Jackie has left the building

Its official, as of today and after 30 years in the Flower business, I have retired. I am pleased to say that the trading name of Jackie Phillips Flowers will continue under the ownership of Emma Cracknell.

I am also delighted that all our talented and experienced staff will continue with Emma.I take this opportunity to thank them all for their support and friendship over the years. We have always had a low staff turnover and some, like Judith has been with me for 19 years and Diane for 17 years. Thanks girls.

I also thank all our many customers for their support over the years, its been good working with you. And I hope you will continue to support Emma and the team

Its not altogether goodbye as I will be supporting and advising Emma for some time to come. But the early mornings and late nights are over for me!! Time to relax - looking forward to it.

Jackie

A Host of Golden Daffodils

I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.




What a difference two days of sunny weather makes. Not grown for cut flowers for the florist but for bulbs for the Garden Centre's

Valentines Flowers

Gents, think twice where you buy your Valentines Flowers from. Click here to find out why.

Peonies

One of my favourite flowers. Brought in from New Zealand for a wedding

Spring

It's still cold,wet and windy but the flowers and birds know spring is just around the corner. Spring flowers Daffodil's and Tulips are already available in our shop, Mimosa trees are showing their beautiful yellow colour, the Camelia's are in bud and ready to open and other garden plants are sending up their welcome green shoots. The mornings are slowly getting brighter earlier and the birds have started their dawn chorus - we have one Blackbird singing his heart out each morning in our garden.

Its only 6 weeks to March.

Happy New Year

A Happy and Flowery New Year. From all of us to all of you.

What a Bunch, A florists night out

After a great night out on Saturday Mr P lost the camera. Dont ask how!! Luckily it was found and returned after 4 days of lying in the snow & ice. All the pctures of the night out were saved



The team










The Boss, Jackie












The smokers. Julie and Suzi







Diane and Julie







Pauline and Suzie













Judith and Angela







Allan, Diane and Pauline







Jackie and Donna







Donna and Julie

Seasons Greetings

We wish all our readers a very happy and peacefull Christmas

Table Flowers

Now that summer has gone and eating outdoors is over for another year we have asked our florists to take it in turn to design and describe a table arrangement that is easy to create, stylish and inexpensive. The idea is to show our readers what can be done with a little imagination.

For the first one we have cheated a little and used slightly more expensive Phalanopsis Orchids left over from one of our weddings. Curled into a goldfish bowl with bear grass and pearl beads this is a quick and easy display which gives your dinner table some style. Experiment with different flowers and see what can be done

Donna created this in less than 10 minutes.

Slick or Sick (Advertising)

All florists advertise one way or another. Some good some bad - here is one way we have heard of recently.

Freelance Florist reads the deaths column in the local paper. Sees one at an address nearby, knocks on the deceased families door with a bunch of flowers. Expresses sympathy and offers the said florists services.

Nothing like getting them when they are down !!

Slick or Sick ?? I know what we think, what do other florists out there think?? Please let us know. Your comments please on our blog or, for our facebook friends, on our Facebook page. Remember comments on facebook can only be seen by your facebook friends not the general public and comments left on our Blog can only be seen by ourselves as we will not publish them. We will publish a new post with the general consensus of opinion.

Welcome to Kathy

We welcome Kathy who joined us today. Kathy has embarked on a career in floristry taking a 2 day a week College course and working with us on Saturdays. We wish her every success

Flower Show

Dont forget - for all flower lovers

The NAFAS Devon & Cornwall area show on Wed 15 and Thurs 16 September at the Falmouth Beach Hotel.

Will be opened by James Churchfield and Pam Sprigs of BBC Radio Cornwall at 10am on Wednesday

The overall theme of the show is "Natural Art" with 11 classes of floral art depicting the following :-
Natural Art, Temperate Clime, Cross Currents, Bijou, Classic Contours, Plethora of Colour, Hot Rocks, True to Form, Flotsam & Jetsam, Autumn Frieze, Truly Scrumptious, and Out of the Blue.

There will be a Demonstration by Mr David Thompson entitled "The Colours of my World" at the Princess Pavilion 2.15 to 3.45 0n Wednesday and Design workshops by Heather Werkmeister at 11.30 and 1.45 (duration 1 hour) on Thursday.

Refreshments available during the day, sales table. parking available in the public car park opposite the Hotel.

Prize giving and raffle will take place at 3.30pm on Thursday.

Autumn Flowers

Can anything beat natures colours of Autumn. Few people can fail to be moved by the splendour of trees cloaked in their autumn finery but flower growers can replicate these colours and as florists we can create natural designs and can bring the Autumn colours into your home.

Plenty of Silver

Congratulations to 2 of our team - Diane and Donna. They won a number of cups for their floral designs at this years Stithians Show







They shared the cup for "Most points in show" Diane took the Rose Bowl for Winner of the Cup Winners Class and Donna got more silver for Best Demonstrators Exhibit and Best Interperative Exhibit.
Five pieces of silver in all.


Hope they have the time to keep them cleaned and polished !!

OOO - On Our Own

We are now the only Flower Shop left in Falmouth but it gives us no pleasure to see a competitor go. Competition is good and keeps everyone on their toes, but it is a sign of the times. Florist shops are closing in large numbers all over the UK, no suprise given the economic climate. When we first opened our shop there was room for two good florist shops in our town - we were the third!!. Checking the competition back then, some 25 years ago, we decided there was only one way to go - as upmarket as the area would allow, with quality stock, quality design, quality service and fair prices. Some 10 years ago we revised our thoughts and came to the conclusion that there was room for only two florist shops in the town, however with the present economic situation it is obvious there is room for only one to survive.

But to survive we have to stick to our first decision - quality stock, quality design, quality service and fair prices.

Now that we are the only florist shop left, will we now rest on our laurels? put our prices up? and adpopt a take it or leave it attitude?? No No No, we have too much respect for our customers, our repuatation and ourselves.

So, what is the future? We believe the florist shops with good reputations who offer quality at a fair price and look after their customers will survive. Any thing less will not. Its no different to wild life survival in hard times, the fit survive the weak do not. It was ever thus !!

Flowers on Line

After quite a few months of work we now have a new web site with a full shopping cart, find it on www.yourflowersonline.co.uk Just hope it works OK, its been well tested so hope we dont get any glitches with it

Busy day in Falmouth

Friday 23 April on a beautiful warm sunny day, around 1700 passengers arrived at
Falmouth on the cruise ship Island Escape. Many of them returning home late after their flights home were cancelled due to the Icelandic Volcano eruption. We had been requested to supply some flower arrangements for the ships dining room tables so were on the wharf with the flowers for the ships arrival. Big problem! how do you get flowers up the single gangway whilst 1700 passengers were trying to get off. No problem ,a word with the Falmouth Ambassadors - the team that meet all the cruise ships to offer passengers assistance- and with Daryl Butt from A&P, it was arranged immediately. Our florist Donna was escorted on board by Daryl with the flowers long before the mass exodus of passengers. Our thanks to Roger Browne of the Falmouth Ambassadors for the photos and to Keith Collins and rest of the Ambassadors together with Daryl for their timely help.
Happy passengers glad to be back in the UK
Our van on the wharf waiting to unload the flowers

Donna being escorted on board - her first visit to a cruise ship









With so many coaches involved in clearing the 1700 disembarking passengers from the ship to their homes and the coaches bringing in the 1000 new set of passengers, we really expected major congestion on the roads through the town but the organisation was such that this didn't happen. Well done to all those who were involved.

Spring - Summer

Forget about the fields full of golden daffodils and the hedges full of primroses, ignore the fact that the Swallows have arrived, dont even consider the warm sunny days. Never mind all the signs, I have ABSOLUTE proof that summer is
coming -- I have seen the first Caravan on the road - got stuck behind it for 3 miles whilst out delivering flowers. AHGGGGG

Weddings

They say there is no rest for the wicked, all I can say is I must be very wicked. Following a very busy Mothering Sunday (It took us a week to recover!!),it was straight into the wedding season starting with open days at St Mawes and Pendennis Castle (shown right)

Saturday 20 March saw us decorating the St Mawes Castle for their wedding open day where around 40 guests were invited to attend.



The choice of flowers was up to us so we went for modern chic without large masses of flowers. The barrel arrangements alternated between Hurricane Lamps with Candles surrounded by natural twig circles with Sweet Avalanche Roses, and with arrangements of Sweet Avalanche Roses on natural twig stands. Taller matching arrangements were also in place. also The ceremony table had matching arrangements.



At the end of the day all these were transported to Pendennis Castle for the main opening day on the Sunday. Photo of our stand shown below
















It was nice to meet up with Avalon Photography who have photographed some of our work before. See www.avalonphotouk.com.






Also attending were Piran Films(www.piranfilms.co.uk),



Strawberry Leisure Chauffeur driven VW Camper Vans
See www.strawberryleisure.com







and Praze Carriage Co, Horse drawn Carriages. www.prazecarriages.co.uk

Mothers Day Flowers

Mothers Day - Sunday 14 March. Show her how much you care.

We cant arrange to take her out to lunch but we can present her with a beautiful bouquet of flowers - by themselves or with Champagne, wine or chocolates - go on spoil her
See our full range here

Valentines Day

Valentines Day is with us again and romance is in the air. See our full range of valentines flowers.
All our Roses are top quality long stem roses not the cheaper short stem variety

Happy New Year

We wish you a Happy, Healthy and Prosperous New Year from all at Jackie Phillips Flowers

A Bunch of Florists

A bunch of florists on their annual night out
A few sore heads the next day!!