31 May 2020 12:27:42 +0000

Not exactly itinerant flower women of the lovely, like the ladies described here, but I have a childhood memory of a group of women knocking on doors in the street where I lived as a child. There we were, a group of children sitting on the wall near my house in 1950’s Stoke Newington and one of the women, who were selling a small white flower, the sort that they would pin to your lapel in the street, approached us and said: “We are gypsies would you like me you tell your fortunes ?” The children eagerly agreed and they stretched out their palms one by one and she told them their fortunes. When she came to me I reluctantly stretched out mine. I had a father who had no time for superstitions of any way shape or form and he drummed this into us from an early age. I clearly recall the fortune of my life that she told me. It was quite detailed. One of the things she said is that I would marry a woman who came from far away island and that she had long dark hair and have three or four children she could not be quite sure of that. At the time I thought this a load of rubbish and had long forgotten it until the memory resurfaced one day. I married a woman whom I met at work who was born in Mauritius At the time we were married she had the most beautiful long hair that went down past her waist. She was extraordinary as many of my work colleagues would tell you. We had three children. When I think about it further there were other things that the gypsy woman said to me that came to be in my life. It was the one and only time that anyone has ever told my fortune. Be it either guesswork or coincidence, for me personally it was a truly a remarkable episode of an encounter with an itinerant flower woman

By: Rachel Ferriman

Rachel Ferriman — Sun, 31 May 2020 12:24:18 +0000

If you are based in London I really do recommend ordering some of SSAW Collective’s flowers, – I was lucky enough to be given two bunches of flowers by Jess, Olivia and Lulu, really beautiful arrangements and selections of seasonal flowers, still looking lovely in my flat a week later!
Their approach to soil health and sustainability is really amazing, love their work!

By: Pauline Taylor

Pauline Taylor — Sun, 31 May 2020 11:12:22 +0000

Congratulations to these girls and I wish them every success with their enterprise I agree with Olivia as I too think that a love of working with and being among flowers is passed on from generation to generation. My great grandfather had a florist’s shop and a market garden in Upper Clapton and I am lucky enough to have a photograph of the shop and also some of a lovely man, who worked for him, who always wore a carnation in his buttonhole. Great grandfather, Owen Charles Greenwood, supplied flowers for London theatres and his daughter, May Florence Greenwood, my grandmother, loved flowers and had bowls of the most beautifully scented red roses indoors which I remember vividly. I think great grandmother must have loved flowers as well as she named her three daughters, Rose, May and Daisy, and of course their surname was Greenwood !! What could be more appropriate than that.

My father also had the most beautiful garden and I have tried to carry on the tradition with something like 12 or more old fashioned shrub roses in my garden and numerous shrubs and potted plants which have been magnificent this year. and that has lifted my spirits, in these troubled times, more than anything else. Thank you GA and the girls, I shall now go outside and smell the roses !!

By: Helen Breen

Helen Breen — Sun, 31 May 2020 11:00:52 +0000

Greetings from Boston,

GA, thanks for the great piece about these young women and their creativity during the pandemic.

Food for thought: “It all comes back to people’s expectations and the speed at which they want things, demanding flowers out of season. Few people think about it – where their flowers come from and the repercussions of that – so this is definitely a time for a rethink.”

To which I say, “Amen.”