Autumn flowers with Aesme Studio

We recently partnered with London flower studio Aesme to share their expertise on creating beautiful arrangements of flowers and foliage that reflect place and season. Growing flowers on a small farm in the Hampshire countryside allows Aesme founders Alex and Jess to connect deeply with the land that their flowers come from, producing an intimate relationship between their materials and their floral designs. As gardener-florists they grow special, unique varieties - creating seasonal, scented and sustainable arrangements.  Here, Aesme share their guide to creating an autumnal flower arrangement in the Umberto vases.

Selecting flowers

As autumn begins, the perennial beds on Aesme's small flower farm are a riot of colour and texture. The weather is windy with bursts of sunshine in between rain showers. Alex makes a start cutting spires of violet asters as a starting point for her designs.

With the bunch of aster ‘Calliope’ in hand, she starts to walk the other beds searching for interesting shapes and colours to accompany them. Alex cuts stems of Macleaya cordata. We have two Umberto vases of different heights and widths to arrange in - she will use some of the large scalloped leaves as a collar over the lip of the shorter, wider vase, and some of the flower spires in the taller vase.

Aesme grow lots of different varieties of dahlia. The creamy ‘Café au Lait’ variety will be useful as a ‘focal’ flower for both vase heights - by selecting the smaller flower heads and cutting the stems long for the taller vase, and using the larger ‘dinner plate’ sized heads for the shorter. Inside one of the polytunnels, Alex cuts several stems of golden yellow ‘Percy Salter’ chrysanthemums. These will act as a smaller ‘focal’ flower in the vase.

With a bountiful armful of chrysanthemums, Alex heads out of the polytunnel to set up the vases and start the designs.

Alex places the Umberto vases 40cm and 25cm next to each other on a wooden table, then fills them around a third full with clean water. We absolutely love the artisanal feel of these vases. Each vase has a subtle organic shape, and the smooth, heavy glass is a joy to touch and arrange in.

Preparing the stems

Alex groups her garden pickings in buckets around the table. Each stem has been stripped of any foliage that would go beneath the water line (preventing the spread of bacteria in the water) and the ends are cut on an angle to maximize water absorption.

Structuring the arrangement

She starts by adding branches of cherry foliage - a tall arching shape to curve outwards from the taller vase, and a short leafy branch for the lower vase. The weight of the vases is perfect for counterbalancing the weight of the branch, so no other mechanics are needed. Editing as she arranges, Alex cuts down any unnecessary foliage.

After adding a spire of Macleaya and the taller aster stems, Alex adds some ‘filler’ flowers and texture with these light sprays of aster ‘Pink Cloud’. With the ‘spires’ and ‘filler’ forming a base layer in the vases, Alex adds some ‘focals’ in the form of chrysanthemum ‘Salmon Allouise’. In the shorter vase, Alex places the larger ‘Café au Lait’ dahlias, along with rusty orange Rudbeckia ‘Sahara’ flowers.

Finishing touches

After another rain storm the sun breaks through the clouds to catch the top of the taller arrangement. For a final step, Alex includes some tall ornamental grasses and allium seedheads in the tallest vase for additional texture and lightness.

Vase: Umberto Vase 40cm and 25cm Stems: Violet Asters 'Calliope', Macleaya cordata, ‘Café au Lait’ dahlias, golden yellow ‘Percy Salter’ chrysanthemums, cherry foliage, aster ‘Pink Cloud’, ‘Salmon Allouise' chrysanthemums, orange Rudbeckia ‘Sahara’, tall ornamental grasses and allium seedheads. Gardener-florists: Aesme Studio